AN ORATION BEFORE THE LITERARY SOCIETIES OF AMHERST COLLEGE AT
THEIR ANNIVERSARY, AUGUST 11, 1847.
But if there be in Glory aught of good,
It may by means far different be attained,
Without ambition, war, or violence,--
By deeds of peace, by wisdom eminent,
By patience, temperance.
MILTON, _Paradise Regained_.
Da veniam scriptis, quorum non gloria nobis
Causa, sed utilitas officiumque fuit.
OVID, _Epist. ex Ponto_, III. ix., 55, 56.
Singulari in eo negotio usus opera Flacci Pomponii, consularis
viri, nati ad omnia quæ recte facienda sunt, simplicique
virtute, merentis semper quam captantis gloriam.--VELLEIUS
PATERCULUS, _Hist._, Lib. II. Cap. 129.
Non privatim solum, sed publice _furimus_. Homicidia compescimus,
et singulas cædes; quid bella, et occisarum gentium _gloriosum
scelus_?--SENECA, _Epist._ XCV. § 30.
Tanto major famæ sitis est quam
Virtutis! Quis enim virtutem amplectitur ipsam,
Præmia si tollas?
JUVENAL, _Sat._ X. 140-142.
Wealth and children are the ornament of this present life; but
good works, which are permanent, are better, in the sight of thy
Lord, with respect to the reward, and better with respect to
hope.--_Koran_, tr. Sale, Ch. 18.
For ages mingled with his parent dust,
Fame still records Nushirovan the Just.
From the PERSIAN, by Sir William Jones: _Life_, p. 98.
Then Peredur returned to his mother and her company, and he said
to her, "Mother, those were not angels, but honorable knights."
Then his mother swooned away.--_The Mabinogion_, tr. Lady Charlotte
Guest, Vol. I. p. 300.
One day he met a poor woman weeping bitterly; and when he inquired
the cause, she told him that her only brother, her sole stay and
support in the world, had been carried into captivity by the
Moors. Dominick could not ransom her brother; he had given away
all his money, and even sold his books, to relieve the poor; but
he offered all he could,--he offered up himself to be exchanged
as a slave in place of her brother. The woman, astonished at
such a proposal, fell upon her knees before him. She refused
his offer, but she spread the fame of the young priest far and
wide.--JAMESON, _Legends of the Monastic Orders: St.
Dominick_.
Lord! what honor falls to a knight that he kills many men! The
hangman killeth more with a better title. It were better to be
butchers of beasts than butchers of our brethren, for this were
more unnatural.--WYCLIFFE, _Of the Seven Deadly Sins_.
Gueres ou peu il s'est aydé des gens d'espée en ses ambassades,
si-non que de ses gens de plume, ayant opinion que l'espée ne sceut
tant bien entendre ses affaires, ny les conduire et démesler, comme
la plume.--BRANTÔME, _Vies des Hommes Illustres et Grands
Capitaines François_, Discours XLV.
He lives in fame that died in virtue's cause.
SHAKESPEARE, _Titus Andronicus_, Act I. Sc. 2.
Honors thrive,
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our foregoers.
_All's Well that Ends Well_, Act II. Sc. 3.
The purest treasure mortal times afford
Is spotless reputation: that away,
Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.
_Richard II._, Act I. Sc. 1.
'Tis death to me to be at enmity:
I hate it, and desire all good men's love.
_Richard III._, Act II. Sc. 1.
Never any state
Could rise or stand without this thirst of glory,
Of noble works, as well the mould as story.
For else what governor would spend his days
In envious travel for the public good?
Who would in books search after dead men's ways?
F. GREVILLE, LORD BROOKE, _Fame and Honor_.
Boccaline has this passage of soldiers. They came to Apollo to have
their profession made the eighth liberal science, which he granted.
As soon as it was noised up and down, it came to the butchers, and
they desired their profession might be made the ninth. "For," say
they, "the soldiers have this honor for the killing of men: now we
kill as well as they; but we kill beasts for the preserving of men,
and why should not we have honor likewise done to us?" Apollo could
not answer their reasons, so he reversed his sentence, and made the
soldier's trade a mystery, as the butcher's is.--SELDEN,
_Table Talk: War_.
The soldiers say they fight for honor, when the truth is they have
their honor in their pocket.--_Ibid._
Certainly, as some men have sinned in the principles of Humanity,
and must answer for not being men, so others offend, if they be
not more.... For great constitutions, and such as are constellated
unto knowledge, do nothing, till they outdo all; they come short
of themselves, if they go not beyond others.... A man should be
something that all men are not, and individual in somewhat beside
his proper name.
