ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
saint GEORGE AND THE DRAGON
By Fmmino Matunia
ONE THOUSAND
FAMOUS THINGS
By ARTHUR MEE
HODDEB. AND STOUGHTON
LIMITED LONDON
Fame Immortal
F ame was never so busy. Morning, noon, and night her trumpet
sounds across the world.
Time was when men must toil long years for a little fame, or must do
some great thing like the whining of Trafalgar ; c< Gentlemen f said an
Englishman on that fateful morning, “ let us do something today that
the world will talk of hereafter.” Now a man has but to fight another
man, or to be a little comical on the films, and half the world will run to
see him. Shakespeare waited years for fame, and Cromwell centuries,
but Hollywood and Fleet Street will make a painted lady famous in a
day. We have come into a limelight world which makes the fool as
famous as the wise.
It may seem that bad men have always been as famous as good men,
but we have the authority of the poet for believing that
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in their dust.
The evil that men do lives after them, but it is the good that is famous.
The reward of evil is not fame, but infamy. Fame will spring up in a
day, but the fame that endures must set itself deep in the hearts or the
minds of men. The fame that endures is more than the fad of being
blazed abroad. It is not accidental, or a thing that comes by some strange
chance: that way comes the bubble reputation of an hour ; but the fame
which lives and is worth while must have something good in it. A man
may make mousetraps and die poor and unknown, but was it not
Emerson who believed that if a man made a better mousetrap than any
other man made the world would fiocfi to his door ? Always it is the
quality that counts. When we say Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
we mean men great and wise.
It is true that fame works strangely. We have seen it take a house-
painter and make him suddenly the talk of Europe. It will neglect a
man all his life and pick him up at the end. It will find a man starving
in a garret as he writes and will make a note of what he writes, and long
afterwards, when the man has starved to death^Fame will take this scrap
ofipaper and set it ringing through the world. It will take a man poring
vi fame immortal
over a page of mathematics and will make a note of what he does, and
years afterwards will take up the name of this forgotten man and tell the
world that with his mathematics began the Wireless Age.
That is fame immortal, not the fame of an hour, the trick of the
kinema, the breath of Fleet Street. It is the sound that fills the world
and echoes down the ages, thrilling with the memory of some great thing
done, some fine word spoken, some noble spirit that has been abroad. It
is Major Mordaunt’s
Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife,
To all the sensual world proclaim:
One crowded hour of glorious life
Is worth an age without a name.
It is Ben Jonson'sfame that fills the heavens and the earth:
Her house is all of Echo made,
Where never dies the sound:
And as her brows the clouds invade.
Her feet do strike the ground.
It is the glory of our heritage that it is so rich in famous things.
They haunt us everywhere. They are in poetry and art and in the world
of practical achievement. They are written across our history. They
are all over the face of our land.
Here we look at some of them. It is not claimed that everything in
this book is as well known as Shakespeare or the Tower of London ; some
of these things are counted famous only in the sense of quality, of being
excellent or worthy of fame, the sense in which Southey used the word:
Why, that I cannot tell, said he.
Bui twos a famous victory.
Bui it is believed that most of these things have passed into fame
in the sense that they are known to a great multitude. Sometimes it is
a famous event that we have chosen to remember in some striking passage
sometimes a document, often a picture. If many famous things are
musing, as they must be, they may perhaps be found in two volumes to
which this comes as a third companion—a volume of One Thousand
Beautiful Things and a volume of Everlasting Things such as we know
men mil be reading in a thousand years from rum. It is claimed for
ihl m ^ that %t hasinita thousand things so famous that
r ZT ellent that they deserve * he kn ™ n > or so
wipoTiCLTit that they should be huowTi,
x f. are T*j p “ rt ° f th£ common stock of our possessions
It Iff OA rtnnA _ _T _
Contents o J
A DDISON . . 55, 58, 232
Adrian, Pope . . . 204
Aelian on Demosthenes . . 294
Aesop . . . . . 52
Afton Water . . . . 34
Ah, well . . , . 1
Alas, poor brother . . . 286
Albery, James (Life summed up) 293
Albuera . .... 247
Aldrich, Thomas Bailey . . 58
Alexander writes to Aristotle . 182
Alfred, King . . . 217-8, 220
Alington, 0. A. (on Charles Lister) 310
All men are equal . . .333
All things pass • . , 39
Allingham, William . . . 63
American Declaration of
Independence . . . 333
And shall Trelawny die ? . . 115
Andersen, Hans . . .294
April.191
Arab philosophy . . .37
Arab proverb .. .......... , 1
Aragon, Katherine of . . 108
Arkwright, Sir John (O valiant
hearts) . . . . 295
Arnold, Sir Edwin . . . 66
Arnold, Matthew . . 68-9, 164
Ascham, Roger . . . 223
Ashe, Thomas . . . 280
Asquith, Mr . . . ... 314
Asser on Alfred . „ . 218
Auld Acquaintance . . . 35
B abylonian laws . . 215
Bacon, Francis . .157-9,192
Bad news . . . . 194
Bad old days . . . , 174
Bag of pearls . . . . 320
Baker, Karle Wilson 100, 286, 297
Baldwin, Stanley . 88, 90, 321
Balfour, Lord (on pessimism) . 104
Baring, Maurice . .... . 308
Barrie, Sir J. M. . . 104,106
Bayly, Thomas Haynes . .107-8
BBC prayer . . . 6
Beaumont, Francis . . . 114
Beaumont and Fletcher . . 115
Beauty Bright . . . 97
Becker, Charlotte . . .115
Bede . . . . 89, 90
Beecher, Henry Ward , . 116
Begbie, Janet . . „ , 117
Bendigo . . . . 178
This Book
BGranger, Pierre Jean de . . 121
Berkeley, Bishop . . . 174
Besant, Sir Walter . . . 91
Binyon, Laurence . . . 320
Blake, Robert . . . 1
Blake, William . 120, 122, 123
Blessed are the poor in spirit . 272
Bon, Gustave le 248
Borrow, George . . . 174
Boswell on Johnson . , 48
Bottom the weaver . . . 289
Bound by gold chains . . 152
Braley, Berton . . . 126-7
Bronte, Emily, prayer of . . 128
Brooke, Brian . . 295
Brooke, Rupert . . , 299
Brooke, Stopford . . . 131
Brown, John . . . 238-9
Brown, Tom . . . . 124
Browne, Sir Thomas 29, 31, 336
Browning, Mrs . . 43,157
Browning, Robert . . . 41-3
Bryant, William Cullen . . 49
Buchanan, Robert . . . 155
Build thee more stately mansions 77
Bunyan, John. 52-7, 158-9, 160-3
Burke, Edmund . 58-9,202
Burns, Robert . . 30, 32-6, 177
Burns by Lowell . . . 121
Byrd, William. . . . 51
Byron . . . 25, 136
C ABBAGES and kings ■ . . 294
Caedmon . . . .164-6
Cairns, J. A. B. , . . 37
Call, Wathen Mark Wilks . , 149
Callimachus . . . .28,30
Campbell, Ivar . .. . 302
Canadian Boat Song , 137
Canning, George . . . 92
Canterbury, Archbishop of . 327
Carew, Thomas . . . 44
Carlyle . . . 134-5,235, 262
Carruth, William Herbert . . 50
Cary, Alice . . . . 45
Charles, King . * . . 93-4
Charles the Fifth . . . 248
Chase, Chevy . , . 130
Chaucer . . a . .131-2
Chesterton, G. K. , . 50, 271
Child’s prayer . „ 280
Chinese proverb . , .281-2
Churchill, Winston 97, 248, 314-5, 317
CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK
Clough, Arthur Hugh , . 57
Cobbler and the saint . , 07
Cokayne, George . . .162
Coleridge, Hartley . . 61, 63
Coleridge, Mary . . .61
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor . * 60-2
Columbus . 227,229
Congreve, Lady (Wood Fires) . 21
Congreve, William , . 62 288
Conqueror, The . , . ? 132
Cook, Harold Lewis . * gg
Coulson, Leslie . . * ggi
County Guy . . , .*95
Cowley, Abraham . ] * 290
Cowper . . . % *68 70
Cranmer’s last day . * 231
Crashaw, Richard . .* * 75
Croly, George . . * 72
Cromwell, Oliver . 06, 225,* 233-5
Cromwell, Thomas 92
Cross, the triumph of the .* 254
Gyrus to his sons . . ' 333
D amien, Father
Darwin, Charles
Darwin, Erasmus . * u
D’Aubign4, Dr Merle .* j
Davies, Sir John
Davies, W. H.
Davy, Sir Humphry
Day, Miles Jeffrey Game *
-Delivering the goods
Dennys, Richard Molesworth
Desmahis, Joseph Francois
Dialogue at the Gate of Heaven
Dickens, Charles
Diogenes
Dionysius of Syracuse
Disraeli
Dixon, Richard Watson
Do not leave me thus
Doyle, Sir Francis .
Drake (by Ben Jonson) j
Drake, Joseph Rodman .
Drayton, Michael .
Dreamers of Jerusalem
Drummond, William
Dryden, John , , iif
Dumdrudge . . *
E lizabeth, Queen
death of . .
marriage of. , ’ *
passes by ‘
Emerson , 9 ± k 7 7o
England given away ' ’ 4 ’ 5>1 ^
England’s moat " '
Envy me not |
Epictetus . *
Erasmus * * 15
? n Sir Thomas More .
by Sxr Thomas More * |22
Ka o1 • ■
b41,142, 240
. 283
. 140
141, 259
96, 226
. 10
. 184
. 284
. 307
. 287
i . 296
. 248
ren 330
. 4,5
. 294
. 174
. 84
. 7
. 44
on) 271
. 178
. 248
. 220
. 257
.13,15
. 26
. 287
148, 284
. 135
7 Euripides
^ Evelyn, John . j
2 Ewer, W. N. .
\ ET^ITHFUL only he
j Jl Fame, by Ben Jonson ,
' Fanatics .
* fc 6 !! J° ? n travoll
» hare well to London town
! hisherman’s prayer
Fitzgerald, Edward (story by)
h lower in the crannied wall
Fontenelle
Fooling the people .*
Fools, world of
For all that and all that
Foss, Samuel Walter
Four things small and wise
Foxe, John
Franklin, Benjamin *
hreeman, Profeasor .
Freston, H. Eex .
Froude, J. A.
Fuller, Thomas ’ *
/^AIRDNER, Temple . g'85
Galsworthy, John , * «
Garfield, President . ' ’ H
Garrick, David ' ' 1 ,
Garrison, William Lloyd ' of
Gascoigne, George . ' 9 ra
Gather ye rosebuds . ' aa
Geoffrey of Monmouth * tS?
George, Lloyd . * -Vic
George the Third . ' '
George the Fifth . | 312 \oT 7
German proverb . ’ val
Give us our daily bread ' 149
Gladstone, W. E. i ‘ 3 “
God bless our native"land’ ' ji
God gives every bird its food 285
God ^°ur refuge and strength . 269
G^dsmith, Oliver ! * ’ 1 i’ 0 g 2 ’ 1 ig
Browne ^ ^ TJlomas ’
Good Samaritan ‘ * * i
Grace before dinner. * *
Graham, Sir James .
Gray’s Elegy . f # ,
Green Caravanserai * * <
i r‘“ “ d ,!;?■; min ' 1 > ■' '
Grenfell, Julian ' ' ' l
Grovin 6 ’ 1 £ llko (on Philip Sidney) i
. 15
24, 37
. 315
Grey, Lord
33, 38, 307,312
H4DRUM Emperor .
Lm'“’S pard, Rider .
Hail and Farewell .
Haldane, Lord
Halifax, Lord .
Halleck, Fitzgreene .
Hammurabi’s Code .
Happy homes of England
Hapsburg monarchy
Hardy, Thomas
Hare, Augustus
Harington, Sir John
Hawker, Robert Stephen
Hay, John
Hayman, Robert
Hazlitt, William
CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK
Me prayeth best who loveth best 62
T-fOOCol
S e ? e * •, * * . . 290
Heine, Heinrich . . .290
Hemans, Felicia . . 118 i 9n
Hentzner, Paul . . 9 220
Herbert, George . , , 124
Herbert, Sir Thomas . , 93
Here lies John Trot . ] 123
Here’s an acre rich indeed * 114
Herford, Oliver . . ] 120
Heroes and kings « , ’ 79
Herrick, Robert . . ‘93 99
Heywood, Thomas . . ini
Hezekiah . . # ] 17
Hickson, William . ’ * 17
Hill, Rowland . * ’ 294
Hillis, Newell Dwight . 233
Hindu proverb . . ] 284
His soul goes marching on . 241
Hodgson, W. Noel . . . 391
Hogg, James . . . log, 209
Holland, Josiah Gilbert . 107
Holmes, Oliver Wendell 77, 117-8, 286
by James Russell Lowell . 121
Home Thoughts in Laventie . 302
Homer’s Iliad . . . 280
Hood, Tom, by William Watson 198
g° ra ft 1 . t • ' * 123* 124, 210
How blest is he . , Ign
Howard, John . . . * 248
Hughes, Thomas . . * 124
Hugo, Victor . . 128-30, 329
Hume, David.#. . 91
Hungerford, Lady Joan’s will * 8
Huxley, Professor . . .124-5
Hyacinthe, P&re . , ,127
. 319
. 114
. 257
. 215
. 120
. 38
. 247
. 117
91
. 115
. 116
. 283
248, 288
f EAT my peas with honey
t } ha J e a ren( Kzvous with death
-- . - WJ.V4J. Ut
I loved a lass, a fair one .
I will lift up mine eyes .
Idle singer of an empty day
In Flanders Fields .
Inge, Dean
Inscriptions on three gates
Isaiah
Isle of beauty . *
It is not to be thought of
It might have been .
TACKS, Dr L. P. . . . #
J Jago, Richard
. 200
. 261
, 40
. 305
173, 294
. 287
.268-9
. 107
, 147
• 208
James the First
James, William
Jammes, Francis
Japanese national anthem
Jefferson, Thomas .
Jenkins, Arthur Lewis
Jennings, Sarah
Jeremiah, Lamentations o
Jerusalem, Ride into
Jesus, sayings of
Joan to her judges .
Joan’s farewell to home
Johnson, Dr . 4
Johnson, Hiram *
Jones, Ernest .
Jonson, Ben . . ^
Judas Iscariot
. 282
. 290
182, 187
. 322
. 289
. 306
26
. 331
. 271
. 277
. 140
. 139
, 48-9, 165
. 285
. 150
47-8, 220
. 155
K ANT, Immanuel . 34,39
Keats . # # ^ ££
Kepler, John . . . * 52
Kettle, Tom . . 299,300
Kew m lilac time . 288
Killer, Joyce . 38, 46,298
King, Henry . . . . 51
Kingsley, Charles . . * 57
Kipling, Rudyard . . * 20 , 21
Kitchener, Lord . . 31 q
his death . . # ’ 32 q
Knowing all is to forgive all . 286
Kossuth * • . • 83
L ADY with the lamp . , 70
Lamartine, Alphonse de 228, 230
Jjamb, Charles. 64, 65, 139, 169-70
Landor, Walter Savage . . 5 0
Last words of the last * *
Englishman’s wife . . 29
Latimer, Hugh . . 07
Laughing and weeping . . 27
Lawrence, T. E. 1 *»
Lecky, W. E. H. . .* 60
Ledwidge, Francis . . ! 301
Let me grow lovely growing old 100
Juet us do it now . oqk
Leyden, John . . * * 230
Lichnowsky, Prince . , * 280
Life is sweet, brother . * 174
Lie lightly, earth . . ] 115
Lincoln, Abraham
finds himself famous . . 240
fooling the people. . * 241
feis monument , , * 240
no name like his . . '* 243
on his second election . . 243
Punch apologises to . * 240
sayings of . . . . 242
stands alone . . * 241
tragic last hour . ] ’ 244
what he must do ? . 239
when he died . . * 247
Lister, Charles . . ’ 310
Little ship in great sea* . \ 283
Locker-Lampson, Frederick . 290
Lockhart, John Gibson . . 5
CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK
Longfellow . . 73-
Longus, Antonins .
Lope de Vega .
Lost Leader . . •
Lovelace, Richard ,
Lowell, Russell
on Oliver Wendell Holmes
on Robert Burns
Lucy Gray
Ludwig, Emil (on Lincoln)
Luther, Martin
Lynch, Thomas Toke
Lytle, William Haines
Nothing is here for tears
Noyes, Alfred .
Nugent, Robert
O NANNY, wilt thou gang wi’
me ?
Old Sarum chant
Omar Khayyam
One still strong man
Ovid .
Owen, Wilfred
Oxenham, John
Oxland, Nowell
M acaulay . 94 - 6 , 225,291
McCrae, John • . . 305
MacDonagh, Michael . .317
MacDonald, George . 25, 28
Mackenzie, H. C. Compton . 27
Madariaga, Salvador de . . 286
Madonna's prayer . . . 15
Mare, Walter de la . . . 288
Marlborough, Duchess of . . 26
Marlowe and Raleigh in the fields 19
Marriott-Watson, R. B. . . 305
Mary Queen of Scots . . 34
Mason, Caroline Atherton . . 240
Massey, Gerald . . 1, 285
Melbourne, Lord ... 97
Meredith, George (by Barrie) . 106
Merivale, C. . . . 280
Micah . . . . . 276
Miller, Joaquin . . 39, 40
Milton . 142-4, 166, 187-8 190
by Wordsworth . . . 147
Money-Coutts, Francis Burdett. 72-3
Montagu, Lady Mary . . 41
Montague, C. E. . , . 40
Moore, Thomas . . 137, 138
Mordaunt, Major (Sound the
clarion) . . . , vi
More and more and less and less 281
More, Sir Thomas . . 258, 262
by Erasmus . . . 206
on Erasmus . . .205
Morley, Christopher . . 320
Morley, Lord (on Gladstone) . 26
Morris, William ... 46
Moses to his people . . .203-4
Mother’s song. . . .18
Moving finger writes . . 59
Munthe, Axel . . . .198
My true love hath my heart . 134
Mystic and the beggar . . 40
KJAPOLEON . . . 136
1N Napoleon the Third . . 329
Nebuchadnezzar calling . .216
Nevinson, H. W. . . 294
Newton, Sir Isaac . ... 46
Nicolay, JohnG. (on Lincoln) . 244
Nightingale, Florence . . 76
Norris of Bemerton „ „ 258
Nothing half so sweet in life . 138
P AGE, Walter Hines . 293, 311
Paine, Thomas . . . 240
Palm trees , . . 1
Palmer, Robert • . . 306
Panama Gang , . .126
Parker, Theodore . . . 64-
Parry, Harold . , .309
Parsons, Thomas William. . 65
Partington, Mrs . . ,101
Pasteur, Louis , , . 66
Patmore, Coventry ... 36
Pembroke, Earl of . . .31
People, he must not die . . 329
Percy, Thomas . . .71
Pericles , . , .69,72
Pharisee and the Publican .' 275
Philipps, Oolwyn , . , 305'
Pilot that weathered the storm „ 92
Pitt, William . . , .252
Plantagenet, Richard . , 218
Plato, thou reasonest well ■ . 232
Plato, what is the good of Mm ? 174
Plutarch. , , 71, 72
Poor man’s'.grace , 282
Poor Richard’s advice . , 213
Pope, Alexander . . 45, 79, 80
Praed, W. M. ... 81
Priestley, J. B. (on Charles Lamb) 85
Prior, Matthew . . 80, 82
Prodigal Son . . r . , 274
Prospect from Scotland . * 49
Psalms .... 268
Punch and Abraham Lincoln , 246
R aleigh, sir Waiter
His love admits no rival . 87
La belle dame sans merci . 86
The prince without mercy . 84
„ ^ See also 189, 191, 192
Realf, Robert , . ■; 281
Renans, Ernest . . . 100
Retribution .... 77
Rich young ruler . . . 271
Richter, Jean Paul . . . 288
Rogers, Samuel ... 97
Roosevelt, Theodore . . 294
Royal visit . 258
Rule, Britannia ... 16
Ruskin, John . . , ’ <87
CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK ad
S AOKVILLE, Charles, Earl of
Dorset ....
Sadi the Persian .
St Anthony to the fishes .
St Francis ....
St Luke
Good Samaritan .
Pharisee and the Publican
Prodigal Son
St Matthew
St Paul .... 232, 2
Saltoun, Lord .
Sandburg, Carl .
Sayings from the Psalms .
Scotland, Dr Johnson on .
Scott, Sir Walter . . . ^
Scrooge ....
Sears, Edmund (on John Brown)
Seeger, Alan . . .
Selden, John ....
Seneca .....
Sermon on the Mount
Seven weeks ....
Shackleton, Sir Ernest
Shaftesbury, Lord .
Shakespeare
After life’s fitful fever .
Belch, philosophy of Sir Toby
Bottom the weaver
Bottom’s dream .
Did Shakespeare say this ?
I am dying, Egypt, dying
O call back yesterday .
This England never did.
Tomorrow and tomorrow
See also 106, 212, and other
passages on above pages
Shakespeare’s portraits . .
She is a winsome wee thing
She is far from the land .
She is not fair to outward view .
She wore a wreath of roses
Shelley . . . • 100, 102
Sidgwick, Arthur Hugh . ,303
Sidney, Sir Philip
Famous saying . . .133
Father’s advice to . . 201
Lament . . • * 132
See also . . • • 134
Simonides . . . * 1^4
Sinai, voice from . . * 332
Six things the Lord doth hate . 265
Skelton, John . . . . 275
Smith, Arabella . . . 194
Smith, Sidney . . . 191
Smuts, General . . * 322
Socrates at a fair . . . 289
Solomon . . - 259, 264-7
Sophocles .... 289
Sorley . * * • 296,306
Sound, sound the clarion . . vi
Southey . . .56, 102—3, 105—6
Spencer, Herbert . . 104, 294
Spencer, Hiram Dodd . . 109
Spender, J. A.. . . . 290
Squire? Sir John . « V 45
270
275
274
271
275-6
287
97
268
49
94, 95
5
) 239
299
289
285
273
93
288
. 289
Steele, Richard . . .279
Sterling, Robert . . . 298
Stuart, Andrew John, Viscount . 300
Stuart, Charles . . . 235
Sumner, Charles . . .190
Sweet day so calm and bright . 124
Symonds, John Addington . 116
Syrus, Publilius . . .285
T ABB, John Bannister . 161, 283
Tagore, Rabindranath . . 23
Tale which holdeth children from
their play. . . .133
Talking to George the Third . 311
Talmud .... 52
Tannahill, Robert . . .22,23
Taylor, Jeremy . . . 24
Taylor, Tom (on Lincoln). . 246
Tennant, Edward Wyndham . 302
Tennyson . . 150-4, 203, 259
Thackeray, W. M. . . . 249
Thales of Miletus . .32
Thaxter, Celia ... 9
Themistocles . . . . 282
There is a lady sweet and kind . 19
There was a little girl . . 102
These above all . . .285
Thomas, Edward . . .307
Thomson, James . . . 16
Thoreau .... 1
Thou, little sandpiper, and I . 9
Three men lie dying. . . 316
Three things too wonderful . 265
Throne, saddest story of . . 249
Times on Queen Victoria . .253
Tintem Abbey . . . 3
Tired woman’s epitaph . . 19
To an ass, long ago . . . 281
Toussaint L’Ouverture . . 3
Traherne, Thomas . . . 8,195
Trailing, clouds of glory . .172
Trelawny .... 115
Trevelyan, Professor . .283
Trotter, Bernard Freeman . 297
Turberville, George . . 2
Tusser, Thomas . . 192, 193
Twain, Mark . . . . 148
Two men looked out . . 286
Tyndale, William . . . 96
Tyndale’s testament . . 272
V ALIANT and virtuous . 186
Van Dyke, Henry . . 293
Vanity Fair . . . .161
Vaux, Lord . . .. . 10
Vemede, R. E. . . . 300
Victoria, Queen . " . . 253
Victorian Age, by Dr Inge . 174
Violets . . . ■ * * 203
Voltaire . . 14, 18,20, 163
W ALLER, Edmund . . 235
Walpole, Horace * . 283
Walton, Izaak. . . 19, 20
Watson, William . 38, 191, 198
Watt, James . . . 252, 260
CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK
Waugh, Edwin . • 2:
Webster, Daniel
Welsh national song
Whateley, Archbishop
When a deed is done for freedom
When Adam delved # .
Whitaker, Robert (on Lincoln)
Whitman, Walt
Whittier . . 199, 208-
Why they loved him
Whyte -Melville, George John
Widow’s Mite .
Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
Willard, Emma
Wilson, Marjorie . .19
Wilson, T. P. 0.
Wilson, Woodrow *
Wind on the heath .
Wither, George
29, 230
. 7, 12
18
. 335
om 86
. 287
) . 243
. 227
8-9, 255
. 285
. 294
. 269
27
. 24
197, 199
Wood Fires .
Wordsworth
Daffodils .
Faery Voyager
Glory and the dream
Lucy Gray .
Tintern .
To Milton .
Toussaint L’Ouverture .
Trailing clouds of glory.
See also . 3, 145-7, 171
• Worldly hope men set their
hearts upon
Wotton, Sir Henry .
Wyatt., Sir Thomas .
Wycliffe’s Bible
Y OUNGHUSBAND, Sir
Francis, on a flower *
The Pictures
When the pictures are not facing the page"given they
are inside the set of pictures beginning on that page
St George and the Dragon, by Fortunino Matania
ft
Frontispiece
The Annunciation, by Donatello
0
8
The Singing Gallery, by Luca della Robbia
9
ft
ft
8
Eros, by Sir Alfred Gilbert
9
#
•
9
Minerva at the Vatican
9
ft
9
16
The Houses of Parliament .
9
•
ft
17
The Tower of London
9
ft
ft
17
Women at Prayer, by Alphonse Legros
ft
#
82
The Nativity, by Fra Angelico ,
ft
ft
82
Salisbury Cathedral .
«
ft
88
Shakespeare’s Church
ft
ft
ft
83
The Crouching Man in a Verona Church
9
#
ft
64
King Charles, by Van Dyck
9
ft
ft
65
Portrait of a Lady, by Johannes Verspronck «
ft
ft
ft
80
The Merry Fiddler, by Frank Hals
.
9
ft
ft
0
81
Sir Joshua Reynolds, by Himself
4 ft
9
ft
ft
ft
112
Shakespeare, by Richard Burbage
* •
0
«
ft
112
Sir Walter Raleigh, by an unknown artist
ft •
9
ft
ft
113
Sir Walter Scott, by Sir Edwin Landseer
m ft
0
ft
ft
113
The Belfry of Bruges
ft ft
9
ft
128
Tom Tower, Oxford .
ft ft
ft
ft
129
Magdalen Tower, Oxford . • •
ft ft
ft
129
The Backs at Cambridge .
ft •
ft
ft \
129
After the Storm, by Josef Israels
w 0
ft
«
ft
144
Miss Murray, by Sir Thomas Lawrence
* «
6
•
ft
145
Earl Cowper with Countess Cowper and the Gore
Family, by Zoffany
ft
160
The Italian Comedians, by Watteau .
m *
*
ft '
ft
160
Dutch Interior, by De Hooch
9 9
ft
ft
ft
' ft
161
The Pearl Necklace, by Vermeer
ft
ft
ft
ft
161
Lady Hamilton as Diana, by Romney
ft
ft
ft
176
Joan of Arc, by Rossetti , .
9 9
•
9
' '•
ft
177
The Sea of Galilee .
ft ft
ft ■
ft
ft#
192
The Garden of Gethsemane
9 ft
ft
' ft*
ft
ft
ft
192
Sydney*Harbour
9 9
#
ft
ft
ft
193
xiii
XIV
PICTURES
Victoria Falls.
*
• 198
Elizabeth Knighting Raleigh, by A. K. Lawrence .
»
. 208
Henry the Eighth, by Holbein .
m
. 208
Edward the Sixth, by Holbein
ft
. 208
A Chinese Priest of the Tang Dynasty
ft
. 209
The Mourning Woman, by a Sculptor of Old Greece •
ft
. 209
Countess of Pembroke, by Gheeraedts ....
ft
. 224
Hamo Thoraycroft’s Cromwell.
«
• 225
Abraham Lincoln’s Shrine in Washington .
. 240
Sunset at Stonehenge •
. 241
Portrait of a Lady, by Rembrandt ....
• 256
Chinese Camel from a Tang Tomb ....
• 257
Madonna and Child with St John, by Raphael
. 272
Madonna and Child, by Raphael ....
. 272
Madonna in the National Museum, Florence
. 273
Prince Balthasar Carlos, by Velasquez
• 288
Princess Margaret, by Velasquez ....
. 289
The Great Pyramid.
. 804
The Colosseum in Rome
. 304
The Capitol in Washington .
■m
. 305
St Peter’s in Rome . ...***
. 305
Portrait of a Boy, by Carl Van Loo . #
m
. 320
Tutankhamen and his Queen • •
•
ft
. 821
Acknowledgments
The Editor desires to express his great indebtedness to
the following authors , publishers , and holders of copyrights
To the proprietors of Punch for In Flanders Fields
To Lord St Davids for the poem by Colwyn Phillips
To Mrs Kettle for the poem by Tom Kettle
To Mr John Murray for Noel Hodgson’s poem Before Action
To Mrs Owen and Chatto and Windus for Wilfred Owen’s Miners
To Mrs Thomas for the poem by Edward Thomas
To Mr W. H. Davies and Jonathan Cape for The Kingfisher
To the Cambridge University Press for the lines by Charles Sorley
To Dean Alington for his lines to Charles Lister
To the executors of R. E. Vernede for his poem The Sea is His
To Lord Dunsany for the poem by Francis Ledwidge
To Messrs Heinemann for extracts from the Life of Walter Page
To Celia, Lady Congreve, and Country Life, for Wood Fires
To Mr Compton Mackenzie for Song of Parting
To Lady Conan Doyle for the poem by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and to
John Murray the publisher
To Mrs Chesterton and .J. M. Dent and Sons for Mr Chesterton’s poem
on The Donkey
To Sir John Arkwright for 0 Valiant Hearts, appearing in his poems
published by Skeffington and Son
To Mr Frank Sidgwick and Mr C. C. Lynam for The Strenuous Life by
Arthur Hugh Sidgwick
To the proprietors of The Times for the poem by Noel Oxland and The
Triumph of the Cross
To Lord Desborough for Julian Grenfell’s Into Battle, and to Lady
Desborough for the picture by Zoffany
To the Hon Maurice Baring for the sonnet to Julian Grenfell appearing
in his Selected Poems, published by Heinemann
To John Lane The Bodley Head for the two poems by Francis Burdett
Money-Coutts, and for a poem by Edward Wyndham Tennant
To Mr Winston Churchill for passages from his History of the Great
War, published by Thornton Butterworth
To the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, and the
Fine Arts Publishing Company for certain pictures
To Mr George Eumorfopolous for one of the treasures of his Tang
collection
And to the following photographers : Herbert Felton, Frederick
Hollyer, W. F. Taylor, Donald McLeish, John Swain, Messrs Anderson,
Brogi, Bruckmann, and Wildenstein, and George Pulman &*Son$
The picture of Queen Elizabeth on page 208 is in St Stephen’s Hall
in the Houses of Parliament
xv
TO
MY WIFE
Let the Whole World Know
I will have the whole world to know that none but Englishmen shall
chastise an Englishman. Cromwell's admiral, Robert Blake,
Cromwell's admiral, Robert Blake,
to the Spanish Inquisition
The Foundations
I F you have built castles in the air your work need not be lost; that
is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
Thoreau
Speak About Palm Trees
I t is well to know the truth and speak it, but it is better to know the
truth and speak about palm trees. An Arab Proverb
JL truth and speak about palm trees. An Arab Proverb
Ah, Well
A h, well, there is just this world and the next, and then all our
troubles will be over.
An old lady in Lady Oxford's Memoirs
Fight Something Ere We Die
C ome ! Let us lay a crazy lance in rest,
And tilt at windmills under a wild sky !
For who would live so petty and unblest
That dare not tilt at something ere he die.
Rather than, screened by safe majority.
Preserve his little life to little ends,
And never raise a rebel battle-cry 1
John Galsworthy
The Lonely Flower
I once saw a botanist most tenderly replace a plant which he had
inadvertently uprooted, though we were on a bleak hillside in
Tibet, where no human being was likely to see the flower again.
Sir Francis Younghusband
So Many Foes
S o many are your foes, their arrows shroud
The very sun with an eclipsing cloud.
We'll fight them in the dark then! and the hord*
Illumine with the lightning of the Sword.
GSrald Massey
F.T.—1
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Miser
A miser’s mind thou hast,
Thou hast a prince’s pelf :
Which makes thee wealthy to thine hen,
A beggar to thyself.
Written in the Sixteenth Century
by George Turberville
A Chant from Old 8arum,
G od be in my head
And in my understanding;
God be in my eyes
And in my looking ;
God be in my mouth,
And in my speaking;
God be in my heart,
And in my thinking ;
God be at mine end,
And at my departing.
Sung by the monks of
Old Sarum WO years ago
The Last Pride of All
W ith thee were the dreams of my earliest love ;
Every thought of my reason was thine ;
In my last humble prayer to the Spirit above
Thy name shall be mingled with mine !
O ! blest are the lovers and friends who shall live
The days of thy glory to see ;
But the next dearest blessing that Heaven can give
Is the pride of thus dying for thee. Thomas Moore
The Wit of David Garrick
F or physic and farces his equal there scarce is :
His farces are physic, his physic a farce is.
H ere lies Nolly Goldsmith, for shortness called Noll,
Who wrote like an angel but talked like poor Poll.
Safety Last
T hough Love repine and Reason chafe.
There came a voice without reply :
«- Tis man's perdition to be safe,
When for the truth he ought to die.
Emerson
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
8
The Wise Man in the Shadow of Defeat
N ot unconsoled, I wait— in.hope
To see the moment when the righteous cause
Shall gain defenders zealous and devout
As they who have opposed her ; in which Virtue
Will to her efforts tolerate no bounds
That are not lofty as her rights ; aspiring
By impulse of her own ethereal zeal.
That spirit only can redeem mankind ;
And when that sacred spirit shall appear,
Then shall our triumph be complete as theirs,
Yet shall this confidence prove vain, the wise
Have still the keeping of their proper peace,
Are guardians of their own tranquillity.
Wordsworth’s Excursion
Whose Dwelling is the Light of Setting Suns
F oe I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue. And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts ; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man ;
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.
Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey
To One Dying in a Great Cause
L ive and take comfort. Thou hast left behind
Powers that will work for thee ; air, earth, and skies ;
There’s not a breathing of the common wind
That will forget thee ; thou hast great allies :
Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
And love, and man’s unconquerable mind.
Wordsworth* on Toussaynt L’Ouverture,
. starved to death in a dungeon by Napoleon
4 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
You and the Past
E very ship that goes to America gets its chart from Columbus.
Every novel is a debtor to Homer. Every carpenter who
shaves with a foreplane borrows the genius of a forgotten inventor.
Life is girt all round with the contributions of men who have perished
to add their point of light to our sky. Emerson
A People Great and Strong
N ot gold, but only men can make
A people great and strong ;
Men who for truth and honour’s sake
Stand fast and suffer long.
Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly—
They build a nation’s pillars deep
And lift them to the sky. Emerson
Two Men in the Dark
T hey tell you in London the story of the Frenchman and English¬
man who quarrelled. Both were unwilling to fight, but their
companions put them up to it. At last it was agreed that they should
fight alone, in the dark, and with pistols.
The candles were put out, and the Englishman, to make sure not
to hit anybody, fired up the chimney, and brought down the Frenchman.
Emerson
England’s Place on the Earth
E ngland resembles a ship in its shape; and, if it were one, its
best admiral could not have worked it, or anchored it in a more
judicious or effective position. The shopkeeping nation, to use a
shop word, has a good stand. England is anchored at the side of
Europe, right in the heart of the modern world. Emerson
The Company of the Wise
C onsider what you have in the smallest chosen library.
A company of the wisest and wittiest men that could be
picked out of all civil countries in a thousand years have set in best
order the results of their learning and wisdom. The men themselves
were hid and inaccessible, solitary, impatient of interruption, fenced
by etiquette ; but the thought which they did not uncover to their
bosom friend is here written out in transparent words to us, the
strangers of another age. Emerson
The Secret Life
tt is a wonderful fact to reflect upon that every human creature is
t constituted to be r a profound secret and mystery to every other,
Charles Dickens
5
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Every Bay from the Hands of God
O n week days he walked alone, but on Sundays he showed us the
shrines of the wood gods and the home of Echo in the groves
he loved.
When we were in bed my father would often come up, and,
sitting by us in the twilight, chant, to our great delight, a Good¬
night song, made up as he sang, to the trees, the birds, the flowers,
the members of the family, even the cow and the cat.
He persistently kept meal-times pleasant: would allow no sour
remnants of yesterday’s wrong-doings to be served up again. Every
day was to be fresh and new as a dewdrop from the hands of God.
Emerson's son on his father
Charles Dickens to Mr Lockhart
H e has risen like a rocket and he will come down like a stick.
John Gibson Lockhart on Charles Dickens
I will watch for that stick, Mr Lockhart, and when it comes down I
will break it across your back. Dickens on meeting
Lockhart afterwards
Rich Indeed
W e are not rich in the bank, but we have always prospered, and
we have quite enough. I never walk out with my husband
but I hear the people praise him. I never go into a house of any degree
but I hear his praises or see them in grateful eyes. I never lie down
at night but I know that in the course of the day he has alleviated
pain and soothed some fellow-creature in the time of need. I know
that from the beds of those who were past recovery thanks have
often gone up, in the last hour, for his patient ministration. Is not
this to be rich ? A Doctor's Wife in Dickens
Poor Scrooge
N obody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks,
“ My dear Scrooge, how are you ? When will you come to see
me ? 55 No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked
him what it was o’clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life in¬
quired the way to such and such a place of Scrooge. Even the blind
men’s dogs appeared to know him ; and when they saw him coming
on would tug their owners into doorways. Charles Dickens
Why Runnest Thou so Fast ?
Avon 1 Why runnest thou away so fast ?
i \ Rest thee before that Chancel where repose
The bones of him whose spirit moves the world. *
Walter Savage Landor to the river running
by the chancel where Shakespeare lies
6 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Prayer of the BBC
This is the inscription carved in Latin in the Entrance
Hall of Broadcasting House, the Headquarters of the BBC
T his Temple of the Arts and Muses is dedicated to Almighty God
by the first Governors of Broadcasting in the year 1931, Sir
John Reith being Director-General.
It is their prayer that good seed sown may bring forth a good
harvest, that all things hostile to peace or purity may be banished
from this house, and that the people, inclining their ears to whatsoever
things are beautiful and honest and of good report, may tread the
paths of wisdom and uprightness.
The Poet’s Belief in Himself
W ell I remember how you smiled
To see me write your name upon
The soft sea-sand— 0 ! what a child !
You think you’re writing upon stone!
I have since written what no tide
Shall ever wash away, what men
Unborn shall read o’er ocean wide
And find lanthe’s name again.
Walter Savage Landor
God Pardon Them
L ife (priest and poet say) is but a dream ;
I wish no happier one than to be laid
Beneath a cool syringa’s scented shade,
Or wavy willow, by the running stream.
Brimful of moral, where the dragon-fly
Wanders as careless and content as I.
Thanks for this fancy, insect king,
On purple crest and filmy wing,
Who with indifference givest up
The water-lily’s golden cup ;
To come again and overlook
What I am writing in my book.
Believe me, most who read the line
Will read with homier eyes than thine ;
And yet their souls shall live for ever,
And thine drop dead into the river !
* God pardon them, 0 insect king,
Who fancy so unjust a thing!
Walter Savage Landor
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
7
Summer is Ending
T he feathers of the willow
Are half of them grown yellow
Above the swelling stream ;
And ragged are the bushes*
And rusty now the rushes,
And wild the clouded gleam.
And thistle now is older,
His stalks begin to moulder,
ilis head is white as snow ;
The branches all are barer,
The linnet’s song is rarer,
The robin pipeth low.
Richard Watson Dixon
St Anthony to the Fishes
S t Anthony at church
Was left in the lurch,
So he went to the ditches
And preached to the fishes.
Sharp-snouted pikes,
Who keep fighting like tikes,
Now swam up harmonious
To hear St Antonius.
Good eels and sturgeon
Which aldermen gorge on,
Went out of their way
To hear preaching that day.
Fish great and fish small.
Lords, lackeys, and all,
m Each looked at the preacher
Like a reasonable creature.
The sermon now ended,
Each turned and descended;
The pikes went on stealing,
The eels went on eeling;
Much delighted were they ,
But preferred the old way.
Author unknown
The Garment of His Country
T FI thought there was a stain upon the remotest hem of the garment
1 of my country, I would devote my utmost labour to wipe it off.
Daniel Webster
8 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Last Will of Lady Joan Hungerford
\ ry body to be buried in the chapel of St Anne in the parish church
JV1 Of Farleigh-Hungerford, next to the grave of my husband.
I will that with all possible speed after my decease my Executors
cause some Masses to be said for my soul and for the souls of all the
faithful deceased.
Also I desire on my burial day that 12 torches and 2 tapers bum
about my body, and that 12 poor women holding the said torches
be clothed in russet with linen hoods, and having stockings and shoes
suitable.
I will that £10 be bestowed to buy black cloth for the clothing of
my sons and daughters, as likewise the sons and daughters of all my
domestic servants. I will that 200 marks now in the hands of my
son Sir Walter Hungerford be given to found a perpetual chantry of
one chaplain to celebrate divine service in the Chapel of St. Anne in
the north part of the said church of Farleigh for the health of my soul
and the soul of my husband and the souls of all our ancestors for ever.
To Katharine the wife of my said son Walter my black mantle
furred with miniver, and to Thomas his son a green bed embroidered
with one greyhound. • Dated.Pebruary 1, 1411, hanging
by her tomb at Farleigh Castle
Heir of All Things
Y ou never enjoy the world aright till the sea itself floweth in your
veins, till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with
the stars; and perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole
world; and more than so, because men are in it who are everyone
sole heirs as well as you.
Till you can sing and rejoice and delight in God, as misers do in
gold, and kings in sceptres, you never enjoy the world.*.
Till your spirit filleth the whole world, and the stars are your
jewels ; till you are as familiar with the ways of God in all Ages as
with your walk and table; till you axe intimately acquainted with that
shady nothing out of which the world was made ; till you love men
so as to desire their happiness with a thirst equal to the zeal of your
own ; till you delight in God for being good to all—you never enjoy
the world.
Till you more feel it than your private estate, and are more
present in the hemisphere, considering the glories and the beauties
there, than in your own house.
Till you remember how lately you were made, and how wonderful
it was when you came into it; and more rejoice in the palace of your
glory than if it had Jpeen made but today morning.
Thomas Traherne
THE ANNUNCIATION. BY DONATELLO
DELM-
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Thou, Little Sandpiper, and I
A cross the narrow beach we flit.
One little sandpiper and I;
And fast I gather, bit by bit,
The scattered driftwood, bleached and dry.
The wild waves reach their hands for it,
The wild wind raves, the tide runs high.
As up and down the beach we flit.
One little sandpiper and I.
Above our heads the sullen clouds
Scud black and swift across the sky;
Like silent ghosts in misty shrouds
Stand out the white lighthouses high.
Alm ost, as far as eye can reach
I see the close-reefed vessels fly.
As fast we flit along the beach.
One little sandpiper and I.
I watch him as he skims along,
Uttering his sweet and mournful cry.
He starts not at my fitful song
Or flash of fluttering drapery.
He has no thought of any wrong;
He scans me with a fearless eye.
Staunch friends are we, well tried and strong.
The little sandpiper and I.
Comrade, where wilt thou be tonight
When the loosed storm breaks furiously ?
My driftwood fire will bum so bright!
To what warm shelter canst thou fly ?
I do not fear for thee, though wroth
The tempest rushes through the sky:
•Tor are we not God’s children both,
Thou, little sandpiper, and I ?
Celia Thaocter
The Ringing Loom of Time
I n floods of being, in action’s storm,
Up and down I wave.
To and fro I flee,
Birth and the grave.
An infinite sea,
A changeful weaving,
An ardent living;
The ringing loom of Time is my care, •
And I weave God’s living garment there.
