PERSEVERANCE. - The virtue that disposes man to continue in good, according to the dictates of reason, despite the prolongation of toils and difficulties (Sum. Theol., 2a-2ae, q. 128, a. 1). To know how to resist in one or a few difficulties is easy for many; to struggle for a long time until their overcoming constitutes a particular virtue. From this point of view, perseverance sometimes refers only to the disposition of the will; at other times to the actual execution. Moreover, it can pertain either to individual good objects or to all of them.
Perseverance is all the more worthy of praise the longer the suffering of difficulties lasts. Holy Scripture exhorts to perseverance, uniting it with patience as a condition for attaining the reward (cf. Eccli. 5:12; Mt. 10:22; 24:13; Lk. 21:19; Heb. 3:6; 10:36; Jas. 5:11; Rev. 2:10), and condemns those who, having begun a good work, recede from it (Lk. 9:62). But as a supernatural virtue, disposing the soul to continue in good meritorious of divine reward, it requires Grace, at least habitual (Sum. Theol., 2a-2ae, q. 137, a. 4).
Opposite vices. - Opposed to perseverance are: by defect, softness; by excess, pertinacity. The former creates an excessive fear of difficulties, causing one to recede from good purposes due to weariness and hardships; the latter drives the purpose, initially good, beyond reasonableness, without receding before the evidence of contrary truth or the manifest uselessness of the work out of mere stubbornness: "To continue in good is virtue; to persist in what is false or unreasonable is vice" (loc. cit., q. 138, aa. 1-2).