SIR THOMAS BROWNE, _Vulgar Errors: Of Credulity and Supinity_.
Fame, if not double-faced, is double-mouthed,
And with contrary blast proclaims most deeds;
On both his wings, one black, the other white,
Bears greatest names in his wild aëry flight.
MILTON, _Samson Agonistes_, 971-974.
The extremes of glory and of shame,
Like East and West, become the same;
No Indian prince has to his palace
More followers than a thief to the gallows.
BUTLER, _Hudibras_, Part II. Canto I. 271-274.
Who fears not to do ill, yet fears the name,
And free from Conscience, is a slave to Fame.
DENHAM, _Cooper's Hill_, 129, 130.
The secret pleasure of a generous act
Is the great mind's great bribe.
DRYDEN, _Don Sebastian_, Act V. Sc. 1.
On pend un pauvre malheureux pour avoir volé une pistole sur le grand
chemin, dans son besoin extrême; et on traite de héros un homme qui
fait la conquête, c'est-à-dire qui subjugue injustement les pays
d'un état voisin.... Prendre un champ à un particulier est un grand
péché; prendre un grand pays à une nation est _une action innocente et
glorieuse_.--FÉNELON, _Examen de Conscience sur les Devoirs de
la Royauté_, Direction XXV.
Content thyself to be obscurely good;
When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway,
The post of honor is a private station.
ADDISON, _Cato_, Act IV. Sc. 4.
Nor Fame I slight, nor for her favors call;
She comes unlooked for, if she comes at all.
POPE, _Temple of Fame_, 513, 514.
To glory some advance a lying claim,
Thieves of renown and pilferers of fame.
YOUNG, _Sat._ III. 87, 88.
Ah! who can tell how hard it is to climb
The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar?
BEATTIE, _Minstrel_, I. 1.
I would wish for immortality on earth for no other reason than for the
power of relieving the distressed.--MARIA THERESA: Coxe's
_History of the House of Austria_, Vol. II. Ch. 44.
Adieu, mon cher et illustre maître; nous avons fait un beau rêve,
mais il a été trop court. Je vais me remettre à la géométrie et à
la philosophie. Il est bien froid de ne plus travailler que pour la
gloriole, quand on s'est flatté pendant quelque temps de travailler
pour le bien public.--CONDORCET, _à Voltaire_, 1776:
_OEuvres_, Tom. I. p. 115.
Un temps peut arriver, où les princes, lassés de l'ambition
qui les agite, et de ce retour habituel des mêmes inquiétudes
et des mêmes projets, tourneront davantage leurs regards vers
les grandes idées d'Humanité; et si les hommes du temps présent
ne doivent pas être spectateurs de ces heureuses révolutions,
il leur est permis du moins de s'unir par leurs voeux à la
perfection des vertus sociales, et aux progrès de la bienfaisance
publique.--NECKER, _De l'Administration des Finances de la
France_, Part. I. Ch. 13.
Les nations ne doivent porter que le deuil de leurs bienfaiteurs.
Les représentans des nations ne doivent recommander à leur hommage
que les héros de l'humanité.--MIRABEAU, _Éloge Funèbre de
Franklin_.
I have had occasion to know many thousand persons in the
course of my travels on this subject [of the Slave-Trade],
and I can truly say that the part which these took on this
great question was always a true criterion of their moral
character.--CLARKSON, _History of the Abolition of the
African Slave-Trade_, Vol. II. p. 460.
Not thus the schoolmaster in his peaceful vocation.... His is
a progress not to be compared with anything like a march; but
it leads to a far more brilliant triumph, and to laurels more
imperishable than the destroyer of his species, the scourge of the
world, ever won. Such men--men deserving the glorious title of
Teachers of Mankind--I have found laboring conscientiously, though
perhaps obscurely, in their blessed vocation.... Their calling is
high and holy; their fame is the property of nations; their renown
will fill the earth in after ages, in proportion as it sounds not
far off in their own times.--LORD BROUGHAM, _Speech at
Liverpool, July 20, 1835_.
Lieutenant-Colonel Wheeler, in his despatch (Camp Cudjah,
August 24, 1840) to Captain Douglas, describing the storming of
an Afghanistan fort, says: "I directed Lieutenant Paterson to
concentrate as heavy a volley as he could close to the gate:
this had the desired effect, shook the gate, and enabled the
Grenadiers of the Forty-Eighth, under that officer, to force it,
and carry the fort _in beautiful style, bayoneting all within
it_!"--HAYDON, _Lectures on Painting and Design_, Vol. II.
p. 262.