GoUhe’s Faust
10
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
On a Contented Mind
W hen all is done and said,
In the end thus shall you find.
He most of all doth bathe in bliss
That hath a quiet mind :
And, clear from worldly cares.
Can deem to be content
The sweetest time in all his life
In thinking to be spent.
The body subject is
To fickle Fortune’s power,
And to a million of mishaps
Is casual every hour :
And Death in time doth change
It to a clod of clay ;
Whenas the mind, which is divine,
Runs never to decay.
Companion none is like
Unto the mind alone ;
For many have been harmed by speech.
Through thinking, few or none.
Fear oftentimes restraineth words,
But makes not thought to cease ;
And he speaks best that hath the skill
When for to hold his peace.
Our wealth leaves us at death ;
Our kinsmen at the grave ;
Virtues of the mind unto
The heavens with us we have.
Wherefore, for virtue’s sake,
I can be well content.
The sweetest time of all my life
To deem in thinking spent.
Lord Vaux
I Know My Soul Hath Power to Know
I know my soul hath power to know all things,
Yet she is blind and ignorant in all:
I know I’m one of Nature’s little kings,
Yet to the least and vilest things am thrall.
I know my life’s a pain and but a span ;
I know my sense is mocked in everything;
And, to conclude, I know myself a Man,
Which is a proud and yet a wretched thing.
* Sir John Davies
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 11
A Voice From the Last Generation
■xjoxj will have temptation sent you—you, the labouring people of
Y this country, and when you have become supreme to such a
degree that there is no other power to balance and counteract the
power you possess you will have approaching you a deep and search¬
ing moral control.
You will have to preserve the balance of your mind and character
when you have fought the struggle with the capitalist and aristocrat
and great mercantile classes. When you have become in a sense the
political masters you have still before you one achievement to fulfil,
one glory to attain and to appropriate to yourselves—to continue to
be just. I venture to give you that warning of the future. It applies
to the coming days more than to the days that arepast
W. E. Gladstone
The Thing He Could Not Find
O ne of the sorest things in life is to come to realise that one is
just not good enough. Better perhaps than some, than many
almost; but I do not care for matching myself against my kmcl.
There is an ideal standard somewhere, and only that matters, and
I cannot find it. T. E. Lawrence
Frail Man in a Changing World
t have seen night turned into day in our cities and dwellings by the
1. aid of gas. I have seen time and distance all but annihilated by
the locomotive power of steam, by sea and land. I have seen the
electric telegraph conveying from zone to zone the intercourse of man
by sparks stolen as it were from heaven.
I have seen mighty monarchies fall. I have seen republics,
founded on their ruins, crumble into dust. I have seen military
despotism grow up and wither.
And shall man, frail man, amid all these changes of Nature and
of policy, stand immovable, unaltered in his opinions and feelings ?
If a man is to refuse to yield to the pressure of the times and of the
circumstances in which his lot is cast—-if he is not open to conviction
and, notwithstanding the altered state of affairs and the changed
condition of things around him, refuses to alter his opinions, such a
man may be fit for a lunatic asylum, but I say he does not possess
the true recommendation for any deliberative assembly in the world.
Sir James Graham’s last speech to the electors of Carlisle in 1859
What to Do Every Day
ne ought every day at least to hear a little song, sead a good
1 noem, see a fine picture, and, if possible, speak a few reasonable
words. ‘ Gcau:
o
12 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Time Cannot Efface It
TF we work upon marble, it will perish. If we work upon brass,
I time will efface it. If we rear temples, they will crumble to dust.
But if we work upon men’s immortal minds, if we imbue them with
high principles, with the just fear of God and love of their fellow-
men we engrave on those tablets something which no time can efface,
and ’which will brighten and brighten to all eternity.
Darnel Webster
Man's Inheritance
YVTHAT is the good of all that starry firmament and the revolving
W planets, of all Creation’s labour and travail up to now, if it is
not to enable a man to live in freedom, in happiness, and in activity
among his surroundings ? Goethe
Let Your Trouble Be
L et your trouble be,
Light will follow dark:
Though the heaven falls.
You may hear the lark.
Goethe
He Knows You Not, Ye Heavenly Powers
■vy 7HO ne’er his bread in sorrow ate,
W Who ne’er the mournful midnight hours
Weeping upon his bed hath sate,
He knows you not, ye heavenly Powers.
Goethe
The Lowest Thing
N ational hatred is a curious thing. You will always find it
strongest and most passionate on the lowest level of civilisation.
There is a stage where it disappears altogether, where, in a sense, we
rise above the nations, and feel the joys and the sorrows of a neigh¬
bouring people as though they had come to our own. Goethe
Salute to the Seasons
A ll our comfort is based on the regular recurrence of eternal
things. The change from night to day, the succession of the
seasons, of flowers and fruits, and of whatever else we look forward to
enjoying at its allotted time—these are the mainspring of our life-
machinery, and the more freely we open our hearts to their influence
the happier we feel. Goeihe
Do It With Thy Might
vy that is your duty ? Every day’s demands of you.
W r Goethe
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
18
0, When Shall We Tell
Such a Tale Again ?
F air stood the wind for France
When we our sails advance.
Nor now to prove our chance
Longer will tarry;
But putting to the main
At Caux, the mouth of Seine,
With all his martial train,
Landed King Harry.
And taking many a fort.
Furnished in warlike sort.
Marched toward Agincourt
In happy hour;
Skirmishing day by day
With those that stopped his way
Where the French General lay
With all his power.
Which in his height of pride.
King Henry to deride,
His ransom to provide
To the king sending ;
Which he neglects the while.
As from a nation vile,
Yet, with an angry smile.
Their fall portending.
And, turning to his men.
Quoth our brave Henry then :
Though they to one be ten ,
Be not amazed ;
Yet have we well begun.
Battles so bravely won
Have ever to the sun
By fame been rais&d.
And for myself quoth he.
This my full rest shall be :
England ne'er mourn for me.
Nor more esteem me:
Victor I will remain.
Or on this earth lie slain ;
Never shall she sustain
Loss to redeem me.
They now to fight are gone;
Armour on armour shone ; #
14
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Drum now to drum did groan :
To hear was wonder;
That with the cries they make
The very earth did shake ; .
Trumpet to trumpet spake,
Thunder to thunder.
Well it thine age became,
O noble Ei-pingham,
Which did the signal aim
To our hid forces I
When, from a meadow by.
Like a storm suddenly,
The English archery
Struck the French horses.
With Spanish yew so strong,
. Arrows a cloth-yard long.
That like to serpents stung.
Piercing the weather;
None from his fellow starts,
But playing manly parts,
And, like true English hearts.
Stuck close together.
Upon Saint Crispin’s day
Fought was this noble fray.
Which fame did not delay
To England to carry.
O, when shall Englishmen
With such acts fill a pen.
Or England breed again
Such a King Harry ?
Michael Drayton
Something in the English
JP battle, have an Englishman at your right
I hand, and another at your left, and two immediately in front and
two close behind. There is something in the English which seems to
tated by the antics of these engaging madmen. Voltaire
Play the Part Assigned to You
R^determfoed^rt^pf a P lay > the character of which
iort sW h l P1 ^ ywri S ht - If he wishes the play to be
of . beggar*
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
15
The Good Things of the World
W hen we have been invited to a banquet we take what is set
before us. If a guest should ask the host to set before him
fish or sweet cakes he would be considered to be an unreasonable
fellow, but in the world we ask the gods for what they do not give ;
and we do this though the things are many which they have given.
Epictetus
Its Day Will Gome
N o lie ever grows old.
Euripides
Madonna’s Prayer
H oly angels and blest,
Through those palms as ye sweep
Hold their branches at rest,
For my Babe is asleep.
And ye Bethlehem palm-trees,
As stormy winds rush
In tempest and fury,
Your angry noise hush ;
More gently, more gently,
Restrain your wild sweep ;
Hold your branches at rest;
My Babe is asleep.
Lope de Vega, 16th-century Spanish poet
Love’s Farewell
S ince there’s no help, come let us kiss and part,
' Nay, I have done, you get no more of me ;
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,
That thus so cleanly I myself can free ;
Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,
And when we meet at any time again.
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.
Now at the last gasp of love’s latest breath,
k* s P u * se filing, passion speechless lies,
When faith is kneeling by his bed of death.
And innocence is closing up his eyes.
Now if thou would’st, when all have given him ®ver
From death to life thou might’st him yet recover 1
'Michael Drayton
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Rule, Britannia
W hen Britain first, at Heaven’s command.
Arose from out the azure main ;
This was the charter of the land.
And guardian angels sang this strain :
Rule, Britannia, Britannia rule the waves ;
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves !
The nations not so blest as thee,
Must in their turns to tyrants fall:
While thou shalt flourish great and free.
The dread and envy of them all.
Still more majestic shalt thou rise.
More dreadful from each foreign stroke :
As the loud blast that tears the skies-
Serves but to root thy native oak. -
Thee haughty tyrants ne’er shall tame ;
All their attempts to bend thee down .
Will but arouse thy generous flame ;
But work their woe, and thy renown.
To thee belongs the rural reign ;
Thy cities shall with commerce shine:
All thine shall be the subject main,
And every shore it circles thine.
The Muses, still with freedom found,
Shall to thy happy coast repair:
Blest isle 1 with matchless beauty crowned.
And manly hearts to guard the fair.
Rule, Britannia, Britannia rule the waves ;
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves 1
James Thomson
The Way the Calf Went Home
O ne day, through the primeval wood,
A calf walked home, as good calves should ;
But made a trail all bent askew,
A crooked trail, as all calves do.
This forest trail became a lane,
That bent, and turned, and turned again.
And this, before men were aware,
A city’s crowded thoroughfare ;
- And men two centuries and a half
Trod in the footsteps of that calf.
Samuel Waiter Foss
MINERVA AT THE VATICAN
THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT
THE TOWER OF LONDON
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
IT
Bad News for Croakers
In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death, and Isaiah came to Mm and said,
Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die.
Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed, saying, I beseech thee, O Lord,
remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and
have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
And the word of the Lord came to him, saying, I have heard thy prayer ; I have
seen thy tears : behold, I will heal thee. I will add unto thy days fifteen years.
W e have always liked the page in the Bible which tells us that the
good king Hezekiah lived another fifteen years. Fifteen years
of life is a wondrous thing, and it was given to that good king who
made a conduit and brought water to Jerusalem before he slept with
his fathers.
But today there is greater news, for fifteen years of life has been
given to a nation. Our expectation of life has been raised in our
generation from 40 to 55 years. The promise made to Hezekiah has
been fulfilled for the British people. From a Newspaper
God Bless Our Native Land
G od bless our native land !
May heaven’s protecting hand
Still guard our shore ;
May Peace her power extend,
Foe be transformed to friend,
And Britain’s rights depend
On war no more.
May just and righteous laws
Uphold the public cause
And bless our isle.
Home of the brave and free,
The land of liberty,
# We pray that still on thee
Kind heaven may smile.
And not this land alone,
But be Thy mercies known
From shore to shore.
Lord, make the nations see
That men should brothers be.
And form one family
The wide world o’er.
William Hickson
The Conqueror
H e alone keeps his life and freedom wdio
daily has to conquer them again! Goethe
18
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Song That is Heard No More
A mong our ancient mountains,
And from our lovely vales,
O let the prayer re-echo,
God bless the Prince of Wales.
With hearts and voice awaken
Those minstrel strains of yore.
Till Britain’s name and glory
Resound from shore to shore.
Should hostile bands or danger
E’er threaten our fair isle,
May God’s strong arm protect us,
May Heaven still on us smile !
Above the throne of England
May fortune’s star long shine,
And round its sacred bulwarks
The olive branches twine.
Welsh National Song
Precious Little One
M y heart is like a fountain true
That flows and flows with love to you.
As chirps the lark unto the tree
So chirps my pretty Babe to me.
There’s not a rose, where’er I seek.
As comely as my baby’s check.
There’s not a comb of honey bee
So full of sweets as Babe to me.
There’s not a star that shines on high
Is brighter than my baby’s eye.
There’s not a boat upon the sea
Can dance as Baby does to me.
The queen has sceptre, crown, and ball,
You are my sceptre, crown, and all.
For all her robes of royal silk,
More fair your skin, as white as milk.
Ten thousand parks where deer do run.
Ten thousand roses in the sun,
Ten thousand pearls beneath the sea,
My Babe more precious is to me.
A Mother’s Song by an Unknown Writer
They Will Come Again
'“Phe burning of a little straw may hide the stars
A will reappear.
but the stars
Voltaire
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Tired Woman’s Epitaph
H ere lies a poor woman who always was tired ;
She lived in a house where help was not hired.
Her last words on earth were, “ Dear friends, I am going
here washrng am t done, nor sweeping, nor sewing:
But everything there is exact to my wishes ;
For where they don’t eat there’s no washing of dishes.
II be where loud anthems will always be ringing
But, having no voice, I’ll be clear of the singing. ’
Don t mourn for me now ; don’t mourn for me never:
1 m going to do nothing for ever and ever.”
Author unknown
There Is a Lady Sweet and Kind
T here is a lady sweet and kind,
Was never face so pleased my mind :
I did but see her passing by,
And yet I love her till I die.
Her gesture, motion, and her smiles,
Her wit, her voice, my heart beguiles :
Beguiles my heart, I know not why•
And yet I love her till I die.
Cupid is winged and doth range
Her country, so my Love doth change :
But change she earth or change she sky
Yet will I love her till I die.
By an Unknown Writer
of the seventeenth century
Marlowe and Raleigh in the Fields
A 8 1 ® ntered ^ fte field a handsome milkmaid cast away all car
£1 and sang like a nightingale. Her voice was good, 2d the diS
W d t ?■ rt wa f t J iat smooth song Come live with me and be m
love , whicfrwas made by Kit Marlowe now at least fiftTvears Lo
and the milkmaid s mother sang an answer to it. If all Ihe world ant
WWCh ^ ^ by Sir Walter^ijt Z
8 J ' Izaak Walton
The Miracle of the Night
“ghtogale breathes such sweet loud music out of her little
JL “strumental throat that it might make mankind think miracle'
seciSelvThouid £» * tf midnigh1 \ when the ve ry labourer sleeps
risi^ md frfiSc? 2 ^ C i!r ar ““i the sweet descants, the natura]
well be ’ h d l Ubhn / and ^doubling of her voice, might
provided 1 for d the b °^ e t ea? ’ I l and Say ,’ “ ****, what miisic hast Thou
mSc on Wh “ Thou aif ? rde r 5t b ? d ““
Izaak Walton
20
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Possessor of the Earth
I COULD there sit quietly, and, looking on the waters, see fishes leap¬
ing at flies of several shapes and colours. Looking on the hills I
could behold them spotted with woods and groves. Looking down
the meadows, I could see here a boy gathering lilies and ladysmoeks
and there a girl cropping columbines and cowslips, all to make gar¬
lands suitable to this present month of May.
As I thus sat, joying in mine own happy condition, I did thank¬
fully remember what my Saviour said, that the meek possess
the earth. Izaak Walton
The England Passing Away
T he paths trodden by the footsteps of ages were broken up; old
things were passing away, and the faith and the life of ten cen¬
turies were dissolving like a dream.
Chivalry was dying ; the abbey and the castle were soon together
to crumble into ruins; and all the forms, desires, beliefs, convictions,,
of the old world were passing away, never to return. A new con¬
tinent had risen up beyond the western sea. The floor of heaven,
inlaid with stars, had sunk back into an infinite abyss of immeasurable
space; and the firm earth itself, unfixed from its foundations, was
seen to be but a small atom in the vastness of the Universe.
And now it is all gone—like an unsubstantial pageant faded ; and
between us and old England there lies a gulf of mystery which the
prose of the historian will never adequately bridge. They cannot
come to us, and our imagination can but feebly penetrate to them.
Only among the aisles of the cathedrals, only as we gaze upon their
silent figures sleeping on their tombs, some faint conceptions float
before us of what these men were when they were alive ; and perhaps
i ckurck bells, that peculiar creation of medieval age,
which falls upon the ear like the echo of a vanished world.
-d.. Froude, writing of England 400 years ago
The Place Beloved
G od gave all men all earth to love.
But since our hearts are small,
Ordained for each one spot should prove
Beloved over all. Rudyard Kipling
The Cowards
nnHE worst of the worthy sort of people is that they are such cowards.
he for T gr ° a “ S °' VCr WTOng 5 he shuts H P S ’ he takes his supper;
orge s ’ Voltaire
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
We Have Paid the Price
W e have fed our sea for a thousand years,
And she calls us, still unfed ;
Though there’s never a wave of all her waves
But marks our English dead.
We’ve strawed our best to the wave’s unrest,
To the shark and the sheering gull;
If blood be the price of Admiralty,
Lord God, we ha’ paid it full. Kipling
The Smoke from a Wood Fire
A whiff of it can take us back to forgotten marches over unnamed
mountains, to day-long halts beside flooded rivers in the rain
wonderful mornings of youth, in brilliantly lighted lands where every¬
thing was Possible, to uneasy wakings under the low desert moon, and
above all to God s own hour all the world over, when the stars have
gone out and it is too dark to see clear, and one lies and waits for a
new horizon to heave itself up against a new dawn. Wood smoke
magic works on everyone according to his experience.
t Rudyard Kipling
Wood Fires
B eech-wood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year.
Oaken logs burn steadily
If the wood is old and dry.
Chestnut’s only good, they say,
If for long it’s laid away.
But ash new or ash old
Is fit for a queen with a crown of gold.
Birch and fir-logs bum too fast.
Blaze up bright but do not last.
•Make a fire of elder-tree,
Death within your house you’ll see.
It is by the Irish said
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.
But ash green or ash brown
Is fit for a queen with a golden crown.
Elm-wood burns like churchyard mould.
E’en the very flames are cold.
Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eye and makes you choke.
Apple-wood will scent your room
With an incense-like perfume.
But ash wet or ash dry
For a queen to warm her slippers by.
Celia Lady vongreve
22
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Simple Joys Are Dearer Far
T he midges dance aboon the burn ;
The dews begin to fa’;
The pairtricks down the rushy holm
Set up their e’ening ca\
Now loud and clear the blackbird’s sang
Rings through the briery shaw,
While, flitting gay, the swallows play
Around the castle wa’.
Beneath the golden gloamin’ sky
The mavis mends her lay ;
The redbreast pours his sweetest strains
To charm the lingering day ;
While weary yeldrins seem to wail
Their little nestlings torn,
The merry wren, frae den to den,
Gaes jinking through the thorn.
The roses fauld their silken leaves,
The foxglove shuts its bell;
The honeysuckle and the birk
Spread fragrance through the dell.
Let others crowd the giddy court
Of mirth and revelry.
The simple joys that Nature yields
Are dearer far to me.
Robert Tannahill
George Greville’s Proud Boast
T ?™ CHASED a magnificent collection of pictures by Vandyke and
1 Rubens; the works are not equalled, perhaps, in the kingdom.
1 made a noble approach to the Castle through the solid-rock, built a
porters lodge and founded a library of books, some valuable and
scarce, all well chosen.
0! ,.l“ ade T ai l ar u ° Ury ’ 1 a 1 nd built waUs round the court and plcasure-
V° ble greenhouse ’ and filIed ^ with beautiful
Artfnr i? k - ed m 5 u VaS !’ con f idered the finest remains of Grecian
tnai ll J f nd S eaut y* I made a noble lake, from 300 to
besi£fino 0ad ^ f “I 1 ® l0 T n ?' • 1 P lanted trees, now worth £100,000,
esides 100 acres of ash. I built a stone bridge of 105 feet in span
2?rfX,' it0 f 2000 *° 6800 P 0 ™* i weight of the S
£^a^tXnlT ted at 100 ton8 ' 1 eare thc brid s e *“
° thet tibgS ^ by m ''
George Greville, Earl of Warwick
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
28
The Prisoner Bound
TyaisoNEB, tell me, who was it bound you ?
"*■ It was my master, said the prisoner. I thought I could outdo
everybody in the world in wealth and power, and I amassed in my
own treasure-house the money due to my king. When sleep over¬
came me I lay upon the bed that was for my lord, and on waking up
I found I was a prisoner in my own treasure-house.
Prisoner, tell me, who was it wrought this unbreakable chain ?
It was I, said the prisoner, who forged this chain very carefully.
I thought my invincible power would hold the world captive, leaving
me in a freedom undisturbed. Thus night and day I worked at the
chain with huge fires and cruel, hard strokes. When at last the
work was done and the links were complete and unbreakable I found
that it held me in its grip. Rabindranath Tagore
Good-Night and Joy be With You All
T he weary sun’s gaen down the west.
The birds sit nodding on the tree;
All Nature now prepares for rest.
But rest prepared there’s none for me.
The trumpet sounds to war’s alarms,
The drums they beat, the fifes they play.
Come, Mary, cheer me wi’ thy charms,
For the morn I will be far away.
Good-night, and joy—Good-night, and joy.
Good-night, and joy be wi’ you all;
For since it’s so that I must go,
Good-night, and joy be wi’ you all.
Robert Tannahill
* The Willow Groweth Fast
r F HE wiUow groweth incredibly fast, it being a byword in Cambridge-
JL shire that the profit of willows will buy the owner a horse before
that of other trees will pay for his saddle. Thomas Fuller
The Little Lamb
A nne, third daughter of King Charles the First, was bom at Saint
James, March 1637. She died in h e * infancy, when not quite
four years old. ^
Being minded by those about her to call upon God, even when
the grasp of Death was upon her, “ I am not able (saith she) to say
my long prayer, but I will say my short one. Lighten mine eyes, O
Lord lest 1 sleep the sleep of death.” This done, the little lamb gave
uptheghost. • Thomas Fuller
24
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
John Evelyn Goes Mourning to the Grave
D ied my dear son Richard, to our inexpressible grief and affliction,
five years and three days old, but at that tender age a prodigy
for wit and understanding, for beauty of body a very angel, for
endowment of mind of incredible and rare hopes. He declaimed
against the vanities of the world before he had seen any. He was all
life, all prettiness, far from morose, sullen, or childish in anything
he said or did.
The day before he died he called to me, and in a more serious
manner than usual told me that for all I loved him so dearly I
should give my house, land, and all my fine things to his brother
Jack, he should have none of them. So early knowledge, so much
piety and perfection. But thus God, having dressed up a saint fit
for himself, would not longer permit him with us, unworthy of the
future fruits of this incomparable hopeful blossom. Such a child I
never saw ; for such a child I bless God, in whose bosom he is. May
I and mine become as this little child, who now follows the child
Jesus, that Lamb of God, in a white robe whithersoever he goes.
Here ends the joy of my life, for which I go even mourning to the
grave. John Evelyn on the death of his little son
The Little Boy Lost
D ear sir, I am in some little disorder by reason of the death of a
little childe of mine, a boy that lately made me very glad, but
now he rejoyces in his little orbe, while we think and sigh and long
to be as safe as he is. Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn
Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep
R ocked in the cradle of the deep,
I lay me down in peace to sleep ;
Secure I rest upon the wave.
For Thou, O Lord, hast power to save.
I know Thou wilt not slight my call,
For Thou dost mark the sparrow’s fall;
And calm and peaceful is my sleep,
Rocked in the cradle of the deep.
And such the trust that still were mine,
Though stormy winds swept o’er the brine,
Or though the tempest’s fiery breath
Roused me from sleep to wreck and death.
In ocean’s caves still safe with Thee,
The germ of immortality;
And calm and peaceful is my sleep.
Rocked in the cradle of the deep.
Emma Wittord
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
25
They Never Fail
T hey never fail who die
In a great cause ; the block may soak their gore ;
Their heads may sodden in the sun ; their limbs
Be strung to city gates and castle walls ;
But still their spirit walks abroad.
Though years
Elapse, and others share as dark a doom.
They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts
That overpower all others, and conduct
The world at last to freedom. Byron
And Wilt Thou Leave Me Thus ?
A nd wilt thou leave me thus ?
Say nay, say nay, for shame!
To save thee from the blame
Of all my grief and grame.
And wilt thou leave me thus ?
Say nay ! Say nay !
And wilt thou leave me thus,
That hath loved thee so long.
In wealth and woe among ?
And is thy heart so strong
As for to leave me thus ?
Say nay ! Say nay !
And wilt thou leave me thus.
That hath given thee my heart,
Never for to depart,
Neither for pain nor smart ?
And wilt thou leave me thus ?
• Say nay ! Say nay !
And wilt thou leave me thus,
And have no more pity
Of him that loveth thee ?
Alas ! thy cruelty I
And wilt thou leave me thus ?
Say nay ! Say nay !
One of the first love songs in English,
by Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder
It Cannot Be Done
he devil could drive woman out of Paradise, but the
devil himself cannot drive the paradise out of woman.
George Macdonald in RoSert Falconer
26
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Dreamers of Jerusalem
From, a conversation between a Queen of Abyssinia
and James Bruce, discoverer of the source of the Nile.
S ee, see, how every day of our life furnishes us with proofs of the
perverseness and contradiction of human nature.
You are come from Jerusalem, through vile Turkish governments
and hot unwholesome climates, to see a river and a bog, and you even
take it ill when I discourage you from the pursuit of this fancy, in
which you are likely to perish.
I, on the other hand, mother of kings, who have sat on the
throne of this country more than thirty years, have for my only wish
night and day that, after giving up everything in the world I could
be conveyed to Jerusalem, and beg alms all my life after, if I cotild
only be buried at last in the street within sight of the gate of that
temple where our blessed Saviour lay.
A Passport for the Barbarians
M b. Gladstone told us of a Chinese despatch which came under
his notice when he was at the Board of Trade, and gave him food
for reflection.
A ship laden with grain came to Canton. The administrator
wrote to the Central Government at Peking to know whether the ship
was to pay duty on its cargo.
The answer was to the effect that the Central Government of the
Flowery Land was quite indifferent as a rule to the goings and
comings of the Barbarians ; whether they brought a cargo or brought
no cargo was a thing of supreme unconcern, “ But this cargo, you
say, is food for the people. There ought to be no obstacle to the
entry of food for the people, so let it in. Your Younger Brother
commends himself to you.” Morletfs Life of Gladstone
These Two
W hebeveb you are, while I have life, my soul shall follow you, my
ever dear Lord Marl; and wherever I am I should only kill the
time wishing for night that I may sleep and hope the next day to hear
from you. Sarah Jennings to her husband
the Duke of Marlborough in 1689
tf I were young and handsome as I was, instead of old and faded as I
1 am, and you could lay the empire of the world at my feet, you
shouid never share the heart and hand that once belonged to John,
Duke of Marlborough. Sarah Jennings when her hand
was sought by (he Duke of Somerset
27
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Farewell to London Town
M y dear, the time has come to say
Farewell to London town,
Farewell to each familiar street,
The room where we looked down
Upon the people going by,
The river flowing fast:
The innumerable shine of lamps.
The bridges and—our past.
Our past of London days and nights.
When every night we dreamed
Of Love and Art and Happiness,
And every day it seemed
Ah ! little room, you held my life.
In you I found my all;
A white hand on the mantelpiece,
A shadow on the wall.
My dear, what dinners we have had,
What cigarettes and wine
In faded comers of Soho,
Your fingers touching mine !
And now the time has come to say
Farewell to London town ;
The prologue of our play is done.
So ring the curtain down.
From A Song of Parting , by
H. C. Compton Mackenzie
The Laughing and the Weeping
L augh, and the world laughs with you.
Weep, and you weep alone ;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer ;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.
Rejoice, and men will seek you,
Grieve, and they turn and go
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all:
There are none to decline your nectared wine.
But alone you must drink life’s ga|L
Ella Wheeler Wilcooo
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
i
Put Not Your Trust in Princes
W hen Soliman the Great was marching on Belgrade in 1521, an
old woman came and complained to him that during her sleep
his soldiers had stolen her oxen, which were all she had in t he world.
“ You must indeed have been wrapped in a deep sleep,” said the
Sultan, laughing, “ if you did not hear the robbers.”
“ Yes,” answered the old woman, “ I was indeed sleeping peacefully,
for I trusted Your Highness to watch over the public safety.”
Soliman, admiring this speech, gave her compensation for the
damage he ought to have prevented. From an old book
Five Signs of a Failing People
W hat are the marks of low condition in a people ? I name five.
First, when people generally look upon the State as a
charitable institution, which can be made to supply all t heir wants by
putting enough votes in a ballot-box. That is a sure sign that, t hey are
declining in will-power and virility.
Second, when people generally take to scamping their work in the
hours of labour, and to spending their leisure in playing the fool—a
sure sign of social incompetence and intellectual poverty.
Third, when people generally lose discipline, so that, when a big
thing has to be done or a difficult manoeuvre performed, instead of
marching together, “ one equal temper of heroic hearts,” they get
themselves tied up into mobs and bundles and fall to quarrelling with
one another—a sure sign that they arc badly bred and badly educated.
Fourth, when people generally buy their pleasures ready-made on
the market, in the form of external excitement—a sure sign that per¬
sonal skill is on the down grade and creativencss passing away.
Fifth, when religion becomes an interesting speculation, and the
existence of right and wrong a vague rumour to be inquired into by
experts—a sign that the compass is out of order and the light going
out in the binnacle box.
These are the signs of low condition in a people. Whenever any
of the five shows its head let us hit it, and hit it hard.
Dr L. P. Jacks
The Child in a Green Field
m
I t is better to be a child in a green field than a knight of many orders
in a State ceremonial. George Macdonald
-- ^ ‘j;
As the Sun Went Down
H 1 ® told me Heraclitus, of thy death, and brought me to tears, and
I remembered how often we two in talking put the sun to rest.
Callimachus
29
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
God Bless These Poor Folk
G od bless these poor folk that are strivin’
By means that are honest and true.
For su mm at to keep ’em alive in
This world that we’re scrambling through.
Owd Time he’s a troublesome codger
Keeps nudgin’ us on to decay,
And whispers, “ Thou’rt nobbut a lodger ;
Get ready for going away.” Edwin Waugh
The Last Words of the Last Englishman’s Wife
I am afraid that nothing I can say will wean the Englishman from his
teapot.
I have a vision of the day when England shall have at last really
declined and fallen, and I see her last inhabitant and his wife sitting
on the ruins of the Tower of London viewing the remains ; but they
will view them over the edge of a teacup, from which the fumes, as of
wet straw, will ascend to their nostrils, and one may be sure that even
in that dim day they will conduct themselves with decorum. The
last Englishman’s last wife’s last words will be : “ My dear, can I pour
you another cup ? ” From the Atlantic Monthly
The Admiral Knocks at the Door
I ttraht) a gentleman say, who was in the ship with him about six
years ago, that as they were sailing over against the town of
Hastings in Sussex, Sir Cloudesley Shovel called out, “ Pilot, put
near; I have a little business on shore.”
So he put near ; and Sir Cloudesley and this gentleman went to
shore in a small boat; and, having walked about half a mile. Sir
Cloudesley came to a little house in All Saints Street. “ Come (says
he), my business is here; I came to see the good woman of this
house.”
Upon this they knocked at the door, and out came a poor old
woman, upon which Sir Cloudesley kissed her, and then, falling down
on his knees, begged her blessing, calling her mother. He was
mightily kind to her, and she to him, and after he had made his visit
he left her ten guineas ; and took his leave with tears in his eyes, and
departed to his ship. From an old diary
The Divinity Within Us
T hebe is surely a piece of Divinity in us—something that was before
the elements, and owes no homage to the sun.
Sit Thomas Browne
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Five Things from Long Ago
W hat is that which is most beautiful ?
The Universe, for it is the work of God.
What is most powerful ?
Necessity, because it triumphs over all things.
What is most difficult ?
To know oneself.
What is most easy ?
To give advice.
What is necessary to happiness ?
A sound body and a contented mind.
Thales of Miletus, Seventh Century B.c.
The Friend Who Puts Us to Shame
M an is the god of the dog. He knows no other ; he can under¬
stand no other.
And see how he worships him—with what reverence he crouches
at his feet, with what love he fawns upon him, with what, dependence
he looks up to him, with what cheerful alacrity he obeys him. His
whole soul is wrapt up in his god. All the powers of his nature are
devoted to his service, and are ennobled by the intercourse. Divines
tell us that it just ought to be so with the Christian, but the dog
puts the Christian to shame* Robert Burns
A Prayer in the Prospect of Death
O thou unknown Almighty Cause
Of all my hope and fear 1
In whose dread presence, ere an hour,
Perhaps I must appear !
If I have wandered in those paths
Of life I ought to shun ;
As something, loudly in my breast.
Remonstrates I have done ;
Thou know’st that Thou hast formed me
With passions wild and strong;
And listening to their witching voice
Has often led me wrong.
Where human weakness has come short.
Or frailty stept aside.
Do thou, All-Good ! for such Thou art,
In shades of darkness hide.
Where with intention I have erred.
No other plea I have.
But Thou art good ; and Goodness still
Dehghteth to forgive. Robert Burns
THE NATIVITY, BY FRA ANGELICO
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS S3
Two Rich Men
T here is a story of a man whom others called poor and who had
just enough fortune to support himself in going about the country
in the simplest way and studying and enjoying the life and beauty
of it. He was once in the company of a great millionaire who was
engaged in business, working at it daily and getting richer every
year, and the poor man said to the millionaire: I am a richer
man than you are.
How do you make that out ? said the millionaire.
Why (he replied), I have got as much money as I want and you
have not. Lord Grey of Fallodon
The Soul’s Best Friend
F arewell, thou busy world ! and may
We never meet again ;
Here can I eat, and sleep, and pray,
And do more good in one short day
Than he who his whole age outwears
Upon the most conspicuous theatres,
Where naught but vanity and vice do reign.
Great God ! how sweet are all things here !
How beautiful the fields appear !
How cleanly do we feed and lie !
Lord ! what good hours do we keep !
How quietly we sleep ! Charles Cotton on arriving
in the country from, the town
She is a Winsome Wee Thing
S he is a winsome wee thing.
She is a handsome wee thing,
, She is a bonnie wee thing,
This sweet wee wife o’mine.
I never saw a fairer,
I never loved a dearer,
And neist my heart I’ll wear her,
For fear my jewel tine.
She is a winsome wee thing,
She is a handsome wee thing,
She is a bonnie wee thing.
This sweet wee wife o’ mine.
The warld’s wrack, we share o’t.
The warstle and the care o’t;
Wi’ her I’ll blithely bear it.
And think my lot divine.
Robert Burns
34
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Heart Could Not Wish for More
M y blessings on ye, honest wife,
I ne’er was here before :
Ye’ve wealth o’ gear for spoon and knife,
Heart could not wish for more.
Heaven keep you clear of sturt and strife.
Till far ayont four score,
And while I toddle on through life
I’ll ne’er gae by your door !
Robert Burns
Mary Queen of Scots Waiting for Death
O soon to me may summer suns
Nae mair light up the mom,
Nae mair to me the autumn winds
Wave o’er the yellow com.
And in the narrow house of death
Let winter round me rave,
And the next flowers that deck the spring
Bloom on my peaceful grave.
Robert Burns
Afton Water
F low gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes,
Flow gently, I’ll sing thee a song in thy praise ;
My Mary’s asleep by thy murmuring stream,
Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.
Thou stock-dove whose echo resounds thro’ the glen,
Ye wild whistling blackbirds in yon thorny den,
Thou green-crested lapwing, thy screaming forbear,
I charge you disturb not my slumbering fair.
How lofty, sweet Afton, thy neighbouring hills,
Far mark’d, with the courses of clear winding rills ;
There daily I wander as noon rises high.
My flocks and my Mary’s sweet cot in my eye.
How pleasant thy banks and green valleys below,
Where wild in the woodlands the primroses blow ;
There oft as mild ev’ning weeps over the lea,
The sweet-scented birk shades my Mary and me.
Robert Burns
The Heavens Above and the Law Within
wo things fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and
awe—the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.
Immanuel Kant
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
A Grace Before Dinner
O thou, who kindly dost provide
For every creature’s want 1
We bless thee, God of Nature wide.
For all thy goodness lent:
And, if it please thee, Heavenly Guide,
May never worse be sent; ^.
But whether granted, or denied,
Lord, bless us with content!
Robert Rums
On Commissary Goldids Brains
L oud, to account who dares thee call,
Or e’er dispute thy pleasure ?
Else why within so thick a wall
Enclose so poor a treasure ?
Robert Burns
Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot
S hould auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind ?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And auld lang syne ?
For auld lang syne, my jo,
For auld lang syne.
We’ll tak ’ a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
And surely ye’ll be your pint-stoup,
And surely I’ll be mine ;
, And we’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne.
We twa hae run about the braes.
And pu’d the gowans fine ;
But we’ve wandered mony a weary fit
Sin’ auld lang syne.
We twa hae paidled i’ the bum
Frae morning sun till dine ;
But seas between us braid hae roared
Sin’ auld lang syne.
And there’s a hand, my trusty Here,
And gie’s a hand o’ thine ;
And we’ll tak’ a right gude-willie waught
For auld lang syne. Robert Burns
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Far All That and All That
ts there, for honest poverty,
JL That hangs his head, and a’ that ?
The coward-slave, we pass him by.
We dare be poor for a’ that!
For a’ that and a’ that;
Our toils obscure and a’ that;
The rank is but the guinea stamp.
The man’s the gawd for a' that.
What though on hamely fare we dine.
Wear hodden-gray and a’ that;
Gie fools their silks and knaves tlicir wine,
A man’s a man for a’ that.
For a’ that and a’ that.
Their tinsel show and a’ that;
The honest man, though e’er sac poor.
Is king o’ men for a’ that.
A king can mak a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, and a’ that;
But an honest man’s aboon his might,
Guid faith, he mauna fa’ that!
For a’ that and a’ that,
Their dignities and o’ that.
The pith o’ sense and pride o’ worth
Are higher rank than a’ that.
Then let us pray that come it may.
As come it will for a’ that,
That sense and worth, o’er a’ the earth,
May bear the gree, and a’ that;
For a’ that and a’ that.
It’s coming yet for a’ that.
When man to man, the world o’er, <■
Shall brothers be for a’ that. Robert Bums
Magna Est Veritas
H eue, in this little Bay,
Full of tumultuous life and great repose.
Where, twice a day,
The purposeless, glad ocean comes and goes,
Under high cliffs, and far from the huge town,
I sit me down.
For want of me the world’s course will not fail:
When all its work is done the lie shall rot:
The truth is great, and shall prevail
When none cares whether it prevail or not.
Coventry Patmore
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
37
Peeling a Potato
„ you see a young girl you would like to marry manage somehow to
jl see her peel potatoes.
^asytlfteTe^ bum s“reless. leave such a girl;
she would not make a man happy.
•Rut if vou find a girl who knows how to take a potato, peel it,
The Heaps Saved from the Great Fire
„ omoke and fiery vapour continued so intense that my hair was
T“li"ed UyU- and
rsoZ 14 chm« K tod ™me “markable
tower or pinnacle remaining.
T went toward Islington and Highgate, where one might have
seen two hundred thousand people of all ranks and degrees dispersed
and lving along by their heaps of what they could save from the flic,
vpfldv to nerish from hunger and destitution, yet not asking one
penny for relief, which to me appeared a stranger sight^than^any I
had yet beheld. ■
The World on an Even Keel
tf anvbody will take down the map of the world and study it he
T wifisee at once that the world is ballasted by the English-speaking
countries hojv, as long as they remain friends, holding the trade
routes and the main material resources of the world under tbcircon-
trol, the world must needs sail on an even keel. John Galsworthy
Fouling Civilisation
t^eople who are sending this nauseating film stuff across theworld
r are fouling civilisation. Our criminal courts and hospitals are left
to clear up the litter, while money-bugs clear off with the money-bags.
One can respect misguided enthusiasm and honest error, but here
are men deliberately exploiting every human nobility for cash. An
England peopled with their sexual spectres could not live.
I am no kill-joy, and for that reason I do not want
and beauty and idealism shattered. I prefer to see d»* outlawed y
an informed public opinion.
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Shakespeare's Countryman
N ot without honour my days ran,
Nor yet without a boast shall end.
For I was Shakespeare’s countryman,
And were you not my friend ?
William Watson
Queen Elizabeth Speaks
Y hands were stained with blood, my heart was proud and cold
Mv soul IS hlftnic with C?H>TV« l,,.a r _ r-> ‘ , wm >
M y hands were stained with blood, my heart was proud and cold
My soul is black with shame . . . but I gave Shakespeare gold
do after aeons of flame I may, by grace of God, 1 g d
Rise up to kiss the dust that Shakespeare’s feet’have trod.
Joyce Kilmer
Alone With Shakespeare
W H time not t fit Jt fnr 0 ffiC ti after ? CVen ycurs ’ vcry tirc<1 and for the
countrJ * “ lyth f#’ I spent some weeks alone in the
country. During that time I read several of Shakespeare’s nlavs
The impression produced upon me by his incredible power and ramw>
was realty that of awe; I felt almort afraid to bfaC hi the r<Z
with him, as if I were in the presence of something supernatural.
Lord Grey of Fallodon
Finis
A XT™ ] ® uro P ean history thus came to a close. . .
S^ii^had v?IShtd f had t? nCe exte ; ded ' from the Carpathians to
spam had vanished from the eyes of men. The great edifice had
UpS^frTmthTwanTh^t 11 a ? com P anics tlic foil of some aged
0I ^ tae ^ aU ^at has been its home for countless years
The Empire was m truth not unlike a faded piece of tanestrv*
animation and^a The gaily ‘ dad hnights and ladies lost'thefr
att : t J n a m? hecame somewhat ridiculous in their stiff and formal
Empire into the limbo that ^ Hapsburgs and their
-if he re*! Sat "*«
twisted into a smile at on« ironie md piS ^ have
< t, VvnarAy-the lost woris of ft,
tost article m the last number of the Edinbwrsh
Remew, on closing its career after more than a century
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
80
All Things Pass
I passed one day by a very ancient and wonderfully populous city,
and asked one of its inhabitants how long it had been founded.
It is indeed a mighty city (replied he); we know not how long
it has existed, and our ancestors were on this subject as ignorant
as ourselves.
Five centuries afterwards, as I passed by the same place, I could
not perceive the slightest vestige of the city. I demanded of a
peasant who was gathering herbs upon its former site how long it
had been destroyed.
In sooth, a strange question' (replied he); the ground here has
never been different from what you now behold it. Was there not
of old (said I) a splendid city here ? Never (answered he), so far as
we have seen ; and never did our fathers speak to us of any such.
On my return there five hundred years afterwards I found the sea
in the place ; and on its shores were a party of fishermen, of whom
I inquired how long the land had been covered by the waters.
Is this a question (say they) for a man like you ? This spot has
always been what it is now.
I again returned five hundred years afterwards; the sea had dis¬
appeared. I inquired of a man how long this change had taken place,
and he gave me the same answer as I had received before.
Lastly, on coming back again after an equal lapse of time, I found
there a flourishing city, more populous and more rich in beautiful
buildings than the city I had seen the first time; and when I would
fain have informed myself concerning its origin the inhabitants
answered me : “ Its rise is lost in remote antiquity ; we are ignorant
how long it has existed, and our fathers were on this subject as ig¬
norant as ourselves.” An Arabian writer of the Thirteenth Century
- The Worm Must Not Complain
H e who makes himself a worm cannot complain if he is crushed.
Immanuel Kant
The Dreamers
A h, there be souls none understand,
Like clouds, they cannot touch the land.
Drive as they may by field or town.
Call these not fools ; the test of worth
Is not the hold you have on earth.
Lo, there be gentlest souls, sea blown,
That know not any harbour known,
And it may be the reason is
They touch on fairer shores than this.
Joaquin MiUer
40
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
All You Ham at the End
G ive honour and love for evermore
To this great man gone to rest;
Peace on the dim Plutonian shore.
Rest in the land of the blest.
I reckon him greater than any man
That ever drew sword in war ;
I reckon him nobler than king or khan,
Braver and better by far.
And wisest he in this whole wide land
Of hoarding till bent and grey,
For all you can hold in your cold dead hand
Is what you have given away.
So whether to wander the stars or to rest
For ever hushed and dumb,
He gave with a zest and he gave his best:
Give him the best to come.
Joaquin Miller on Peter Cooper, inventor
and philanthropist, who died in 1883
The Mystic and the Beggar
A book of the fourteenth century tells this
conversation between a Mystic and a Beggar
/">od give you a good day, my friend, said the Mystic.
