Hope is the mainspring of human action—the lunar influence that keeps the tide of human affairs in perpetual and healthy motion. Without hope, all things would settle down into an offensive and pestiferous stagnancy. Hope impels to labor, sustains it, and makes its fatigues tolerable. Hope is the parent of enterprise, the impulse of ambition, and the nerve of resolution. Stop any man in any department of activity, and in any stage of his career, and ask him what is his motive for such laborious exertion, such self-denying sacrifices, such untiring efforts—and you will find that he is urged through his weary course by hope.