They never fail who die in a great cause
The saying, in question, connotes that those who take up a great cause, fight for it and die while fighting before their object is achieved, cannot be regarded as having failed in their noble mission. For, as Byron adds “still their spirit walks abroad.” In fact, a noble example once set, is always set and will always remain a beacon of light to posterity. A man, who lay down his life for a noble aim, does die physically but he never perishes. He rather leaves behind ‘footprints on the sands of time’,-footprints which will guide the future good men and put them on the right track. Christ, Socrates, Mahatma Gandhi—all sacrificed their lives for a noble cause. In spite of their physical annihilation, all of them are alive, very much alive, and reside in the hearts of millions of their followers. All such early scientists in the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries in Europe, who had to confront the insatiable fury of the then churchmen and even lose their lives at the altar of orthodoxy and as such could not complete the work once started by them, cannot be considered failures. But for them, science could not reach the zenith it has reached today. The examples of Copernicus, Bruno, and Galileo are still glowing and guiding today. The sign of the Red Cross was the idea of Henri Dunant. He tried to spread it and exhausted his financial resources in the venture. Later on he died as a poor, forsaken and miserable man. He surely succeeded, although his mission could not be achieved and although he was deserted by those very people whom he had collected round his idea.