^ 1 thank G od I never had a bad day, said the Beggar.
God give you a happy life, said the Mystic.
I thank God I am never unhappy, said the Beggar.
But who are you ? asked the Mystic, surprised by his reply.
I am a king, said the Beggar.
But where is your kingdom ? said the Mystic.
To whom the Beggar once again answered. In my own heart.
The Something that Comes to the Aid of a Man
A rapture may visit a man suddenly faced with peril and ormor-
y^ can sav 11 Vea^a °I T • acc “!« nt * He “ related—that kfall
y an say. Fear and desire, his two keepers thmnoh uf«
surprised and abashed and Wk liil „ ° that P resentI y he is
credit him with herolsm ^ ““ * S6Cret £ he » P«>ple
c, li, Montague
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
41
The Things We Love and Bless
D aughter, daughter ! don’t call names ; you are always abusing
my pleasures, which is what no mortal will bear. Trash,
lumber, sad stuff, are the titles you give my favourite amusements.
If I called a white staff a stick of wood, a gold key gilded brass, and
the ensigns of illustrious orders coloured strings, this may be
philosophically true, but would be very ill received. We have all
our playthings; happy are they that can be contented with those
they can obtain. Lady Mary Montagu
The Lost Leader
J ust for a handful of silver he left us.
Just for a riband to stick in his coat,
Found the one gift of which Fortune bereft us,
Lost all the others she lets us devote ;
They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver,
So much was theirs who so little allowed :
How all our copper had gone for his service !
Rags—were they purple, his heart had been proud.
We that had loved him so, followed him, honoured him,
Lived in his mild and magnificent eye,
Learned his great language, caught his clear accents,
Made him our pattern to live and to die :
Shakespeare was of us, Milton was for us,
Bums, Shelley, were with us—they watch from their graves !
He alone breaks from the van and the freemen.
He alone sinks to the rear and the slaves.
We shall march prospering—not through his presence;
Songs may inspirit us—not from his lyre ;
Deeds will Jbe done while he boasts his quiescence.
Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire:
Blot out his name then, record one lost soul more.
One task more declined, one more footpath untrod.
One more devil’s triumph and sorrow for angels,
One wrong more to man, one more insult to God !
Life’s night begins : let him never come back to us !
There would be doubt, hesitation, and pain,
Forced praise on our part, the glimmer of twilight.
Never glad confident morning again.
Best fight on well, for we taught him—strike gallantly,
Menace our heart ere we master his own ;
Then let him receive the new knowledge and wait us,
Pardoned in heaven, the first by the throne.
Robert Browning
42
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
God Took Them
It is a little odd, in going through Browning's poems and letters, to come upon
these two beautiful things. In the letter he is describing the death of his wife, who
passed away in Florence, where she lies on a little hill tibove that beautiful city.
God Took Me
O verhead the tree-tops meet,
Flowers and grass spring ’neath one’s feet;
There was nought above me, and nought below,
My childhood had not learned to know :
For what are the voices of birds
(Ay, and of beasts) but words, our words.
Only so much more sweet ?
The knowledge of that with my life begun.
But I had so near made out the Sun,
And counted your stars, the Seven and One,
Like the fingers of my hand :
Nay, I could all but understand
Wherefore through heaven the white Moon ranges ;
And just when out of her soft fifty changes
No unfamiliar face might overlook me,
Suddenly God took me.
God Took Her
G od took her. She suffered very little pain, and was spared the
misery of knowing she was about to leave us; she was smilingly
assuring me she was better to within a few minutes of the last.
Then came what my heart will keep till I see her again, and
longer, the most perfect expression of her love to me within my
whole knowledge of her—always smilingly, happily, and with a face
like a girl’s ; and in a few minutes she died in my arms, her head on
my cheek.
. ■ #.
God took her to Himself as you would lift a sleeping child from
a dark, weary bed into the light.
The Rubbish Heap of Oxyrhynchus
isntff 1 Oxyrhynchus in Egypt there were found last century about
iXMfrtgments of papyri, some with new sayings of Jesus, and one with this letter
from a boy to his father.
Theonas writes to his father Theon: Greeting
tt was a fine thing of you not to take me with you to town. If you
t ^ke me with you to Alexandria I won’t write you a letter
or speak to you. Mother said to Archelaus ; “ He upsets me. Take
* t 50 8e ? d f or me » 1 hnplore you. If you won’t send
TW L Cat ' 1 drink. There now. Farewell. Deliver to
I neon from his son Theonas.
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
48
The Little Thing and the Cheat Thing
T hat low man seeks a little thing to do,
Sees it and does it:
This high man, with a great thing to pursue,
Dies ere he knows it.
That low man goes on adding one to one.
His hundred’s soon hit:
This high man, aiming at a million,
Misses a unit.
That has the world here—should he need the next.
Let the world mind him !
This throws himself on God, and, unperplexed.
Seeking shall find Him. Robert Browning
Farewell from Paradise
I am the nearest nightingale
That singeth in Eden after you ;
And I am singing loud and true
And sweet; I do not fail.
I sit upon a cypress bough,
Close to the gate, and I fling my song
Over the gate and through the mail
Of the warden angels marshalled strong:
Over the gate and after you !
And the warden angels let it pass,
Because the poor brown bird, alas,
Sings in the garden, sweet and true.
And I build my song of high pure notes,
Note over note, height over height,
Till I strike the arch of the Infinite,
And I bridge abysmal agonies
With strong, clear calms of harmonies.
And something abides, and something floats,
And in the song which I sing after you.
Fare ye well, farewell 1 Mrs Browning
Waiting by the Temple
This love-letter to a gladiator was found in the ruins of the Street
of Abundance in Pompeii; it was written 2000 years ago.
A rt thou Phoebus Apollo in the body of Hercules ? Indeed thou
art a god to me. Thy beauty and strength have blotted from
my eyes all other men. I am young and the suitors I despise say
that I am beautiful. I will await thee, beloved one, near the Temple
of Isis.
44
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be
W hen I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has cleaned my teeming brain,
Before high-pilM books, in charactery,
Hold like rich gamers the full ripened grain ;
When I behold, upon the night’s starred face.
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance ;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour.
That I shall never look upon thee more.
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love—then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.
Keats
Red and White Roses
R ead in these roses the sad story
Of my hard fate and your own glory.
In the white you may discover
The paleness of a fainting lover;
In the red the flames still feeding
On my heart with fresh wounds bleeding.
The white will tell you how I languish.
And the red express my anguish :
The white my innocence displaying,
The red my martyrdom betraying :
The frowns that on your brow resided.
Have those roses thus divided.
Oh ! let your smiles but clear the weather.
And then they both shall grow together.
A poem with a hunch of roses
to a lady, by Thomas Careto
Do Not Leave Me Thus
A letter mitten on papyrus in the third century by a soldier's son to his mother
W hen my father came to me, he did not give me an obolus or j
cloak or anything. All will laugh at me. “ His father is .
soiaier, they will say, and yet he gives him nothing.”
i f at ^ er sa * d ’ " I get home I will send you everything,’
but he has sent me nothing. Why ?
iJ er f °] Y a , lerius him a pair of girdles and a jar of oil
motW^S f d l ^’ and ? 00 ^chmae. Wherefore, I beg you
mother, send to me. Do not leave me thus. fe
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Proof
I F the man who turnip cries.
Cry not when his father dies,
Tis a proof that he had rather
Have a turnip than his father.
Dr Johnson
Little Brother
A mong the beautiful pictures
That hang on Memory’s wall
Is one of a dim old forest,
That seemeth best of all.
I once had a little brother,
With eyes that were dark and deep ;
In the lap of that old dim forest
He lieth in peace asleep ;
Light as the down of the thistle.
Free as the winds that blow,
We roved there the beautiful summers,
The summers of long ago ;
But his feet on the hills grew weary,
And, one of the autumn eves,
I made for my little brother
A bed of the yellow leaves.
Sweetly his pale arms folded
My neck in a meek embrace,
As the light of immortal beauty
Silently covered his face ;
And when the arrows of sunset
Lodged in the tree-tops bright,
He fell, in his saint-like beauty,
Asleep by the gates of light.
Therefore of all the pictures
That hang on Memory’s wall.
The one of the dim old forest
Seemeth the best of all.
Alice Cary
Two Lines in Two Centuries
N ature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night:
God said. Let Newton be, and all was light
Alexander Pope in the Eighteenth
rT did not last. The Devil, howling Ho !
L Let Einstein be, restored the status quo. .
J. C. Squire in the Twentieth
ONI THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Idle Singer of an Empty Day
ry Heaven or Hell I have no power to sing •
W I cannot ease the burden of your fears b ’
Or make quick-coming death a little thine ’
Or bring again the pleasure of past years *
vr ^^° r words shall ye forget your tears
Nor hope again for aught that l ean say, ‘ ’
lbe idle singer of an empty day.
BiA rather, when a-weary of your mirth,
From full hearts still unsatisfied ye sigh.
And, feeling kindly unto all the earth
Grudge every minute as it passes by.
Made the more mindful that the sweet days lie—
Remember me a little then I pray, }
ihe idle singer of an empty day.
The verse with which William Morris
leads us on to his Earthly Paradise
The Undiscovered Ocean
I pl W 011 seashore and
prettier shell than ordinary while th^ mS ^ smootl “ r pebble or a
undiscovered before me ° great °T n of truth la 7 *
Str Isaac Newton
Joyce Kilmer to a Very Beautiful Ladye
pROM what old ballad or from what rich frame
Wasit^from cT end , to ? Iori fy the Earth ?
or did s w* ^ y° u car »c ?
N ,,. tt au 8 smal1 brushes give you birth ?
Could it6 r aS that sli g ht haad
could Raphael or Leonardo trace ;
N °Th? U n d th - C P ° ets know in Hyland
The changing wonder of your lyric face.
7u P ° SSess a host of l° v cly things
Sn tSTL . % SHch. joys may^not be :
SoGod Whlvn S* SUch ™t be ;
od Who hfts the poor and humble kinns
Sent loveliness itself to dwell wiS me ^
Wntten by Joyce Kilmer for Aline his wife
I Eat My Peas With Honey
T eat my peas with honey;
I ve done it all my life ;
It; S k v S the ? eas taste funny.
But keeps them on the knife.
Rhyme by a Writer Unknown
47
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Little One Coming
tf it is a boy, well and good ; if it is a girl, throw it away.
About the time of Christ an Egyptian labourer •was writing
this message to his wife, who was expecting a child to be born
Man Should Not Hunt Mankind to Death
M an should not hunt mankind to death.
But strike the enemies of man.
Kill vices if you can :
They are your wildest beasts.
And when they thickest fall
You make the gods true feasts.
Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson Invites a Friend to His Poor House
T onight, grave sir, both my poor house and I
Do equally desire your company:
Not that we think us worthy such a guest.
But that your worth will dignify our feast.
With those that come, whose grace may make that seem
Something which else would hope for no esteem.
It is the fair acceptance, sir, creates
The entertainment perfect, not the cates.
Yet shall you have, to rectify your palate,
An olive, capers, or some better sallet
Ushering the mutton : with a short-legged hen,
If we can get her full of eggs, and then,
Limons, and wine for sauce : to these a coney
Is not to be despaired of for our money ;
Nor shall our cups make any guilty men,
But at our parting will be as when
We innocently met. No simple word
That shall be uttered at our mirthful board
Shall make us sad next morning, or affright
The liberty that we’ll enjoy tonight.
Ben Jonson to Queen Elizabeth
L et Flattery be dumb and Envy blind
In her dread presence : Death himself admire her.
And may her virtues make him forget
The use of his inevitable hand.
Fly from her. Age; sleep, Time, before her throne:
Our strongest walls fall down when she is gone.
Epilogue spoken before Queen Elizabeth at Ben
Jonson's play Everyman Out of His Humour
48
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
"S
He Who Taught Himself
[•E who was taught only by himself had a fool for a master.
L Ben Jons on
At the End of the War
A mong the calamities of war may be justly numbered the dimi¬
nution of the love of truth by the falsehoods which interest
dictates and credulity encourages.
A peace will equally leave the warrior and the relater of wars
destitute of employment; and I know not whether more is to be
dreaded from streets filled with soldiers accustomed to plunder or
from garrets filled with scribblers accustomed to lie. Dr Johnson
The Thing That is Worth All We Have
B oswell: People go through the world very well and carry on
tilC bllSlIieSS of life to ffood <ld v.'int*n ctd witlith loo
D . * W O T V 011
tiie business of life to good advantage without learning*
Johnson: Why, sir, that may be true in cases where learning
cannot possibly be of any use ; for instance, this boy rows us as well
without learning as if he could sing the song of Orpheus to the
Argonauts who were the first sailors.
Johnson then called to the boy : What would you give, my lad,
to know about the Argonauts who were the first sailors ?
Sir, said the boy, I would give what I have.
Johnson was much pleased with his answer, and we gave him a
double fare. My friend then turning to me: “ Sir,” he said, “ a
desire of know edge is the natural feeling of mankind, and every
human being whose mind is not debauched will be willing to give all
that he has to get knowledge.” From Boswell's Life of Johnson
The Englishman and the Frenchman
A frenchman must always be talking, whether he knows anything
£> 0t , th f matter or not; an Englishman is content to say nothing
when he has nothing to say. Dr Johnson
A Recipe for Good Talk
T“ r n 5 16 first place > be knowledge, there must be
irtt Iv J 6 f cond , place there must be a command of
!Eas \ ^ P a fu there mUSt ** Pagination, to place
fourth nlawtLj ieWS fl they 8X6 not com monly seen in. In the
noTta th m, i st be presence of mind, and a resolution that is
for want fai | ur ®* Tb is last is an essential requisite;
want it - IfhlJST y tvI e0ple d ° not excel “ conversation. Now I
want it, I throw up the game upon losing a trick.
Dr Johnson, the great talker
M
■HH
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
49
Prospect from Scotland
T he noblest prospect a Scotsman ever sees is the highroad that
leads him to England. Dr Johnson
Introducing the Vicar of Wakefield
I received one morning a message from poor Goldsmith that he
was in great distress, and, as it was not in his power to come to
me, begging that I would come to him as soon as possible. I sent
him a guinea and promised to come to him directly.
I accordingly went as soon as I was dressed, and found that his
landlady had arrested him for his rent, at which he was in a violent
passion. I perceived that he had already changed my guinea and
had got a bottle of Madeira and a glass before him. I put the cork
into the bottle, desired he would be calm, and began to talk to him
of the means by which he might be extricated.
He then told me that he had a novel ready for the press, which he
produced to me. I looked into it and saw its merit; told the land¬
lady I should soon return ; and, having gone to a bookseller, sold it
for sixty pounds. I brought Goldsmith the money and he discharged
his rent, not without rating his landlady in a high tone for having
used him so ill. Dr Johnson’s discovery of the Vicar of Wakefield
March Comes On
T he stormy March is come at last,
With wind, and cloud, and changing skies ;
I hear the rushing of the blast
That through the snowy valley flies.
Ah, passing few are they who speak,
Wild, stormy month, in praise of thee ;
Yet though thy winds are loud and bleak.
Thou art a welcome month to me.
For thou, to northern lands, again
The glad and glorious sun dost bring;
And thou hast joined the gentle train
And wear’st the gentle name of Spring.
Then sing aloud the gushing rills
1 In joy that they again are free.
And, brightly leaping down the hills.
Renew their journey to the sea.
Thou bring’st the hope of those calm skies.
And that soft time of sunny flowers.
When the wide bloom on earth that lies
Seems of a brighter world than ours.
William Cullen Bryant
V.Ti— 4
50
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Some Call it Evolution
A fire-mist and a planet,
A crystal and a cell,
A jelly-fish and a saurian,
And a cave where the cave-men dwell;
Then a sense of law and beauty, *
A face turned from the clod :
Some call it Evolution,
And others call it God.
Like tides on the crescent sca-beach
When the moon is new and thin.
Into our hearts high yearnings
Come welling and surging in.
Come from the mystic ocean,
Whose rim no foot has trod :
Some of us call it Longing,
And others call it God.
A haze on the far horizon,
The infinite, tender sky,
The ripe, rich tint of the cornfields,
And the wild geese flying high,
And over upland and lowland
The charm of the golden-rod :
Some of us call it Autumn,
And others call it God.
A picket frozen on duty,
A mother starved for her brook,
Socrates drinking the hemlock,
And Jesus on the rood,
And millions who, humble and nameless,
The straight hard pathway trod :
Some call it Consecration,
And others call it God.
William, Herben Carruth
Our Earthly Rulers Falter
O GOD of earth and altar
Bow down and hear our cry.
Our earthly rulers falter
Our people drift and die ;
The walls of gold entomb us
The swords of scorn divide.
Take not thy thunder from us.
But take away our pride.
G. K. Chesterton
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
51
William Byrd's Pray or
P rostrate, O Lord, I lie,
Behold me, Lord, with pity.
Stop not thine ears against my cry,
My sad and mourning ditty.
Breathed from an inward soul
From a heart heartily contrite,
An offering sweet, a sacrifice,
In Thy high heavenly sight.
Observe not sins, O Lord,
For who may then abide it ?
But let Thy mercy cancel them,
Thou hast not man denied it,
Man melting with remorse and thoughts,
Thought past repenting.
O lighten. Lord, and hear our songs,
Our sins full sore lamenting.
The wonders of Thy works
Above all reason reacheth,
And yet Thy mercy above all
This, us Thy spirit teacheth.
Then let no sinner fall
In depth of soul’s despair,
Since never soul so foul there was
But mercy made it fair.
To His Lost Wife
S leep on, my love, in thy cold bed
Never to be disquieted 1
- My last good-night! Thou wilt not wake
Till I thy fate shall overtake :
Till age, or grief, or sickness must
Marry my body to that dust
It so much loves ; and fill the room
My heart keeps empty in that tomb.
Stay for me there : I will not fail
To meet thee in that hollow vale.
And think not much of my delay :
I am already on the way.
And follow thee with all the speed
Desire can make, or sorrows breed.
Each minute is a short degree
And every hour a step towards thee.
Henry King, Bishop of Chichester
52
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
God’s Long Wait
W hether my discoveries will be read by posterity, or by mv
contemporaries, is a matter that concerns them more than me
I may be well contented to wait one century for a reader, when God
Himself during so many thousand years has waited for an observer.
John Kepler
Men Should be Careful
M en should be careful lest they cause women to weep, for God
counts their tears. The Talmud
Two Frogs
O wing to the drying-up of a lake two frogs were forced to quit and
to seek for water elsewhere. As they were upon the search they
discovered a very deep well. Come, says one to the other, let us go
down here. You say well, says her companion; but what if the
water should fail us here, too ? How shall we get out ?
Tis good advice to look before we leap. Aesop
The Wolf in a Sheep’s Coat
T here goes a story of a wolf that wrapped himself up in a sheep’s
skin and worried lambs for a good while under that disguise •
but the shepherd met with him at last, and trussed him up, sheepskin
and all, upon an eminent gibbet for a spectacle and an example.
The neighbours made a wonderment of it, and asked him what he
meant by hanging up his sheep. Oh, says he, that’s only the skin
of a sheep that was made use of to cover the heart, malice and body
of a wolf that shrouded himself under it.
People are not to be judged by their looks , but by the character of their
lives and by their works. Aesop
Mr Valiant Passes Over
TT ^ as noised about that Mr Valiant-for-Truth was sent for.
1 When he understood it he called for his friends and told them of it.
limn he said, I am going to my Father’s; and, though with great
difticulty I got hither, yet now I do not repent me of all the trouble
1 have been at to arrive where I am.
My sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and
my courage and skill to him that can get it. My marks and scars 1
carry with me, to be a witness for me that I have fought his battles who
now will be my rewarder.
When the day that he must go hence was come many accompanied
him to the riverside, into which as he went he said, Death, where is
toy sftng ? and as he went down deeper he said. Grave, where is thy
jy * J° P asse< * over, and all the trumpets sounded for him
on the other side. Pilgrim's Progress
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 53
The Ten Commandments
T hou shalt not have another God than me :
Thou shalt not to an image bow thy knee.
Thou shalt not take the name of God in vain :
See that the Sabbath thou do not profane.
Honour thy father and thy mother too :
In act or thought see thou no murder do.
From evil habits keep thy body clean :
Thou shalt not steal, though thou be very mean.
Bear no false witness, keep thee without spot:
What is thy neighbour’s see thou covet not.
John Bunyan
John Bunyan’s Riddle
T hen were they very merry, and sat at the table a long time,
talking of many things. Then said the old gentleman, My
good landlord, while we are cracking your nuts, if you please, do you
open this riddle:
A man there was (though some did count him mad),
The more he cast away the more he had.
Then they all gave good heed, wondering what Gaius would say.
So he sat still awhile, and then replied :
He who bestows his goods upon the poor.
Shall have as much again, and ten times more.
Then said Joseph, I did not think you could have found it out.
Oh, said Gaius, I have been trained up in this way a great while;
nothing teaches like experience. Pilgrim's Progress
On His Pilgrim’s Progress
T his book will make a traveller of thee
If by its counsel thou wilt ruled be.
It will direct thee to the Holy Land
If thou wilt its directions understand.
Yea, it will make the slothful active be ;
The blind also delightful things to see.
Art thou for something rare and profitable ?
Or wouldst thou see a truth within a fable ?
Art thou forgetful ? Or would’st thou remember
From New Year’s Day to the last of December ?
Then read my fancies ; they will stick like burrs.
And may be to the helpless Comforters.
John Bwnyan
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
John Prints It
I set my pen to paper with delight,
And quickly had my thoughts in black and white,
For having now my method by the end,
Still as I pulled it came ; and so I penned
It down, until at last it came to be,
For length and breadth the bigness which you see.
Well, when I had thus put my ends together,
I showed them others, that I might see whether
They would condemn them or them justify ;
And some said Let them live ; some Let them die :
Some said John, print it ; others said Not so :
Some said It might do good ; others said No.
Now I was in a strait, and did not see
Which was the best thing to be done by me :
At last I thought, Since you are thus divided,
I print it will ; and so the case decided.
John Banyan
Who Would True Valour See
W ho would true valour see,
Let him come hither ;
One here will constant be,
Come wind, come weather:
There no discouragement
Shall make him once relent,
His first avowed intent.
To be a pilgrim.
Whoso beset him round
With dismal stories,
Do but themselves confound,
His strength the more is.
No lion can him fright.
He’ll with a giant fight.
But he will have a right
To be a pilgrim.
Hobgoblin nor foul fiend
Can daunt his spirit;
He knows he at the end
Shall life inherit.
Then fancies fly away,
He’ll not fear what men say,
He’ll labour night and day
To be a pilgrim.
John Bunyan
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
55
Rhymes of John Runyan
The Weathercock
B rave weathercock, I see thou set’st thy nose
Against the wind which way soe’er it blows.
The Penny Loaf
T hy price one penny is in time of plenty;
In famine doubled tis, from one to twenty.
Yea, no man knows what price on thee to set
When there is but one penny loaf to get.
The Apple Tree
A comely sight indeed it is to see
A world of blossoms on an apple tree.
On the Way to Paradise
S ome boys have wit enough to sport and play
Who at their books are blockheads day by day.
Some men are arch enough at any vice
But dunces in the way to Paradise.
The Cockier
T he hen so soon as she an egg doth lay
Spreads the fame of her doing as she may.
About the yard she cackling now doth go
To tell what twas she at her nest did do.
Just thus it is with some professing men ;
If they do aught that good is, like our hen.
They can’t but cackle on’t where’er they go ;
Whgt their right hand doth their left hand must know.
A Blessing on His Book
N ow may this little book a blessing be
To those that love this little book and me ;
And may its buyer have no cause to say
His money is but lost or thrown away.
King Charles’s Men Dreaming of Wings
T he philosophers of King Charles’s reign were busy on finding out
the art of flying. The famous Bishop Wilkins was so confident
of success in it that he says he does not question but in the^ next age
it will be as usual to hear a man call for his wings when he is going a
journey as it is now to call for his boots.
Written by Joseph Addison 250 years ago
56
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
John Bunyan to Certain Ladies
B eauty at best is but as fading flowers,
Bright now, anon with darksome clouds it lowers.
Tis but skin-deep, and therefore must decay ;
Time’s blowing on it sends it quite away.
The Great Bar to Happiness
S IN is the great block and bar to our happiness, the procurer of all
miseries to man both here and hereafter. Take away sin and
nothing can hurt us. John Bunyan
An Invitation to a Little Bird
M y little bird, how canst thou sit
And sing amidst so many thorns ?
Let me but hold upon thee get;
My love with honour thee adorns.
Thou art at present little worth ;
Five farthings none will give for thee.
But, prithee, little bird, come forth.
Thou of irore value art to me.
My father’s palace shall be thine,
Yea, in it thou shalt sit and sing;
My little bird, if thou’lt be mine,
The whole year round shall be thy spring.
I’ll teach thee all the notes at Court,
Unthought-of music thou shalt play;
And all that thither do resort
Shall praise thee for it every day.
I’ll keep thee safe from cat and cur.
No touch of harm shall come to thee ;
Yea, I will be thy succourer.
My bosom shall thy cabin be.
But to ! behold, the bird is gone ;
These charmings would not make her yield.
The child s left at the bush alone.
The bird flies yonder o'er the field.
John Bunyan
Go , Little Book
G o, little Book 1 from this my solitude;
I cast thee on the waters,—go thy ways :
And if, as I believe, thy vein be good.
The world will find thee after many days.
Be it with thee according to thy worth :
Go, little Book 1 in faith I send thee forth.
Southey
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 57
The Bit of Dust and Ashes
n-iHE angels rejoice to see a bit of dust and ashes overcome prin-
Tatties Jd powers. John Bunyan
The Pennyworth of the Poor
Tf thou sellest do not commend ; if thou buyest do not dispraise;
I but give the thing thou hast to do with its just value and worth.
Be moderate in all thy sellings, and be sure let the poor have a
pennyworth. . John Bunyan
Remember the Wise
R emember the wise; for they have laboured, and you are entering
into their labours.
Every fact you are taught is a voice from beyond the tomb, an
heirloom from men whose bodies are now in the dust. Most of them
were poor; many died and saw no fruit of their labours ; some were
persecuted, some were slain. Of some the very names are forgotten.
But their works live, and grow and spread over fresh generations of
youth, showing them fresh steps toward that temple of wisdom which is
the knowledge of things as they are; the knowledge of those eternal
laws by which God governs the heavens and the Earth, things seen
and unseen, from the rise and fall of mighty nations to the growth
and death of moss on yonder moors. Charles Kingsley
Borne Future Day
S ome future day when what is now is not,
When all old faults and follies are forgot,
And thoughts of difference passed like dreams away,
We’ll meet again upon some future day.
When all that hindered, all that vexed our love,
As tall rank weeds will climb the blade above,
Wheij all but it has yielded to decay.
We’ll’meet again upon some future day.
When we have proved, each on his course alone,
The wider world, and learnt what’s now unknown,
Have made life clear, and worked out each a way.
We’ll meet again,—we shall have much to say.
With happier mood, and feelings bom anew.
Our boyhood’s bygone fancies we’ll review.
Talk o’er old talks, play as we used to play,
And meet again on many a future day.
Some day, which oft our hearts shall yearn to see.
In some far year, though distant yet to be.
Shall we indeed (ye winds and waters, say)
Meet yet again upon some future day ?
Arthur Hugh Clough
58
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Earthquake Pill
I remember when our whole island was shaken with an earthquake
some years ago there was an impudent mountebank who sold
pills which, as he told country people, were very good against an
earthquake. Addison
In Windswept Space
S omewhere, in desolate windswept space.
In Twilight Land, in No Man’s Land,
Two hurrying Shapes met face to face,
And bade each other stand.
And who are you ? cried one, agape,
Shuddering in the gloaming light.
I know not, said the second Shape,
I only died last night!
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
The Worldly Hope Men Set Their Hearts Upon
T he worldly hope men set their hearts upon
Turns ashes or it prospers ; and anon,
Like snow upon the desert’s dusty face,
Lighting a little hour or two, is gone.
Think, in this battered caravanserai
Whose doorways are alternate night and day.
How Sultan after Sultan with his pomp
Abode his hour or two, and went his way.
They say the lion and the lizard keep
The courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep ;
And Bahram, that great hunter—the wild ass
Stamps o’er his head, and he lies fast asleep. .
I sometimes think that never blows so red
The rose as where some buried Caesar bled ;
That every hyacinth the garden wears
Dropt in its lap from some once lovely head.
From Omar Khayyam
Great Empires and Little Minds
■\ magnanimity in politics is but seldom the truest wisdom. A great
iVL empire and little minds go ill together. Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke to an Honourable Gentleman
* I *he honourable gentleman is indebted to his memory for his wit
1 and to his imagination for his facts. Burke in Parliament
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
59
I
H
The Moving Finger Writes
T he moving finger writes ; and, having writ.
Moves on : nor all thy piety nor wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.
From Omar Khayydm
The Wish of Edmund Burke
Standing in a little garden in Bristol, Edmund Burke says,
wish to be a member of Parliament to have my share of doing
good and resisting evil.
Edmund Burke on John Howard
is plan is original, and it is as full of genius as it is of humanity.
_He has visited all Europe, not to survey the sumptuousness
of "palaces or the stateliness of temples ; not to make accurate
measurements of ancient grandeur, nor to form a scale of the
curiosities of modem art; not to collect medals or to collate manu¬
scripts ; but to dive into the depth of dungeons, to plunge into the
infection of hospitals, to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain;
to t ake the gauge and dimensions of misery, depression, and con¬
tempt ; to remember the forgotten, to attend to the neglected, to
visit the forsaken, and to compare and collate the distresses of men
in all countries.
The Tyranny of Democracy
O f this I am certain, that in a democracy the majority of the
citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon
the minority, and that the oppression of the minority will extend to
far greater numbers, and will be carried on with much greater fury,
than ever from the dominion of a single sceptre. Edmund Burke
The Only Way
I am aware that the age is not what we all wish, but I am sure that
the only means to check its degeneracy is heartily to concur in
whatever is best in our time. Edmund Burke
Do Not Be Deceived by the Great Noise
B ecause half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring
with their importunate chink, while thousands of great cattle,
reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and
are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are
the only inhabitants of the field, that of course they are many in
number, or that, after all, they are other than the little, shrivelled,
meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, BwJk’
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
66
Flying Down the Depths of Time
L ittle snatch of ancient song,
What has made thee live so long ?
Flying on thy wings of rhyme
Lightly down the depths of time.
IF. E. H. LecJcy
He Planted a Thought in the Minds of Men
H e planted an oak in his father’s park
And a thought in the minds of men,
And he bade farewell to his native shore,
Which he never will see again.
Oh, merrily stream the tourist throng
To the glow of the Southern sky ;
A vision of pleasure beckons them on.
But he went there to die.
The oak will grow and its boughs will spread
And many rejoice in its shade,
But none will visit the distant grave.
Where a stranger youth is laid ;
And the thought will live when the oak has died,
And quicken the minds of men.
But the name of the thinker has vanished away.
And will never be heard again.
W. E. II. LecJcy
Above the Wrecks of Time
A ll things perish, and the strongest
Often do not last the longest.
The stately ship is seen no more,
The fragile skiff attains the shore ;
And while the great and wise decay,
And all their trophies pass away.
Some sudden thought, some careless rhyme.
Still floats above the wrecks of time.
IF. E. H. Lecky
The Swan Song
S wans sing before they die : twere no bad thing
Did certain persons die before they sing.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
61
A Child's Prayer
E re on my bed my limbs I lay
God grant me grace my prayers to say 1
O God, preserve my mother dear
In health and strength for many a year.
And O preserve my father too,
And may I pay him reverence due ;
And may I my best thoughts employ
To be my parents’ hope and joy !
And O preserve my brothers both
From evil doings and from sloth,
An d may we always love each other,
Our friends, our father, and our mother !
And still, O Lord, to me impart
An innocent and grateful heart,
That after my last sleep I may
Awake to Thy eternal day.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Through the World We Two Will Co
T hy hand in mine, thy hand in mine,
And through the world we two will go,
Our faces set to every foe,
With love before us as a sign,
Thy hand in mine, thy hand in mine.
My heart in thine, my heart in thine,
Through life, through happy death the same.
We two will kneel before the shrine
And keep alight the sacred flame.
My heart in thine, my heart in thine.
Mary Coleridge
‘She is Not Fair to Outward View
S he is not fair to outward view
As many maidens be ;
Her loveliness I never knew
Until she smiled on me ;
O, then I saw her eye was bright,
A well of love, a spring of light.
But now her looks are coy and cold.
To mine they ne’er reply.
And yet I cease not to behold
The love-light in her eye :
Her very frowns are fairer far
Than smiles of other maidens are.
Hartley Coleridge
62
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
He Prayeth Best Who Loveth Best
O WBDDim-Gvm ! this soul hath been
Alone on a wide wide sea ;
So lonely twos, that God Himself
Scarce seemed there to be.
O sweeter than the marriage-feast,
Tis sweeter far to me,
To walk together to the kirk
With a goodly company !
To walk together to the kirk.
And all together pray.
While each to his great Father bends,
Old men, and babes, and loving f riends.
And youths and maidens gay l
Farewell, farewell! but this I tell
To thee, thou Wedding-Guest!
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small:
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
The Mariner, whose eye is bright.
Whose beard with age is hoar.
Is gone ; and now the Wedding-Guest
Turned from the bridegroom’s door.
He went like one that hath been stunned.
And is of sense forlorn :
A sadder and a wiser man,
He was the morrow morn.
Last Words of The Ancient Mariner,
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
All is Still as Death
0f a Um P le > described in Congreve's Mourning
de, was declared by Dr Johnson to be the best description he had ever read.
A ll is hushed, and still as death—tis dreadful 1
How reverend is the face of this tall pile,
Whose ancient pillars rear their marble heads
1° bear aloft its arched and ponderous roof,
By its own weight made steadfast and immovable.
Looking tranquillity 1 It strikes an awe
And terror on my aching sight; the tombs
And monumental caves of death look cold.
And shoot a chillness to my trembling heart.
trior
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 68
0, May the Dream be True
T here is an awful quiet in the air,
And the sad earth, with moist imploring eye.
Looks wide and wakeful at the pondering sky,
Like Patience slow subsiding to Despair.
But see, the blue smoke, as a voiceless prayer.
Sole witness of a secret sacrifice,
Unfolds its tardy wreaths, and multiplies
Its soft chameleon breathings in the rare
Capacious ether—so it fades away,
And nought is seen beneath the pendent blue.
The undistinguishable waste of day.
So have I dreamed ! (oh, may the dream be true 1)
That praying souls are purged from mortal hue.
And grow as pure as He to whom they pray.
Hartley Coleridge
Come Gently On
N o funeral gloom, my dears, when I am gone,
Corpse-gazings, tears, black raiment, graveyard grimness;
Think of me as withdrawn into the dimness,
Yours still, you mine ; remember all the best
Of our past moments, and forget the rest;
And so, to where I wait, come gently on.
William Allingham
Time Heals All Woes but His
I N time the ox becomes accustomed to the plough that tills the field,
and yields his neck to be pressed by the curving yoke In time the
spirited horse obeys the flowing reins, and, with quiet mouth, receives
the hard bit. In time the anger of the Punic lions is assuaged.
Length of*time, too, causes that the grape swells out on the spread¬
ing clusters, and that the berries can hardly contain the juice they hold
within. Time, too, pushes forth the seed into the whitening ears of
com ; and makes the apple not to be of sour flavour. Tis time that
blunts the edge of the plough that renews the land; tis time that
wears the hard flint and the adamant. This, too, by degrees mitigates
raging anger; this lessens sadness and elevates the sorrowing heart.
Length of time, as it glides on with silent foot, is able to lessen every¬
thing but my cares. Ovid in exile
Let There Be No Lament
L et no one honour me with tears, nor bury me with lamentation.
Why ? Because I fly from lip to lip, living in the mouths of men.
Ovid
64 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Late Singer of a Sunless Bay
L ate singer of a sunless day,
I know not if with pain
Or pleasure more, I hear thy lay
Renew its vernal strain.
As gleams of youth, when youth is o’er
And bare the summer bowers,
Thy song brings back the years of yore,
And unreturning hours.
So was it once ! So yet again
It never more will be!
Yet sing ; and lend us in thy strain
A moment’s youth with thee.
Francis Turner Palgrave
Like Light Through the Window
S ilence the voice of Christianity and the world is well-nigh dumb,
for gone is that sweet music which kept in order the rulers of the
people, which cheers the poor widow in her lonely toil, and comes like
light through the windows of morning to men who sit stooping and
feeble, with failing eyes and a hungering heart. Theodore Parker
Charles Lamb Sleeps
H ere the children fell a-crying, and asked if their little mourning
which they had on was not for Uncle John, and they looked up
and prayed me not to go on about their uncle, but to tell them some
stories about their pretty dead mother.
Then I told how for seven long years, in hope sometimes, sometimes
in despair, yet persisting ever, I courted the fair Alice* and as much
as children could understand, I explained to them what coyness, and
difficulty, and denial meant in maidens—when suddenly, turning to
Alice, the soul of the first Alice looked out at her eyes with such a
reality of re-presentment that I became in doubt which of them stood
there before me, or whose that bright hair was ; and while I stood
gazing both the children gradually grew fainter to my view, receding,
and still receding till nothing at last but two mournful features were
seen in the uttermost distance, which, without speech, strangely im¬
pressed upon me the effects of speech : “ We are nothing ; less than
nothing, and dreams. We are only what might have been, and must
wait upon the tedious shores of Lethe millions of ages before we have
existence, and a name ”—and, immediately awaking, I found myself
quietly seated in my bachelor arm-chair, where I had fallen asleep.
Charles Lamb
THE CROUCHING MAN IN A VERONA CHURCH
KING CHARLES, BY VAN DYCK
65
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
To A Young Girl Dying
With a gift of fresh palm leaves
T his is Palm Sunday: mindful of the day,
I bring palm branches, found upon my way :
But these will wither ; thine shall never die,
The sacred palms thou bearest to the sky !
Dear little saint, though but a child in years,
Older in wisdom than my gray compeers 1
We doubt and tremble,—roe, with bated breath.
Talk of this mystery of life and death :
Thou, strong in faith, art gifted to conceive
Beyond thy years, and teach us to believe !
Then, take my palms, triumphal, to thy home,
Gentle, white palmer, never more to roam !
Only, sweet sister, give me, ere thou goest.
Thy benediction,—for my love thou knowest!
We, too, aie pilgrims, travelling towards the shrine :
Pray that our pilgrimage may end like thine !
*Thnmnsi PcLTSOTlS
The Little Clerk
ri -’ t mf, whimsical clerk has been promoted far above the solemn pro-
X fessional authors ; his world is still alive, still smiles before us*
The pipes and glasses and rubbers of whist and talks round the fire—
he has preserved them all and has become the familiar companion of
whole generations. A hundred years have passed, and his fireside is
not darkened, but warms a host of friends. ^
J. B. Priestley on Charles Lamb
Then Life and All Shall Cease
A child’s a plaything for an hour ;
Its pretty tricks we try
For that or for a longer space ;
Then tire, and lay it by.
But I knew one, that to itself
All seasons could control;
That would have mocked the sense of pain
Out of a grieved soul.
Thou straggler into loving arms.
Young climber up of knees.
When I forget thy thousand ways,
Then life and all shall cease.
Charles Lamb
66 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Somewhere There Waiteth in This World
S omewhere there waiteth in this world of ours
For one lone soul another lonely soul,
Each choosing each through all the weary hours.
And meeting strangely at one sudden goal,
Then blend they, like green leaves with golden flowers,
Into one beautiful perfect whole ;
And life’s long night is ended, and the way
Lies open onward to eternal day.
Sir Edwin Arnold
Homage to a Little House
O h, my father, my mother, who lived so humbly in this little house,
it is to you I owe everything.
Thy enthusiasm, my brave-hearted mother, thou hast instilled in
me. If I have always associated the greatness of Science with the
greatness of France it is because I was impregnated with the feelings
thou hast inspired.
And thou, dearest father, whose life was as hard as thy hard trade,
thou hast shown to me what patience and protracted effort can
accomplish. It is to thee that I owe perseverance in daily work. To
look upward, learn to the utmost, to seek to rise ever higher, such
was thy teaching.
Be ye blessed, my dear parents, for what ye have been, and may
the homage done today to your little house be yours.
Louis Pasteur, when placing
a tablet on his birthplace
It Might Have Been
I ohce met a kind man
Who laughed with me,
I’d have liked him for a brother.
For his jollity.
He mentioned Beersheba
And Galilee,
And other places lying deep
In the cool country.
A little boy told me.
Stopping in his play.
That it might have been Christ
Who talked to me that day.
Harold Lewis Cook
67
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Cobbler and the Saint
This story was told by Hugh Latimer ,
who was burned at the stake for his faith .
S T Anthony, being in the wilderness, led there a very hard and
strict life, insomuch as none at that time did the like. To whom
came a voice from heaven, saying, “ Anthony, thou art not so perfect
as is a cobbler that dwelleth at Alexandria.”
Anthony, hearing this, rose up forthwith, took his staff, and
travelled till he came to Alexandria, where he found the cobbler.
The cobbler was astonished to see so reverend a father come to his
house. Then Anthony said unto him, “ Come and tell me thy whole
conversation and how thou spendest thy time.”
“ Sir (said the cobbler), as for me, good works have I none, for
my life is but simple and slender. I am but a poor cobbler. In the
morning when I rise I pray for the whole city wherein I dwell,
especially for all such neighbours and poor friends as I have. After, I
set at my labour, where I spend the whole day in getting my living.
And I keep me from all falsehood, for I hate nothing so much as I do
deceitfulness ; wherefore when I make any man a promise I keep it
and perform it truly. And thus I spend my time poorly, with my
wife and children, whom I teach, as far as my wit will serve me, to fear
God. And this is the sum of my simple life.”
St Anthony , who lived in a ruin at the top of a hill in a wilderness,
was over a hundred years old when he died. But who did more work for
the world, we may wonder , the busy cobbler making shoes or the idle saint
reflecting on his ruined hill ?
The Yeoman On His Farm,
M y father was a yeoman and had no lands of his own, only he had
a farm of three or four pound by year at the uttermost, and
hereupon he filled so much as kept half a dozen men.
He had walk for a hundred sheep, and my mother milked thirty
kine. He waaable, and did find the king a harness, with himself and
his horse, while he came to the place that he should receive the king’s
wages. I can remember that I buckled his harness when he went into
Blackheath field. He kept me at school or else I had not been able
to have preached before the king’s majesty now. He married my
sisters with five pound apiece, so that he brought them up in godliness
and fear of God. He kept hospitality for his poor neighbours, and
some alms he gave to the poor.
All this he did of the said farm, where he that now hath it payeth
sixteen pound by year or more and is not able to do anything for his
prince, nor himself, nor for his children, or give a cup of drink to
the poor. Hugh Latimer
68 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Most Diligent Prelate in England
W ho is the most diligent bishop and prelate in all England tw
passeth all the rest in doing his office ? g nd taat
I can tell, for I know him who it is ,* I know him well TW* •
one that passeth all the others, and is the most diligent prellte and
preacher m all England. Will ye know who it is ? wilHeU you
it is the devil. He is the most diligent preacher of all. He is /ever
out of his diocese. Ye shall never find him unoccupied. He keeneth
residence at all times. Ye shall never find him out of the way. *C a ll
-/T y° u . Wlll) he 1S ever at home. The diligentest preacher in
a 1 the realm, he is ever at his plough. No lording nor loitering can
hinder him ; he is ever applying his business. Ye shall never find
him idle, I warrant you. Hugh L^Zr
Six Years, Six Little Years
M y father loved injustice, and lived long ;
Crowned with gray hairs he died, and full of sway,
i wed the good he scorned, and hated wrong,
tii dec ^ are m y recompense today.
a lo ,, d for life more tasting, rule more high,
And when six years are measured, lo, I die !
The rest I give to joy. Even while I speak,
My sand runs short; and (as yon star-shot ray.
Hemmed by two banks of cloud, peers pale and weak,
.Now, as the barrier closes, dies away)
Even so do past and future intertwine.
Blotting this six-years space, which yet is mine.
Sixyears, six little years, six drops of time,
a j Sf nS rise ’ and man y ‘moons shall wane.
