Excerpt from A Man's Reach or Some Character Ideals: A Man's Reach Should Exceed His Grasp, or What's a Heaven For? Browning This is not an ambitious volume, but is a modest contribution to a subject upon which much has been written. From the days when the Father of the Faithful went forth from Chaldea, "not knowing whither he went," down to the eloquent Roman orator who said, "Ideals are overtures of immortality," and on to Mazzini, who taught the young men of Italy to "love and venerate ideals, because ideals are the word of God," earnest men have been in pursuit of their ideals - the realization of their fondest dreams. Such men have momentum and destination. It is the achievement of the impossible which makes the human race possible. This book has no particular message except to those who believe that "the good is the enemy of the best." While each chapter is independent, yet these discussions are arranged in a natural sequence which makes each a part of all the others. The author defines character as the fine art of giving up, and this ideal will be found running like a motif in music throughout these studies. Because in so many ways these pages fall short of the author's highest ideals he craves the indulgence of the amiable reader. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.