"There Is No Primrose Path Which Leads To Glory"
Context: This fable, entitled "The Two Adventurers and the Talisman," tells about two men who read an inscription upon a wayside sign. To see something no other knight has ever seen, they are instructed to swim a nearby river, pick up a stone elephant, and carry it to the top of a certain mountain. One of the two men believes that the tasks are too dangerous to try and impossible to carry out. The other man ignores the danger, plunging into the river and swimming to the other side. He fulfills the instructions, carrying the stone elephant to the top of the designated mountain. His success results in his seeing a beautiful city appear; and, as a reward for his labors, the hero is hailed as the ruler of the city by its inhabitants. The story opens with this statement, actually the moral of the tale:
There is no primrose path which leads to glory.
Hercules with his Tasks of endless fame
Has had few rivals worth the name
Even in myth, still less in truthful story.
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