Ana old men die, and young men pass their prime. r
Matthew Arnold
My Country
E ngland, with all thy faults, I love thee still.
My country ! and while yet a nook is left
vv nere English names and manners may be found,
pTfi w COns J tr ^ med to love thee. Though thy clime
year> most P art . deformed
With dripping rains, or withered by a frost,
I vmuld not yet exchange thy sullen skies
Wlth ° Ut a flower > for warmer France
jA ltha11 h f I nor for Ausonia’s groves
Ut golden fruitage and her myrtle bowers.
Cowper
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS <
Yean Hence
Y ears hence, perhaps, may dawn an age
More fortunate, alas ! than we.
Which without hardness will be sage.
And gay without frivolity.
Matthew Arnold
Rest In Peace
S trew on her roses, roses.
And never a spray of yew*
In quiet she reposes :
Ah ! would that I did too.
Her mirth the world required :
She bathed it in smiles of glee.
But her heart was tired, tired,
And now they let her be. *
Her life was turning, turning,
In mazes of heat and sound ;
But for peace her soul was yearning.
And now peace laps her round. *
Her cabined, ample Spirit,
It fluttered and failed for breath
Tonight it doth inherit
The vasty Hall of Death.
Matthew Arnold
So Small a Thing?
I s it so small a thing
To have enjoyed the sun.
To have lived light in the spring,
• To have loved, to have thought,
to have done ? Matthew Arnold
The Lustre of Your Name
B orn, as you are, citizens of a great State, and brought ud as vm,
have been, with habits equal to your birth, you shoifld bereadv to
yom nai£. eateSt dlSasterS> and stiU to kee P unimpaired the lustre of
The hand of Heaven must be borne with resignation that nf
enemy with fortitude. Remember that if ToStrv faf S
greatest name in all the world it is because ^he never bentXw
disaster. Do not betray any sign of being oppressed by your present
sufferings, since they whose minds are least sensitive to calamity and
whose hands are most quick to meet it, are the greatest men of ^
greatest communities. Paricte, *
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Man Who Cared
These lines are simple and natural to us now, but in the eighteenth centum
when Cooper wrote them, they were a noble act of courage by one of the few men
who eared about a widespread wrong. 6 ■ J € J €Wf nen
O h for adodge in some vast wilderness.
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumour of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,
Might never reach me more. My ear is pained.
My soul is sick, with every day’s report *
Of wrong and outrage with which earth is filled.
There is no flesh in man’s obdurate heart;
It does not feel for man ; the natural bond
Of brotherhood is severed as the flax
That falls asunder at the touch of fire.
He finds his fellow guilty of a skin
Not coloured like his own ; and, having power
To enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
Thus man devotes his brother, and destroys ;
And, worse than all, and most to be deplored,
As human nature’s broadest, foulest blot.
Chains him, and tasks him, and exacts his sweat
With stripes that mercy, with a bleeding heart,
Weeps when she sees inflicted on a beast.
Then what is man ? And what man, seeing this,
aj kuman feelings, does not blush,
And hang his head, to think himself a man ?
I would not have a slave to till my ground,
lo carry me, to fan me while I sleep,
And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth
that smews bought and sold have ever earnetf.
N o : dear as freedom is, and in my heart’s
Just estimation prized above all price,
I had much rather be myself the slave,
And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him.
We have no slaves at home. Then why abroad ?
Slaves cannot breathe in England ; if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free ;
TW> tOUC i OUr c ° untr y, and their shackles fall.
JLnat s noble, and bespeaks a nation proud
And jealous of the blessing. Spread it then.
And let it circulate through every vein
your empire ; that where Britain’s power
Is felt mankind may feel her mercy too.
William Cowper
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
71
0 Nanny, Wilt Thou Gang Wi’ Me ?
O Nanny, wilt thou gang wi 5 me,
Nor sigh to leave the flaunting town ?
Can silent glens have charms for thee,
The lowly cot and russet gown ?
Nae langer drest in silken sheen,
Nae langer decked wi’ jewels rare.
Say, canst thou quit each courtly scene
Where thou wert fairest of the fair ?
0 Nanny, when thou’rt far awa,
Wilt thou not cast a look behind ?
Say, canst thou face the flaky snow.
Nor shrink before the winter wind ?
O can that soft and gentle mien
Severest hardships learn to bear,
Nor, sad, regret each courtly scene
Where thou wert fairest of the fair ?
O Nanny, canst thou love so true
Through perils keen wi’ me to gae ?
Or, when thy swain mishap shall rue,
To share with him the pang of wae ?
Say, should disease or pain befall,
Wilt thou assume the nurse’s care,
Nor, wishful, those gay scenes recall
Where thou wert fairest of the fair ?
And when at last thy love shall die,
Wilt thou receive his parting breath ?
Wilt thou repress each struggling sigh
And cheer with smiles the bed of death ?
And wilt thou o’er his much-loved clay
# Strew flowers, and drop the tender tear ?
Nor then regret those scenes so gay
Where thou wert fairest of the fair ?
Thomas Percy
The Conqueror or the Crier?
T hemistocles, being asked whether he had rather be Homer or
Achilles, replied, “ Would you rather be a conqueror at the
Olympian games or the crier who proclaims the victors ? ”
Plutarch
The Difference
A descendant of Harmodius was taunting Iphicrates with his low
birth. “ The difference between us is this,” he replied ; “ my
family begins with me, and yours ends with you.” Plutarch
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Just Man
A n illiterate man came to Aristides, and asked him to write on the
billet for his banishment the name Aristides.
“ Do you know him ? ” asked the minister. “ No, I don’t; but I
hate to hear him always called the Just.”
Aristides made no reply, but wrote his own name as he was
requested. Plutarch
The City No One Knows
I f we traverse the world it is possible to find cities without walls,
without letters, without kings, without wealth, without coin,
without schools and theatres ; but a city without a temple no one
ever saw. Plutarch
The Ten
C aecilius Metellus, being advised to attack a strong position
which he was assured could be taken with the loss of only ten
men, replied, “ I will, if you will be one of the ten.” Plutarch
Spring is No More
T he young men have been taken from the city;
gone out of the year.
the spring has
Pericles
In the Name of Pericles
H e perished, but his wreath was won,
He perished in ins height of fame ;
Then sank the cloud on Athens’ sun,
Yet still she conquered in his name.
Filled with his soul she could not die ;
. Her conquest was posterity.
George Croly on Pericles
The Peaks We Cannot Scale *
F orgive 1
And tell me that sweet tale.
How you and I one day may live
In some diviner vale.
In some diviner vale, dear child, •
Than this in which we lie
And watch the monstrous mountains piled
And clouded into sky.
Yet even there, far out of reach
Are peaks we cannot scale,
For God has something still to reach
In that diviner vale.
Framis Burdett Money-Coutts
73
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Epitaph On a Fair Woman
I N this green chest is laid away
The fairest frock she ever wore ;
It clothed her both by night and day
And none shall wear it evermore.
Francis Burdett Money-Coutts
The Ploughman in the Fields of Ayr
I see amid the fields of Ayr,
A ploughman, who, in foul and fair.
Sings at his task
So clear, we know not if it is
The laverock’s song we hear, or his,
Nor care to ask.
For him the ploughing of those fields
A more ethereal harvest yields
Than sheaves of grain ;
Songs flush with purple bloom the rye,
The plover’s call, the curlew’s cry.
Sing in his brain.
Touched by his hand, the wayside weed
Becomes a flower ; the lowliest reed
Beside the stream
Is clothed with beauty ; gorse and grass
And heather, where his footsteps pass.
The brighter seem.
And then to die so young and leave
Unfinished what he might achieve 1
Yet better sure
Is this, than wandering up and down
. An old man in a country town.
Infirm and poor.
For now he haunts his native land
As an i m mortal youth ; his hand
Guides every plough ;
He sits beside each ingle-nook.
His voice is in each rushing brook
Each rustling bough.
His presence haunts this room tonight
A form of mingled mist and light
From that far coast.
Welcome beneath this roof of mine 1
Welcome 1 this vacant chair is thine.
Dear guest and ghost 1
Longfellow
74
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Dead He Lay Amo?ig His Books
D ead he lay among his books !
The peace of God was in his looks.
As the statues in the gloom
Watch o’er Maximilian’s tomb.
So those volumes from their shelves
Watched him, silent as themselves.
Ah I his hand will nevermore
Tum their storied pages o’er ;
Never more his lips repeat
Songs of theirs, however sweet.
Let the lifeless body rest 1
He is gone who was its guest.
Traveller ! in what realms afar,
In what planet, in what star,
In what vast aerial space,
Shines the light upon thy face ?
In what gardens of delight
Rest thy weary feet tonight ?
Friend l but yesterday the bells
Rang for thee their loud farewells ;
And today they toll for thee.
Lying dead beyond the sea;
Lying dead among thy books,
The peace of God in all thy looks 1 Longfellow
I Hear the Voice of Christ Say Peace
W ERE half the power that fills the world with terror.
Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts,
wven to redeem the human mind from error, '
lhere were no need of arsenals nor forts :
The warrior’s name would be a name abhorred.
And every nation that should lift again
w an ,i agamst a brother on its forehead
Would wear for evermore the curse of Cain f
Down the dark future, through long generations,
h rt Ch T g n SOUn f s grow fainter ^d then cease ;
And, like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations,
1 hear once more the voice of Christ say Peace 1
Peace l and no longer from its brazen portals
Put ' war ’ s * teat or 8 an shakes the skies :
B tk b t ^ lful f 8 ® on g $ of the immortals,
Ihe holy melodies of love arise. LongfeUow
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Peace , the Lovers are Asleep
T o those whom death again did wed
This grave’s the second marriage bed.
For though the hand of fate could force
Twixt soul and body a divorce,
It could not sever man and wife,
Because they both lived but one life.
Peace, good reader, do not weep;
Peace, the lovers are asleep.
They, sweet turtles, folded lie
In the last knot that love could tie.
Let them sleep, let them sleep on.
Till the stormy night be gone
And the eternal morrow dawn
Then the curtains will be drawn,
And they wake into a light
Whose day shall never die in night.
An epitaph by Richard Crashaw on husband
and wife who died and were buried together
I Am Five Centuries Old
T addeo Gaddi built me. I am old,
Five centuries old. I plant my foot of stone
Upon the Amo, as St Michael’s own
Was planted on the dragon. Fold by fold,
Beneath me as it struggles, I behold
Its glistening scales. Twice hath it overthrown
My kindred and companions. Me alone
It moveth not; but is by me controlled.
I can remember when the Medici
Were driven from Florence ; longer still ago
The final wars of Ghibelline and Guelf.
Florence adorns me with her jewelry;
And when I think that Michael Angelo
Hath leaned on me, I glory in myself.
Longfellow on an old bridge
I Heard the Trailing Garments of the Night
I heard the trailing garments of the Night
Sweep through her marble halls !
I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light
From the celestial walls !
I felt her presence, by its spell of night,
Stoop o’er me from above ;
The calm majestic presence of the Night,
As of the one I love.
Longfellow
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
A Lady With a Lamp Shall Stand
W hene’ee a noble deed is wrought.
Whene’er is spoken a noble thought,
Our hearts, in glad surprise.
To higher levels rise.
The tidal wave of deeper souls
Into our inmost being rolls.
And lifts us unawares
Out of all meaner cares.
Honour to those whose words or deeds
Thus help us in our daily needs,
And by their overflow
Raise us from what is low!
Thus thought I, as by night I read
Of the great army of the dead,
The trenches cold and damp.
The starved and frozen camp.
The wounded from the battle-plain
In dreary hospitals of pain.
The cheerless corridors.
The cold and stony floors.
Lo ! in that house of misery
A lady with a lamp I see
Pass through the glimmering gloom.
And flit from room to room.
And slow, as in a dream of bliss,
The speechless sufferer turns to kiss
Her shadow, as it falls
Upon the darkening walls.
As if a door in heaven should be
Opened and then closed suddenly,
The vision came and went.
The light shone and was spent.
On England’s annals, through the long
Hereafter of her speech and song,
That light its rays shall cast
From portals of the past.
A Lady with a Lamp shall stand
In the great history of the land,
A noble type of good.
Heroic womanhood.
Longfellow on Florence Nightingale
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 77
The Heights by Great Men
Reached and Kept
S aint Augustine ! well hast thou said,
That of our vices we can frame
A ladder, if we will but tread
Beneath our feet each deed of shame !
All common things, each day’s events,
That with the hour begin and end,
Our pleasures and our discontents.
Are rounds by which we may ascend.
All thoughts of ill; all evil deeds
That have their root in thoughts of ill;
Whatever hinders or impedes
The action of the nobler will.
All these must first be trampled down
Beneath our feet, if we would gain
In the bright fields of fair renown
The right of eminent domain.
We have not wings, we cannot soar;
But we have feet to scale and climb
By slow degrees, by more and more,
The cloudy summits of our time.
The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight.
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.
From Longfellow’s Ladder of St Augustine
Retribution
T hough the mills of God grind slowly
Yet they grind exceeding small;
* Though with patience he stands waiting.
With exactness grinds he all.
Translated by Longfellow
Build Thee More Stately Mansions ,
0 My Soul
B uild thee more stately mansions, O my soul.
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last.
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free.
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea !
Oliver Wendell Holmes
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
All Are Architects of Fate
A ll are architects of Fate,
Working in these walls of Time :
Some with massive deeds and great,
Some with ornaments of rhyme.
Nothing useless is or low ;
Each thing in its place is best;
And what seems but idle show
Strengthens and supports the rest.
For the structure that w'e raise
Time is with materials filled ,*
Our todays and yesterdays
Are the blocks with which we build.
Truly shape and fashion these.
Leave no yawning gaps between ;
Think not, because no man sees,
Such things will remain unseen.
In the elder days of art
Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part.
For the gods see everywhere.
Let us do our work as well,
Both the unseen and the seen ;
Make the house where gods may dwell
Beautiful, entire, and clean.
Longfellow
In the Heart of a Friend
I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where ;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.
I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where ;
For who has sight so keen and strong
That it can follow the flight of song ?
Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke ;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.
Longfellow
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
79
The Day Breaks
A wind came up out of the sea,
And said, O mists, make room for me.
It hailed the ships, and cried, Sail on,
Ye mariners, the night is gone.
And hurried landward far away,
Crying, Awake ! It is the day.
It said unto the forest, Shout!
Hang all your leafy banners out!
It touched the wood bird’s folded wing,
And said, O bird, awake and sing !
And o’er the farms, O chanticleer,
Your clarion blow ; the day is near.
It whispered to the fields of com :
Bow down, and hail the coming morn.
It shouted through the belfry tower.
Awake, O bell, proclaim the hour 1
It crossed the churchyard with a sigh,
And said, Not yet; in quiet lie.
Longfellow
Lives of Great Men All Remind Us
L ives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of Time,
Footprints, that perhaps another.
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
• A forlorn and shipwrecked brother.
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing.
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labour and to wait.
Longfellow
Heroes and Kings
H eroes and kings, your distance keep,
In peace let one poor poet sleep,
Who never flattered folks like you :
Let Horace blush, and Virgil too.
Alexander Pope
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Thus Lei Me Live
H appy the man whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound.
Content to breathe his native air
In his own ground.
Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread.
Whose flocks supply him with attire ;
Whose trees in summer yield him shade.
In winter, fire.
Blest who can unconcernedly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day,
Sound sleep by night; study and case
Together mixed ; sweet recreation,
And innocence, which most does please.
With meditation.
Thus let me live, unseen, unknown ;
Thus, unlamented, let me die ;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.
Alexander Pope
To Little Peggy
M y noble lovely little Peggy,
Let this, my first epistle, beg ye.
At dawn of mom and close of even.
To lift your heart and hands to heaven.
And, dearest child, along the day,
In everything you do and say.
Obey and please my lord and lady.
So God shall love and angels aid ye.
If to these precepts you attend
No second letter need I send,
And so I rest your constant friend.
Matthew Prior
Quit
T o John I owed great obligation ;
But John unhappily thought fit
To publish it to all the nation :
Sure John and I are more than quit,
Matthew Prior
PORTRAIT OF A LADY, BY JOHANNES VERSPRONCK
THE MERRY FIDDLER. BY FRANK HALS
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
81
Laugh On
L augh on, fair Cousins, for to you
All life is joyous yet;
Your hearts have all things to pursue,
And nothing to regret;
And every flower to you is fair,
And every month is May :
You’ve not been introduced to Care :
Laugh on, laugh on, today !
Perhaps your eyes may grow more bright
As childhood’s hues depart;
You may be lovelier to the sight
And dearer to the heart;
You may be sinless still, and see
This earth still green and gay ;
But what you are you will not be.
Laugh on, laugh on, today !
O’er me have many winters crept
With less of grief than joy ;
But I have learned and toiled and wept;
I am no more a boy.
I’ve never had the gout, tis true ;
My hair is hardly grey ;
But now I cannot laugh like you :
Laugh on, laugh on, today.
I used to have as glad a face.
As shadowless a brow ;
I once could run as blithe a race
As you are running now;
But never mind how I behave :
Don’t interrupt your play ;
* And though I feel so very grave
Laugh on, laugh on, today 1
Winthrop Mackworth Praed
There He Left a Friend
H is magic was not far to seek.
He was so human. Whether strong or weak,
Far from his kind he neither sank nor soared,
But sate an equal guest at every board :
No beggar ever felt him condescend.
No prince presume ; for still himself he bare
At manhood’s simple level, and where’er
He met a stranger, there he left a friend.
Russell Lowell on Agassiz
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Since I Am Not What I Was
V ENUS, take my votive glass :
Since I am not what I was,
What from this day I shall be,
Venus, let me never see.
Matthew Prior on a lady
offering her glass to Venus
Reinforcements
W HEN little boys with merry noise
In the meadows shout and run ;
And little girls, sweet woman buds.
Brightly open in the sun ;
I may not of the world despair,
Our God despaireth not, I sec ;
For blithesomer in Eden’s air
These lads and maidens could not be.
Why were they born, if Hope must die ?
Wherefore this health, if Truth should fail ?
And why such Joy, if Misery
Be conquering us and must prevail ?
Arouse 1 our spirit may not droop !
These young ones fresh from Heaven are ;
Our God hath sent another troop,
And means to carry on the war.
Thomas Tolce Lynch
Go , Ask the Poor
H is epitaph shall mock the shortlived stone,
No lichen shall its lines efface,
He needs these few and simple lines alone
To mark his resting place :
Here lies a Poet. Stranger, if to thee
His claim to memory be obscure.
If thou wouldst learn how truly great was he.
Go, ask it of the poor.
James Russell Lowell
Be Noble
B e noble; and the nobleness that lies
In other men sleeping, but never dead,
/ Will rise in majesty to meet thine own.
James Russell Lowell
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Kossuth
A race of nobles may die out,
A royal line may leave no heir ;
Wise Nature sets no guards about
Her pewter plate and wood ware.
But they fail not, the kinglier breed.
Who starry diadems attain ;
To dungeon, axe, and stake succeed
Heirs of the old heroic strain.
And he, let come what will of woe.
Hath saved the land he strove to save ;
No Cossack hordes, no traitor’s blow,
Can quench the voice shall haunt his grave.
1 Kossuth am : 0 Future, thou
That clearest the just and blotfst the vile,
O'er this small dust in reverence bow.
Remembering what I was erewhile.
I was the chosen trump wherethrough
Our God sent forth awakening breath ;
Came chains ? Came death? The strain lie blew
Sounds on, outliving chains and death.
James Russell Lowell
Plain and Flat
E z fer war I call it murder.
There you hev it plain an’ flat;
I don’t want to go no furder
Than my testyment fer that;
God hez sed so plump an’ fairly,
It’s ez long ez it is broad,
r An’you’ve got to git up airly
Ef you want to take in God.
James Russell Lowell
To Brother Robert Burns
D ear Bard and Brother, let who may
Against thy faults be railing,
(Though far, I pray, from us be they
That never had a failing).
One toast I’ll give, and that not long.
Which thou wouldst pledge if present.
To him whose song, in nature strong,
Makes man of prince and peasant.
James Russell Lowell at a Burns Centenary
84
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
As Life Runs on the Road Grows Strange
A s life runs on the road grows strange
With faces new, and near the end
The milestones into headstones change,
Neath every one a friend.
James Russell Lowell on his 68th birthday
I Will Not Go Back
I will be harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice.
I am in earnest. I will not equivocate. I will not excuse.
I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard.
William Lloyd Garrison
The Time Would Come
I have begun many things many times and have often succeeded
at last. I will sit down now, but the time will come when you will
hear me. Disraeli's first speech in Parliament
0 Small Beginnings , Ye Are Great and Strong
I N a small chamber, friendless and unseen.
Toiled o’er his types one poor unlearned young man ;
The place was dark, unfurnitured, and mean,
Yet there the freedom of a race began.
We stride the river daily at its spring,
Nor, in our childish thoughtlessness, foresee,
What myriad vassal streams shall tribute bring.
How like an equal it shall greet the sea.
O small beginnings, ye are great and strong.
Based on a faithful heart and weariless brain 1 -
Ye build the future fair, ye conquer wrong,
Ye earn the crown, and wear it not in vain.
James Russell Lowell to William Lloyd Garrison
His Happiest Times
I chose you and I loved you in my happiest times.
The broken-hearted Raleigh to his wife
The Prince Without Mercy
I v all the pictures and patterns of a merciless prince were lost in the
world, they might all again be painted out of the story of this king,
Henry the Eighth. Sir Walter Raleigh
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
A Beggar Through This World Am I
A beggar through this world am I,
From place to place I wander by;
Fill up my pilgrim’s scrip for me,
For Christ’s sweet sake and charity I
A little of thy steadfastness,
Bounded with leafy gracefulness,
Old oak, give me :
That the world’s blasts may round me blow,
And I yield gently to and fro,
While my stout-hearted trunk below
And firm-set roots unmoved be.
Some of thy stern, unyielding might.
Enduring still through day and night
Rude tempest-shock and withering blight:
That I may keep at bay
The changeful April sky of chance,
And the strong tide of circumstance :
Give me, old granite gray.
Some of thy moumfulness serene.
Some of the never-dying green.
Put in this scrip of mine.
That grief may fall like snowflakes light*
And deck me in a robe of white.
Ready to be an angel bright:
O sweetly mournful pine !
A little of thy merriment.
Of thy sparkling, light content.
Give me, my cheerM brook ;
That I may still be full of glee
And gladsomeness, where’er I be.
Though fickle fate hath prisoned me
In some neglected nook.
Ye have been very kind and good
To me, since I’ve been in the wood ;
Ye have gone nigh to fill my heart;
But goodbye, kind friends, every one,
I’ve far to go ere set of sun :
Of all good things I would have part.
The day was high ere I could start.
And so my journey’s scarce begun.
Heaven help me I how could I forget
To beg of thee, dear violet I
Some of thy modesty.
That flowers here as well, unseen.
As if before the world thou’dst been,
O give, to strengthen me. James Russell Lowell
86
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
When a Deed is Bom For Freedom
hen a deed is done for Freedom, through the broad earth’s
,, aching breast
Runs a thrill of joy prophetic, trembling on from east to west,
And the slave, where’er he cowers, feels the soul within him climb
To the awful verge of manhood, as the energy sublime
Of a century bursts full-blossomed on the thorny stem of Time.
For mankind are one in spirit, and an instinct bears along,
Round the Earth’s electric circle, the swift flash of right or wrong;
Whether conscious or unconscious, yet Humanity’s vast frame
Through its ocean-sundered fibres feels the gush of joy or shame ;
In the gain or loss of one race all the rest have equal claim.
Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side
Some great cause, God’s new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight,
Parts the goats upon the left hand and the sheep upon the right
And the choice goes by for ever twixt that darkness and that light.
Hast thou chosen, O my people, on whose party thou shalt stand
Ere the Doom from its worn sandals shakes the dust against our land .
Though the cause of Evil prosper, yet tis Truth alone is strong,
And, albeit she wander outcast now, I see around her throng
Troops of beautiful tall angels, to enshicld her from all wrong.
Careless seems the great Avenger ; history’s pages but record _
One death-grapple in the darkness twixt old systems and the Word ;
Truth for ever on the scaffold, Wrong for ever on the throne—
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.
James Russell Lowell
La Belle Barm Sans Merci
M y heart was never broken till this day, that I hear the Queen goes
so far off, whom I have followed so many years with so great
love and desire in so many journeys, and am now left behind her in a
dark prison all alone* While she was yet near at hand that I might
hear of her in two or three days my sorrows were less, but even now
my heart is cast into the depths of all misery.
I that was wont to behold her riding like Alexander, hunting like
Diana, walking like Venus, the gentle wind blowing her fair hair
about her pure cheeks like a nymph, sometimes sitting m the shade
like a goddess, sometimes singing like an angel, sometimes playing
like Orpheus 1 Behold the sorrow of this world !
She is gone in whom I trusted, and of me hath not one thought of
mercy, nor any respect of that that was.
Sir Walter Rakigh writing from
the Tower to Robert Cedi
87
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
His Love Admits No Rival
S hall I like a hermit dwell
On a rock or in a cell,
Calling home the smallest part
That is missing of my heart,
To bestow it where I may
Meet a rival every day ?
If she undervalue me
What care I how fair she be ?
Were her tresses angel gold.
If a stranger may be bold,
Unrebuk£d, unafraid,
To convert them to a braid.
And with little more ado
Work them into bracelets too ;
• If the mine be grown so free
What care I how rich it be ?
Sir Walter Raleigh
Put Off Tout Mail, 0 Kings
P ut off, put off your mail, O kings,
And beat your brands to dust!
Your hands must learn a surer grasp,
Your hearts a better trust.
O, bend aback the lance’s point,
And break the helmet bar;
A noise is in the morning wind.
But not the note of war.
Upon the grassy mountain paths.
The glittering hosts increase :
They come ! They come ! How fair their feet!
They come who publish peace.
And victory, fair victory,
Our enemies are ours !
For all the clouds are clasped in light.
And all the earth with flowers.
Aye, still depressed and dim with dew ;
But wait a little while,
And with the radiant, deathless rose,
The wilderness shall smile.
And every tender, living thing
Shall feed by streams of rest;
Nor lambs shall from the flock be lost,
Nor nestling from the nest.
John Ruskin
88
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Disgrace
The Richest Country and the Richest Man
T here is no wealth but Life—Life including all its powers of love
of joy, and of admiration. *
That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest number
of noble and happy human beings ; that man is the richest who,
having perfected the functions of his own life to the utmost, has also
the widest helpful influence, both personal and by means of his
possessions over the lives of others. John Rushin
A Mistake of Good People
E very day I am more sure of the mistake made by good people
universally in trying to pull fallen people up instead of keeping the
yet safe ones from tumbling after them ; and in always spending their
pains on the worst instead of on the best materials. John Rushin
Our England from a Garden
tn London I am but a bird of passage. I own no house ; I am not
JL a tenant. I just live in a house from which I can be ejected any
moment without compensation.
From it I can see the Horse Guards Parade, which reminds me of
the General Strike ; the Foreign Office, which reminds me of trouble
in China and Mr Chen; the India Office, which reminds me of the
Swarajists ; the War Office and the Admiralty, which remind me
of Estimates.
And then I think of what I can see from my own garden in the
most beautiful view in all England. I see the hills known to all of
you, beginning in the north-east, the Clent; and beyond, in Warwick¬
shire, Edgehill, where the English squire passed with horse and
hounds between the two armies ; Bredon, the beginning of the Cots-
wolds, like a cameo against the sky, and the wonderful straight blue
line of the Malvems, little shapes of Ankerdine and Berrow Hill, and,
perhaps most beautiful and graceful, his two neighbours Woodbury
and Abberley; and Clee Hills, opening up another beautiful and
romantic world and presenting a circle of beauty which I defy any
part of England to match.
416 our possessions. There is no need among ourselves to
tell of them: they lie in our hearts, and I think possibly one of the
reasons that we love them so much is that so little is known of them
outside our own country. Stanley Baldwin when Prime Minister
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 89
She Sat Beside Me Yesternight
S he sat beside me yesternight,
With lip and eye so sweetly smiling,
So full of soul, of life, of light.
So beautifully care-beguiling,
That she had almost made me gay,
Had almost charmed the thought away
(Which, like the poisoned desert wind.
Came sick and heavy o’er my mind),
That memory soon mine all would be,
And she would smile no more for me.
Written of a child of sixteen by
John Ruskin in his old age
Sir John Oldcastle Passes Out of the World
U pon the day appointed he was brought out of the tower with his
arms bound behind him having a very cheerful countenance.
Then was he lain upon a hurdle as though he had been a most heinous
traitor to the crown, and so drawn forth into St Giles Field, where
they had set up a new pair of gallows.
As he was comen to the place of execution and was taken from
the hurdle, he fell down devoutly upon his knees, desiring Almighty
God to forgive his enemies. Then stood he up and beheld the
multitude, exhorting them in most godly manner to follow the laws
of God.
Then was he hanged up there in chains of iron, and so consumed
alive in the fire, praising the name of God so long as his life lasted.
This terrible kind of death, with gallows, chains, and fire, appeareth
not very precious in the eyes of men. The righteous seemeth to die,
saith the wise man, in the sight of them which are unwise, and then-
end is taken for very destruction. But though they suffer pain
before men, saith he, yet is their expectation full of immortality.
As gold in the furnace does God try his elect. Right dear in the
sight of God, saith David, is the death of his true servants.
From Foote's Book of Martyrs, on the death of Sir John Oldcastle, the
hero to whose memory Shakespeare apologisedfor misrepresenting him
The Perfect Peace There Was in Britain
T here was such perfect peace in Britain wheresoever the dominion
of King Edwin extended that a woman with her new-born babe
might walk throughout the island from sea to sea without receiving
any harm. That king took such care for the good of his nation that
in several places where he had seen clear springs near the highways
he caused stakes to be fixed, with brass dishes hanging on them
for travellers. Bede, writing in the Seventh Century
90 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Old Gentlemen on the Wheelbarrow
I often wonder if all the people in this country realise the changes
that are coming over the industrial system in England. 6
It happens that I have seen a great deal of this evolution taking
place before my own eyes. I worked for many years in an industrial
business and had under me what was then considered a large number
of men.
It was a place where I had known from childhood every man on
the ground, where I was able to talk to men, not only about troubles
in the works, but troubles at home, where strikes and lock-outs were
unknown, and where the fathers and grandfathers of the men had
worked and their sons went automatically into the business. It was
also a place where nobody ever got the sack, and where we had a
natural sympathy for those who were less concerned in efficiency than
this generation is. There were a large number of old gentlemen who
used to spend the day sitting on the handle of a wheelbarrow and
smoking their pipes.
Oddly enough, it was not an inefficient community. It was the
last survivor of that type of works, and ultimately was swallowed up
in one of those great combinations to which the industries of the
country are tending. Stanley Baldwin
England Gwen Away
A t first the island had no other inhabitants but the Britons, from
whom it derived its name. When they had made themselves
masters of the greatest part of the island it happened that the nation
of the Piets, putting to sea in a few long ships, were driven by the
winds on the northern coasts of Ireland, where, finding the nation
of the Scots, they begged to be allowed to settle among them.
The Scots answered that the island could not contain them both ,*
but “ we can give you good advice (said they) what to do. There is
another island not far from ours, which we often see at a distance
when the days are clear. If you will go thither you will obtain
settlements ; or, if they should oppose you, you shall have our
assistance/’ .
The Piets accordingly, sailing over into Britain, began to inhabit
the northern parts.
Now the Piets had no wives, and asked them of the Scots, who
wouid not grant them upon any other terms than that, when any
difficulty should arise, they should choose a king from the female
royal race rather than from the male, which custom has been observed
to this day*
• . In prdwss of time Britain received a third nation, the Scots, who,
migm-tingfrom Ireland, secured to themselves those settlements among
the Piets which they still possess. Bede's History of England
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
91
They Who Were About to Die
W E who remember Drake and Oxenham, Cavendish and Raleigh,
have forgotten names as illustrious, deeds as valiant, and voy¬
ages as momentous, which were sent out by the merchant adventurers
of London.
We remember how Sir Hugh Willoughby, sent out to find the
North-east Passage round Siberia, dropped down the river on his
way. It was only three days before the death of the young King
Edward the Sixth. The ships were hung with streamers as they
passed Greenwich Palace ; the dying king was brought out to see
the little fleet sail out; salutes were fired, the flag was dropped to
bid farewell.
The Admiral about to die saluted his King about to die .
Yet three days and Edward lay still and quiet in death. Yet six
months and the gallant Willoughby sat still and quiet in death. He
sat in his cabin in his arm-chair, with his papers before him, frozen to
death ; and so he was found. Sir Walter Besani
The Fallen Friend
T hough raised to the summit of power from a low origin, he be¬
trayed no insolence or contempt towards his inferiors and was
grateful to remember all the obligations which, during his more
humble fortune, he had owed to anyone. He had served as a private
in the Italian wars when he received some good offices from a mer¬
chant who had entirely forgotten his person as well as the service
which he had rendered Mm.
Cromwell in his grandeur happened at London to cast his eye on
his benefactor now reduced to poverty by misfortune. He immedi¬
ately^ sent for him, reminded him of their ancient friendship, and
by his grateful assistance reinstated him in his former prosperity
and opulence. David Hume on Thomas Cromwell
When She Smiled
W hen she smiled it was a pure sunshine that anyone chose to bask
in if they could ; but anon came a storm and the thunder fell
in wondrous manner on all alike. Queen Elizabeth by her godson,
Sir John Harington :
" The Great
C onversation between Sir Nicholas Bacon and Queen Elizabeth at
Gorhambury; My Lord, what a little house you have gotten.
Madam, my house is well, but it is you that have made me too .
great for my house.
92
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Pilot that Weathered the Storm
It was in a dark hour for our country that one statesman wrote this tribute to
another. A treaty of Peace with France had been signed and Pitt was at a birthday
dinner at Waimer Castle when Canning read this poem to the guests, written by himself.
I f hushed the loud whirlwind that ruffled the deep,
The sky, if no longer loud tempests deform ;
When our perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep ?
No ! Here’s to the Pilot that Weathered the Storm.
At the footstool of power let flattery fawn.
Let faction her idols extol to the skies ;
To virtue, in humble retirement withdrawn.
Unblamed may the tribute of gratitude rise.
And shall not his memory to Britain be dear,
Whose example with envy all nations behold,
A statesman unbiassed by interest or fear
By power uncorrupted, untainted by gold ?
Who, when terror and doubt through the Universe reigned,
While rapine and treason their standards unfurled,
The heart and the hopes of his country maintained,
And one kingdom preserved midst the wreck of the world.
Unheeding, unthankful, we bask in the blaze
While the beams of the sun in full majesty shine ;
When he sinks into twilight with fondness we gaze,
And mark the mild lustre that gilds his decline.
Lo 1 Pitt, when the course of thy greatness is o’er.
Thy talents, thy virtues, we fondly recall!
Now justly we prize thee, when lost we deplore ;
Admired in thy zenith but loved in thy fall.
O 1 take, then, for dangers by wisdom repelled,
For evils by courage and constancy braved,
O take, for a throne by thy counsels upheld,
The thanks of a people thy firmness has saved.
And O, if again the rude whirlwind should rise,
The dawning of Peace should fresh darkness deform.
The regrets of the good, and the fears of the wise
Shall turn to the Pilot that Weathered the Storm !
George Canning
Thomas Cromwell to Henry the Eighth
I , a most woeful prisoner, am ready to submit to death when it please
God and Your Majesty ; and yet the frail flesh incites me to call to
Your Grace for mercy and pardon of mine offences.
Written at the Tower with the heavy heart and trembling hand of
Your Highness’s most miserable prisoner and poor slave, Thomas
Cromwell. Most gracious prince, I cry for mercy, mercy, mercy.
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
93
Seven Weeks
Q ueen Elizabeth to Mr Speaker Popham : Now, Mr Speaker, what
has passed in the Lower House ?
Mr Speaker ; If it please your majesty, seven weeks.
Galileo Blind
A las, your dear friend and servant Galileo has been for the last
month hopelessly blind ; so that this heaven, this earth, this
universe, which I by my marvellous discoveries and clear demonstra¬
tions had enlarged a hundred thousand times beyond the belief of
the wise men of bygone ages, henceforward for me is shrunk into such
a small space as is filled by my own bodily sensations.
Galileo to a friend
What Garfield Thought of Garfield
I do not care much what others say and think about me. But there
is one man’s opinion which I very much value, and that is the
opinion of James Garfield. Others I need not think about. I can
get away from them, but I have to be with him all the time. He is
with me when I rise up and when I lie down ; when I eat and talk ;
when I go out and come in. It makes a great difference whether he
thinks well of me or not. President Garfield
The King’s Last Sleep
A ftee the bishop was gone to his lodging the King continued
reading and praying more than two hours after. The King
commanded Mr Herbert to lie beside him on a pallat, where he took
small rest, that being the last night his sovereign master enjoyed.
But nevertheless the King for four hours slept soundly and awaking
about two hours before the dawn of day he opened his curtain to call
Mr Herbert, there being a great cake of wax set in a silver basin that
burned all night so that he perceived him somewhat disturbed in
sleep but bade him rise—For (said his Majesty) I will get up having
a great work to do this day. However, he would know why he was
so troubled in his sleep.
■ He replied, May it please your majesty I was dreaming. I would
know your dream, said the King, which being told his Majesty said
it was remarkable. Herbert, this is my second marriage day. I
would be as trim today as may be for before night I hope to be
espoused to my blessed Jesus.
He then appointed what clothes he would wear. Let me have
a shirt on more than ordinary by reason the season is so sharp as
probably may make me shake, which some observers will imagine
proceeds from fear. I would have no such imputation. I fear not
death. Death is not terrible to me. I bless God I am prepared.
Sir Thomas Herbert, King Charleses last attendant
u ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Deceit
O wn at a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive !
Sir Walter Scott
Sir Walter Going Out of the World
I am drawing near to the close of my career; I am fast shuffling
off the stage.
I have been perhaps the most, voluminous writer of the day, and
it is a comfort to me to think that I have tried to unsettle no man’s
faith, to corrupt no man’s principle, and that I have written nothing on
my deathbed I should wish blotted out. Sir Walter Scott, dying
Surely We May Endure
I F God bears with the very worst of us, we may surely endure
each other. Sir Walter Scott
A Word About King Charles
W hat, after all, are the virtues ascribed to Charles ? A religious
zeal, not more sincere than that of his son, and fully as weak
and narrow-minded, and a few of t he ordinary household decencies
which half t he tombstones in England claim for those who lie beneath
them. A good father ! A good husband ! Ample apologies indeed
for fifteen years of persecution, tyranny, and falsehood !
We charge him with having broken his coronation oath ; and we
are told that he kept his marriage vow ! We accuse him of having
given up his people to the merciless inflictions of the most hot-headed
and hard-hearted of prelates ; and the defence is that he took his
little son on his knee and kissed him ! We censure him for having
violated the articles of the Petition of Right, after having, for good
and valuable consideration, promised to observe them ; and we are
informed that he was accustomed to hear prayers at six o’clock
in the morning 1 It is to such considerations as these, together
with his Vandyke dress, his handsome face, and his peaked beard,
that he owes, we verily believe, most of his popularity with the
present generation.
For ourselves, wc own that we do not understand the common
phrase, A good man but a bad king. We can as easily conceive a
good man and an unnatural father, or a good man and a treacherous
friend. We cannot, in estimating the character of an individual,
leave out of our consideration his conduct in the most important of
all human relations ; and if in that relation we find him to have been
selfish, cruel, and deceitful, we shall take the liberty to call him a
had man, in spite of all his temperance at table, and all his regularity
at chapel. Macaulay
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
95
County Guy
A h ! County Guy, the hour Is nigh.
The sun has left the lea,
The orange flower perfumes the bower,
The breeze Is on the sea.
The lark, his lay who thrilled the day.
Sits hushed his partner nigh ;
Breeze, bird, and flower confess the hour.
But where Is County Guy ?
The village maid steals through the shade.
Her shepherd’s suit to hear ;
To beauty shy, by lattice high,
Sings high-born Cavalier.
The star of Love, all stars above,
Now reigns o’er earth and sky ;
And high and low the influence know,
But where is County Guy ?
Sir Walter Scott
Looking on From Age to Age
T here Is not, and there never was on this earth, a work of
human policy so well deserving of examination as the Roman
Catholic Church.
No other institution Is left standing which carries the mind back
to the times when the smoke of sacrifice rose from the Pantheon, and
when camelopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian amphitheatre.
The proudest royal houses are but of yesterday when compared with
the line of the Supreme Pontiffs. That line we trace back in an
unbroken series, from the Pope who crowned Napoleon in the nine¬
teenth century to the Pope who crowned Pepin in the eighth ; and
far beyond the time of Pepin the august dynasty extends till it is lost
in the twilight of fable. The republic of Venice came next in antiquity .
But the republic of Venice was modern when compared with the
Papacy ; and the republic of Venice is gone, and the Papacy remains.
The Papacy remains, not in decay, not a mere antique, but full
of life and youthful vigour.
She saw the commencement of all the governments and of all the
ecclesiastical establishments that now exist in the world ; and we feel
no assurance that she is not destined to see the end of them all.
She was great and respected before the Saxon had set foot on Britain,
before the Frank had passed the Rhine, when Grecian eloquence still
flourished in Antioch, when idols were still worshipped in the temple
of Mecca. And she may still exist in undiminished vigour when some
traveller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude,
take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the
ruins of St Paul’s. 3iacaulay
90
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
He Did Not Wear a Silken Cope
H e did not take his seat on a bishop’s throne, or wear a silken cope,
but he mounted the scaffold ami was clothed in a garment
of flame- On William Tyndate , by Dr Merle D'AubignS
The Prince of Buffoons
V oltaire is the prince of buffoons. Ills merriment is without
disguise? or restraint, lie gambols, he grins, he* shakes his sides,
he points the linger, lie turns up the nose, he shoots out the tongue.
The nat ure of Voltaire was indeed not inhuman, hut. he venerated
not hing. Neit her in l he masterpieces of art nor in t he purest examples
of virtue, neither in the First Great Cause nor in the awful enigma of
the grave, could he see anything but subjects for drollery. The
more solemn and august the theme, the more monkey-like was his
grimacing and chattering. Macaulay
Oliver and His Men
C romwell had passed his youth and the prime of his manhood in
a civil situation. II<* never looked on war till he was more than
forty. He had first to form himself and then to form his troops.
Out of raw levies he created an army, the bravest and the best dis¬
ciplined, the most orderly in peace, and the most terrible in war,
that Europe had ever seen.
He called this body into existence. He led it to conquest. He
never fought a battle without gaining it. He never gained a battle
without annihilating the force opposed to him. Yet his victories
were not the highest glories of his milit ary system. The respect which
his troops paid to property, their attachment to the laws and religion
of their country, their submission to the civil power, their temperance,
their industry, are without parallel.
At the command of the established Government, which had no
means of enforcing obedience, fifty thousand soldiers, whose backs
no enemy had ever seen, laid down their arms and retired into the
mass of the people, thenceforth to be distinguished only by superior
diligence, sobriety, and regularity in the pursuits of peace from the
other members of the community which they had saved.
If the spirit of any man ever remained behind him on the Earth
the spirit of the great Oliver is with our England still. Macaulay
Shakespeare’s Portraits
W e most admire him for this, that while he has left us a greater
number of striking portraits than all other dramatists put
together, he has scarcely left us a single caricature. Macaulay
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
97
Come On, All You Young Men
C ome on now, all you young men, all over the world. You are
needed more than ever now to fill the gap of a generation shorn
by the war. You have not an hour to lose. You must take your
places in life’s fighting line. Twenty to twenty-five. These are
the years! Don’t be content with things as they are. The earth
is yours, and the fullness thereof. Winston Churchill
As Sure as Macaulay
I ' wish I were as sure about any one thing as Macaulay
is about everything. Lord Melbourne
I Am the Grass
P ile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work.
1 am the grass ; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the Conductor :
What place is this ?
Where are we now ?
1 am the grass. Let me work. Carl Sandburg
Beauty Bright
tteke lies Merrily Joules,
H eke lies Merrily Jou
A beauty bright,
Who left Isaac Joules
Her heart’s delight.
Epitaph in a Somerset churchyard
On Robin’s Grave
T kead lightly here, for here, tis said,
When piping winds are hushed around,
A small note wakes from underground,
Where now his tiny bones are laid.
