Fame is the sound which the stream of high thoughts, carried
down to future ages, makes as it flows; deep, distant, murmuring
evermore like the waters of the mighty ocean. He who has ears
truly touched to this music is, in a manner, deaf to the voice
of popularity.--WILLIAM HAZLITT.
(1055)
* * * * *
The following anecdote of Björnson, the Norwegian poet, illustrates the
peculiar turn that seized a mischievous delegation:
Björnson was once asked on what occasion he got the greatest
pleasure from his fame as a poet. His answer was:
“It was when a delegation from the Right came to my house in
Christiania and smashed all the windows. Because, when they had
thus attacked me and were starting for home again, they felt
that they ought to sing something, and so they began to sing,
‘Yes, we love this land of ours.’ They could do nothing else!
They had to sing the song of the man they had attacked.”
(1056)