Difficulty, my brethren, is the nurse of greatness--a harsh nurse, who roughly rocks her foster-children into strength and athletic proportion.

Bryant personifies “Difficulty” as a stern wet-nurse whose rough handling strengthens the children she raises. The image suggests that hardship is not merely an obstacle but an active formative force: it disciplines, toughens, and “proportions” character, producing moral and intellectual vigor (“athletic proportion”). Addressing “my brethren” gives the line the cadence of a public exhortation—hardship is framed as a shared human condition and a kind of providential training. The aphorism belongs to a long tradition of nineteenth-century moral rhetoric that treats adversity as the crucible of greatness, warning against comfort’s enervating effects while insisting that strength is earned through struggle.