No more in lone and leafless groves.
With ruffled wing and faded breast.
His friendless, homeless spirit roves ;
Gone to the world where birds are blessed
Where never cat glides o’er the green,
Or schoolboy’s giant form is seen ;
But Love, and Joy, and smiling Spring
Inspire their little souls to sing.
Epitaph by Samuel Rogers on an urn in a garden
OS
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Thou that Cloud ?
S ek’st 1 hou that cl< >ud us silver clear,
Tlutnp, soff, ami swelling (everywhere ?
Ti.s Julia’s bed, and she .sleeps there.
Robert Herrick
Content m the Country
H r.UK. h( re I live with what, my hoard
('an with the smallest cost, afford ;
Though ne’er so mean the viands he,
They will confenf my I Vue and me.
Or pea, or bean, or wort, or beef.
Whatever comes, content makes sweet.
Here we rejoice because no rent
We pay for our poor tenement,
Wherein we rest, and never fear
The landlord nr the usurer.
The quarter-day does ne’er affright
Our jx'uceful slumlwrs in the night.
We eat our own, and batten more,
Because we feed on no man’s scon? ;
But pity those whose Hanks grow great.
Swelled with the lard of others’ meat.
We bless our fortunes when we sec
Our own beloved privacy :
And like our living, where we’re known
To very few, or else to none.
Robert Herrick
Five Threes
A litti.e saint best fits a little shrine,
A little prop best fits a little vine ;
As my small cruse best fits my little wine.
A little seed best fits a little soil,
A little trade best fits a little toil ;
As my small jar best fits my little oil,
A little bin best fits a little bread,
A little garland fits a little head ;
As my small stuff best fits my little shed.
A little hearth best fits a little fire,
v,A little chapel fits a little choir;
As my small bell best fits my little spire.
A little stream best fits a little boat,
A little lead best fits a little float;
As my small pipe best fits my little note.
Robert Herrick
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Pray be Silent
H ebe a pretty baby lies,
Snug asleep with lullabies ;
Pray be silent and not stir
The easy earth that covers her.
Robert Herrick
More Rich Than Cleopatra’s Tomb
I saw a fly within a bead
Of amber cleanly buried :
The urn was little, but the room
More rich than Cleopatra’s tomb.
Robert Herrick
Robert Herrick Sings
I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds, and bowers,
Of April, May, of June, and July flowers ;
I sing of maypoles, hock-carts, wassails, wakes,
Of bridegrooms, brides, and of their bridal-cakes.
I write of youth, of Love, and have access
By these, to sing of cleanly wantonness.
I sing of dew r s, of rains, and, piece by piece,
Of balm, of oil, of spice, and ambergris.
I sing of times trans-shifting ; and I write
How roses first came red and lilies white.
9.9
Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May
G ather ye rosebuds while ye may:
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be done.
The nearer he’s to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer ;
But, being spent, the worse and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And whilst ye may go marry ;
For having lost but once your prime,
. . You may for ever tarry. ■. .
' Robert Herrick
100
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
A Brother Itemcmhers His Sister
To the Pure Soul of My
SISTER UESRIETTE
Who Died at Byblos, 24th of September, 1S61
o you remember, in the bosom of God where you are now at
rest, those long days at Gluizir, where, alone with you, I wrote
these pages which drew their inspiration from the places we had
visited together ?
Sitting silently by my side you read over every page, and copied
it as soon as written ; at our feet stretched the sea, the villages, the
ravines, and the mountains. When the overpowering light of day
had given place to the unnumbered army of the stars your thoughtful
doubts led me back to the sublime object of our common thoughts.
One day you told me that you would love this book, because it
had been written with yon, and .also because it was after your own
heart. If at times you feared for it the narrow judgments of the
man of frivolous mind, you were always full of assurance that truly
religious souls would end by finding pleasure in it. In the midst of
these sweet meditations the Angel of Death smote both of us with
his pinion ; the slumber of fever seized us at the self-same hour; I
awakened alone.
Now you sleep in the land of Adonis, near holy By bios and the
sacred waters whither the women of the ancient mysteries were
wont to come and mingle their tears. O, my good genius, reveal to
me, whom you loved, these verities that have kingship over death,
that shield us from the dread of it, that almost make us love it!
Ernest Renan's dedication of his Life of Jesus
The Morning Star
T hou wert the morning star among the living,
Ere thy fair light had fled :
Now, having died, thou art as Hesperus giving
New splendour to the dead.
Shelley's version of Plato's lines to Stella
Let Me Grow Lovely, Growing Old
L et me grow lovely, growing old,
So many old things do :
Laces and ivory and gold,
And silks, need not be new.
And there is healing in old trees.
Old streets a glamour hold,
Why may not I, as well as these.
Grow lovely, growing old ?
Karle Wilson Baker
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
101
The Excellent Mrs Partington
I do not mean to be disrespectful, but the attempt of the Lords to
stop the progress of reform reminds me very forcibly of the great
storm of Sidmouth, and of the conduct of the excellent Mrs Partington.
on the occasion.
In the winter of 1824 there set in a great flood upon that town;
The tide rose to an incredible height, the waves rushed in upon the
houses, and everything was threatened with destruction ! In the
midst of this sublime and terrible storm Dame Partington, who lived
upon the beach, was seen at the door of her house with mop and
pattens, trundling her mop, squeezing out the seawater, and vigorously
pushing away the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic was roused. Mrs
Partington’s spirit was up ; but I need not tell you that the contest
was unequal. The Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs Partington. She was
excellent with a slop or a puddle, but she should not have meddled
with a tempest.
Gentlemen, be at your ease. Be quiet and steady. You will
beat Mrs Partington. Sidney Smith at Taunton in 1832
Ye Little Birds that Sit and Sing
Y e little birds that sit and sing
Amidst the shady valleys,
And see how Phillis sweetly walks
Within her garden alleys :
Go, pretty birds, about her bower;
Sing, pretty birds, she may not lower ;
Ah me ! methinks I see her frown !
Ye pretty wantons, warble.
Go, tell her through your chirping bills,
As you by me are bidden,
To her is only known my love,
Which from the world is hidden.
Go, pretty birds, and tell her so ;
See that your notes strain not too low,
For still methinks I see her frown ;
Ye pretty wantons, warble.
O fly 1 make haste ! see, see, she falls
Into a pretty slumber !
Sing round about her rosy bed
That, waking, she may wonder:
Say to her, tis her lover true
That sendeth love to you, to you I
And when you hear her kind reply.
Return with pleasant warblings.
Thomas Heywood
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
There Was a Little Girl
T here was a little girl
And she had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good
She was very very good,
But when she was bad she was horrid.
One day she went upstairs
When her parents, unawares,
In the kit chen were occupied with meals.
And she stood upon her head
In her little truckle-bed,
And then began hooraying with her heels.
Her mother heard the noise,
And she thought it was the boys
A-playing at a combat in the attic ;
But. when she climbed the stair,
And found Jemima there,
She took and she did spank her most emphatic.
Old Rhyme by •writer unknown
Be Would Not Live Again
WordsiooTth having asked Southey if he would like to live
his youth over again, Southey answered in these lines.
D o I regret the past ?
Would I again live o’er
The morning hours of life ?
Nay, William, nay, not so !
In the warm joyaunce of the summer sun
I do not wish again
The changeful April day.
Nay, William, nay, not so !
Safe havened from the sea
I would not tempt again
The uncertain ocean’s wrath.
Praise be to him who made me what I am,
Other I would not be.
No, William, no, I would not live again
The morning hours of life ;
I would not be again
The slave of hope and fear;
I would not learn again
The wisdom by experience hardly taught.
All That is Best in the World
oetky makes immortal all that is best and most
beautiful in the world. Shelley
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
103
Poor Jim Dick
W hen I was a small boy there was a black boy in the neighbour¬
hood by the name of Jim Dick. I and my playfellows
tormented the poor black by calling him Negro, Blackamoor, and
other names.
The poor fellow appeared excessively grieved at our conduct and
soon left us. Later on, skating in the neighbourhood, I had the
misfortune to break my skates, and I could not go without borrowing
Jim’s skates. I went to him and asked him for them. “ Oh, yes,
Robert, you may have them and welcome,” was his answer. When
I went to return them I told Jim I had returned his skates and was
under great obligations to him for his kindness. With tears in his
eyes he said, “ Robert, don’t ever call me a Blackamoor again ! ”
and immediately left the room.
The words pierced my heart and I burst into tears, and from that
time I resolved never again to abuse a poor black. Robert Southey
Bird of the Wilderness
B ird of the wilderness,
Blithesome and cumberless.
Sweet be thy matin o’er mountain and lea 1
Emblem of happiness.
Blest is thy dwelling-place,
O to abide in the desert with thee !
Wild is thy lay and loud.
Far in the downy cloud.
Love gives it energy, love gave it birth;
Where, on thy dewy wing.
Where art thou journeying ?
Thy lay is in Heaven, thy love is on Earth.
O’er fell and fountain sheen.
O’er moor and mountain green,
O’er the red streamer that heralds the day.
Over the cloudlet dim,
Over the rainbow’s rim.
Musical cherub, soar, singing, away !
Then, when the gloaming comes,
Low in the heather blooms,
Sweet will thy welcome and bed of love be.
Emblem of happiness.
Blest is thy dwelling-place,
O to abide in the desert with thee !
James Hogg
104 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Pessimism
M an, so fat as natural science by itself is able to (each us, is no
longer the final cause of the Universe, the Heaven-descended
heir of all the ages. His very existence is an accident, his story a
brief and transitory episode in the life of one of the meanest of
the planets.
Of the combination of causes which first converted a dead organic
compound into the living progenitors of humanity Science indeed as
yet knows nothing. It is enough that from such beginnings famine,
disease, and mutual slaughter, fit nurses of the future lords of creation,
have gradually evolved a race with conscience enough to fed that it is
vile and intelligence enough to know that if is insignificant.
We survey the past, and see that its history is of blood and tears,
of helpless blundering, of wild revolt, of stupid acquiescence, of empty
aspirations. We sound the future, and learn that after a period,
long compared with the individual lift*, but short indeed compared
with the divisions of time open to our investigation, the energies of
our system will decay, the glory of the sun will be dimmed, and the
earth, tideless and inert, will no longer tolerate the race which has for
a moment disturbed its solitude.
Man will go down into the pit, and all Ids thoughts will perish.
The uneasy consciousness which in this obscure comer has for a
brief space broken the contented silence of the Universe will be at
rest. Matter will know itself no longer. Imperishable monuments
and immortal deeds, death itself and love stronger than death, will
be as though they had never been. Nor will anything that is be
better or be worse for all that the labour, genius, devotion, and
suffering of the man have striven through countless generations
to effect. Lord Balfour on what Science
without Faith has to teach us
The Infinite and Eternal Energy
B ut one truth must grow ever clearer—the truth that there is an
Inscrutable Existence everywhere manifested, to which we can
neither find nor conceive beginning or end. Amid the mysteries
which beeome the more mysterious the more they are thought about,
there will remain the one absolute certainty that we are ever in
the presence of an Infinite and Eternal Energy from which all
things proceed. Herbert Spencer
The Awful Mystery
I think it is one of the most awful of mysteries that we have lives
apart from those we love most, that we can go on living after the
connection, which seems to be life itself, is snapped. Certainly
something, some vital part in us, does die then.
Sir J. M. Barrie
CN
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ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 105
Who Counsels Peace at this Momentous Hour?
W ho counsels peace at this momentous hour,
When God hath given deliverance to the oppressed,
And to the injured power ?
Who counsels peace, when Vengeance like a flood
Rolls on, no longer now to be repressed ;
When innocent blood
From the four corners of the world cries out
For justice upon one accursed head ;
When Freedom hath her holy banners spread
Over all nations, now in one just cause
United ; when with one sublime accord
Europe throws off the yoke abhorred,
The Loyalty and Faith of Ancient Laws
Follow the avenging sword ?
Woe, woe to England ! woe and endless shame,
If this heroic land.
False to her feelings and unspotted fame,
Hold out the olive to the Tyrant’s hand !
Woe to the world, if Buonaparte’s throne
Be suffered still to stand !
For by what names shall Right and Wrong be known ;
What new and courtly phrases must we feign
For falsehood, murder, and all monstrous crimes,
If that perfidious Corsican maintain
Still his detested reign.
And France, who yearns, even now to break her chain
Beneath his iron rule be left to groan ?
Written by Robert Southey during the
negotiations with Napoleon in 1814
Rider Haggard Commits Himself to the Everlasting Arms
S o ends the chronicle of Henry Rider Haggard, a lover of the
kindly race of men, a lover of children, a lover of his friends (and
no hater of his enemies), a lover of flowers, a lover of the land and of
all creatures that dwell thereon, but most of all, perhaps, a lover of
his country, which, with heart and soul and strength, he has tried
to serve to the best of his small powers and opportunities.
_ Thus, then, poor sinner though I am, trustfully as a wearied
child that at the coming of the night creeps to its mother’s knee, do
I commit my spirit to the comfort of those Everlasting Arms that
were and are its support through all the fears of Earth, and, as I
believe, have nursed it from of old.”
The last words of the last book of Rider Haggard
106
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Realities and the Shadow
When Wilkes was in the Escurial , looking at Titian's famous
picture of The Last Supper , an old Jemnimite said to Mm:
I HAVE sat daily in sight of that picture for now nearly threescore
years ; during that time my companions have dropped off one
after another—all who were my seniors, all who were my contem¬
poraries, and many or most of those who were younger than myself;
more than one generation has passed away, and there the figures in
the picture have remained unchanged 1 I look at them till I some¬
times think that they are the realities and we but shadows.
Robert Southey
The Passing-On of George Meredith
H e strode up the hill whirling his staff, for which he had no longer
any other use. His hearing was again so acute that from far
away on the Dorking road he could hear the rumbling of a coach.
It had been disputed whether he should be buried in Westminster
Abbey or in a quiet churchyard, and there came to him somehow a
knowledge (it was the last he ever knew of little things) that people
had been at variance as to whether a casket of dust should be laid
away in one hole or in another, and he flung back his head with the
old glorious action, and laughed a laugh “ broad as a thousand beeves
at pasture.”
Box Hill was no longer deserted. When a great man dies—and
this was one of the greatest since Shakespeare—the immortals await
him at the top of the nearest hill. He looked up and saw his peers.
They were all young, like himself. He waved the staff in greeting.
One, a mere stripling, “ slight unspeakably,” R. L, S. detached him¬
self from the others, crying gloriously, “ Here’s the fellow I have
been telling you about 1 ” and ran down the hill to be the first to
take his Master’s hand. In the meanwhile an empty coach was
rolling on to Dorking. J- M. Barrie
Good-Night
G ood-night 1 Good-night! parting is such sweet sorrow
That I shall say Good-night till it be morrow.
Shakespeare’s Juliet
Who Would Escape ?
P olonivs : The actors are come. I will use them according to
their desert.
Hamlet : God’s bodykins, man, much better: use every man
after his desert and who should ’scape whipping ? Shakespeare
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
107
We Build the Ladder by which We Rise
I count this thing to be grandly true,
That a noble deed is a step toward God,
Lifting the soul from the common sod
To a purer air and a broader view.
We hope, we aspire, we resolve, we trust,
When the morning calls us to life and light,
But our hearts,,grow weary, and, ere the night,
Our lives are trailing the sordid dust.
Only in dreams is a ladder thrown
From the weary earth to the sapphire walls ;
But the dream departs, and the vision falls,
And the sleeper wakes on his pillow of stone.
Heaven is not reached at a single bound :
But we build the ladder by which we rise
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies,
And we mount to its summit round by round.
Josiah Gilbert Holland
Isle of Beauty , Fare Thee Well
S hades of evening close not o’er us,
Leave our lonely bark awhile ;
Mom, alas ! will not restore us
Yonder dim and distant isle.
Still my fancy can discover
Sunny spots where friends may dwell;
Darker shadows round us hover,
Isle of Beauty, fare thee well 1
Tis the hour when happy faces
Smile around the taper’s light;
Who will fill our vacant places ?
Who will sing our songs tonight ?
Through the mist that floats above us
Faintly sounds the vesper bell,
Like a voice from those who love us,
Breathing fondly, Fare thee well!
When the waves are round me breaking,
As I pace the deck alone.
And my eye is vainly seeking
Some green leaf to rest upon t
When on that dear land I ponder,
Where my old companions dwell,
Absence makes the heart grow fonder,
Isle of Beauty, fare thee well! ■
Thomas Haynes Bayly
108
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
She W ore a Wreath of Roses
S ir!'' wore a wreath of roses
The night that first we met ;
Her lovely face was smiling
Beneath her curls of jet.
Her footstep had the lightness
Her voice the joyous tone,—
The tokens of a youthful heart,
Where sorrow is unknown.
I saw her but a moment,
Yet methinks I see her now,
With the wreath of summer Slowers
Upon her snowy brow.
A wreath of orange-blossoms,
When next we met, she wore ;
The expression of her features
Was more thought ful than before ;
And standing by her side was one
Who strove, and not in vain,
To soothe her, leaving that dear home
She ne’er might view again.
I saw her but a moment,
Yet methinks I see her now,
With the wreath of orange-blossoms
Upon her snowy brow.
And once again I sec that brow ;
No bridal-wreath is there,
The widow’s sombre cap conceals
Her once luxuriant hair.
She weeps in silent solitude.
And there is no one near
To press her hand within his own.
And wipe away the tear.
I see her broken-hearted ;
Yet methinks I see her now.
In the pride of youth and beaut y,
With a garland on her brown
Thomas Haynes Bayly
A Poor Woman in a Foreign Land
M y lords, I am a poor woman, lacking wit to answer to any such
noble persons of wisdom as you be in so weighty a matter;
therefore, I pray you, be good to me, poor woman, destitute of friends
here in a foreign land, Katharine of Aragon to the Cardinals
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 109
A Hundred Years to Come
W here, where will be the birds that sing*
A hundred years to come ?
The flowers that now in beauty spring,
A hundred years to come ?
The rosy cheek.
The lofty brow.
The heart that beats
So quickly now ?
Where, where will be our hopes and fears,
Joy’s pleasant smiles and sorrow’s tears,
A hundred years to come ?
Who’ll press for gold the crowded street,
A hundred years to come ?
Who’ll tread yon aisle with willing feet,
A hundred years to come ?
Pale, trembling age
And fiery youth.
And childhood with
Its brow of truth ;
The rich, the poor, on land and sea :
Where will the mighty millions be,
A hundred years to come ?
We all within our graves will sleep,
A hundred years to come ;
No living soul for us will weep,
A hundred years to come ;
And others then
Our lands will till.
And other men
Our homes will fill.
And other birds will sing as gay,
And bright the sun shine as today,
A hundred years to come.
Hiram Dodd Spencer
0, Call Back Yesterday
O ne day too late, 1 fear me, noble lord,
Hath clouded all thy happy days on earth :
O, call back yesterday, bid time return.
And thou shalt have twelve thousand fighting men !
Today, today, unhappy day, too late,
O’erthrows thy joys, friends, fortune, and thy state ;
For all the Welshmen, hearing thou wert dead,
Are gone to Bolingbroke, dispersed and fled.
Salisbury in Shakespeare's Richard the Second
110
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Shepherd in His Serenity
C ortn : And how do you like this shepherd’s life. Master Touch¬
stone ?
Touchstone: Truly, shepherd, in respect of itself, it is a good life
but in respect that, it is a shepherd’s life it is naught! Now’
in respect it is in the fields it pleases me well ; but in respect it is not
in the court it pleases me naught. Wast ever in court, shepherd ?
Corin: No truly. I ain a true labourer : I earn that I eat, get
that I wear, owe no man hate, envy no man’s happiness, glad of
other men’s good, content with my harm, and the greatest of my
pride is to see my ewes graze and my lambs suck.
Shakespeare in As You Like It
Shall Caesar Send a Lie ?
C aesar : Shall Caesar send a lit; ?
Have I in conquest stretched mine arm so far
To be afeared to tell gray beards the truth ?
Shakespeare
After Life’s Fitful Fever He Sleeps Well
D uncan is in his grave ;
After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well;
Treason has done his worst: nor, steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
Can touch him further. Macbeth
The Bright Day is Done
F inish, good lady ; the bright day is done.
And we are for the dark.
Cleopatra's lady-in-waiting
The FauU is in Ourselves
B rutus .• Another general shout 1
I do believe that these applauses are
For some new honours that are heaped on Caesar.
Cassius: Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates :
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Julius Caesar
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Bay is Near
T he time of universal peace is near:
Prove this a prosperous day.
Shakespeare
111
The Philosophy of Sir Toby Belch
D ost thou think because thou art virtuous there shall be
more cakes and ale ? Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night
no
Tomorrow
T omorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day.
To the last syllable of recorded time ;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The,way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle !
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more ; it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. Shakespeare
She Never Told Eer Love
S he never told her love
But let concealment, like a worm i’ the bud,
Feed on her damask, cheek ; she pined in thought,
And with a green and yellow melancholy
She sat like Patience on a monument,'
Smiling at grief. Twelfth Night
Bottom the Weaver Comes Upon a Wonder
1-piTANiA. : Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.
Bottom: Not so, neither : but if I had wit enough to
get out of this wood I have enough to serve mine own turn.
Titania: Out of this wood do not desire to go i
Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.
I am a spirit of no common rate:
The summer still doth tend upon my state;
And I do love thee : therefore, go with me;
I’ll give thee fairies to attend on thee,
And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep :
And I will purge thy mortal grossness so
That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.
Midsummer Night's Dream
112
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Bottom’s Dream
B ottom When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer I h
had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit If
man to say what dream it was : man is but an ass if he <r 0 about t
expound this dream. Mcthought I was—there is no man‘can Ml
what. Mcthought I was, and mcthought I had—but man is but a
patched fool if he wall offer to say what mcthought I had. The ev
of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is
not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report
what my dream was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of
this dream : it shall be called Bottom’s Dream.
Midsummer [Sight's Dream,
Dost Thou So Hunger for Mine Empty Chair ?
One of the poignant moments of drama in Shakespeare is that when the dmna
Henry the kourlhmiagmes his son to be longing for the crown and rebukes him in
these moving words. m
P rince : I never thought to hear you speak again.
King: Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought:
I stay too long by thee ; I weary thee.
Dost thou so hunger for mine empty chair
That thou wilt needs invest thee with my honours
Before thy hour be ripe ? 0 foolish youth !
Thou scek’st the greatness that will overwhelm thee.
Stay, but a little ; for my cloud of dignity
Is held from falling with so weak a wind
That it will quickly drop ; my day is dim.
What! canst thou not forbear me half an hour ?
Then get thee gone and dig my grave thyself,
And bid the merry bells to ring thine ear
That thou art crowned, not that I am dead.
Let all the tears that should bedew my hearse
Be drops of balm to sanctify thy head.
Only compound me with forgotten dust ;
Give that which gave thee life unto the worms.
Pluck down my officers, break my decrees ;
For now a time is come to mock at form :
Harry the Fifth is crowned : up, vanity I
Down, royal state ! all you sage counsellors, hence,
And to the English court assemble now
From every region, apes of idleness 1
0 my poor kingdom, sick with civil blows !
When that my care could not withhold thy riots,
What wilt thou do when riot is thy care ?
0, thou wilt be a wilderness again.
Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants 1
From Henry the Fourth
SHAKESPEARE, BY RICHARD BURBAGE
SIR WALTER SCOTT, BY SIR EDWIN LANDSEER
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS . THINGS 113
This England Never Did Nor Never Shall
T his England never did, nor never shall.
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror,
But when it first did help to wound itself.
Now these her princes are come home again,
Come the three corners of the world in arms,
And we shall shock them. Nought shall make us rue.
If England to itself do rest but true.
Shakespeare’s King John
Did Shakespeare Say This ?
OHAKEsmsEwas godfather to one of Ben Jonson’s children, and
O after the christening, being in a deep study, Jonson came to
cheer him up, and asked him why he was so malancholy.
No faith, Ben (says he), not I, I have been considering a great
while what should be the fittest gift for me to bestow upon^my god¬
child, and I am resolved at last. • J ®
I prythee what ? says he.
I faith, Ben (says he), I’ll e’en give him a dozen good latten
spoons, and thou shalt translate them.
An old story of the time, the only
conversation recorded of Shakespeare
On the Word of a King
W as there ever such stuff as the great part of Shakespeare ? Is
it not sad stuff ? But one must not say so.
George the Third to Miss Burney
Handel Blind
W hen Handel was blind he composed his Samson, in which there
is that most touching of all songs, Total Eclipse :
Total Eclipse ! no sun, no moon.
All dark amidst the blaze of noon !
O glorious light! no cheering ray
To glad my eyes with welcome day J
Why thus deprived Thy prime decree ?
Sun, moon, and stars are dark to me.
Mr Beard was the great tenor singer of the day, who was to sing
this song. Handel sent for him. Mr Beard, he said, I cannot sing
it as it should be sung, but I can tell you how it ought to be sung.
_ And then he sang it, with what strange pathos need not be told
Beard stood listening, and when it was finished said, with tears in
his eyes, But, Mr Handel, I can never sing it like that.
Story told by Edward Fitzgerald
F.T.— 8
114
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Grief Can Wait
W eep not, my wanton, smile upon my knee,
When you art old there’s grief enough for thee.
Robert Greene in Shakespeare's day
The Upstart Crow
T here is an upstart crow beautiful with our feathers, that, with
his tiger’s heart wrapped in a player’s hide, supposes he' is as
well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you. ... It is
a pity men of such rare wits should be subject to the pleasures of such
rude grooms. Robert Greene's churlish reference
to his rival William Shakespeare
England’s Moat
I T may be said now to England, Martha, Martha, thou art busy
about many things, but one thing is necessary. To the question
What shall we do to be saved in this world ? there is no other answer
but this. Look to your moat.
The first article of an Englishman’s political creed must be that
he believeth in the sea. Without that there needeth no General
Council to pronounce him incapable of salvation here.
We are in an island, confined to it by God Almighty, not as a
penalty but a grace, and one of the greatest that can be given
to mankind. Lord Halifax in the Seventeenth Century
Here’s an Acre Rich Indeed
M ortality, behold and fear !
What a change of flesh is here 1
Think how many royal bones
Sleep within this heap of stones :
Here they lie had realms and lands
Who now want strength to stir their hands :
Where from their pulpits sealed with dust
They preach “ In greatness is no trust.”
Here’s an acre sown indeed
With the richest, royallest seed
That the earth did e’er suck in
Since the first man died for sin.
Here the bones of birth have cried :
Though gods they were, as men they died /
Here are sands, ignoble things,
Dropt from the ruined sides of kings ;
Here’s a world of pomp and state
Buried in dust, once dead by fate.
Written in Shakespeare's day by Francis Beaumont
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Lie Lightly , Earth
L ay a garland on my hearse.
Of the dismal yew ;
Maidens, willow branches bear ;
Say I died true ;
My love was false, but I was firm
From my hour of birth.
Upon my buried body lie
Lightly, gentle earth 1
Beaumont and Fletcher
And Shall Trelawny Die ?
A good sword and a trusty hand 1
A merry heart and true !
King James’s men shall understand
What Cornish lads can do.
And have they fixed the where and when ?
And shall Trelawny die ?
Here’s twenty thousand Cornish men
Will know the reason why !
Out spake their captain brave and bold,
A merry wight was he :
If London Tower were Michael's hold
We'll set Trelawny free !
We'll cross the Tamar, land to land.
The Severn is no stay.
With one and all, and hand in hand.
And who shall bid us Nay ?
Trelawny he's in keep and hold,
Trelawny he may die ;
But here's twenty thousand Cornish bold
Will know the reason why /
Robert Stephen Hawker
Life Mas No More to Give
S ay not, because he did no wondrous deed.
Amassed no worldly gain,
Wrote no great book, revealed no hidden truth.
Perchance he lived in vain ;
For there was grief within a thousand hearts
The hour he ceased to live:
He held the love of women and of men
Life has no more to give !
Charlotte Becker
115
116 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
England Invincible
E ngland has been destroyed every ten or fifteen years, from the
time of the Armada to the present day, in the prophecies of men.
Every few years she has been about to be overthrown by sea;
she has been about to be ploughed up by the land; she has been
about to be stripped of her resources in India and in other parts of
the globe. Nations have formed alliances against her; the armies
and fleets of the civilised world have gone about her; her interests
have been repeatedly and violently assailed, and yet she stood,
as she now stands, mistress of the seas, and the strongest power
on Earth. Henry Ward Beecher
The Crows at Washington
S low flapping to the western sun
By twos and threes in setting rows,
As twilight shadows dimly close,
The crows fly over Washington.
I stand and watch with clouded eyes
These dim battalions move along ;
Out of the distance memory cries
Of days when life and hope were strong,
When love was prompt and wit was gay ;
Even then, at evening, as today,
I -watched, while twilight hovered dim
Over Potomac’s curving rim,
This selfsame flight of homing crows
Blotting the sunset’s fading rose
Above the roofs of Washington.
John Hay
Never More
N ever, oh, never more shall I behold
A sunrise on the glacier : stars of mom
Paling in primrose round the crystal horn ;
Soft curves of crimson mellowing into gold
O’er sapphire chasm, and silvery snowfield cold ;
Fire that o’erfloods the horizon ; beacons borne
From wind-worn peak to storm-swept peak forlorn ;
Clear hallelujahs through heaven’s arches rolled.
Never, oh, never more these feet shall feel
The firm elastic tissue of upland turf,
Or the crisp edge of the high rocks ; or cling
Where the embattled cliffs beneath them reel
Through cloud-wreaths eddying like the Atlantic surf,
Far, far above the wheeling eagle’s wing.
John Addington Symonds
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 117
Good-Night , Friend
W hen you meet a countryman after dusk he greets you and wishes
you Good-night ; and you return his greeting and call him
& riend. * It seems as though a feeling something like brotherhood
rose up m every heart at the approach of the hour when we are all to
be gathered together beneath the wings of sleep. Augustus Hare
Nouveau Riche
M y babe and I in muddy ditch
Lie newly side by side ;
Praised be the God who made me rich,
But keep my soul from pride.
Lean arms I clasp and bitter rags
For shelter round my boy ;
Forgive the queen in me that brags.
Oh You who sent the joy.
Janet Begbie
Old Ironsides
A y, tear her tattered ensign down S
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky ;
Beneath it rung the battle shout,
And burst the cannon’s roar;
The meteor of the ocean air
Shall sweep the clouds no more.
Her deck, once red with hero’s blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
Where winds were hurrying o’er the flood.
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor’s tread,
Or know the conquered knee ;
The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea.
O better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave ;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep.
And there should be her grave ;
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms.
The lightning and the gale.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
118 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Hail and Farewell
At a breakfast party in St John's College, Cambridge, this Hail
and Farewell teas read to the guest, Oliver IV end ell Holmes «
B y all sweet memory of the saints and sages
Who wrought among us in the clays of "’yore ;
By youth who, turning now life’s early pages,
Ripen to match the worthies gone before ;
On us, O son of England's greatest daughter,
A kindly word from heart and tongue bestow;
Then chase the sunsets o’er the western water
And hear our blessing with you as you go.
A Pod and IIis Trees
I F it is something to make two blades of grass grow where only one
was growing, it is much more to have been the occasion of the
planting of an oak which shall defy twenty scores of winters, or of an
elm which shall canopy with its green cloud of foliage half as many
generations of mortal immortalit ies.
I have written many verses, but. the best poems I have produced
are the trees I planted on the hillside that overlooks the broad
meadows. Nature finds rhymes for them in the recurring measures
of the seasons. Winter strips them of their ornaments and gives
them, as it were, in prose translation; ami Summer clothes them in
all the splendour of their leafy language. Oliver IVendell Holmes
A Child Asleep
T hou sleepest—but when wilt thou wake, fair child ?
When the fawn awakes in the forest wild ?
When the lark’s wing mounts wit h t he breeze of mom ?
When the first rich breath of the rose is born ?
Lonely thou sleepest 1 yet something lies
Too deep and still on thy soft-scaled eyes ;
Mournful, though sweet, is thy rest to see :
When will the hour of thy rising be ?
Not when the fawn wakes ; not when the lark
On the crimson cloud of the morn Hunts dark.
Grief with vain passionate tears hath wet
The hair, shedding gleams from thy pale brow yet;
Love, with sad kisses unfelt, hath pressed
Thy meek-dropt eyelids and quiet breast;
And the glad spring, calling out bird and bee,
Shall colour all blossoms, fair child, but thee.
Thou’rt gone from us, bright one ! That thou should’st die,
And life be left to the butterfly 1
Felicia Ilemans, on looking at a
Chantrey monument of a child sleeping
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 1
There Was Heard the Sound of a Coming Foe
T here was heard the sound of a coming foe.
There was sent through Britain a bended bow;
And a voice was poured on the free winds far.
As the land rose up at the sign of war.
Heard you not the battle horn ?
Reaper, leave thy golden com.
Leave it for the birds of heaven*
Swords must flash, and spears be riven.
Leave it for the winds to shed :
Arm, ere Britain’s turf grow red !
And the reaper armed , like a freeman's son ;
And the bended bow and the voice passed on.
Hunter, leave the mountain-chase,
Take the falchion from its place ;
Let the wolf go free today.
Leave him for a nobler prey.
Let the deer ungalled sweep by :
Arm thee ! Britain’s foes are nigh !
And the hunter armed ere the chase was done ;
And the bended bow and the voice passed on.
Chieftain, quit the joyous feast.
Stay not till the song hath ceased.
Though the mead be foaming bright,
Though the fires give ruddy light,
Leave the hearth, and leave the hall:
Arm thee ! Britain’s foes must fall.
And the chieftain armed , and the horn was blown ;
And the bended bow and the voice passed on.
Prince, thy father’s deeds are told,
In the ower and in the hold :
Where the goatherd’s lay is sung.
Where the minstrel’s harp is strung.
Foes are on thy native sea :
Give our bards a tale of thee.
And the prince came armed , like a leader's son ;
And the bended bow and the voice passed on.
Mother, stay not thou thy boy,
He must learn the battle’s joy.
Sister, bring the sword and spear.
Give thy brother words of cheer.
Maiden, bid thy lover part,
Britain calls the strong in heart.
And the bended bow and the voice passed on ;
And the bards made song for a battle won. Felicia Bemans
120
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Happy Homes of England
T he stately homes of England !
How beautiful they stand,
Amidst their tall ancestral trees,
O’er all the pleasant land
The deer across their greensward bound,
Through shade and sunny gleam.
And the swan glides past them with the sound
Of sonic rejoicing stream.
The merry homes of England !
Around their hearths by night
What gladsome looks of household love
Meet in their ruddy light!
There woman’s voice flows forth in song,
Or childish tale is told,
Or lips move tunefully along
Some glorious page of old.
The blessed homes of England 1
How softly on their bowers
Is laid the holy quietness
That breathes from Sabbath hours 1
Solemn, yet sweet, the church bell’s chime
Floats through their woods at morn ;
All other sounds in that still time
Of breeze and leaf are born.
The cottage homes of England !
By thousands on her plains
They are smiling o’er the silvery brooks
And round the hamlet’s fanes.
Through glowing orchards forth they peep,
Each from its nook of leaves ;
And fearless there the lowly sleep.
As the birds beneath their eaves.
The free, fair homes of England 1
Long, long in hut and hall
May hearts of native proof be reared
To guard each hallowed wall I
And green for ever be the groves.
And bright the flowery sod,
Where first the child’s glad spirit loves
Its country and its God 1
Felicia Hemans
Seeing Trees
A fooh sees not the same trees as a wise
man sees. William Blake
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
121
James Russell Lowell to Oliver Wendell Holmes
O utlive us all! Who else like you
Could sift the seedcorn from our chaff,
And make us, with the pen we knew.
Deathless at least in epitaph ?
A 75th birthday greeting
The Gods be Praised, Pm Poor no More
T he Gods be praised, Fm poor no more 1
Henceforth, my friends, consider me
A gentleman of property;
My days of bread and scrape are o’er*
Farewell to Fortune's flouts and frowns,
Fve fifty crowns , Fve fifty crowns /
Yes, every year
1 pocket clear
A revenue of fifty crowns.
Comrades, the universe is mine I
I could, if so I chose, maintain
The splendour of a sovereign,
And with a hundred orders shine.
My roof shall never want a guest;
Relations, friends, of every hue,
Par excellence, my comrades, you.
All shall be feted on the best.
Farewell to Fortune's flouts and frowns,
Fve fifty crowns , Fve fifty crowns !
Yes, every year
I pocket clear
A revenue of fifty crowns.
Pierre Jean de Biranger
On, On, My Little Boat
B y tranquil breezes, night and mom,
Along a tranquil tide.
My little barque is lightly borne.
Wherever Fate may guide.
With swelling sail she wings away
Afar, afar we float.
(Sweet zephyr, softly round her play !)
On, on, my little boat!
With Fortune’s wind a port we’ll find.
On, on, my little boat 1
Pierre Jean de Biranger
122
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Feet of Angels Bright
T he sun descending in the west,
The evening star does shine ;
Tiie birds are silent in their nest.
And 1 must seek for mine.
Farewell green fields and happy grove.
Where floeks have taVn delight.
Where lambs have nibbled, silent move
The feet of angels bright.
They look in every thoughtless nest
Where birds are covered warm ;
They visit eaves of every beast.
To keep them all from harm.
William Blake
Little Rhymes by William Blake
T O see a world in a grain of sand.
And a heaven in a wild flower ;
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand.
And eternity in an hour.
A Robin Redbreast in a cage
Puts ail Heaven in a rage.
A dog starved at his master’s gate
Predicts the ruin of the State.
Each outcry of the hunted hare
A iibre from the brain doth tear.
A skylark wounded on the wing
Doth make a cherub cease to sing.
He who shall hurt a little wren
Shall never be beloved by men.
He who the ox to wrath has moved
Shall never be by woman loved.
Kill not the moth nor butterfly.
For the last judgment draweth nigh.
When gold and gems adorn the plough,
To peaceful arts shall Envy bow.
The poor man’s farthing is worth more
Than all the gold on Afrie’s shore.
A truth that’s told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.
He who doubts from what he sees
Will ne’er believe, do what you please.
From Auguries of Innocence
123
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
To Sweet Delight
E very night and every mom
Some to misery are born ;
Every mom and every night
Some are bom to sweet delight.
William Blake
Joy and Woe are Woven Fine
J oy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine ;
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.
It is right it should be so ;
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know
Safely through the world we go.
William Blake
Here Lies John Trot
H ere lies John Trot, the friend of all mankind :
He has not left one enemy behind.
Friends were quite hard to find, old authors say,
But now they stand in everybody’s way.
William Blake
The Poet Looks Forward to His Fame
M ore durable than brass the frame
Which here I consecrate to Fame ;
Higher than pyramids that rise
With royal pride to brave the skies ;
Nor years, though numberless the train,
Nor flight of seasons, wasting rain.
Nor winds, that loud in tempests break,
Shall e’er its firm foundation shake.
A nd now I have completed a work which neither the anger of Jove,
nor fire, nor steel, nor consuming Time will be able to destroy!
Let that day which has no power but over this body put an end to the
term of my uncertain life when it will. Yet, in my better part I shall
be raised immortal above the lofty stars, and indelible shall be my
name. And whenever the Roman power is extended throughout the
vanquished Earth I shall be read by the lips of nations, and if the
presage of poets have aught of truth, throughout all years shall I
survive in fame. Two translations of Horace's farewell to
his book, written before the first century
124 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Siceet Day so Calm mid Bright
S weet day .so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky,
The dew shall weep thy fall tonight;
For thou must die.
Sweet rose, whose hue, angry and brave.
Bids the rasli gazer wipe* his oje.
Thy root is ever in its grave,
And thou must die.
Sweet, spring, full of sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie,
My music shows ye have your closes,
And all must dim
Only a sweet and virtuous soul,
Like seasoned timber, never gives ;
But though the whole world turn to coal.
Then chiefly lives. George Herbert
The Man Unshaken
nnHE man tenacious of his purpose in a righteous cause is not shaken
X from his firm resolve by the frenzy of his fellow citizens bidding
what is wrong, not by the face of threatening tyrant, not by Auster
stormy master of the restless Adriatic, not by the mighty hand of
thundering Jove. Were the vault of heaven to break and fall upon
him its rums would smite him undismayed. Horace
Tom Brown Goes to School
r T 0 ; M ’ f y boy. ranemlxir that you are going, at your own request,
A to be chucked into tills great school like a young bear, with
all your troubles before you*—earlier, perhaps, than we should have
sent you, 1
If schools are what they were in my time you’ll see a great many
cruel things done, and hear a deal of had talk* But never fear* Tell
the truth ; keep a brave and kind heart; never say or listen to any-
thmg you wouldn’t have your mother hear, and you’ll never feel
ashamed to come home. Thomas Ilughes
The Chessboard
T’he chessboard is world 5 the pieces are the phenomena of the
lV Tw. e ’ , ru es of the game are what we call the Laws of
tw • pl f yer 0! ? * he other side » hidden from us. We know
JShwn “ always , fa \ r ’ J ust > a n d patient, but also we know to oux
fnr ioSSlf* neVer overIooks a mistake or makes the smallest allowance
for ignorance. Pro/mor BvsiUy
125
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Good Fight of Charles Darwin
O ne could not converse with Darwin without being reminded of
Socrates. There was the same desire to find someone wiser than
himself, the same belief in the sovereignty of reason, the anno ready
humour, the same sympathetic interest in all the ways and works
of men.
None have fought better and none have been more fortunate th a n
Charles Darwin. He found a great truth trodden underfoot, reviled
by bigots, and ridiculed by all the world ; he lived long enough to see
it irrefragably established in science, inseparably incorporated with
the common thoughts of men, and only hated and feared by those who
would revile, but dare not. What shall a man desire more than this ?
Once more the image of Socrates rises unbidden, and the noble
peroration of the Apology rings in our ears as if it were Charles
Darwin s farewell:
The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways—I to die and
you to live. Which is the Better, God only knows. Professor Huxley
Of All the Senseless Babble
I am utterly incapable of conceiving the existence of matter if there
is no mind in which to picture that existence.
Of all the senseless babble I have ever had occasion to read, the
demonstrations of those philosophers who undertake to tell us all
about the nature of God would be the worst if they were not sur¬
passed by the still greater absurdities of the philosophers who try to
prove that there is no God. Professor Huxley
The Absolute Justice of Things
T he ledger of the Almighty is strictly kept and every one of us has
the balance of his operations paid over to him at the end of
every minute of his existence.
The absolute justice of the system of things is as clear to me as any
scientific fact. The gravitation of sin to sorrow is as certain as that of
the earth to the sun, or more so. Professor Huxley
Professor Huxley’s Word to Youth
P rofessor Huxley having explained to a confident youth that no
man can explain the universe, the youth asked the professor:
What, then, is the use of all your learning if you know nothing at
the end of it ?
Huxley : I know nothing and you know nothing, but I know why
I know nothing and you don’t, and that is the difference between us.
120
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Panama Gang
H e«f. we are, gentlemen ; here’s the whole gang of us
Pretty near through with the job we are on ;
Size tip our work (it will give you the hang of us)
South to Balboa and north to Colon.
Yes, the eanal is our letter of reference ;
Look at Culrbra and glance at Gatun ;
What etui we do for you—got. any preference.
Wireless to Saturn or bridge to the moon ?
Don’t send us back to a life that is flat again,
We who have shattered a continent’s spine ;
Olliee work—oh, but we couldn’t do that again !
Haven’t pm something that’s more in our line ?
Got any river they say isn’t crossable ?
Got any mountains that can’t be cut through?
We specialise in the wholly impossible,
Doing things nobody ever could do !
Take a good look at the whole husky crew of us,
Engineers, doctors, and steam-shovel men ;
Taken together you’ll find quite a few of us
Soon to be ready for trouble again.
Bronzed by the tropical sun that is biistery,
Ghoekful of energy, vigour, and tang.
Trained by a task that’s the biggest in history,
Who has a job for this Panama (rang ?
Berton Braley
If the Earth Should Fall Tonight
I F this little world tonight
Suddenly should fall through space
In a hissing, headlong flight,
Shrivelling from off its face.
As it falls into the sun
In an instant every trace
Of the little crawling things—
Ants, philosophers, and lice.
