148 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Laurels Pass from Age to Youth
A LKEADY am I worn with care and age,
/\ And just abandoning the ungrateful Stage ;
But you, whom every muse and grace adorn,
Whom I foresee to better fortune born,
Be kind to my remains ; and, oh9 defend
Against your judgment your departed friend.
Let not the insulting foe my fame pursue,
But guard those laurels which descend to you.
John Dryden to William Congreve
How to Live
LET us endeavour so to live that when we come to die even the
undertaker will be sorry. Mark Twain
Caesar Among the Pirates
IN earlier days Julius Caesar was taken by pirates. What then?
He threw himself into their ship, established the most extraordinary
intimacies, told them stories, declaimed to them ; if they did not
applaud Ms speeches, he threatened them with hanging—which he
performed afterwards—and, in a short time, was master of all on
board. Emerson
The Good Man Does Lives After Him
HE who digs a well, constructs a stone fountain, plants a grove of
trees by the roadside, plants an orchard, builds a durable house,
reclaims a swamp, or so much as puts a stone seat by the wayside,
makes the land so far lovely and desirable, makes a fortune which
he cannot carry with him, but which is useful to his country long
afterwards. Emerson
The Cloak from Arthur's Court
IN the old fables we read of a cloak brought from fairyland as a gift
for the fairest and purest in Prince Arthur's Court. It was to be
her prize whom it would fit. Everyone was eager to try it on, but
it would fit nobody : for one it was a world too wide, for the next it
dragged on the ground, and for the third it shrunk to a scarf. They,
of course, said that the devil was in the mantle, but really the truth
was in the mantle, and was exposing the ugliness which each would
fain conceal. All drew back with terror from the garment. The
innocent Genelas alone could wear it.
In like manner, every man is provided, in Ms thought, with a
measure of man which he applies to every passenger. Unhappily,
not one in many thousands comes up to the stature and proportions
of the model. Emerson