“Go onward! lose not faith.  Let the goodness of God support you, and the beauty and fruitfulness of the work cheer you; and when you are blest with success forget not the source whence all blessings come.”

Several years passed before my plans were matured.  I reduced all to writing.  On one side of the page I noted my resolutions, with the means of carrying them out; on the other side, every objection that could be raised:  on a third page I wrote down the answers.  Every objection was invited, every difficulty anticipated, and every detail thoroughly weighed; nothing was thought too great or too insignificant.

I submitted the whole to my wisest councillors, and encouraged them to speak their inmost thoughts.  They were lost in admiration, but entreated me to abandon my design.  My life, they said, would be the penalty were I to attempt to carry out any part of my projects.

Some said that the design would be beautiful as the subject of a poem—­ as the aspiration of a great mind to arrive at an ideal perfection, which could not however be realised until evil itself had ceased to exist.  That to attempt to move the Mestua Mountain[1] would be a task not less hopeless:  that I might as well endeavour to walk up our great Cataract[2] without being engulfed in the sea of foaming waters!  Not one offered encouragement to proceed with the good work.

[Footnote 1:  Supposed to be the largest and firmest of mountains, which, since its first upheaving, has resisted the inroads of our mighty seas, as well as the most violent electrical disturbances of our world.]

     [Footnote 2:  See p. 44.]

Neither their arguments nor their prayers deterred me.  I proceeded cautiously, but with a resolution that feared not death.

Aware, however, of the deadly peril besetting me, I selected twelve men, remarkable for wisdom in council and energy in action, on each of whom in succession the authority should devolve if I were cut off.  I initiated them into my plans, and thus hoped that one devoted man would always be ready to advance the good work.

Whilst providing for my death, I took measures for protecting my life against any sudden outburst of fury.  I turned my palace into a fortress, that I might not be cut off in a moment of sudden unreasoning wrath, that myself and my adherents might not be scoffed at as madmen, and my plans for the good of all retarded, if not wholly frustrated.  These motives I proclaimed to the people.

The opposing obstacles were stupendous.  I braved death in every shape.  I passed one mighty peril only to meet another more formidable, but fearlessly stood every trial, and did not hesitate to act where danger was greatest.  Nothing appalled me.  I never faltered from my resolves, and after years of mighty struggles, my triumph was complete.  I was blessed and adored by all the people, small and great, and my name will live in Montalluyah through all generations.