Cattle, cockroaches, and kings,
Beggars, millionaires and mice,
Men and maggots all as one
As it falls into the sun ...
Who can say but at the same
Instant from some planet far,
A child may watch us and exclaim ;
See the pretty shooting star .
Oliver Uerford
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
127
The Names Come Ringing Down the Way
A round the good world’s wide expanse
Are places great and small
Whose names fair tingle with romance.
And I would see them all;
There’s Cairo, Fez, and Ispahan,
Bangkok and Singapore,
And Trebizonde and Cagayan
And Rio and Lahore.
There’s Sarawak and Callao,
Algiers and Kandahar,
Khartoum, Rangoon, and Tokio,
Bombay and Zanzibar;
About the name of each there clings
Enchantment’s golden veil,
The wonder of strange folk and things,
The glamour of the trail!
For some are north and some are south,
And some are east and west,
And some are cursed with heat and drouth,
And some with balm are blessed ;
But Capetown, Rhodes, or Frisco Bay,
Shanghai, Seville, or Rome,
Their names come singing down the way
To tempt me forth from home ;
Their magic’s ringing down the way
To lure me forth from home !
Berton Braley
The People Chosen of Cod
I never shall forget the emotion which filled me at the sight of
London. There she sat, the great empress of the seas, giving laws
to isles and continents, stretching afar over kings and peoples, not like
those of old, the rod of oppression, but the beneficent sceptre of her
riches and her liberty.
And I heard the hum of her vast industry, and through the streets
there poured the living sea of men and vehicles.
Then by-and-by there dawned a day, a day which was not like
other days ; no noisy wagons now in the streets, no throngs hurrying
to business ; the giant machine that had been roaring and thundering
the day before had suddenly stood still as if before the vision of God.
I look across the ocean, and there again I find this Anglo-Saxon race
clad in like grandeur under forms the most unlike. It is, I love to
think, the people chosen of God to renew the face of the earth, and to
prepare for those old truths and institutions which cannot pass away
newer and more enduring garments. Pere Hyaeinthe
128
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Emily Bronte’s Prayer
R iches I hold in light esteem.
And Love I laugh to scorn ;
And lust of fame, was but a dream
That vanished with the morn :
And, if I pray, the only prayer
That moves my lip for me
Is, “ Leave the heart that now I bear,
And give me liberty ! ”
Yea, as my swift days near their goal,
Tis all that I implore :
In life and death a chainless soul,
With courage to endure.
The Courage to Endure
T he windows of an old stone house on a hilltop looked out upon the
grey and purple Yorkshire moors.
The day was hot, and the door was left open towards the lane that
ran by the church to the fields. Three sisters .lived in the stone house
with their father, the clergyman of the parish, and one of the girls
thought she heard the panting of a dog in the lane. Going to the
door, she saw a pointer with tongue hanging distressfully out and
back bruised and scarred. '
She called the poor creature in, with the intention of giving it food
and water. As she stooped to pat its head the pointer snapped and
bit her arm, drawing blood, and then rushed away. The girl, who
was Emily Bronte, felt the bite, but thought little of it.
Presently, however, villagers passed that way and gave the alarm
that a mad dog was at large in the streets of Haworth, and Emily
Bronte at once became conscious of the danger of hydrophobia. She
walked into the laundry, where a maid was busy starching and iron¬
ing. There, with its point resting in the fire, was an Italian iron, and
this Miss Bronte took, thrusting the red-hot point into the wounds
caused by the dog’s teeth. Having thus cauterised the wounds, she
went upstairs, without a word, to regain her calm.
She lived to become famous with her sisters, and one of her poems
has been said to be the best poem ever written by woman.
■" From a Bronte biography
Thai Proud Island
across the sea in calm majesty lies that proud island whose
existence consoles me for a thousand Continental crimes, and
vindicates for me the goodness of Providence. Victor Hugo
THE BELFRY OF BRUGES
129
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Day Will Come
A DAY will come when you France, you Russia, you Italy, you
England, you Germany, all you nations of the Continent, sh all,
without losing your distinctive qualities and your glorious individual¬
ity* blend in a higher unity, and form a European fraternity, even as
Normandy, Brittany, Burgundy, all the French provinces, blended
into France.
A day will come when bullets and bombs shall be replaced by
ballots, by the universal suffrage of the people, by the sacred arbitra¬
ments of a great sovereign Senate, which shall be to Europe what the
Parliament is to England, what the Diet is to Germany, what the
Legislative Assembly is to France.
A day will come when a cannon shah be exhibited in our museums
as an instrument of torture is now, and men shall marvel that such
things could be.
tt f ?o y wiU c ?“ e when we sha11 see those two immense groups the
United States of America and the United States of Europe extending
hand to hand over the ocean, exchanging their products, their com¬
merce, their industry, their art, their genius, clearing the earth,
colonising deserts, ameliorating Creation under the eye of the Creator.
Victor Hugo
The Thing That is Greater Than All
M arius, almost without drawing breath, went on in a burst
ox enthusiasm:
Let us be just, my friends ! To be the Empire of such an Emperor,
what a destiny for a nation, when that nation was France, and her
genius was added to his! To rise and rule, to march in triumph,
with the capitals of the world for halting-places and kings for gren¬
adiers, to dethrone dynasties, to change the map of Europe by a
charge, to feel that your hand was on the sword-hilt of God, to follow
S u j , was Cannibal, Caesar, Charlemagne, in one, a man who
could dazzle you every morning with fresh victories, wake you by the
guns of the Invalides, fling great names into gulfs of light, names that
will shine for ever, Marengo, Areola, Austerlitz, Jena, Wagram ! To
set constellations of glory blazing in the skies of history, to m«i™ the
French Empire the peer of the Roman, to be the greatest nation and
give birth to the greatest army, to send out the legions over the earth
as a mountain sends forth its eagles, to triumph, to dominate, to
threaten, to be the one nation in Europe crowned and haloed with
glory, to sound a flourish across the centuries, to conquer the
world twice over, by conquest and by charm—it was stupendous,
sublime 1 What could be greater ? r
To be free, said Combfrere.
f.t.—9
Victor Hugo in Les Miserable»
130 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
In Our Century
tn the twentieth century war will be dead, the scaffold will be dead,
T hatred will be dead, frontier boundaries will be dead, dogmas will
he dead • man will live. He will possess something higher than all
these-a great country, the whole earth, and a great hope, the
whole hea?en. Victor Hugo
The Party Which Does Not Exist
_ •rt’P'r.esent a party which does not yet exist, the party of the
I Twentieth Century! out ot which will com..tot ofall the United
States of Europe and after that the United States "“teWcrid.
The Light from Unknown Worlds
t feel in myself the future life. I am like a forest once cut down ;
1 the new shoots are stronger and livelier than ever. I am nsing,
I know, toward the sky. The sunshine is on my head. The Earth
gives me its generous sap, but Heaven lights me with the reflection of
unknown worlds.
You say the soul is nothing but the resultant of the bodily powers.
Whv then, is my soul more luminous when my bodily powers begin to
fail ?' Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart. I
breathe at this hour the fragrance of the lilacs, the violets, and the
roses, as at twenty. The nearer I approach the end the plainer I hear
around me the immortal symphonies of the worlds. It is marvellous
yet simple. It is a fairy tale, and it is history.
For half a century I have been writing my thoughts in prose and in
verse; history, philosophy, drama, romance, tradition, satire, ode,
and song ; I have tried all. But I feel I have not said the thousandth
part of what is in me.
When I go down to the grave I can say, like many others, I have
finished my day's work. But I cannot say I have finished my life.
My day’s work will begin again the next morning. The tomb is not a
blind alley ; it is a thoroughfare. It closes on the twilight, it opens
on the dawn. Victor Hugo
The Ancient Warrior
F or Witherington my heart is woe
That ever he slain should be,
For when his legs were hewn in two
He fought upon his knee.
From the Ballad of Chevy Chase , which moved
Sir Philip Sidney more than a trumpet
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 131
A Little Sun, A Little Rain
A little sun, a little rain,
A soft wind blowing from the west,
And woods and fields are sweet again.
And warmth within the mountain’s breast.
A little love, a little trust,
A soft impulse, a sudden dream,
And life as dry as desert dust,
Is fresher than a mountain stream.
Stopford Brooke
Cmnmer’s Last Bay
C ranmee’s strangely mingled nature found a power in its very
weakness when he was brought into the Church of St Mary at
Oxford to repeat his recantation on the way to the stake.
M Now,” ended his address to the hushed congregation before him,
“ now I come to the great thing that troubleth my conscience more
than any other tiling that ever I said or did in my life, and that is the
setting abroad of writings contrary to the truth, which here I now
renounce and refuse as things written for fear of death to save my life,
if it might be. And, forasmuch as my hand offended in writing
contrary to my heart, my hand shall therefore be the first punished,
for if I come to the fire it shall be the first burned.”
46 This was the hand that wrote it,” he again exclaimed at the
stake, 44 therefore it shall suffer first punishment ” ; and holding it
steadily in the flame, he never stirred nor cried till life was gone.
Jokn Richard, Green
Chaucer to Mis Empty Purse
T o you, my Purse, and to no other wight
Complain I, for ye be my lady dear 1
I am so sorry now that ye be light.
For certain but ye make me heavy cheer
I were as lief be laid upon my bier,
For which unto your mercy thus I cry :
Be heavy again, or else must I die.'
' Now voucheth safe this day ere it be night
That I of you the blissful sound may hear,
Or see your colour as the sun is bright
That with its yellowness had ne’er a peer.
Queen of my comfort and of good company,
Be heavy again, or else must I die.
A free rendering of Chawer
132 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Conqueror Conquered
H e recked little of men’s love or hate. His grim look, his pride,
his silence, his wild outbursts of passion, spread terror through
his court.
His very wrath was solitary. “ To no man spake he, and no man
dared speak to him,” when the news reached him of Harold’s accession
to the throne. He found society only when he passed from the palace
to the loneliness of the woods. He loved the wild deer as though he
had been their father.
Death itself took its colour from the savage solitude of his life.
Priests and nobles fled as the last breath left him, and the Conqueror’s
body lay naked and lonely on the floor. John Richard Green
Geoffrey Chaucer to His Immortal Soul
F ab from mankind, my weary soul, retire.
Still follow truth, contentment still desire.
Who climbs on high at best his weakness shows.
Who rolls in riches all to fortune owes.
Read well thyself, and mark thy early ways,
Vain is the muse, and envy waits on praise.
Wavering as winds the breath of fortune blows.
No power can turn it and no prayers compose.
Deep in some hermit’s solitary cell
Repose and ease and contemplation dwell.
Let conscience guide thee in the days of need,
Judge well thy own, and then thy neighbour’s deed.
What heaven bestows with thankful eyes receive ;
First ask thy heart, and then through faith believe.
Slowly we wander o’er a toilsome way.
Shadows of life and pilgrims of a day.
Who restless in this world receives a fall,
Look upon high, and thank thy God for all!
Geoffrey Chaucer
Philip Sidney—By a Friend
T hough I lived with him, and knew him from a child, I never knew
him other than a man, with such staidness of mind and lovely
and familiar gravity as carried grace and reverence above greater
years, his talk ever of knowledge, and his very play tending to enrich
the mind. Fulke GreviUe on Sir Philip Sidney
Lament over Sidney
C ome to me grief for ever.
Come to me tears day and night,
Sidney, O Sidney, is dead.
By a writer unknown
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
188
Lift Up Tour Heart
L eave me, O Love, which, readiest but to dust ;■
And thou, my mind, aspire to higher things ;
Grow rich in that which never taketh rust;
Whatever fades, but fading pleasure brings.
Draw in thy beams, and humble all thy might
To that sweet yoke where lasting freedoms be ;
Which breaks the clouds, and opens forth the light
That doth both shine and give us sight to see.
O take fast hold ; let that light be thy guide
In this small course which birth draws out of death,
And think how ill becometh him to slide
Who seeketh heaven and comes of heavenly breath.
Then farewell, World ; thy uttermost I see :
Eternal Love, maintain thy life in me.
Sir Philip Sidney
The Tale Which Holdeth Children from their Play
N ow therein of all Sciences (I speak still of humane, and according
to the humane conceits) is our poet the monarch. For he doth
not only show the way, but giveth so sweet a prospect into the way as
will entice any man to enter into it.
Nay, he doth, as if your journey should lie through a fair Vine¬
yard, at the first give you a cluster of Grapes, that, full of that taste,
you may long to pass further.
He beginneth not with obscure definitions, which must blur the
margent with interpretations, and load the memory with doubt¬
fulness ; but he cometh to you with words set in delightful pro¬
portion, either accompanied with, or prepared for, the well-enchant¬
ing skill of Musick ; and with a tale forsooth he cometh unto you ;
with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from the
chimney-corner.
And, pretending no more, doth intend the winning of the mind
from wickedness to virtue : even as the child is often brought to take
most wholesome things by hiding them in such other as have a
pleasant taste ; which, if one should begin to tell them the nature of
aloes or rhubarb they should receive, would sooner take their physick
at their ears than at their mouth.
So it is in men (most of which are childish in the best things, till
they be cradled in their graves); glad they will be to hear the tales of
Hercules, Achilles, Cyrus, and Aeneas; and, hearing them, must
needs hear the right description of wisdom, valour, and justice;
which, if they had been barely, that is to say philosophically, set out
they would swear they be brought to school again.
. Sir Philip Sidney*
13 4, ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
My True Love Hath My Heart
\ tY true love hath my heart, and I have his,
M By just exchange one for another given :
I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss ;
There never was a better bargain driven :
My true love hath my heart and I have his.
His heart in me keeps him and me in one ;
My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides.
He loves my heart, for once it was his own,
I cherish his because in me it bides :
Mv true love hath my heart and I have his.
J Sir Philip Sidney
On the Doorsteps of the Rich
qimonides, asked by a lady whether it is better to be wise or
O wealthy, said :
To be wealthy, for I see the wise sitting on the doorsteps of the rich.
The Little Gleam Between Two Eternities
M en speak too much about the world. Each one of us here, let the
world go how it will, and be victorious or not victorious has he
not a life of his own to lead—one life, a little gleam of time between
two eternities ?
For the saving of the world I will trust confidently to the Maker of
the work; and look a little to my own saving, which I am more
competent to! ^ f7 CaHyLe
Courage, Brother
/-^ur grand business undoubtedly is not to see what lies dimly at a
V_) distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand. Courage, brother.
Get honest, and times will mend. Carlyle
The Man Who Did a Little Thing
H e who first shortened the labour of copyists by device of movable
types was disbanding hired armies, and cashiering most kings
and senates, and creating a whole new democratic world: he had
invented the art of printing, Ur y e
The Impossible
E veby noble work is at first impossible* Curlyle
. ■
The Miracle
T his world, after all our sciences, is still a miracle—wonderful,
inscrutable, magical to whosoever will think of it. Carlyle
185
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Poorest Day
T he poorest day that passes over us is the conflux of two Eternities ;
it is made up of currents that issue from the remotest Past and
flow onwards into the remotest Future. Carlyle
Two Men Talking
A lfred tennyson .* In my old age I should like to get away from
all this tumult and turmoil of civilisation and live on the top of a
tropical mountain. I should, at least, like to see the splendours of the
Brazilian forests before I die.
Thomas Carlyle: I would also like to quit it all.
Alfred Tennyson: If I were a young man I would head a colony
out somewhere or other.
Thomas Carlyle .* Oh, ay, so would I, to India or somewhere ;
but the scraggiest bit of heath in Scotland is more to me than all the
forests of Brazil. I am just twinkling away.
A conversation in 1879 ,
given in Tennyson*s Life
The Men of the Village of Dumdrudge
W hat is the net purport and upshot of war ? There dwell and
toil in the British village of Dumdrudge, usually some five
hundred souls. From these there are successively selected, during
the French war, say thirty able-bodied men.
Dumdrudge at her own expense has suckled and nursed them;
she has, not without difficulty and sorrow, fed them up to manhood,
and even trained them to crafts, so that one can weave, another
build, another hammer, and the weakest can stand under thirty
stone avoirdupois.
Nevertheless, amid much weeping and swearing, they are selected;
all dressed in red ; and shipped away, at the public charges, say to the
south of Spain ; and fed there till wanted.
And now to that same spot in the south of Spain, are thirty similar
French artisans, from a French Dumdrudge, in like manner wending :
till at length, after infinite effort, Thirty stands fronting Thirty,
each with a gun in his hand. Straightway the word Fire ! is given,
and they blow the souls out of one another; and in place of sixty
brisk, useful craftsmen, the world has sixty dead carcasses, which it
must bury, and anew shed tears for.
Had these men any quarrel ? Busy as the devil is, not the
smallest 1 They lived far enough apart; were the entirest stran¬
gers ; nay, in so wide a Universe there was even some mutual
helpfulness between them. How then ? Simpleton ! their Governors
had fallen out, and instead of shooting one another had the cunning
to make these poor blockheads shoot. Thomas Carlyle
136 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Ten Mistakes a Bay
I believe it is pretty well acknowledged that I am the best general
in Europe, yet I make ten mistakes a day. Ten, he repeated,
holding up his fingers. Conversations of Napoleon
The Value of Five Minutes
T ttr reason I beat the Austrians is that they did not know the value
of five minutes. Napoleon
Our Affair
N apoleon to a British Ambassador; I will make war on
Ambassador: That, Sire, is your affair.
you*
Napoleon: I will annihilate you.
Ambassador: That, Sire, is our affair.
The Fallen Conqueror
A victim to the factions which distract my country, and to the
enmity of the greatest Powers of Europe, I have terminated my
political career, and I come, like Themistocles, to throw myself upon
the hospitality of the British people.
I put myself under the protection of their laws, which I claim from
your Royal Highness, as the most powerful, the most constant, and
the most generous of my enemies. Napoleon to the Prince
Regent after Waterloo
Is This the Man of Thousand Thrones ?
T is done—but yesterday a king !
And armed with kings to strive—
And now thou art a nameless thing :
So abject—yet alive !
Is this the man of thousand thrones,
Who strewed our earth with hostile bones,
And can he thus survive ?
Since he, miscalled the Morning Star,
Nor man nor fiend hath fallen so far.
Lord Byron
The Conqueror
D o you know what amazes me more than anything else ? The
impotence of force to organise anything. There are only two
powers in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run
the sword will always be conquered by the spirit. Napoleon
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
137
In Some Unlucky Minute
C lorxs ! If I were Persia’s king,
I’d make my graceful queen of thee;
While Fanny, wild and artless thing,
Should but thy humble handmaid be.
There is but one objection in it,
That verily, I’m much afraid,
I should in some unlucky minute
Forsake the mistress for the maid !
Thomas Moore
The Rapids Are Near and Daylight Past
F aintly as tolls the evening chime
Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time.
Soon as the woods on the shore look dim
Well sing at St Anne’s our parting hymn.
Row, brothers, row, the stream runs fast.
The rapids are near and the daylight’s past.
Why should we yet our sail unfurl ?
There is not a breath the blue wave to curl;
But when the wind blows off the shore
Oh, sweetly well rest our weary oar.
Blow, breezes, blow, the stream runs fast,
The rapids are near and the daylight’s past.
Utawa’s tide ! this trembling moon
Shall see us float over thy surges soon.
Saint of this green isle, hear our prayers,
Oh, grant us cool heavens and favouring airs I
Blow, breezes, blow, the stream runs fast,
The rapids are near and the daylight’s past.
Canadian Boat Song , by Thomas Moore
An Epitaph
T he body of Benjamin Franklin, printer.
Like the cover of an old book,
Its contents torn out,
And stript of its lettering and gilding.
Lies here, food for worms;
Yet the work itself shall not be lost.
For it will (he believes) appear once more
.In a new.
And more beautiful edition,
Corrected and amended
by
The Author,
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Nothing Half So Sweet
T hebe’s nothing half so sweet in life
As Love’s young dream.
Thomas Moore
She is Far From the Land
PHE is far from the land where her young hero sleeps,
O And lovers around her are sighing ;
But coldly she turns from their gaze and weeps,
For her heart in his grave is lying.
She sings the wild song of her dear native plains,
Every note which he loved awaking ;
Ah, little they think who delight in her strains
How the heart of the minstrel is breaking.
He had lived for his love, for his country he died,
They were all that to life had entwined him ;
Nor soon shall the tears of his country be dried.
Nor long will his love stay behind him.
Oh, make her a grave where the sunbeams rest
When they promise a glorious morrow ;
They’ll shine o’er her sleep like a smile from the West,
From her own loved island of sorrow.
Written by Thomas Moore of Sarah Curran, who
left Ireland after her lover's execution for rebellion
Lord, Who Shall Bear That Day ?
L ord, who shall bear that day, so dread, so splendid,
When we shall see Thy angel hovering o’er
This sinf ul world, with hand to heaven extended,
And hear him swear by Thee that time’s no more ?
When earth shall feel thy fast consuming ray—
Who, mighty God, oh who shall bear that day ?
When through the world Thy awful call hath sounded—
“ Wake, oh ye dead, to judgment wake, ye dead ! ”
And from the clouds, by seraph eyes surrounded,
The Saviour shall put forth His radiant head ;
While earth and heaven before Him pass away—
Who, mighty God, oh who shall bear that day ?
When, with a glance, the eternal Judge shall sever
Earth’s evil spirits from the pure and bright,
And say to those, “ Depart from Me for ever ! ”
To these, “ Come, dwell with Me in endless light 1
When each and all in silence take their way—
Who, mighty God, oh who shall bear that day ?
Thomas Moore
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
189
Joan of Arc y s Farewell to Home
F arewell, ye mountains, ye beloved glades,
Ye lone and peaceful valleys, fare ye well!
Through you Joanna never more may stray,
For aye Joanna bids you now farewell.
Ye meads which I have watered, and ye trees
Which I have planted, still in beauty bloom !
Farewell, ye grottoes, and ye crystal springs I
Sweet echo, vocal spirit of the vale,
Who sang responsive to my simple strain,
Joanna goes, and ne’er returns again.
He who in glory did on Horeb’s height
Descend to Moses in the bush of flame,
And bade him stand in Royal Pharaoh’s sight;
Who once to Israel’s pious shepherd came,.
And sent him forth, his champion in the fight;
Who aye hath loved the lowly shepherd train ;
He, from these leafy boughs, thus spake to me :
Goforth ! Thou shdtt on Earth my witness be.
Thou in rude armour must thy limbs invest,
A plate of steel upon thy bosom bear .
Vain earthly love may never stir thy breast ,
Nor passion’s sinful glow be kindled there .
But war’s triumphant glory shall be thine ,
Thy martial fame all women shall outshine !
For when in fight the stoutest hearts despair ,
When direful ruin threatens France , forlorn 9
Then thou aloft my oriflamme shall bear ,
And swiftly as the reaper mows the corn,,
Thou shall lay low the haughty conqueror ;
His fortune’s wheel thou rapidly shall turn ,
To Gaul’s heroic sons deliverance bring ,
Believe beleaguered Rheims , and crown thy king I
The Heavenly Spirit promised me a sign :
He sends the helmet—it hath come from Him.
Its iron filleth me with strength divine ;
I feel the courage of the cherubim.
As with the rushing of a mighty wind
It drives me forth to join the battle’s din ;
The clanging trumpets sound, the chargers rear,
And the loud war-cry thunders in mine ear.
By the German poet Schiller
The Poet of Paradise
M ilton almost requires a solemn service of music to
be played before you enter upon him. Charles Lamb
140
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Joan to Her Judges
W ill you say that you have no judge upon earth ?
1 will say nothing to you about it. I have a good master,
who is Our Lord, and to Him, I will submit all.
If you do not submit to the Church you will be pronounced a
heretic, and burned at the stake.
I will not say otherwise than I have said, and if I saw the fire before
me I would say it again.
“ Superba responsio ” wrote the clerk in the margin of the record.
An Unknown Soldier Wins His Immortality
J oan asked for a cross. None was able to furnish one. But an
English soldier broke a stick in two and crossed the pieces and
tied them together, and this cross he gave her, moved to it by
the good heart that was in him; and she kissed it and put it in
her bosom. From a Life of Joan
The Greed of Benjamin Franklin
H ere is my Creed. I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe.
That He governs it by His Providence. That He ought to be
worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render Him is
doing good to His children. That the soul of Man is immortal, and
will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct
in this.
The Angel to Methuselah
A rise, Methuselah, and build thee a house, for thou shall live yet
five hundred years longer.
Methuselah : If I am to live but five hundred years longer it is not
worth while to build me a house ; I will sleep in the air as I have been
used to do* A story made up by Benjamin Franklin
Man is More than Breath
N o man can stand in the tropic forests without feeling that they
are temples filled with the various productions of the God of
Nature, and that there is more in man than the breath of his body.
Charles Darwin
Intolerable Thought
B elieving as I do that man in the distant future will be a far more
perfect creature than he now is, it is an intolerable thought that
he and all other sentient beings are doomed to complete annihilation
after such long-continued slow progress. To those who fully admit
the immortality of the human soul, the destruction of our world will
not appear so dreadful. Charles Darwin
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
141
Let There be Light
L et there be light! proclaimed the Almighty Lord.
Astonished Chaos heard the potent word.
Through all his realms the kindling ether runs.
And the mass starts into a million suns ;
Earths round each sun with quick explosions burst.
And second planets issue from the first;
Bend, as they journey with projectile force,
In bright ellipses their reluctant course ;
Orbs wheel in orbs, round centres centres roll,
And form, self-balanced, one reluctant whole ;
Onward they move amid their bright abode.
Space without bound, the bosom of their God.
Written by Erasmus Darwin in the Eighteenth Century
These Two
A lexander .■ I am come hither, Diogenes, to succour and relieve thee,
because I see thee in great penury and need of many things.
Diogenes in his tub : "Whether of us two is in the more penury—
I, that besides my scrip and my cage do miss nothing at all, or thou
who, not being contented with the inheritance of thy father’s kingdom,
doest put thyself in a venture and hazard so many perils and dangers
to enlarge the limits of thine empire so much that not all the world
seemeth able to satisfy thy desire ? From Erasmus
The Spirit of Saint Peter
I saw with my own eyes Pope Julius marching at the head of a
triumphal procession as if he were Pompey or Caesar.
St Peter subdued the world with faith, not with arms or soldiers
or military engines. St Peter’s successors would win as many victories
if they had Peter’s spirit. Erasmus
The Strong Man Afraid
C hrist I know. Luther I know not.
They pretend that Luther has borrowed from me. I beseech
you protect me from such calumnies. I have said nothing except
that Luther ought to be answered and not crushed. I would have
the church purified of evil lest the good in it suffer . . . We must
bear almost anything rather than throw the world in confusion. I
was the first to oppose the publication of Luther’s books. I recom¬
mended Luther himself to publish nothing revolutionary. I feared
always that revolution would be the end, and I would have done
more had I not been afraid that I might be found fighting against
the spirit of God. Erasmus
142
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
No Land on Earth Like Ours
O h , splendid England, home and citadel of virtue and learning!
No land in all the world is like England. In no country would
I love better to spend my days. Erasmus
To One Who is Coming to England
Y ou are going to England. You will not fail to be pleased. You
will find the people there most agreeable and gracious ; only be
careful not to presume upon their intimacy. They will condescend
to your level, but do not you therefore suppose that you stand upon
theirs. The noble lords are gods in their own eyes ; for the other
classes, be courteous, give your right hand, do not take the wall,
but trust no one that you do not know. Above all, speak no evil of
England to them. They are proud of their country above all nations
in the world, as they have good reason to be.
Erasmus writing to a friend
John Milton on John Milton
A critic having written offensively of Milton as a ts monster
huge and hideous, void of sight” the poet wrote this reply.
I do not believe that I was ever once noted for deformity by anyone
who ever saw me ; but the praise of beauty I am not anxious to
obtain. My stature certainly is not tall, but it rather approaches
the middle than the diminutive. Yet what if it were diminutive
when so many men, illustrious both in peace and war, have been the
same ? And how can that be called diminutive which is great
enough for every virtuous achievement ?
Nor, though very thin, was I ever deficient in courage or in
strength; and I was wont constantly to exercise myself in the use
of the broadsword as long as it comported with my habit and my
years. Armed with this weapon, as I usually was, 1 should have
thought myself quite a match for anyone, though much stronger than
myself; and I felt perfectly secure against the assault of any open
enemy. At this moment I have the same courage, the same strength,
though not the same eyes ; yet so little do they betray any external
appearance of injury that they are as unclouded and bright as the
eyes of those who most distinctly see. In this instance alone I am
a dissembler against my will.
My face, which is said to indicate a total privation of blood, is of
a complexion entirely opposite to the pale and the cadaverous ; so
that, though I am more than forty years old, there is scarcely anyone
to whom I do not appear ten years younger than 1 am; and the
smoothness of my skin is not in the least affected by the wrinkles
of age.
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 143
Adam and Eve Leave Paradise
I n either hand the hastening angel caught
Our lingering parents, and to the Eastern gate
Led them direct, and down the cliff as fast
To the subjected plain—then disappeared.
They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld
Of Paradise, so late their happy seat.
Waved over by that flaming brand, the gate
With dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms.
Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon ;
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.
They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.
Last words of Paradise Lost
Milton 9 $ First Poem '
L et us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord, for He is kind ;
For His mercies ay endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure .
Let us blaze His name abroad
For of gods He is the God :
He with all-commanding might
Filled the new-made world with light:
He the golden-tressed sun
Caused all day his course to run ;
The horned moon to shine by night,
Mid her spangled sisters bright:
All things living He doth feed,
His full hand supplies their need :
Let us, with a gladsome mind,
Praise the Lord, for He is kind :
For His mercies shall endure
Ever faithful, ever sure .
Milton in His Pride
T hey accuse me of blindness, because I have lost my eyes in the
service of liberty. They tax me with cowardice, and while I
had the use of my eyes and my sword I never feared the boldest
among them. Finally, I am upbraided with deformity, while no one
was more handsome in the age of beauty, I do not even complain
of my want of sight; in the night with which I am surrounded the
light of the Divine Presence shines with a more brilliant lustre.
144
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Nothing is Here for Tears
C ome, come, no time for lamentation now,
Nor much more cause ; Samson hath quit himself
Like Samson, and heroically hath finished
A life heroic ; on his enemies
Fully revenged, hath left them years of mourning,
And lamentation to the sons of Caphtor,
Through all Philistian bounds ; to Israel
Honour hath left, and freedom, let but them
Find courage to lay hold on this occasion ;
To himself and father’s house eternal fame ;
And, which is best and happiest yet, all this
With God not parted from him, as was feared,
But favouring and assisting to the end.
Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail
Or knock the breast, no weakness, no contempt,
Dispraise , or blame, nothing but well and fair,
And what may quiet us in a death so noble.
Milton in Samson Agonistes
The Great Fall
F bom morn
To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,
A summer’s day ; and with the setting sun
Dropt from the zenith, like a falling star.
Milton in Paradise Lost
Ye Winds That From Four Quarters Blow
H is praise, ye winds, that from four quarters blow,
Breathe soft or loud ; and wave your tops, ye pines,
With every plant, in sign of worship wave !
Fountains and ye that warble as ye flow.
Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise.
Join voices all ye living souls ! Ye birds
That, singing up to Heaven’s gate ascend,
Bear on your wings and in your notes his praise ;
Ye that in waters glide, and ye that walk
The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep.
Witness if I be silent, mom or even,
To hill, or valley, fountain, or fresh shade
Made vocal by my song, and taught his praise.
Hail! universal Lord ; be bounteous still
To give us only good ; and, if the night
Have gathered aught of evil or concealed.
Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark.
Milton
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
145
Lucy Gray
O ft I had heard of Lucy Gray :
And when I crossed the wild
I chanced to see, at break of day.
The solitary child.
No mate, no comrade Lucy knew ,
She dwelt on a wide moor,
The'sweetest thing that ever grew
Beside a human door.
You yet may spy the fawn at play,
The hare upon the green ;
But the sweet face of Lucy Gray
Will never more be seen.
Tonight will be a stormy night.
You to the town must go ;
And take a lantern, child , to light
Your mother through the snow .
Thai, Father , will 1 gladly do ;
Tis scarcely afternoon ,
The minster-clock has just struck two.
And yonder is the moon !
At this the father raised his hook,
, And snapped a faggot-band ;
He plied his work ; and Lucy took
The lantern in her hand.
Not blither is the mountain roe ;
With many a wanton stroke
Her feet disperse the powdery snow.
That rises up like smoke.
The storm came on before its time :
She wandered up and down ;
And many a hill did Lucy climb :
But never reached the town.
• • * * •
Yet some maintain that to this day
She is a living child ;
That you may see sweet Lucy Gray
Upon the lonesome wild.
O’er rough and smooth she trips along.
And never looks behind;
And sings a solitary song
That whistles in the wind.
Wordsworth
F.T.—10
146
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Faithful Only He
S o spake the Seraph Abdiel, faithful found
Among the faithless, faithful only he ;
Among innumerable false unmoved,
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,
His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal;
Nor number nor example with him wrought
To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind.
Paradise Lost
Wordsworth’s Perfect Lady
S he was a Phantom of delight
When first she gleamed upon my sight;
A lovely Apparition, sent
To be a moment’s ornament.
I saw her upon nearer view,
A Spirit, yet a Woman too !
A Creature not too bright or good
For human nature’s daily food.
And now I see with eye serene
The very pulse of the machine ;
A Being breathing thoughtful breath,
A Traveller between life and death ;
The reason firm, the temperate will.
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;
A perfect Woman, nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort, and command ;
And yet a Spirit still, and bright
With something of angelic light,
T hou, while thy babes around thee cling,
Shalt show us how divine a thing
A Woman may be made.
Thy thoughts and feelings shall not die,
Nor leave thee, when grey hairs are nigh,
A melancholy slave;
But an old age serene and bright.
And lovely as a Lapland night,
Shall lead thee to thy grave.
Passages from two jpoems
Woe to that Nation
oe to the nation whose military power is irresistible.
Wordsworth
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
It is Not to be Thought Of
I t is not to be thought of that the flood
Of British freedom, which, to the open sea
Of the world’s praise, from dark antiquity
Hath flowed, “ with pomp of waters, unwithstood/’
Roused though it be full often to a mood
Which spurns the check of salutary bands.
That this most famous stream in bogs and sands
Should perish, and to evil and to good
Be lost for ever. In our halls is hung
Armoury of the invincible knights of old :
We must be free or die who speak the tongue
That Shakespeare spake ; the faith and morals hold
Which Milton held. In everything we are sprang
Of Earth’s first blood, have titles manifold.
Wordsworth
William Wordsworth to John Milton
T hy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart:
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life’s common way.
In cheerful godliness ; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.
The Splendour of the Morning
E arth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty . . .
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;
Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep !
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God ! the very houses seem asleep.
And all that mighty heart is lying still.
Wordsworth
The Beauty of the Evening
I t is a beauteous evening, calm and free ;
The holy time is quiet as a nun
Breathless with adoration ; the broad sun
Is sinking down in its tranquillity ;
The gentleness of heaven is on the sea :
Listen ! the mighty being is awake . . .
Wordsworth
147
148
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Laurels Pass from Age to Youth
A lready 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 bom.
Be kind to my remains ; and, oh, defend
Against your judgment your departed friend.
Let not the insulting foe my fame pursue,
But guard those laurels which descend to you.
John Dry den to William Congreve
How to Live
L et us endeavour so to live that when we come to die even the
undertaker will be sorry. Mark Twain
Caesar Among the Pirates
I n 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 his 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
H e 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
I N 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 his 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
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
149
Give Us Our Daily Bread
O lords ! O rulers of the nation !
O softly clothed ! O richly fed !
O men of wealth and noble station !
Give us our daily bread.
For you we are content to toil,
For you our blood like rain is shed.
Then lords and rulers of the soil,
Give us our daily bread.
Your silken robes, with endless care,
Still weave we ; still unclothed, unfed,
We make the raiment that ye wear.
Give us our' daily bread.
In the red forge-light do we stand,
We early leave—late seek our bed,
Tempering the steel for your right hand.
Give us our daily bread.
We sow your fields, ye reap the fruit,
We live in misery and in dread.
Hear but our prayer, and we are mute,
Give us our daily bread.
Throughout old England’s pleasant fields,
There is no spot where we may tread,
No house to us sweet shelter yields.
Give us our daily bread.
Fathers are we ; we see our sons.
We see our fair young daughters, dead :
Then hear us, O ye mighty ones I
Give us our daily bread.
TIs vain—with cold, unfeeling eye
Ye gaze on us, unclothed, unfed,
Tis vain—ye will not hear our cry.
Nor give us daily bread.
We turn from you, our lords by birth,
To him who is our Lord above ;
We are all made of the same earth,
Are children of one love.
Then Father of this world of wonders t
Judge of the living and the dead 1
Lord of the lightnings and the thunders.
Give us our daily bread.
Wathen Mark Wilks Call ,
writing in the Corn Law days
150 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Glory and the Bream
I WAS often unable to think of external things as having external
existence, and I communed with all I saw as something not apart
from, but inherent in, my own nature. F
Many times while going to school have I grasped at a wall or a
tree to recall myself from this abyss of idealism.
Wordsworth on his childhood
A Cry of Woe From the Long Ago
This poem was written with a pen made from rook's feathers
picked up in a prison yard in the days of the Chartist agitation
W E plough and sow, we’re so very, very low,
That we delve in the dirty clay,
Till we bless the plain with the golden grain,
And the vale with the fragrant hay.
Our place we know, we’re so very low,
Tis down at the landlord’s feet:
We’re not too low the bread to grow,
But too low the bread to eat.
Down, down we go, we’re so very, very low,
To the hell of the deep-sunk mines,
But we gather the proudest gems that glow
When the crown of a despot shines.
And whenever he lacks—upon our backs
Fresh loads he deigns to lay :
We’re far too low to vote the tax,
But not too low to pay.
We’re low, we’re low, we’re very, very low.
Yet from our fingers glide
The silken flow and the robes that glow
Round the limbs of the sons of pride.
And what we get and what we give,
We know, and we know our share ;
We’re not too low the cloth to weave,
But too low the cloth to wear !
Ernest Jones
Flower in the Crannied Wall
F lower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower—but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.
Tennyson
152
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
To the Great Name
T o all our statesmen, so they be
True leaders of the land’s desire 1
To both our Houses, may they see
Beyond the borough and the shire 1
We sailed wherever ship could sail,
We founded many a mighty State ;
Pray God our greatness may not fail
Through craven fears of being great.
Hands all round!
God the traitor’s hope confound !
To this great cause of Freedom drink, my friends,
And the great name of England, round and round.
A Toast by Tennyson
One Still Strong Man
A h God, for a man with heart, head, hand,
Like some of the simple great ones gone
For ever and ever by.
One still strong man in a blatant land,
Whatever they call him, what care I,
Aristocrat, democrat, autocrat—one
Who can rule and dare not lie.
Tennyson
Far Ever and For Ever
F low down, cold rivulet, to the sea.
Thy tribute wave deliver ;
No more by thee my steps shall be.
For ever and for ever.
Flow, swiftly flow, by lawn and lea,
A rivulet, then a river :
Nowhere by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.
But here will sigh thine alder tree.
And here thine aspen shiver;
And here by thee will hum the bee.
For ever and for ever.
A thousand suns will stream on thee,
A thousand moons will quiver;
But not by thee my steps shall be.
For ever and for ever.
Tennyson
152 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Land That Freedom Chose
Y ou ask me, why, though ill at ease*
Within this region I subsist,
Whose spirits falter in the mist,
And languish for the purple seas.
It is the land that freemen till,
That sober-suited Freedom chose,
The land where, girt with friends or foes,
A man may speak the thing he will.
A land of settled government,
A land of just and old renown,
Where Freedom slowly broadens down
From precedent to precedent.
Tennyson on his Native Land
Bound by Gold Chains
M ore things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice
Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
For what are men better than sheep or goats
That nourish a blind life within the brain
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend ?
For so the whole round Earth is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God. Tennyson
Till Crowds be Sane and Crowns be Just
A people’s voice ! we are a people yet.
Though all men else their nobler dreams forget,
Confused by brainless mobs and lawless Powers
Thank Him who isled us here, and roughly set
His Briton in blown seas and storming showers,
We have a voice with which to pay the debt
Of boundless love and reverence and regret
To those great men who fought, and kept it ours.
And keep it ours, O God, from brute control;
O Statesmen, guard us, guard the eye, the soul
Of Europe, keep our noble England whole,
And save the one true seed of freedom sown
Betwixt a people and their ancient throne,
That sober freedom out of which there springs
Our loyal passion for our temperate kings ;
For, saving that, ye help to save mankind
Till public wrong be crumbled into dust.
And drill the raw world for the march of mind
Till crowds at length be sane and crowns be just.
Tennyson's Ode on the Death of Wellington
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Proud Voice of King Arthur
158
W hen the Roman left us, and their law
Relaxed its hold upon us, and the ways
Were filled with rapine, here and there a deed
Of prowess done redressed a random wrong.
But I was first of all the kings who drew
The knighthood-errant of this realm and all
The realms together under me, their Head,
In that fair Order of my Table Round,
A glorious company, the flower of men.
To serve as model for the mighty world,
And be the fair beginning of a time.
I made them lay their hands in mine and swear
To reverence the King, as if he were
Their conscience, and their conscience as their King,
To break the heathen and uphold the Christ,
To ride abroad redressing human wrongs.
To speak no slander, no, nor listen to it,
To honour his own word as if his God’s.
To lead sweet lives in purest chastity,
To love one maiden only, cleave to her.
And worship her by years of noble deeds.
Until they won her ; for indeed I knew
Of no more subtle master under heaven
Than is the maiden passion for a maid,
Not only to keep down the base in man.
But teach high thought, and amiable words
And courtliness, and the desire of fame,
And love of truth, and all that makes a man. Tennysm
A Credo
Tt is hard to believe in God, but it is harder not to believe. I
i- believe m God not from what I see in Nature but from what I
find in man. Tennyson
The Increasing Purpose
Y et I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose rims.
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the sums
Tennyson m Lochsley Hatt
Ah, Thai it Were Possible
A h, Christ, that it were possible.
For one short hour to see
The souls we loved, that they might tell us
What and where they be I Tennyson
154
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Spare Me the Whispering, Crowded Room
I ask not that my bed of death
From bands of greedy heirs be free ;
For these besiege the latest breath
Of fortune’s favoured sons, not me.
1 ask not each kind soul to keep
Tearless, when of my death he hears.
Let those who will, if any, weep !
There are worse plagues on earth than tears.
I ask but that my death may find
The freedom to my life denied ; ■
Ask but the folly of mankind
Then, then at last, to quit my side.
Spare me the whispering, crowded room,
The friends who come, and gape, and go ;
The ceremonious air of gloom :
All which makes death a hideous show.
Bring none of these ; but let me be,
While all around in silence lies,
Moved to the window near, and see
Once more before my dying eyes,
Bathed in the sacred dews of mom
The wide aerial landscape spread,
The world which was ere I was bom,
The world which lasts when I am dead ;
There let me gaze, till 1 become
In soul, with what I gaze on, wed !
To feel the universe my home ;
To have before my mind (instead
Of the sick room, the mortal strife,
The turmoil for a little breath)
The pure eternal course of life.
Not human combatings with death.
Thus feeling, gazing, might I grow
Composed, refreshed, ennobled, clear ;
Then willing let my spirit go
To work or wait elsewhere or here 1
From A Wish , by Matthew Arnold
Better to Fight
I t is better to fight for the good than to rail at
the ill. Tennyson
155
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Soul of Judas Iscariot
T was the soul of Judas Iscariot,
Strange, and sad, and tall.
Stood all alone at dead of night
Before a lighted hall.
And the wold was white with snow.
And his footmarks black and damp,
And the ghost of the silvern moon arose,
Holding her yellow lamp.
And the icicles were on the eaves.
And the walls were deep with white.
And the shadows of the guests within
Passed on the window light.
The shadows of the wedding guests
Did strangely come and go.
And the body of Judas Iscariot
Lay stretched along the snow ;
The body of Judas Iscariot
. Lay stretched along the snow ;
Twas the soul of Judas Iscariot
Ran swiftly to and fro.
To and fro, and up and down,
He ran so swiftly there,
As round and round the frozen Pole
Glideth the lean white bear.
Twas the Bridegroom sat at the table-head.
