Section 138. NOT NEAR ENOUGH YET.

There⁠[1] is a popular report in the Brandenburg district, where Bismarck’s family has been so many centuries at home, which attributes to the Bismarcks, as the characteristic saying of the house, the phrase: “Noch lange nicht genug”—(Not near enough yet), and which expresses⁠[2], we⁠[3] suppose, the popular⁠[4] conception of⁠[5] their tenacity of purpose—that⁠[6] they were not tired out of any plan they had formed by a reiterated failure or a pertinacious opposition which would have disheartened most of their compeers. There⁠[7] is a somewhat extravagant illustration of this characteristic in Bismarck’s wild, youthful days, if his biographer may be trusted. When studying⁠[8] law at Berlin, he had been more than once disappointed⁠[9] by a bootmaker who⁠[10] did not send home his boots when they were promised. Accordingly⁠[11] when this next happened, a servant of the young jurist appeared at the bootmaker’s at six in the morning (App. § 9) with the simple question: “Are Herr⁠[12] von Bismarck’s boots ready?” When he was told they were not⁠[13], he departed⁠[14], but at ten minutes past six another servant appeared, asking⁠[15] the same question, and⁠[16] so at precise intervals of ten minutes it went on all day, till by⁠[17] the evening the boots were finished and⁠[18] sent home.—Earle, “The Philology of the English Tongue.”