The other day I came down the East River on the steamer. I saw the Bartholdi statue, and my only comment on it, in voice or in thought, was upon its dingy appearance. I wondered that it had not been cleaned. When I sat in my house reading afterward, I came to an account of the ecstasy of an immigrant when first he saw the statue. It was to him the incarnation of all that he had hoped for. Its torch seemed to light his feet to the ways of peace and prosperity. It seemed to be calling a welcome from this land that is free. It seemed even to his devoted heart to be like the figure of the Christ beckoning him and promising him the liberty of a child of God. I wish it might be that we could never see it without similar emotion.—C. B. McAfee.
(1784)
Liberty, Workers for—See Emancipation. LIES IN BUSINESS You, merchants, must not twine lies and sagacity with your threads in weaving, for every lie that is told in business is a rotten thread in the fabric, and tho it may look well when it first comes out of the loom, there will always be a hole there, first or last, when you come to wear it.—Henry Ward Beecher.
(1785)
LIFE A lady occupied a whole year in searching for and fitting the following lines from English and American poets. The whole reads almost as if written at one time and by one author:
Why all this toil for triumphs of an hour? —Young
Life's a short summer—man is but a flower;
—Dr. Johnson
By turns we catch the fatal breath and die
—Pope
The cradle and the tomb, alas! so nigh!
—Prior
To be is better far than not to be,
—Sewell
Tho all man's life may seem a tragedy;
—Spencer
But light cares speak when mighty griefs are dumb—
—Daniel
The bottom is but shallow whence they come.
—Raleigh
Your fate is but the common fate of all,
—Longfellow
Unmingled joys here to no man befall;
—Southwell
Nature to each allots his proper sphere.
—Congreve
Fortune makes folly her peculiar care.
—Churchill
Custom does often reason overrule
—Rochester
And throw a cruel sunshine on a fool;
—Armstrong
Live well—how long or short permit to heaven,
—Milton
They who forgive most shall be most forgiven.
—Bailey
Sin may be clasped so close we can not see its face;
—French
Vile intercourse where virtue has no place.
—Somerville
Then keep each passion down, however dear,
—Thompson
Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear:
—Byron
Her sensual snares let faithless pleasures lay,
—Smollett
With craft and skill to ruin and betray.
—Crabbe
Soar not too high to fall, but stoop to rise;
—Massinger
We masters grow of all that we despise.
—Crowley
Oh, then, renounce that impious self-esteem.
—Beattie
Riches have wings, and grandeur is a dream.
—Cowper
Think not ambition wise because 'tis brave—
—Davenant
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
—Gray
What is ambition? 'Tis a glorious cheat.
—Willis
Only destructive to the brave and great.
—Addison
What's all the gaudy glitter of a crown?
—Dryden
The way to bliss lies not on beds of down.
—Quarles
How long we live, not years but actions tell.
—Watkins
That man lives twice, who lives the first life well.
—Herrick
Make, then, while yet ye may, your God your friend.
—Mason
Whom Christians worship, yet not comprehend.
—Hill