And the lights burnt bright and clear:
Oh, who is that, the Bridegroom said,
Whose weary feet I hear ?
Twas one looked from the lighted h«H,
And answered soft and slow:
It is a wolf runs up and down
With a black track in the snow.
The Bridegroom in his robe of white
Sat at the table-head:
Oh, who is that who moans without ?
The blessed Bridegroom said.
Twas one looked from the lighted hall,
And answered fierce and low:
Tis the soul of Judas Iscariot
Gliding to and fro.
156 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Twas the soul of Judas Iscariot
Did hush itself and stand,
And saw the Bridegroom at the door.
With a light in his hand.
The Bridegroom stood in the open door,
And he was clad in white,
And far within the Lord’s Supper
Was spread so broad and bright.
The Bridegroom shaded his eyes and looked,
And his face was bright to see :
What dost thou here at the Lord’s Supper
With thy body’s sins ? said he.
Twas the soul of Judas Iscariot
Stood black, and sad, and bare :
I have wandered many nights and days ;
There is no light elsewhere.
Twas the wedding guests cried out within,
And their eyes were fierce and bright:
Scourge the soul of Judas Iscariot
Away into the night!
The Bridegroom stood in the open door,
And he waved hands still and slow,
And the third time that he waved his hands
The air was thick with snow.
And of every flake of falling snow,
Before it touched the ground,
There came a dove, and a thousand doves
Made sweet sound.
Twas the body of Judas Iscariot
Floated away full fleet,
And the wings of the doves that bare it off
Were like its winding-sheet.
Twas the Bridegroom stood at the open door,
And beckoned, smiling sweet;
Twas the soul of Judas Iscariot
Stole in and fell at his feet.
The Holy Supper is spread within ,
And the many candles shine 9
And I have waited long for thee
Before I poured the wine !
The supper wine is poured at last,
The lights bum bright and fair,
Iscariot washes the Bridegroom’s feet.
And dries them with his hair.
Robert Buchanan
pppp apapwaww
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
157
No Pleasure is Comparable to This
W hat is truth ? said jesting Pilate, and would not wait for
an answer.
, Tmtil is a . naked and open daylight that doth not show the masks
as candle%ht. eS tnUmphs of the worId half so stately and daintily
The poet saith excellently well—It is a pleasure to stand upon the
shore and to see ships tossed upon the sea; a pleasure to stand in
the window of a castle and to see a battle, and the adventures
bdow; but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage
ground of truth and to see the errors and wanderings P a nd mists and
Sot pride ' “ always that thk prospect •» pity
Certainly it is heaven upon earth to have a man’s mind move in
charity, rest m providence, and turn upon the poles of truth
Francis Bacon
O, It Was Very Fair
J . , w y JL-
“■p, <■»**** ° ! aMr9 " " v
S uch an up and down
Of verdure—nothing too much up or down,
a ripple of land ; such little hills, the sky
Can stoop to tenderly and the wheatfields climb •
Such nooks of valleys lined with orchises,
t no ^ ses by invisible streams.
I nattered all the beauteous country round
As poets use, the skies, the clouds, the fields,
1 he happy violets hiding from the roads
Ihe primroses run down to, carrying gold ;
The tangled hedgerows, where the cows push out
Impatient horns and tolerant churning mouths
Twixt dripping ash-boughs—hedgerows ah alive
With birds and gnats and !arge white butterllies
Which look as if the may-flower had caught life
And palpitated forth upon the wind;
Hills, vales, woods, netted in a silver mist.
Farms, granges, doubled up among the hills;
And cattle grazing in the watered vales.
And cottage chimneys smoking from the woods,
And cottage gardens smelling everywhere.
Confused with smell of orchards . .
And, ankle-deep in English grass, I leaped.
And clapped my hands, and called all very fair.
Elizabeth Brooming
158
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Strange Desire
Tt is a strange desire to seek power and to lose liberty, or to seek
power over others and to lose power over a man’s self.
Francis Bacon
Cobwebs
L aws are like cobwebs, which catch the small flies but are broken
through by the great ones.
Old Saying preserved by Francis Bacon
The Gentlemen of the Jury
T he Judge called to the jury :
Gentlemen of the jury, you see this man about whom so great
an uproar hath been made in this town ; you have also heard what
these worthy gentlemen have witnessed against him ; also you have
heard his reply and confession.
It lieth now in your breasts to hang him or save his life ; but yet I
think meet to instruct you in our law. There was an Act made in
the days of Pharaoh that, lest those of a contrary religion should
multiply and grow too strong for him, their males should be thrown
into the river. There was also an Act made in the days of Nebuchad¬
nezzar that whoever would not fall down and worship his golden
image should be thrown into a fiery furnace. There was also an Act
made in the days of Darius that whoso for some time called upon any
god but him should be cast into the lions’ den. Now the substance
of these laws this rebel has broken.
Then went the jury out, whose names were Mr Blindman, Mr
No-Good, Mr Malice, Mr Love-Lust, Mr Live-Loose, Mr Heady,
Mr High-Mind, Mr Enmity, Mr Liar, Mr Cruelty, Mr Hate-Light,
and Mr Implacable, who every one gave in his private verdict against
him among themselves, and afterwards unanimously concluded to
bring him in guilty before the judge. And first Mr Blindman, the
foreman, said, I see clearly that this man is a heretic. Then said
Mr No-Good, Away with such a fellow from the earth. Ay, said Mr
Malice, for I hate the very looks of him. Then said Mr Love-Lust, I
could never endure him. Nor I, said Mr Live-Loose, for he would
always be condemning my way. Hang him, hang him, said Mr
Heady. A sorry scrub, said Mr High-Mind. My heart riseth against
him, said Mr. Enmity. He is a rogue, said Mr Liar. Hanging is too
good for him, said Mr Cruelty. Let us despatch him out of the way,
said Mr Hate-Light. Then said Mr Implacable, Might I have all the
world given me I could not be reconciled to him : therefore let us
forthwith bring him in guilty of death.
And so they did: thus came Faithful to his end.
Pilgrim's Progress
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 159
The Spectators
I n the theatre of human life it is only for God and angels to be
spectators. Francis Bacon
The Four Prisoners
S IR John Rainsford besought Queen Eizabeth that four prisoners
might have their liberty. The Queen asked who they were
and he said, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, who had long been im¬
prisoned in the Latin tongue, and now he desired that they might go
abroad among the people in English. Recorded bij Francis Bacon
Madam Bubble
O tandfast : A s I was musing there was one in very pleasant
vJ attire, but old, who presented herself to me, and offered me her
purse and her bed.
Now the truth is I was both weary and sleepy ; I am also as poor
as an owlet, and that perhaps the witch knew. Well, I repulsed her
once and again, but she put by my repulses and smiled. Then I
beg j Q *2 be an ? ry ’ but she mattered that nothing at all. Then she
made offers again, and said if I would be ruled by her she would make
me great and happy, for, said she, “ I am the mistress of the world
and men are made happy by me.” Then I asked her name and she
told me it was Madam Bubble.
Honest: Madam Bubble ! Is she not a tall, comely dame, some¬
thing of a swarthy complexion ?
Standfast: Right, you hit it; she is just such a one.
?°5 Sh - e n ? t c wear . a g reat P urse by her side, and is
halt’s deHght? ftCn m ^ fingermg her mone y> as if that was her
Standfast: It is just so.
Greatheart: This woman is a witch, and it is by virtue of her
sorceries that this ground is enchanted. This is she that maintaineth
m their splendour all the enemies of pilgrims ; she hath brought off
many a man from a pilgrim’s life. She is a great gossiper. She is
always, both she and her daughters, at one pilgrim’s heels or another,
now _ commending and then preferring the excellences of this life.
She is a bold and impudent slut: she will talk with any man. She
laugheth poor pilgrims to scom, but highly commends the rich. If
there be one cunning to get money in a place she will speak well of
him from house to house. She loveth banqueting and feasting
mainly well; she is always at one full table or another.
She has given it out in some places that she is a goddess, and
therefore some do worship her. She has her time and open places for
cheatmg; and she will say, and avow it, that none can show a good
160
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
comparable to hers. She promiseth to dwell with children’s children
if they will but love her and make much of her. She will cast out of
her purse gold like dust in some places, and to some persons. She
loves to be sought after and spoken well of. She is never weary of
commending her commodities j and she loves them most that think
best of her. She will promise to some crowns and kingdoms if they
will but take her advice ; yet many hath she brought to the halter,
and ten thousand times more to destruction.
Standfast: Oh! what a mercy it is that I did resist her; for
whither might she have drawn me ?
Greaiheart: Whither! nay, none but God knows. But, in
general, to be sure she would have drawn thee into destruction.
Wherefore, good Mr Standfast, be as your name is, and when you
have done all, Stand.
At this discourse, there was among the pilgrims a mixture of joy
and trembling, but at length they brake out, and sang :
What danger is the pilgrim in !
How many are his foes !
How many ways there are to sin,
No living mortal knows.
Some of the ditch shy are, yet can
Lie tumbling in the mire :
Some, though they shun the frying-pan.
Do leap into the fire.
Pilgrim’s Progress
The Thought of His Little Blind Child
I found myself a man encompassed with infirmities. The parting
with my wife and poor children hath often been to me in this place
as the pulling the flesh from my bones, and that not only because I am
somewhat too fond of these great mercies, but also because I should
have often brought to my mind the many hardships, miseries, and
wants that my poor family was like to meet with should I be taken
from them, especially my poor blind child, who lay nearer my heart
than all beside. Oh ! the thought of the hardship my poor blind one
might go under would break my heart to pieces.
Poor child, thought I, what sorrow art thou like to have for thy
portion in this world ! Thou must be beaten; must beg; suffer
hunger, cold, nakedness, and a thousand calamities ; though I cannot
now endure the wind should blow upon thee. But yet (recalling
myself) thought I, I must venture you all with God, though it goeth
to the quick to leave you. Oh 1 I saw in this condition X was as a
man who was pulling down his house upon the head of his wife and
children, yet, thought I, I must do it 9 1 must do it John Bunyan
THE ITALIAN COMEDIANS* BY WATTEAU
THE PEARL NECKLACE, BY VERMEER
161
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Vanity Fair
I saw in my dream that when they were got out of the wilderness
they saw a town before them ; the town is Vanity, and there is a
fair kept, called Vanity Fair. It is kept all the year long.
The fair is no new-erected business, but a thing of ancient stand¬
ing ; I will show you the original of it. Almost five thousand years
agone there were pilgrims walking to the Celestial City, as these two
honest persons are : and Beelzebub, Apollyon, and Legion, with their
companions, perceiving by the path that their way to the city lay
through this town of Vanity, contrived here to set up a fair, wherein
should be sold all sorts of vanity, and that it should last all the year
long. At this fair are all such merchandise sold as houses, lands,
trades, places, honours, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms,
pleasures ; and delights of all sorts. And moreover at this fair there
are at all times to be seen jugglings, cheats, games, plays, fools, apes,
knaves, and rogues, and that of every kind.
Now the way to the Celestial City lies just through the town
where this fair is kept, and he that will go to the city, and yet not go
through this town, must needs go out of the world.
These pilgrims must needs go through this fair, but behold, even
as they entered, all the people in the fair were moved, and the town
itself in a hubbub about them, and that for several reasons.
First, the pilgrims were clothed with such raiment as was diverse
from the raiment of any that traded in that fair. Secondly, as they
wondered at their apparel, so they did likewise at their speech, for
few could understand what they said. Thirdly, that which did not a
little amuse the merchandisers was that these pilgrims set very light
by all their wares ; they cared not so much as to look upon them •
and if they called upon them to buy they would put their fingers in
their ears, and cry, Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity »
and look upwards, signifying that their trade and traffic was hi heaven’
One chanced mockingly, beholding the carriages of the men, to
say unto them, What will ye buy ? but they, looking gravely upon
him, said, We buy the truth. At that there was an occasion taken to
despise the men the more, some mocking, some taunting, some
calling upon others to smite them. Pilgrim’s Progress
Stars of the Night
T heir noonday never knows
What names immortal are,
Tis night alone that shows
How star surpasseth star.
John Bannister Tabb
f.t.—11
162 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Bunyan’s Last Ride
W here content dwells even a poor cottage is a kingly palace.
This happiness Mr Bunyan had all his life long, not so much
minding this world as knowing he was here as a pilgrim and stranger
and had no tarrying city, but looked for one not made with hands,
eternal in the highest heavens. At length, worn out with sufferings,
age, and much teaching, the day of his dissolution drew near, and
death, that unlocks the prison of the soul to enlarge it for a more
glorious mansion, put a stop to his acting his part on the stage
of mortality.
Even the last act of his was a labour of love and charity. A
young gentleman, a neighbour of Mr Bunyan’s, happening into the
displeasure of his father, and being much troubled in mind upon that
account (for he heard his father purposed to disinherit him, or other¬
wise deprive him of what he had to leave) pitched upon Mr Bunyan
as a fit man to make way for his submission, and prepare his father’s
mind to receive him. tie, willing to do any good office as it could be
requested, readily undertook it. Riding to Reading in Berkshire, he
there used such pressing arguments and reasons against anger and
passion, as also for love, and reconciliation, that the father was
mollified, and his heart yearned for his son.
But Mr Bunyan, returning to London and being overtaken with
excessive rains, coming to his lodgings extremely wet, fell sick of a
violent fever, which he bore with much constancy and patience, and
expressed himself as if he desired nothing more than to be with
Christ, in that case esteeming death as gain. Finding his vital
strength decay, having settled his mind and affairs as well as the short¬
ness of time and the violence of his disease would permit, with a
constant and Christian patience, he resigned his soul into the hands
of his most merciful Redeemer, following his pilgrim from the City
of Destruction to the New Jerusalem.
He died at the house of one Mr Struddock, a grocer, at the Star
on Snow Hill, in the parish of St Sepulchre, London, on the 12th
of August, 1688, in the sixtieth year of his age, after ten days’ sick¬
ness ; and w r as buried in the new burying-place near the Artillery
Ground, where he sleeps till the morning of the resurrection.
By George Cokayne, a Baptist of Bunyan!s day
The Shining Figure of the Temple
I will tell you a story that I have read of Martha and Mary. The
name of the author I have forgot, but the thing was this.
Martha, said my author, was a very holy woman, much like
Lazarus her brother, but Mary was a wanton. After Martha
had waited long, tried many ways to bring her sister to good, all
ineffectually, at last she comes upon her thus :
Sister (quoth she), I pray thee go with me to the temple today, to
hear one preach a sermon.
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
What kind of preacher is he ? said she.
163
replied ’ 11 is one Jesus of Nazareth ; he is the handsomest
man that ever you saw with your eyes. Oh ! he shines in beauty,
and is a most excellent preacher. y
Now what does Mary, after a little pause, but goes up into her
chamber, and witht her pins and her clothes decks up herself as fine
as her fingers could make her. This done, away she goes, not with
her sister Martha but as much unobserved as she could, to the
sermon, or rather to see the preacher. So he comes in, and she
hiSJelfTo hi g ? S t P ! ea f d her - Wel1 ’ Jesus addresseth
nimselt to Ins seimon, and she looks earnestly on him.
^ at t3 “ e » saitb author, Jesus preached about the Lost
Sheep, the Lost Groat, and the Prodigal Son. When he came to
show what care the shepherd took for one lost sheep, and how the
Z°™?+t WeP n her P iece ^hich was lost, and what joy there
? G1X Mary be - an to be tak en by the ears, and for-mt
But whel C h^ ab °ut, musing what the preacher would make of it.
But when he came to the application, and showed that by the lost
SStGod’^W 1 / great . sbmer ’ that b y the shepherd’slare was
meant God s love for great smners, and that by the joy of the neigh¬
bours was showed what joy there was among the angels in heaven
W + ° ne A gr t - S1 T r tbat re P ent eth, she begin to be taken by The
heart. As he spake these last words she thought he pitched his
innocent eyes just upon her, and looked as if he spake what was
now said to her, wherefore her heart began to tremble, being shaken
with affection and fear. Then her eyes ran down with tears apace
wherefore she was forced to hide her face with her handkerchief’
and so sat sobbing and crying all the rest of the sermon. ’
Sermon being done, up she gets and away she goes, and withal
f a ^ ai f ed , wbere thl ® l esus the preacher dined that day ? One told
her at the house of Simon the Pharisee, so away goes she fbst to
her chamber, and there strips herself of her wanton attim then
upon her knees to ask God forgiveness for all her wicked’life,
d ° ne ’ in a modest dress she goes to Simon’s house where
she finds Jesus sat at dinner. So she gets behind him, and weeps
and drops her tears upon his feet like rain, and washes them and’
wipes them with the hair of her head. She also kissed his feet’with
her bps and anointed them with ointment ... And he said unto
her, Thy sms are forgiven. John Bun y™ t0
To the Death
I Jwn* agree .’ V T itb a word tbat y°u say, but I will defend to the
1 death your right to say it. Voltaire
164 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The First Poem of the First Day
T hebe had not here as yet.
Save cavern-shade,
Aught been;
But this wide abyss
Stood deep and dim,
Strange to its Lord,
Idle and useless ;
On which looked with his eyes
The King firm of mind,
And beheld those places
Void of joys ;
Saw the dark cloud
Lower in eternal night,
Swart under heaven,
Dark and waste.
Until this worldly creation
Through the word existed
Of the Glory-King.
Here first shaped
The Lord Eternal
Chief of all creatures,
Heaven and Earth,
The firmament upreared.
And this spacious land
Established,
By his strong powers,
The Lord Almighty,
The Earth as yet was
Not green with grass ;
Ocean covered
Swart in eternal night,
Far and wide,
The dusky ways.
Then was the glory-bright
Spirit of heaven’s Guardian
Borne over the deep
With utmost speed :
The Creator of angels bade.
The Lord of Life,
Light to come forth
Over the spacious deep.
Quickly was fulfilled
The high King's behest;
For him was holy light
165
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Over the waste.
As the Maker bade.
Then sundered
The Lord triumphs
Over the ocean-flood
Light from darkness,
Shade from brightness,
Then gave names to both
The Lord of Life.
Light was first
Through the Lord’s word
Named day;
Beauteous, bright creation!
Well pleased
The Lord at the beginning
The pro-creative time.
The first day saw
The dark shade
Swart prevailing
Over the wide abyss.
"Caedmon 9 $ Song of Creation
The First English Song
T he name which throws glory over Whitby is the name of a cow¬
herd from whose lips flowed the first great English song.
Caedmon had learnt nothing of the art of verse, the alliterative
jingle so common among his fellows ; wherefore, being sometimes
at feasts, when all agreed for glee s sake to sing in turn, he no sooner
saw the harp come towards him than he rose from the board and
went homewards.
Once when he had done thus, and gone from the feast to the stable
where he had that night charge of the cattle, there appeared to him
in his sleep One who said, greeting him by name. Sing, Caedmon, some
song to Me. I cannot sing, he answered; for this cause I left the
feast and came hither. He who talked with him answered. However
that be, you shall sing to Me. What shall I sing ? rejoined Caedmon.
The beginning of created things, replied He.
In the morning the cowherd stood before the abbess and told his
dream. Abbess and brethren alike concluded that heavenly grace
had been conferred on him by the Lord. They translated for
Caedmon a passage in Holy Writ, bidding him, if he could, put the
same into verse. The next morning he gave it them composed in
excellent verse, whereon the abbess, understanding the divine grace
in the man, bade him quit the secular life and take on him the
monastic life. Piece by piece the sacred story was thus thrown into
Caedmon’s poem. John Richard Green
166
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Songs of 1000 Years
It may be said of Caedmon that his gentle figure sleeps in the cradle of our English
literature. He sang the Song of Creation in the seventh century. Here is a free
rendering of the imagery in his beautiful way of telling the story.
A s yet was nought save shadows of darkness ; the spacious Earth
lay hidden, deep and dim, alien to God, unpeopled and unused.
Thereon the Steadfast King looked down and beheld it, a place
empty of joy. He saw dim chaos hanging in eternal night, obscure
beneath the heavens. Here first with mighty power the Everlasting
Lord, the Helm of all created things, Almighty King, made Earth
and Heaven, raised up the sky, and founded the spacious land. The
Earth was not yet green with grass ; the dark waves of the sea
flowed over it; midnight darkness was upon it, far and wide.
In radiant glory God’s holy spirit moved upon the waters with won¬
drous might. The Lord of angels, Giver of Life, bade light shine forth.
One thousand years after came another English poet, who read the story of
Caedmon and wrote Creation's Song again. He was John Milton, and his majestic
words have crowned that Temple of Literature of which Caedmon laid the first stone.
H eaven opened wide
Her ever-during Gates, Harmonious sound
On golden hinges moving, to let forth
The King of Glorie in his powerful Word
And Spirit coming to create new worlds.
Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou Deep, peace.
Said then the Omnific Word : Your discord end.
Nor staid, but on the Wings of Cherubim
Uplifted, in paternal glorie rode
Far into Chaos and the world unborn ;
For Chaos heard his voice : him all his train
Followed in bright procession to behold
Creation, and the wonders of his might.
Then staid the fervid wheels, and in his hand
He took the golden compasses, prepared
In God’s eternal store, to circumscribe
This Universe, and all created things.
One foot he centred, and the other turned
Round through the vast profundity obscure,
And said : Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds.
This be thy just circumference, O World.
Thus God the Heaven created, thus the Earth,
Matter unformed and void. Darkness profound
Covered the Abyss ; but on the watery calm
His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread,
And Earth self-balanced on her centre hung.
Let there be Light, said God, and forthwith Light
Sprang from the Deep, and from her Native East
To journey through the airy gloom began
Sphered in a radiant Cloud.
167
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Faery Voyager to the Dim Unknown
The bitter tragedy of Hartley Coleridge lay hidden in the future
when Wordsworth wrote these lines of his little friend aged six.
O thou whose fancies from afar are brought,
Who of thy words dost make a moek apparel.
And fittest to unutterable thought
The breeze-like motion and the self-born carol;
Thou faery voyager that dost float
In such clear water that thy boat
May rather seem
To brood on air than on an earthly stream,
Suspended in a stream as clear as sky,
Where earth and heaven do make one imagery;
O blessed vision, happy child,
Thou art so exquisitely wild,
I think of thee with many fears
For what may be thy lot in future years.
I thought of times when Pain might be thy guest
Lord of thy house and hospitality ;
And Grief, uneasy lover, never rest
But when she sate within the touch of thee.
O, too industrious folly !
O, vain and causeless melancholy !
Nature will either end thee quite,
Or, lengthening out thy season of delight,
Preserve for thee, by individual right,
Ayoung lamb’s heart among the full-grown flocks.
What hast thou to do with sorrow,
Or the injuries of tomorrow ?
Thou art a dewdrop which the mom brings forth.
Ill fitted to sustain unkindly shocks.
Or to be trailed along the soiling earth;
A gem that glitters while it lives.
And no forewarning gives.
But at the touch of wrong, without a strife.
Slips in a moment out of life.
It is Better
I t is better to suffer wrong than to do it.
Dr Johnson
The Fisherman’s Prayer
L ord, grant this day I catch a fish
So large that even I
In telling of it afterwards
Shall have no need to lie.
Author unknown
168
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Oliver Goldsmith’s Pictures of the Village
The Schoolmaster
B eside yon straggling fence that skirts the way.
With blossomed furze unprofitably gay,
There, in his noisy mansion, skilled to rule,
The village master taught his little school.
A man severe he was, and stern to view ;
I knew him well, and every truant knew.
Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace
The day’s disasters in his morning face ;
Full well they laughed, with counterfeited glee
At all his jokes, for many a joke had he ;
Full well the busy whisper, circling round,
Conveyed the dismal tidings when he frowned,
Yet he was kind, or if severe in aught,
The love he bore to learning was in fault.
The village all declared how much he knew ;
Twas certain he could write, and cypher too.
In arguing, too, the parson owned his skill,
For e’en though vanquished he could argue still;
While words of learned length and thundering sound
Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around,
And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew.
That one small head could carry all he knew.
The Inn
N ear yonder thorn, that lifts its head on high.
Where once the signpost caught the passing eye.
Low lies that house where nut-brown draughts inspired.
Where greybeard mirth and smiling toil retired ;
Where village statesmen talked with looks profound,
And news much older than their ale went round.
Imagination fondly stoops to trace
The parlour splendours of that festive place ;
The whitewashed wall, the nicely-sanded floor,
The var n ished clock that clicked behind the door ;
The chest, contrived a double debt to pay,
A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day ;
The hearth, except when winter chilled the day,
With aspen boughs, and flowers, and fennel gay;
While broken teacups, wisely kept for show.
Ranged o’er the chimney, glistened in a row.
Vain transitory splendours ! Could not all
Reprieve the tottering mansion from its fall ?
Obscure it sinks, nor shall it more impart
An hour’s importance to the poor man’s heart.
From The Deserted ViUage
169
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Oliver Goldsmith's Portrait Gallery
Here Lies Edmund Burke
H ere lies our good Edmund, whose genius was such,
We scarcely can praise it or blame it too much ;
Who, bom for the Universe, narrowed his mind.
And to party gave up what was meant for mankind.
Though fraught with ah learning, yet straining his throat
lo persuade Tommy Townshend to lend him a vote ;
Who, too deep for his hearers, still went on refining, *
And thought of convincing, while they thought of dining •
Though equal to all things, for all things unfit.
Too nice for a statesman, too proud for a wit;
For a patriot too cool; for a drudge disobedient;
And too fond of the right to pursue the expedient.
Here Lies David Garrick
Here lies David Garrick, describe me who can.
An abridgement of all that was pleasant in man ;
As an actor, confessed without rival to shine ;
As a wit, if not first, in the very first line :
Yet with talents like these, and an excellent heart.
The man had his failings, a dupe to his art.
Like an ill-judging beauty, his colours he spread.
And beplastered with rouge his own natural red.
On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting ;
Twas only that when he was off he was acting.
Here Lies Sir Joshua Reynolds
Here Reynolds is laid, and, to tell you my mind,
He has not left a better or wiser behind :
His pencil was striking, resistless, and grand ;
His manners were gentle, complying, and bland,
btiii bom to improve us in every part.
His pencil our faces, his manners our heart.
To coxcombs averse, yet most civilly steering,
When they judged without skill he was still hard of hearing:
w lie nvi 1 j y i, t - al ! Ced of their ^Pkaels, Correggios, and stuff.
He shifted his trumpet and only took snuff.
Charles Lamb is Free
h . toppi&t <toy in the sad life of Charles Lamb was the day on which
he was released from the drudgery of a clerk, March 29, 1825. After thirty-three
years he was free, and he wrote this on his freedom*
T had grown to my desk as it were ; and the wood had entered into
i my soul. Now I no longer hunt for pleasure ; I let it come to me.
1 u V v • e > - ev ® r 7 t hi«g; I can interrupt a man of much occupation
wnen he is busiest. I can insult over him with an invitation to take
170
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
a day’s pleasure with me at Windsor this fine May morning. I walk
about, not to or from.
In the delight of his new-found freedom, Lamb wrote these letters.
This to Wordsworth:
I came home for ever on Tuesday in last week. It was like passing
from life into eternity. Every year to be as long as three ; that is, to
have three times as much real time in it—time that is my own.
Mary wakes every morning with an obscure feeling that some good has
happened to us.
This to Wordsworth’s wife’s sister:
For some. days I was staggered; could not comprehend the
magnitude of my deliverance ; was confused, giddy; knew not
whether I was on my head or my heels; but those giddy feelings
have now gone away, and my weather-glass stands at a degree or
two above content. I go about quiet, and have none of that restless
hunting after recreation which made holidays formerly uneasy joys.
All being holydays I feel as if I had none, as they do in heaven, where
tis all red-letter days.
This to Bernard Barton the poet:
I am free, B.B.—free as air.
The little bird that wings the sky
Knows no such Liberty !
I went and sat among ’em all at my old thirty-three years’ desk
yester morning, and deuce take me if I had not yearnings at leaving
all my old pen-and-ink fellows, merry, sociable lads, at leaving them
in the lurch, fag, fag, fag. The comparison of my own superior
felicity gave me anything but pleasure.
A Cbud Passes Over Bridget
In this essay Lamb is looking at a piece of old blue china , with its young
Mandarin handing tea to a little lady , when a cloud passes over his cousin Bridgets
face and she begins regretting these luxuries and remembering the old days of
their poverty.
I wish the good old times would come again (she said) when we
were not quite so rich.
I do not mean that I want to be poor; but there was a middle
state in which, I am sure, we were a great deal happier. A purchase
is but a purchase now that you have money enough and to spare.
Formerly it used to be a triumph. When we coveted a cheap luxury
(and, O ! how much ado I had to get you to consent in those times)
we^ were used to have a debate two or three days before, and to
weigh the for and against, and think what we might spare it out of,
and what saving we could hit upon, that should be an equivalent.
A thing was worth buying then, when we felt the money that we
paid for it.
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 171
vou^iS b TT suit ’ wbich you made to hang upon
-id aH flTf r h8 ^ e Up ° n you ’ s « threadbare
, d jf^ beca ^ se of that folio Beaumont and Fletcher, which you
dragged home late at night from Barker’s in Covent Garden ? Do
nnr remember how w . e e >' ed 11 for weeks before we could mak e U p
our mmds to the purchase, and had not come to a determination till
T nea3 p tei } 0 clocli of the Saturday night, when you set off from
s rngton, fearing you should be too late—and when the old book-
taSer !? th , some gambling opened his shop, and by the twinkling
per (for he was setting bed wards) lighted out the relic from his
dusty treasures—and when you lugged it home, wishing it were twice
as cumbersome-and when you presented it to me-and when we
were exploring the perfectness of it ( collating , you called it)—and
• e . 1 was repairing some of the loose leaves with paste, which your
impatience would not suffer to be left till davbrefk-waTthere no
pleasure m bemg a poor man ? ' b tnere no
c an those neat black clothes which you wear now, and are so
vouS°t£l P brushed ’ since we have become rich and finical, give
overwornsuitforfoJo^fi 7 Wlth t wbich jaunted it about in that
f/ smt tor tour or fiv e weeks longer than you should have done
to pacify your conscience for the mighty sum of fifteen for sixteen
vou^ifn’ « aS iV V Vhich y ° U had lavished on the old folio ? Now
fw? afford to buy any book that pleases you, but I <io not see
that you ever bring me home any nice old purchases now.
Rar T nnH wVn remei ? ber our Peasant walks at Enfield, and Potter’s
Bar, and Waltham, when we had a holyday—holydays and all ntW
fun ar e gone now we ^ rich _ and the y y SbSet hi wMeS T
used to deposit our day’s fare of savoury cold lamb^nd salad-anJ
«“ *-*
ove?™' ff t°W day ' S ? leaS “ illS '' '' Aioh is seldom, more-
y of uncertam usage and a precarious welcome.
^ 0U f phce fa the i“se,
-p r , . w ^ere we were sittmg, when our thoughts were with
Rosalind in Arden, or Viola at the Court of Elyria ?
yousav P&y 0UP I ?° ney and walk You cannot see,
y u say, in the galleries now. I am sure we saw, and heard too wpII
enough then-but sight and all, I thinh, is gone’wtho
172
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Trailing Clouds of Glory Bo We Come
O ur birth is but a sleep and a forgetting :
The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar :
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home ;
Heaven lies about us in our infancy !
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing Boy,
But he beholds the light, and whence it flows,
He sees it in his joy;
The Youth, who daily farther from the east
Must travel, still is Nature’s priest.
And by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended ;
At length the Man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day,
O joy ! that in our embers
Is something that doth live.
That nature yet remembers
What was so fugitive !
The thought of our past years in me doth breed
Perpetual benediction ; not indeed
For that which is most worthy to be blest:
Delight and liberty, the simple creed
Of childhood, whether busy or at rest,
With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast
Not for these I raise
The song of thanks and praise ;
But for those obstinate questionings
Of sense and outward things,
Fallings from us, vanishings ;
Blank misgivings of a Creature
Moving about in worlds not realised,
High instincts before which our mortal Nature
Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised :
But for those first affections,
Those shadowy recollections,
Which, be they what they may.
Are yet the fountain-light of all our day.
Are yet a master-light of all our seeing ;
Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make
Our noisy years seem moments in the being
Of the eternal Silence ; truths that wake.
To perish never ;
173
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour.
Nor Man nor Boy,
Nor all that is at enmity with joy,
Can utterly abolish or destroy !
Hence in a season of calm weather,
Though inland far we be,
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea
Which brought us hither.
Can in a moment travel thither,
And see the children sport upon the shore.
And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.
Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song!
And let the young Lambs bound
As to the tabor’s sound !
And 0, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves
Forebode not any severing of our loves ! *
Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might;
I only have relinquished one delight
To live beneath your more habitual sway.
1 love the Brooks which down their channels fret
Even more than when I tripped lightly as they • ’
The innocent brightness of a new-born Day
Is lovely yet;
The Clouds that gather round the setting sun
Do take a sober colouring from an eye
That hath kept watch o’er man’s mortality,
Another race hath been, and other palms are won.
Thanks to the human heart by which we live.
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears, *
To me the meanest flow r er that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.
From W ordsworth’s Ode to Immortality
The Most Magnificent Faces Since The Golden Age
T ET those who are disposed to follow the present evil fashion of
JL disparaging the great Victorians make a collection of their
heads in photopaphs or engravings and compare them with those
°£ ^ ir awn favourites. Let them set up in a row good portraits
of Tennyson, Charles Darwin, Gladstone, Manning, Newman
Martmeau, Lord Lawrence, Burne-Jones, and, if they like, a dozen
lesser luminaries, and ask themselves candidly whether men of this
stature are any longer among us.
V, 1 ^ not speculate on the causes which, from time to time
throw up a large number of great men in a single generation. I will
only ask you to agree with me that since the Golden Age of Greece
no age can boast so many magnificent types of the human counten-
ance as the reign of Queen Victoria. py j n ^ e
174 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Life is Sweet, Brother
L ife is sweet, brother. Do you think so ?
Think so! There’s night and day, brother, both sweet things ;
sun, moon, and stars, brother, all sweet things ; there’s likewise the
wind on the heath. Life is very sweet, brother; who would wish
to die ? The gipsies in George Sorrow’s Lavengro
The Good Of It
E xpelled on account of his tyranny, Dionysius the Second of
Syracuse, who had been the host and pupil of Plato, was asked
by a cynic during his exile, “ Of what service is the philosophy of
Plato to you now ? 59 to which he answered :
It assists me to behold the vicissitudes of fortune without astonish¬
ment, and to suffer her severities without complaint
The Bad Old Days
I know it is an old folly to make peevish complaints of the times,
and charge the common failures of human nature on a particular
age. One may nevertheless venture to affirm that the present hath
brought forth new and portentous villainies, not to be paralleled
in our own or any other history.
We have been long preparing for some great catastrophe. Vice
and villainy have by degrees grown reputable among us; our
infidels have passed for fine gentlemen, and our venal traitors for
men of sense who knew the world. We have made a jest of public
spirit, and cancelled all respect for whatever our laws and religion '
repute sacred. The old English modesty is quite worn off, and
instead of blushing for our crimes we are ashamed only of piety
and virtue. Our symptoms are so bad that, notwithstanding all the
care and vigilance of the legislature, it is to be feared the final period
of our State approaches.
God grant the time be not near when men shall say :
This island was once inhabited by a religious, brave , sincere people,
of plain, uncorrupi manners , respecting inbred worth rather than titles
and appearances , assertors of liberty, lovers of their country, jealous of
their own rights, and unwilling to infringe the rights of others; im¬
provers of learning and useful arts, enemies to luxury, tender of other
men's lives and prodigal of their own; inferior in nothing to the old
Greeks or Romans.
Such were our ancestors during their rise and greatness; but they
degenerated, grew servile flatterers of men in power, became venal ,
corrupt, injurious, which drew upon them the hatred of God and man ,
and occasioned their final ruin. Bishop Berkeley writing in 1721
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
175
One April Day
—f .TASf®™ r"»
««««=•/« «i„, *,^ ^
W ^V^-i^ 6 ! 6 m , the wo °ds above Gowbarrow Park we saw a few
daffodils close by the water-side Wp 7u , e ^
floated the seeds ashorl and thS so spX ™
But as we went along there were more and yet more and Skst'
along the e sh°orf S ^ tre6S ’ WG S&W there was a lon g belt of them
ston^XufJhelf ^ 3 S ° be fi ifu . L . The >' among the mossy
stones about them. Some rested their heads on the stones as on »
fo f V'earmess ; the rest tossed and danced, and seemed as if
they verily laughed with the wind that blew over the ia£ fhev
ooked so gay and glancing, ever changing. Dorothy Wordsworth^ *
I wandered lonely as a cloud
7 u That „ floats on hi § h °’ er va les and hills.
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A. host of golden daffodils.
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay :
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly’dance.
The waves beside them danced ; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee;
A poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company ;
J g azed and gazed, but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft when on my couch I lie,
In vacant or in pensive mood.
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude ;
And then my heart with pleasure fills.
And dances with the daffodils,
' William Wordsworth
176 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
To All You Ladies
T o all you ladies now at land
We men at sea indite ;
But first would have you understand
How hard it is to write :
The Muses now, and Neptune too.
We must implore to write to you.
For though the Muses should prove kind.
And fill our empty brain,
Yet if rough Neptune rouse the wind
To wave the azure main,
Our paper, pen, and ink, and we.
Roll up and down our ships at sea.
Then if we write not by each post.
Think not we are unkind ;
Nor yet conclude our ships are lost
By Dutchmen or by wind :
Our tears we 5 ll send a speedier way.
The tide shall bring them twice a day.
The King with wonder and surprise
Will swear the seas grow bold.
Because the tides will higher rise
Then e’er they did of old :
But let him know it is our tears
Bring floods of grief to Whitehall stairs.
Let wind and weather do its worst.
Be you to us but kind ;
Let Dutchmen vapour, Spaniards curse.
No sorrow we shall find :
Tis then no matter how things go,
Or who’s our friend, or who’s our foe.
In justice you cannot refuse
To think of our distress,
When we for hopes of honour lose
Our certain happiness :
All those designs are but to prove
Ourselves more worthy of your love.
And now we’ve told you all our loves,
And likewise all our fears,
In hopes this declaration moves
Some pity for our tears :
Let’s hear of no inconstancy :
We have too much of that at sea.
Charles Saekville, Earl of Dorset^
in the Seventeenth Century
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 177
Robert Burns Gives Thanhs
r T ms ts ho™ Robert Burns thanked a gentleman who had sent him a
1 newspaper and promised to continue it:
Kind Sir, IVe read your paper through,
And, faith, to me, twas really new !
Bow guess’d ye. Sir, what maist I wanted ?
This mony a day I’ve grained and gaunted.
To ken what French mischief was brewin’;
Or what the drumlie Dutch were doin’;
Or how our merry lads at hame,
In Britain s court, kept up the game :
How royal George, the Lord leuk o’er him !
Was managing St Stephen’s quorum ;
A’ this and mair I never heard of;
And, but for you, I might despair’d of.
So gratefu’ back your news I send you.
And pray a’ guid things may attend you !
As the paper did not come regularly he sent this protest .■
Dear Peter, dear Peter,
We poor sons of metre
Are often negleckit, ye ken ;
For instance, your sheet, man,
(Though glad I’m to see’t, man,)
I get it no ae day in ten.
Written in a Country Churchyard
C an storied urn or animated bust
Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath ?
Can Honour s voice provoke the silent dust.
Or Flattery soothe the dull, cold ear of Death ?
Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire :
Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed.
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.
Knowledge to their eyes her ample page,
tiie spoils of time, did ne’er unroll :
Unll Penury repressed their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul.
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is bom to blush unseen.
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
Some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast
c '*-ke little tyrant of Ms fields withstood.
Some mute, inglorious Milton here may rest,
Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country’s blood.
F.T.—-12
178 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Th’ applause of listening senates to command,
The threats of pain and ruin to despise,
To scatter plenty o’er a smiling land.
And read their history in a nation’s eyes,
Their lot forbade : nor circumscribed alone
Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined ;
Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne,
And shut the gates of mercy on mankind :
The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide,
To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame,
Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride
With incense kindled at the Muse’s flame.
Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife
Their sober wishes never learned to stray ;
Along the cool, sequestered vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenour of their way.
From Gray’s Elegy, written
in Stoke Poges Churchyard
Pride of Nottingham
Y ou didn’t know of Bendigo ! Well, that knocks me out!
Who’s your board school teacher ? What’s he been about ?
Chock-a-block with fairy tales, full of useless cram,
And never heard o’ Bendigo, the pride of Nottingham !
Bendy he turned Methodist—he said he felt a call,
He stumped the country preachin’ and you bet he filled the hall,
If you seed him in the pulpit, a bleatin’ like a lamb.
You’d never know bold Bendigo, the pride of Nottingham!
His hat was like a funeral, he’d got a waiter’s coat,
With a hallelujah collar and a choker round his throat;
His pals would laugh and say in chaff that Bendigo was right
In takin on the devil, since he’d no one else to fight.
But he was very earnest, improvin’ day by day,
A-workin’and a-preachin’just as his duty lay ;
But the devil he was waitin’, and in the final bout
He hit him hard below his guard and knocked poor Bendy out.
Now I’ll tell you how it happened. He was preachin’ down at Brum,
He was billed just like a circus—you should see the people come.
The chapel it was crowded, and in the foremost row
There was half a dozen bruisers who’d a grudge at Bendigo.
There was Tommy Platt of Bradford, Solly Jones of Perry Bar,
Long Connor from the Bull Ring, the same wot drew with Carr,
Jack Ball the fightin’ gunsmith, Joe Murphy from the News,
And Iky Moss the bettin 5 boss, the Champion of the Jews.
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
A very pretty handful a-sittin’ in a string,
Full of beer and impudence, ripe for anything,
bittm m a string there,, right under Bendy’s nose,
11 his message was for sinners, he would make a start on those
Soon he heard them chaffin’: “ Hi, Bendy! Here’s ago!” ’
“ b y ^is Jump-to-Glory show ? ”
Stow it, Bendy ! Left the Ring ! Mighty spry of you !
Didn t everybody know the Ring was leavin’ you ? ”
Bendy fairly sweated as he stood above and prayed
« £? ok dowj ?’ 0 Lord ’ f nd g ri P me with a strangle-hold ! ” he said
Fix me. with a strangle-hold ! Put a stop on me !
I m slippm , Lord, I’m slippin’ and I’m dingin’ hard to Thee ! ”
But the roughs they kept on chaffin’ and the uproar it was such
Tffl a wnrL- reaCher be dikin’double Dutch,
Till a working man he shouted out, a-jumpin’ to his feet,
Give us a lead, your reverence, and heave ’em in the street.”
Ihen Bendy said, “ Good Lord, since first I left my sinful wavs
Thou knowest that to Thee alone I’ve given up my d^ys, Y ’
“ F]lTflk’ P de >K L ° rd ^ nd here he laid bis Bible on the shelf)
111 take with your permission just five minutes for myself.”
He vaulted from the pulpit like a tiger from a den.
They say it was a lovely sight to see him floor his men :
Tfl?^e n A left and P ! eft and 7 «bt, straight and true and hard.
Till the Ebenezer Chapel looked more like a knacker’s yard.
Platt was standin’ on his back, and lookin’ at his toes
Solly Jones of Perry Bar was feelin’ for his nose
Connor of the Bull Ring had all that he could do
Rakm for his ivories that lay about the pew.
Jack Ball the fightin’ gunsmith was in a peaceful sleep,
Joe Murphy lay across him, all tied up in a heap.
Five of them was twisted in a tangle on the floor
And Iky Moss, the bettin 9 boss, had sprinted for "the door*
Five repentant fightin’ men, sitting in a row.
Listenin’ to words of grace from Mister Bendigo
Listenin’ to his reverence, all as good as gold
Pretty little baa-lambs, gathered to the fold/
So that’s the way that Bendy ran his mission in the slum
And preached the Holy Gospel to the fightin’ men of Brink
Ihe Lord (said he) has given me His message from on hieh
And if you interrupt Him I will know the reason why.”
But to think of all your schoolin’, clean wasted, thrown away.
Darned if I can make out what you’re leamin’ all the day,
Grubbin up old fairy tales, fillin’ up with cram,
And didn’t know of Bendigo, the pride of Nottingham !
From Bendy’s Sermon, by Arthur Conan Doyle
179
180 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Picture of a Happy Man
We all knew the first of these Pictures of a Happy Life
written by Sir Henry Wotton in 1614, but how many
know the second, written two years before by John Davies?
H ow happy is he born and taught
That serveth not another’s will;
Whose armour is his honest thought,
And simple truth his utmost skill!
Whose passions not his masters are ;
Whose soul is still prepared for death,
Untied unto the world by care
Of public fame or private breath;
Who envies none that chance doth raise.
Nor vice ; who never understood
How deepest wounds are given by praise ;
Nor rules of state but rules of good.
Who hath his life from rumours freed ;
Whose conscience is his strong retreat;
Whose state can neither flatterers feed.
Nor ruin make oppressors great.
Who God doth late and early pray
More of His grace than gifts to lend ;
And entertains the harmless day
With a religious book or friend.
This man is freed from servile bands
Of hope to rise or fear to fall:
Lord of himself, though not of lands,
And, having nothing, yet hath all.
It would appear certain that in writing the
above Sir Henry Wotton had just read this t
H ow blest is he (though ever crossed)
That can all crosses blessings make ;
That finds himself ere he be lost;
And lose that found for virtue’s sake.
Yea, blest is he in life and death.
That fears not death, nor loves this life ;
That sets his will his wit beneath ;
And hath continual peace in strife.
That lives too low for envy’s looks ;
And yet too high for loathed contempt;
Who makes his friends good men and books.
And nought without them doth attempt.
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ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
That fears no frowns, nor cares for fawns
Of Fortune’s favourites or foes,
That neither checks with kings nor pawns;
And yet still wins what checkers lose.
That never looks but grace to find ;
Nor seeks for knowledge to be known :
That makes a kingdom of his mind,
Wherein, with God, he reigns alone.
This man is great with little state,
Lord of the World epitomised :
Who with staid front out-faceth Fate ;
And, being empty, is sufficed.
Green Meadows and Shining Streams
This is a picture of this famous island eight centuries ago,
written by Geoffrey of Monmouth dbout the year 1150.
b f t f i j knd !> lieth 111 tbe Western Ocean betwixt
250 ffi breadth ’ containeth 800 miles in length and
n J? atS T e , r 18 fi , tting f ° r tbe use of mortal men the island doth
afford m unfadmg plenty, for she aboundeth in metals of every kind •
fields hath she stretching far and wide, and hillsides meet for tillage
of the best, whereon, by reason of the fruitfulness of the soil, the
divers crops m their season do yield their harvests.
Forests also hath she, filled with every manner of wild deer in the
glades whereof groweth grass that the cattle may find thereki^neet
change of pasture, and flowers of many colours that do proffer their
shTlT ^ flit 6Ver busiIy aboat them. Meadows haS
she, set m pleasant places, green at the foot of misty mountains
wherein be sparkling wellsprings clear and bright, flowing forth with a
nppIe ? . shinin g streams that sing fweet lullaby
unto them that lie upon their banks. y
fi^^ er l d ^ Sh tl moreover > by lak es and rivers wherein is much
fish and, besides the narrow sea of the southern coast whereby men
make voyage unto Gaul, by three noble rivers, Thames, Severn and
Humber, the which she stretcheth forth as it were three arms, where-
land ffi heMfleete ^ fo>Xn oversea brou g ht hither from every
, Q , By tan cit j es > moreover, and twice four was she graced in
days of old, whereof some with shattered walls in desolate places be
now fallen into decay, while some, still whole, do contain churches of
tne saints, with towers builded wondrous fair on high, wherein com-
p anies of rehgious, both men and women, do their service unto God
after the traditions of the Christain faith.
182
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Let Me Go to Paradise With the Asses
These quaintly moving lines are by a quaintly original man~Francis Jam™,
a poet of France, living at the foot of the Pyrenees, loving animals and insects an*
trees and flowers, and all things of the open air. And especially he loves kimZif
and his own life, for “he is always telling you he is Francis Jammes ,” a critic says
O GOD, when You send for me, let it be
. Upon some festal day of dusty roads.
I wish, as I did ever here below,
By any road that pleases me, to go
To Paradise, where stars shine all day long.
Taking my stick out on the great highway.
To my dear friends the asses I shall say :
I am Francis Jammes going to Paradise,
For there is no hell where the Lord God dwells.
Come with me, my sweet friends of azure skies,
You jpoor, dear beasts who whisk off with your ears
Mosquitoes, peevish blows, and buzzing bees.
Let me appear before You with these beasts,
Whom I so love because they bow their head
Sweetly, and halting join their little feet
So gently that it makes you pity them.
Let me come followed by their million ears,
By those that carried panniers on their flanks.
And those that dragged the car of acrobats,
Those that had battered cans upon their backs,
She-asses, limping, full as leather bottles,
And those, too, that they breech because of blue
And oozing wounds round which the stubborn flies
Gather in swarms. God, let me come to You
With all these asses into Paradise.
Let angels lead us where Your rivers soothe
Their tufted banks, and cherries tremble, smooth
As in the laughing flesh of tender maids.
And. let me, where Your perfect peace pervades,
Be like Your asses, bending down above
The heavenly waters through eternity,
To mirror their sweet, humble poverty
In the clear waters of eternal love.
Alexander Writes to Aristotle
Aristotle having published some books on abstruse
scientific subjects , Alexander sent him this note.
Y ou did wrong in publishing the acroamatic parts of science.
In what shall we differ from others if the sublimer knowledge
which we gained from you be made common to all the world?
For my part I had rather excel the bulk of mankind in the superior
parts of learning than in the extent of power and dominion. Farewell.
183
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Traveller and the River
Traveller
W hy dost thou wildly rash and roar.
Mad River, O Mad River ?
Vl'ilt thou not pause and cease to pour
Thy hurrying, headlong waters o’er
This rocky shelf forever ?
What secret trouble stirs thy breast ?
Why all this fret and flurry ?
Dost thou not know that what is best
In this too restless world is rest
From overwork and worry ?
The River
What would st thou in these mountains seek*
O stranger from the city ?
Is^it perhaps some foolish freak
Of thine, to put the words I speak
Into a plaintive ditty ?
Traveller
Yes ; I would learn of thee thy song.
With all its flowing numbers.
And, in a voice as fresh and strong
As thine is, sing it all day long.
And hear it in my slumbers.
The River
A brooklet nameless and unknown
Was I at first, resembling
A little child, that all alone
Comes venturing down the stairs of stone
Irresolute and trembling.
Later, by wayward fancies led,
For the wide world I panted ;
Out of the forest dark and dread
Across the open fields I fled
Like one pursued and haunted.
I tossed my arms, I sang aloud.
My voice exultant blending
With thunder from the passing cloud.
The wind, the forest bent and bowed.
The rush of rain descending.
184
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
I heard the distant ocean call.
Imploring and entreating;
Drawn onward, o’er this rocky wall
I plunged, and the loud waterfall
Made answer to the greeting.
And now, beset with many ills,
A toilsome life I follow ;
Compelled to carry from the hillg
These logs to the impatient mills
- Below there in the hollow.
Yet something ever cheers and charms
The rudeness of my labours ;
Daily I water with these arms
The cattle of a hundred farms,
And have the birds for neighbours.
Men call me mad, and well they may,
When, full of rage and trouble,
I burst my banks of sand and clay.
And sweep their wooden bridge away,
Like withered reeds or stubble.
Now go and write thy little rhyme.
As of thine own creating.
Thou seest the day is past its prime ;
I can no longer waste my time ;
The mills are tired of waiting.
Longfellow
The Kingfisher
I T was the Rainbow gave thee birth,
And left thee all her lovely hues ;
And, as her mother’s name was Tears,
So runs it in thy blood to choose
For haunts the lonely pools, and keep
In company with trees that weep.
Go you and, with such glorious hues,
Live with proud Peacocks in green parks;
On lawns as smooth as shining glass.
Let every feather show its marks ;
Get thee on boughs and clap thy wings
Before the windows of proud kings.
Nay, Lovely Bird, thou art not vain ;
Thou hast no proud ambitious mind ;
I also love a quiet place
. That’s green, away from all mankind;
A lonely pool, and let a tree
Sigh with her bosom over me. W. H. Davies
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Unseen Warrior Calls
A MIST was driving down the British Channel,
Tne day was just begun.
And through the window-panes, on floor and panel,
streamed the red autumn sun.
It glanced on flowing flags and rippling pennon.
And the white sails of ships ;
And, from the frowning rampart, the black cannon
Hailed it with feverish lips.
Sandwich and Romney, Hastings, Hythe, and Dover,
VY ere all alert tiiat day
To see the French war-steamers speeding over
B’hen the fog cleared away.
Sullen and silent, and like couchant lions.
Their cannon, through the night
Holdmg their breath, had watched, in grim defiance,
liie sea-coast opposite.
And now they roared at drum-beat from their stations
On every citadel ;
Each answering each, with morning salutations,
that all was well.
And down the coast, all taking up the burden.
Replied the distant forts,
As if to summon from his sleep the Warden
And Lord of the Cinque Ports.
Him shall no sunshine from the fields of azure
No drum-beat from the wall.
No morning gun from the black fort’s embrasure
Awaken with its call! 5
No more, surveying with an eye impartial
The long line of the coast,
ShaH the gaunt figure of the old Field-Marshal
±se seen upon Ms post.
For in the night, unseen, a single warrior.
In sombre harness mailed.
Dreaded of man, and sumamed the Destroyer
The rampart wall had scaled.
He passed into the chamber of the sleeper
The dark and silent room, *
And as he entered darker grew, and deeper.
The silence and the gloom.
He did not pause to parley or dissemble
But smote the Warden hoar ;
Ah what a blow I that made all England tremble.
And groan from shore to shore.
185
186
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Meanwhile, without, the surly cannon waited,
The sun rose bright o’erhead ;
Nothing in Nature’s aspect intimated
That a great man was dead.
Longfellow
So When a Great Man Dies
G arlands upon his grave,
And flowers upon his hearse,
And to the tender heart and brave
The tribute of this verse.
His was the troubled life
The conflict and the pain,
The grief, the bitterness of strife,
The honour without stain.
Like Winkelried, he took
Into his manly breast
The sheaf of hostile spears, and broke
A path for the oppressed.
Then from the fatal field,
Upon a nation’s heart
Borne like a warrior on his shield 1
So should the brave depart.
Death takes us by surprise,
And stays our hurrying feet;
The great design unfinished lies,
Our lives are incomplete.
But in the dark unknown
Perfect their circles seem,
Even as a bridge’s arch of stone
Is rounded in the stream.
Alike are life and death,
When life in death survives.
And the uninterrupted breath
Inspires a thousand lives.
Were a star quenched on high,
For ages would its light,
Still travelling downward from the sky.
Shine on our mortal sight.
So when a great man dies,
For years beyond our ken
The light he leaves behind him lies
Upon the paths of men.
Longfellow
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Sis Bog is Dead
O mate of man! Blest being ! You that shared
r our master s hunger and his meals as well!
m da J r s old in pilgrimage fared
With young Tobias and the angel Bafael.
Servant that loved me with a love intense,
As saints love God, my great exemplar be !
lhe mystery of your deep intelligence
Dwells in a guiltless, glad eternity.
Dmr Lord! If You should grant me by Your grace
lo see You face to face in heaven, 0 then
Grant that a poor dog look into the face
Of him who was his god here among men !
Francis Jammes
■Now Came Still Evening On
N ow came still Evening on, and Twilight grey
Sober W y a11 th ings clad . . .
vvnen Adam thus to Eve : Fair consort, the hour
i/i night, and all things now retired to rest.
Mind us of like repose ; since God hath set
Labour and rest, as day and night, to men
Successive, and the timely dew of sleep,
Now falling with soft slumberous weight, inclines
Our eyehds . . . Night bids us rest.
To whom thus Eve, with perfect beauty adorned •
My author and disposer, what thou bidd’st
Unargued I obey. So God ordains :
God is thy law, thou mine : to know no more
fe woman s happiest knowledge, and her praise.
With thee conversing I forget all time.
All seasons, and their change ; all please alike.
Sweet rs the breath of Mom, her rising sweet.
With charm of earliest birds ; pleasant the Sun,
When first on this delightful land he spreads
His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit, and flower,
Ghstering with dew ; fragrant the fertile Earth
Alter soft showers ; and sweet the coming-on
„:.§ ra 7 e . fu i 1 Evening mild ; then silent Night,
With this her solemn bird, and this fair Moon,
And these the gems of Heaven, her starry train:
^ut neither breath of Mom, when she ascends
With charm of earliest birds ; nor rising Sun
On this delightful land ; nor herb, fruit, flower.
Glistering with dew; nor fragrance after showers ;
■Nor grateful Evening mild; nor silent night.
187
188 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
With this her solemn bird ; nor walk by moon.
Or glittering starlight, without thee is sweet.
But wherefore all night long shine these ? For whom
This glorious sight, when sleep hath shut all eyes ?
To whom our general ancestor replied :
Daughter of God and Man, accomplished Eve,
Those have their course to finish round the Earth
By morrow evening, and from land to land
In order (though to nations yet unborn
Ministering light prepared) they set and rise.
Lest total Darkness should by night regain
Her old possession and extinguish life
In nature and all things.
These, then, though unbeheld in deep of night,
Shine not in vain. Nor think, though men were none,
That Heaven would want spectators, God want praise.
Millions of spiritual creatures walk the Earth
Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep :
All these with ceaseless praise his works behold
Both day and night.
Thus talking, hand in hand alone they passed
On to their blissful bower.
Milton's Paradise Lost
Lords and Commons, Consider What a Nation This is
L oans and Commons of England, consider what nation it is whereof
ye are, and whereof ye are the governors—a nation not slow and
dull, but of a quick, ingenious, and piercing spirit, acute to invent,
subtle and sinewy to discourse, not beneath the reach of any point the
highest that human capacity can soar to. Is it for nothing that the
grave and frugal Transylvanian sends out yearly from as far as the
mountainous borders of Russia, and beyond the Hercynian wilderness
not their youth, but their staid men, to learn our language and our
theologic arts ?
Yet that which is above all this, the favour and the love of Heaven,
we have great argument to think in a peculiar manner propitious
towards us. Why else was this nation chosen before any other,
that out of her as out of Zion should be sounded forth the first tidings
and trumpet of Reformation to all Europe ? Now once again, by all
concurrence of signs and the general instinct of holy and devout men,
God is decreeing to begin some new and great reformation in His
church, even to the reforming of Reformation itself. What does He,
then, but reveal Himself to His servants and (as His manner is) first
to His Englishmen?
r , ® e kold now this vast city—a city of refuge, the mansion house of
liberty, encompassed and surrounded with His protection. The shop
03® THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 189
of war hath not there more anvils and hammers waking to fashion out
trutlfthanTh ms £ uments of . med i ust ice in defence of beleagured
truth than there be pens and heads there, sitting by their studious
Sese^r^fS^^^ 01 ^ 8 n ° tionS and ^ deas therewith
to present, as with then: homage and their fealty, their approaching
f h l f — 5 ° tllerS / S fast readin g> trying all things, affentingto
tiie force of reason and convmeement. ®
T? 3 require more from a nation so pliant and so
prone to seek knowledge ? What wants there to such a pregnant soil
but wise and faithful labourers to make a knowing people a nation
of prophets, of sages, and of worthies ? I doubt not if some great and
temper oM Sonf' 3U d C ° m * amon S us ’ wise to discern the mould and
and how to govern it, observing the high hopes and
of '°ur thoughts and masoningintfepm
suance ot truth and freedom, but that he would cry out as Pvrrhm
did, admiring Roman docility and courave “ Tf «nr>K ,
testelyte
MethinS a S h° ng
22 Ste
Milton's Areopagitica
New Suits for Sir Walter Raleigh
S ir Walter Raleigh was bred in Oriel Collect ; n a *1.
te g to T sr Ti- m
«Te QuS e® : made h,m mte ta * ^ window . oWfaJS
Fain would I climb, yet fear 1 to fall.
Her Majesty, either espying or being shown it, did underwrite:
If thy heart failetk thee y climb not at all.
Jood Mbit ThSth rr ng T ° f Ireland to the English Court in
!r k
suitsfor xsr
190
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
These Were Fanatics
T here may be a fanaticism for evil as well as for on^A t
deny that there are persons among us loving libertv't™ Wd f,^ ot
then- personal good in a selfish generation “ bert y too well for
for the sake o/their exampCSIS; be - “4
In calling them fanatics you would east contumely urion th* „ m
army of martyrs from the earliest day down to thfehmE? h ? e
great tribunes of human rights by whom life ^ t P ° b the
on earth hare been secured; upon tteln7iine J ,p >*!'“
who through history have truly loved their country- and u™,?^
You discredit Luther, when alone he nailed his articles to tb» a
S?S r :-H?£.?;E=Sfe
did not hesitate to brave the mio , htv i? i ^ j i ■% *
circling the globe with her mo“ g tofC b ^ts 8
Yes, sir, of such are the fanatics of history.
Charles Sumner, who stood alone in the V.S. Senate as the
bold enemy of slavery and made this speech there in 1856 .
Truth Loses No Battles
G*to ”LS^,'aWe t 3i'htertielT’ “’ d *° * eeIy “““^8
Skutt°s? iStf rt° f o d ?S trine were le * Ioose to Play upon the
stajth h^«d T d ° fo misdoubt her
put to the worse iu^ f^ hr 3 grapple ' "•“> ever knew Truth
that Truth is sion“ ne^ to“he°SiStv?“?h ? "5° ^
St 88 ’ 40
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 191
A Word from Sir Walter Raleigh
wf l f > ^ r }^/ ames the First” sent Sir Walter Raleigh to the scaffold
died Raleigh wrote this poem to prove that the king fould not slafhim.
G oe, soule, the body’s guest.
Upon a thanklesse arrant;
Feare not to touche the best,
The truth shall be thy warrant :
Goe, since I needs must dye.
And give the world the lye.
Goe tell the court it glowes
And shines like rotten wood ;
Goe tell the church it showes
What’s good, and doth no good :
If church and court reply 9
Then give them both the lye.
Tell potentates they live
Acting by others actions ;
Not loved unlesse they give.
Not strong but by their factions ;
If potentates reply
Give potentates the lye.
Tell fortune of her blindnesse ;
Tell nature of decay;
Tell friendship of unkindnesse ;
Tell justice of delay ;
And if they dare reply
Then give them all the lye.
So, when thou hast, as I
Commanded thee, done blabbing.
Although to give the lye
Deserves no less than stabbing.
Yet stab at thee who will
No stab the soule can kill.
April
A pril, April,
,, Faugh thy girlish laughter;
Then, the moment after.
Weep thy girlish tears !
April, that mine ears
Like a lover greetest.
If I tell thee, sweetest.
All my hopes and fears,
April, April,
Laugh thy golden laughter.
But, the moment after.
Weep thy golden tears ! William Watson
192
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Bacon Think of Death
•p we seek a reason in the boundless ambition in mortal man we
I add to that which hath been already said, that the kin^s arJ
princes of the world have always laid before them the actions, but not
the ends, of those great ones which preceded them.
They are always transported with the glory of the one, but thev
never mind the misery of the other till, they find the experience K
themselves. They neglect the advice of God while they eniov life
but follow the counsel of Death upon his first approach. Death
which hateth and destroyeth man, is believed; God, which hath
made him and loves him, is always deferred.
I have considered, saith Solomon, all the works that are under the
sun, and behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit; but who believe
it till Death tells it us ? It is Death alone that can suddenly make
man to know himself. He tells the proud and insolent that they are
but Abjects, and humbles them at the instant; makes them crv
complain, and repent, yea, even to hate their forepassed happiness.
He takes the account of the rich and proves him a beggar. He holds
f, gla ? s e 7 es of most beautiful, and makes them see
therein their deformity.
O eloquent, just, and mighty Death, whom none could advise
thou hast persuaded ; what none hath dared, thou hast done : and
whom all the world hath flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world
and despised. Thou hast drawn together all the far-stretched great¬
ness, all the pride, cruelty, and ambition of man, and covered it all
over with these two narrow words, Hie jacet.
From Raleigh’s History of the World
M en fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and, as that
natural fear m children is increased with tales, so is the other,
certainly the contemplation of Death as the wages of sin and
passage to another world is holy and religious, but the fear of it as a
tribute due unto Nature is weak. It is as natural to die as to be bom.
Above afi, believe it, the sweetest canticle is Nunc dimittis when
a man hath obtained worthy ends and expectations. Death hath
this also, that it openeth the gate to good fame and extinguisheth envy.
Sir Francis Bacon
The Song of a Wife
T for a day, for a week, for a year,
X For lifetime, for ever, while man dwelleth here.
Thomas Tussefs Sixteenth
Century Booh of Housewifery
VICTORIA FALLS
195
ONI THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Thomas Tuss&t’s Laddst- to PtosjOBfity
T o take thy calling thankfully.
And shun the path to beggary*
To grudge in youth no drudgery.
To come by knowledge perfectly*
To count no travel slavery.
That brings in penny saverly.
To follow profit earnestly,
But meddle not with pilfery*
To get by honest praetisy,"
And keep thy gettings covertly*
To lash not out too lashingly,
For fear of pinching penury.
To get good plot to occupy.
And store and use it husbandly.
To shew to landlord courtesy,
And keep thy covenants orderly*
To hold that thine is lawfully.
For stoutness or for flattery*
To wed good wdfe for company,
And live in wedlock honestly.
To furnish house with housholdry,
And make provision skilfully.
To join to wife good family,
And none to keep for bravery.
To suffer none live idly,
For fear of idle knavery*
To courage wife in huswifery.
And use well-doers gentily.
To keep no more but needfully,
And count excess unsavoury.
To raise betimes the lubberly,
Both snorting Hob and Margery.
To walk thy pastures usually.
To spy ill neighbours 5 subtilty.
To hate revengement hastily,
For losing love and amity.
To love thy neighbour neighbourly.
And show him no discourtesy.
To answer stranger civilly.
But shew him not thy secrecy.
To use no man deceitfully,
To offer no man villainy.
To learn how foe to pacify,
But trust him not too hastily.
To keep thy touch substantially,
. And in thy word use constancy.
f.t.— i8 :
194 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
To make thy bonds advisedly,
And come not bound through suerty.
To meddle not with usury.
Nor lend thy money foolishly.
To hate to live in infamy,
Through craft and living shiftingly.
To shun all kind of treachery,
For treason endeth horribly.
To learn to shun ill company,
And such as live dishonestly.
To banish house of blasphemy,
Lest crosses cross, unluckily.
To stop mischance through policy,
For chancing too unhappily.
To bear thy crosses patiently,
For worldly things are slippery.
To lay to keep from misery.
Age coming on, so creepingly.
To pray to God continually,
For aid against thine enemy.
To spend thy Sabbath holily,
And help the needy poverty.
To live in conscience quietly.
And keep thyself from malady..
To ease thy sickness speedily.
Ere help be past recovery.
To seek to God for remedy,
For witches prove unluckily.
These be the steps, unfeignedly,
To climb to thrift by husbandry.
From Thomas Tusser's book of good counsel to
countrymen and housewives of the Sixteenth Century
Bad News
M y lord, what can I say to you ? I am sore vexed, but your
pretty cottage is burnt to the ground. What will you say,
my lord ? The Housekeeper to Lord Grey ofFallodon
If I Should Die Tonight
I F I should die tonight.
My friends would look upon my quiet face
Before they laid it in its resting place,
And deem that death had left it almost fair;
And, laying snow-white flowers against my hair.
Would smooth it down with tearful tenderness.
And fold my hands with lingering caress,
Poor hands, so empty and so cold tonight 1
195
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
If I should die tonight,
My friends would call to mind with loving thought
Some kindly deed the icy hands had wrought;
Some gentle word the frozen lips had said :
Errands on which the willing feet had sped ;
ihe memory of my selfishness and pride,
My hasty "words, would all be put aside.
And so I should be loved and mourned tonight.
If I should die tonight,
Even hearts estranged would turn once more to me.
Kecalling oilier days remorsefully.
The eyes that chill me with averted glance,
Mould look upon me as of yore perchance,
And soften m the old familiar way ;
For who could war with dumb unconscious clav ?
So 1 might rest, forgiven of all, tonight.
°h, friends, I pray tonight,
Keep not your kisses from my dead cold brow
The way is lonely—let me feel them now,
Think gently of me ; I am travel-worn :
i ly faltering feet are pierced with many a thorn.
Forgive, oh hearts estranged, forgive, I plead !
When dreamless rest is mine I shall not need
•the tenderness for which I long tonight.
Arabella Eugenia Smith
Everything Did With Him Talk
H ow like an angel came I down !
How bright are all things here !
When first among his works I did appear
u b° w their glory did me crown !
The world resembled his eternity
Iu which my soul did walkr,
And everything that I did see
Did with me talk.
The skies in their magnificence.
The lively, lovely air,
Oh, how divine, how soft, how sweet, how fair!
J.ii6 stars did. entertain my sense.
And all the works of God so bright and pure.
So rich and great did seem.,
As if they ever must endure
In my esteem,
A native health and innocence
Within my bones did grow.
196 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
And while my God did all His glories show
I felt a vigour in my sense
That all was spirit. I within did flow
With seas of life, like wine ;
I nothing in the world did know
But twas divine.
Harsh ragged objects were concealed,
Oppressions, tears, and cries,
Sins, griefs, complaints, dissensions, weeping eyes,
Were hid ; and only things revealed
Which heavenly spirits and the angels prize.
The state of innocence
And bliss, not trades and poverties,
Did fill my sense.
The streets were paved with golden stones.
The boys and girls were mine.
Oh, how did all their lovely faces shine !
The sons of men were Holy Ones
In joy and beauty, then appeared to me,
And everything which here I found,
While like an angel I did see,
Adorned the ground.
Rich diamond and pearl and gold
In every place was seen ;
Rare splendours, yellow, blue, red, white, and green.
Mine eyes did everywhere behold.
Great wonders clothed with glory did appear.
Amazement was my bliss.
That and my wealth was everywhere :
No joy to this 1
Cursed and devised proprieties,
With envy, avarice,
And fraud, those fiends that spoil even Paradise,
Fled from the splendour of mine eyes.
And so did hedges, ditches, limits, bounds,
I dreamed not ought of those,
But wandered over all men’s grounds,
And found repose.
Proprieties themselves were mine,
And hedges ornaments;
Walls, boxes, coffers, and their rich contents
Did not divide my joys, but all combine.
Clothes, ribbons, jewels, laces, I esteemed
My joys by others worn ;
For me they all to wear them seemed
When I was bom. Thomas Traherne
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 3
Suddenly One Day
S uddenly one day
The last ill shall fall away.
The last little beastliness that is in our blood
Shall drop from us as the sheath drops from the bud.
And the great spirit of man shall struggle through
And spread huge branches underneath the blue.
In any mirror, be it bright or dim,
Man will see God staring back at him.
T. P, C. Wilson
The Undying
In memory of T. P. C. W.
T he quiet passing ships ;
A shadowed hillside,
And his spirit,
And the slow wash of the tide.
The fire of the heather ;
The stars waning d im ,
And his spirit.
Always the spirit of him.
Stronger than grief or death,
Hurt, or the power to kill.
Comes insistent, triumphant,
His spirit still. Marjorie Wilson, to a
brother killed in the War
A Memory
M y wandering heart is over the fields
With my sisters the Sun and the Rain ,*
But fetters are holding my body close,
And my hands, in the hands of Pain.
Sweet are the slim-stalked hare-bell flowers
Where the low gold grasses blow;
But an alien gaoler keeps my door
And he will not let me go.
Birds and the trees keep holiday.
And my broken body stays ;
But not iron key or prison wall
Can bar my love-filled days.
No pacing warder with steely grip
Can my spirit keep apart
From the days when my head was crowned with stars
And a glory was in my heart.
Marjorie Wilson , on being told that she must die
198 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Honest Friend
p,N the whok ii: is easy to understand the dog and to learn to read
KJ his thoughts. The dog cannot dissimulate, cannot deceive
cannot he, because he cannot speak. The dog is a saint. He k
straightforward and honest by nature.
He looks upon his master as his king, almost as his god TTp
expects his god to be severe if need be, but he expects him to be iust
He knows that his god can read his thoughts, and he knows it is no
good to conceal them.
He knows by instinct when he is not wanted ; lies quite still for
hours when his king is hard at work. But when his king is S J
and worried he knows that his time has come, and he creeps ud
and lays his head on his lap. “ Don’t worry. Never mind if thev all
abandon you. Let us go for a walk and forget all about it! 59
Axel Munthe
He Wrote the Bridge of Sighs
N o courtier this, and nought to courts he owed,
Fawned not on thrones, hymned not the great and callous
Yet, in one strain that few remember, showed ’
He had the password to King Oberon’s palace,
And seeing a London seamstress’s grey fate,
He of a human heartstring made a thread,
And stitched him such a royal robe of state
That eastern kings are poorlier habited.
He saw wan Woman toil with famished eyes ;
He saw her bound, and strove to sing her free.
He saw her fallen, and wrote The Bridge of Sighs,
And on it crossed to immortality.
William Watson
The Poet to His Master
O LET me leave the plains behind.
And let me leave the vales below ;
Into the highlands of the mind,
Into the mountains let me go.
My Keats, my Spenser, loved I well;
Gardens and statued lawns were these j
But not for ever would I dwell
In arbours and in pleasances.
Here are the heights, crest beyond crest.
Loftiest of all things cloud-encurled :
And I will watch from Everest
The onsweep of the surgeful world.
William Watson on Shakespeare
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
109
December 31 , 1933
O utside the door the New Year knocks ;
# His fingers are so small and cold,
1 will not open yet to him,
For last year is not quite all told,
Nor made—my farewells to the Old,
Old Year, when you were young as he
Who waits outside my door tonight,
1 stood with happy hands that clasped
My friends 5 hands. Gay with dance and light
We were when last Old Year took flight.
And one, since then, has flown the seas,
Though most still walk the roads of home ;
To one delight and joy have been ;
The clouds of grief have shadowed some,
And unto one a Call has come.
Old Year, who for a moment froze
My heart with that stem news, before
You pass info Remembering and
Become the Past for evermore,
And Young Year enters at the door,
Know this : Before the next swift year
Has travelled quite its circuit through,
1 too may journey in your wake
To seek Eternity, I too
May be in Time’s great heart, as you.
Then little-will they know who speak
Such words as say that 1 am dead.
Only shall I have cast my cloak,
My ragged garment shall have shed,
To wear the robes of God instead.
By Marjorie Wilson, dying
Hail
H ail to the coming singers !
Hail to the brave light-bringers !
Forward I reach and share
All that they sing and dare.
The airs of heaven blow o’er me ;
A glory shines before me
Of what mankind shall be-:
Pure, generous, brave, and free.
Ring, bells in unreared steeples,
The joy of unborn peoples !
Whittier'
200
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
I Loved a Lass, A Fair One
I loved a lass, a fair one.
As fair as e’er was seen ;
She was indeed a rare one.
Another Sheba Queen : *
But, fool as then I was,
I thought she loved me too :
But now, alas ! she’s left me,
Falew, lero, loo !
Her hair like gold did glister,
Each eye was like a star.
She did surpass her sister,
Which passed all others far ;
She would me honey call,
She d O she’d kiss me too !
But now, alas ! she’s left me,
Falew, lew , loo /
Her cheeks were like the cherry,
Her skin was white as snow ;
When she was blithe and merry
She angel-like did show ;
Her waist exceeding small,
The fives did fit her shoe :
But now, alas ! she’s left me,
Falew, lew, loo !
In summer time or winter
She had her heart’s desire ;
I still did scorn to stint her
From sugar, sack, or fire ;
The world went round about.
No cares we ever knew :
But now, alas ! she’s left me,
Falew , lew, loo !
To maiden’s vows and swearing
Henceforth no credit give j
Y<m may give them the hearing,
But never them believe ;
They are as false as fair,
Unconstant, frail, untrue ;
For mine, alas ! hath left me,
Falew, lew, loo !
George Wither in the 17 th Century
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Sir Philip Sidney's Advice Prom His Father
201
S ince this is my first letter that ever I did write to you, I will not
that it be all empty of some advices which my natural care of vou
provoketh me to wish you to follow, as documents to you in this your
tender age. J
kf* y° ur drst action be the lifting up of your mind to Almighty
God by hearty prayer; and feelingly digest the words you speak in
prayer, with continual meditation and thinking of Him to Whom you
pray, and of the matter for which you pray. And use this as an
ordinary act, and at an ordinary hour ; whereby the time itself shall
put you in remembrance to do that which you are accustomed to do.
.Applj jour study to such hours as your discreet master doth
assign you, earnestly ; and the time I know he will so limit, as shall
be both sufficient for your learning and safe for your health. And
mark the sense and the matter of that you read, as well as the words.
So shall you both enrich your tongue with words and your wit with
matter . and judgment will grow as years grow in yon.
Be humble and obedient to your master, for unless you frame
yourself to obey others (yea, and feel in yourself what obedience is)
you snail nei er be able to teacli others how to obey you.
Be courteous of gesture, and affable to all men, with diversity of
reverence according to the dignity of the person; there is nothing
that wmneth so much with so little cost. 6
Use moderate diet, so as, after your meal, you may find your
wit fresher and not duller, and your body more lively and not more
heavy Seldom drink wine. Use exercise of body," yet such as is
without peril of your joints or bones ; it will increase your force and
enlarge your breath. Delight to be cleanly, as well in all parts
of your body as m your garments; it shall make you grateful in
each company.
if j° Ur + Self t0 merry l , for you de g enerate from your father
if you find not yourself most able m wit and body and to do anything
when you be most merry; but let your mirth be ever void*of all
scurrility and biting words to any man, for a wound given by a
word is oftentimes harder to be cured than that given with the sword.
Be you rather a hearer and bearer away of other men’s talk than"
a beginner and procurer of speech ; otherwise you shall be counted to
elight to hear yourself speak. If you hear a wise sentence or an apt
phrase, commit it to your memory with respect of the circumstance
when you shall speak it. Let never oath be heard to come out of
your mouth, nor word of ribaldry; detest it in others—so shall
custom make to .yourself a law against it in yourself.
« ^pdest in each-assembly, and rather be rebuked of light fellows
or maiden-like shamefastness than of your sad friends for pert
boldness. Think upon every word you will speak before you utter it.
202 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
. Above all things tell no untruth, no, not in trifles ; the custom nt
xt is naughty. And let it not satisfy you that, for a time+C? ° f
take it for truth, for after it will be known as it is, to yom sW
for there cannot be a greater reproach to a gentleman
accounted a liar Study and endeavour youfself to be Suouslv
occupied ; so shall you make such a habit of well-doing in Wth&
you shall not know how to do evil. ^ ^ ou
Remember, my son, the noble blood you are descends n t u
your mother’s side ; and think that only by virtuous life^ndiS
action you may be an ornament to that illustrious family • other!? d
through Tice and sloth, you shall be counted one otTe Se'aS ITS
that can happen to man. greatest curses
Well, my little Philip, this is enough for me, and too much T
for you. But if I shall And that Height mek“f7° sta^
anythmg m the weak stomach of your capacity I will, as I find the
same grow stronger, feed it with tougher food. “
Your loving father, so long as you live in the fear of God,
fl. Sidney
What Shadows We Are, and What Shadows We Pursue
Edmund Burke, realising in the midst of a contest at Bristol thm ,a
not be elected, declined the election in this famous short speech, orL phrM Zhhh
(referring to the death of a candidate) has become a familiar quotation 1 “
^entlemen I decline the election. It has ever been my rule
VJ through life to observe a proportion between my efforts and mv
objects. I have never been remarkable for a bold, active, and
sanguine pursuit of advantages that are personal to myself.
I have not canvassed the whole of this city in form ; but I have
taken suck a view of it as satisfies my own mind that your choice
wiH not ultnnately fall upon me. Your city, gentlemen, is in a state
oi miserable distraction ; and I am resolved to withdraw whatever
share my pretensions may have had in its unhappy divisions. I
have not been m haste I have tried all prudent means. I have
waited for the effect of all contingencies. If I were fond of a contest,
by the partiality of my numerous friends (whom you know to he
among the most weighty and respectable people of the city) I have
the means of a sharp one in my hands ; but I thought it far better,
with my strength unspent and my reputation unimpaired, to do early
an£ from foresight that which I might be obliged to do from neces-
sity at last.
l am not in the least surprised, nor in the least angry, at this view
i?i+v; S ‘ J read the book of life for a long time, and I have
read other books a little. Nothing has happened to me but what has
appene o men much better than me, and in times and in nations
lull as good as the age and country that we live in. To say that I
am no way concerned would be neither decent nor true . . . but.
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 203
gentlemen, I will see nothing except your former kindness, and I will
give way to no other sentiments than those of gratitude. From the
bottom of my heart I thank you for what you have done for me.
You have given me a long term, which is now expired. I have per¬
formed the conditions, and enjoyed all the profits to the full: and I
now surrender your estate into your hands without being in a single
tile or a single stone impaired or wasted by my use.
I have served the public for fifteen years I have served you in
particular for six. What is past is well stored. It is safe, and out of
the power of fortune. What is to come is in wiser hands than ours,
and He m whose Hands it is best knows whether it is best for you
and me that 1 should be in Parliament, or even in the world.
Gentlemen, the melancholy event of yesterday reads to us an
awful lesson against being too much troubled about any of the
St 0 ? °^ ordmar y ambition. The worthy gentleman who has been
conW d Jfol? V a f tl - e moment of the election, and in the middle of the
contest, while his desires were as warm and his hopes as eager as ours,
has feelingly told us what shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue.
It is no plaything you are about. I tremble when I consider the
trust I have presumed to ask. I confided perhaps too much in mv
? hey -iT!l 6 rea , Uy fak and u P ri 2 ht ; and I am bold to
say that I ask no ill thing for you when, on parting from this place,
I pray that whomever you choose to succeed me, he may resemble me
pSase m exce P^ m J abilities to serve and my fortune to
A Bunch of Violets
T hree times this lovely thought of violets comes into English literature
the same thought in the mind of Shakespeare, Herrick , and Tennyson.
Shakespeare puts it into Hamlet, where the angry brother of the drowned
Ophelia cries to the churlish priest at her graveside :
Lay her i’ the earth.
And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
May violets spring ! I tell thee, churlish priest,
A ministering angel shall my sister be
When thou liest howling.
Herrick puts it into his epitaph on his faithful maid Prue :
In this little um is laid
Prudence Baldwin, once my maid.
From whose happy spark here let
Spring the purple violet.
Tennyson puts it into In Memoriaxn at the pave of Arthur HaTlnm.
Tis well, tis something, we may stand
Where he in English earth is laid,
And from his ashes may be made
The violet of his native land.
204 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
■A. World Crisis in th& Doric ALg6s
There is in old letters a remarkable picture of one of the ruler* nfth.*. u
to get in touch with the greatest scholar in Europe in the midst (ft yWg
This glimpse of if is from a few letters which nasscd * a f lorld crisis,
end of 1522, each letter taking a month by special messenger. ** <md Basle at
From Pope Adrian the Sixth to Erasmus:
T T Iks with you, God helping, to recover those who have been sedne^
1 by Luther from the right road, and to hold up those who still
stand. I need not tell you with what joy I shall receive backtlS
heretics without need to smite them with the rod of the ImnerS
naTnrp Y °T kno ^ n how far . are such rough methods from m/om
Come to meto tome y ° U ^ Wi “ We W " e stadffits '^er.
Erasmus to Pope Adrian:
. This is no ordinary storm. Earth and air are convulsed
opinions, authorities, factions, hatreds, jarring one agahTst th7nn ’
the Faith ** «
The Pope to Erasmus:
^P en 7 our mind to me. Speak freely. I am not alarmed fnr
^mvri^of^T 1 f ” ‘ h ? ^ S “- 1 ™
sUenr^Comefo ^e 1 ^^ 0 ^ g °? S to P erdition * Be swift and
uent. Lome to me if you can, and come quickly.
Erasmus to the Pope :
I would come to you with pleasure if my health allowed Rnt +n*
£££££■ A ‘p<■ thewir^-d^l
i. «* S With mT the StOTeS * int0le “ bk -
Meanwhile you shall have my honest heart in writing Your
7 1 aI T e see my letter - If you like it—well.’ .
a- A , comisel you best who advise gentle measures. Some others
think there is no remedy but force. That is not my opinion The
Thifg? hate eo^too^f deserves but how to deJ with it wisely,
xnmgs nave gone too far for cautery. If you mean to trv nrkrm«
For myselffshould Stake f. and scaffold you need no help from me!
”7, I should say, Discover the roots of the disease Clean
be regarded a Punish no one - Let what has taken place
^ivSaU^^ by Providence and gra^t a
poss^blf+her f r rg i! Ve L T ma ? y sil *s, God’s vicar may forgive. If
the world see a^TfaSwe a check on the printing presses. Then let
o Id see and know that you mean m earnest to reform the abuses
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 205
which are justly cried out against, and, if your Holiness desires to
know what the roots are to which I refer, send persons whom you can
trust to every part of Latin Christendom. Let them consult the
wisest men that they can find in the different countries and you will
soon know.
y° u sa y me “ Come to Rome, Write a book against Luther.
Declare war against his party.”
Come to Rome ? Tell a'crab to fly. The crab will say “ Give
me wings.” I say ‘‘ Give me back my youth and strength.”
Portrait of Erasmus by Sir Thomas More
Y ou adjure me to beware of Erasmus. Gratitude for your concern
tor my soul obliges me to thank you for your alarms. It is my
duty also to pomt out to you that you are yourself walking among
precipices. ... ® s
Erasmus has published volumes more full of wisdom than any
which Europe has seen for ages. You have turned to poison what
to others has brought only health. I read with real sorrow your
mtemperate railing at such a man. You defame his character. You
call him a vagabond. You say he is a heretic, a schismatic, a fore¬
runner of Antichrist.
Before you were a priest you had candour and charity; now that
you have become a monk some devil has possession of you. You
say you do not give him these names yourself. You pretend that he
is so described by Almighty God. Are you not ashamed to bring in
Cod when you are doing the devil’s work in slandering your neigh¬
bour .' God has revealed it, you pretend, to someone that you know.
1 am not to be frightened by an idiot’s dreams.
I knew you once an innocent and affectionate youth: why are
you now charged with spite and malice ? You complain of Erasmus’s
satire and you yourself worry him like a dog. Take all the hard
things he has said of anyone. It is a handful of dust to the pyramid
oi invective which you have piled over a man who was once kind to
you. Is a boy like you to fall foul of what the Vicar of Christ ap-
• „ J s .^ he head of the Christian Church, speaking from the
citadel of faith, to give a book his sanction, and is it to be befouled
by the dirty tongue of an obscure little monk ? Erasmus, forsooth,
does not know Scripture 1 He has studied Scripture for more years
than you have been alive. You yourself quote Scripture like a rogue
Erasmus is the dearest friend that I have. You claim him a
vagabond because he has moved from place to place to carry on his
work. A saint, I suppose, must remain fixed like a sponge or an
oyster. You forget your own mendicants. They wander wide
enough and you think them the holiest of mankind. Jerome
travelled far, the Apostles travelled far.
Look into your own heart. You, for sooth, are never angry,
never puffed up, never seek your own glory. My friend, the more
206
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
conscious you are of your own faults, the more likelv vou ar P v
a profitable servant This I pray may be your care, and mine
and Erasmus’s also. You hint that you are not yourself implacab£.
if Erasmus will correct his errors you will again take his hand'
Doubtless he will bow to so great a man, and will correct them whni
you point them out; so far you have only exposed your own In
what you call errors he has substituted pure Latin for bad cleared
obscurities, corrected mistakes, and has pointed out blunders of
2?P yi i tS ; please 80 ? eat a man as y° u he ma y perhaps undo all
this, forfeit the respect of the wise, and console himself with the sen«>
of your forgiveness.
But a truce to satire. You say that the blots you indicate are
trifles. Well, you cannot regard heresy and schism and precursinv
and Antichrist as trifles. I presume, therefore, that those charges
are withdrawn. I will let the rest drop, and our tragedy may end
as a comedy. Farewell! If the cloister is good for your soul, make
tiie best of it, but spare us for the future these effervescenes of genius.
Written by Sir Thomas More to a young
priest who had written him criticising Erasmus
Portrait of Sir Thomas More by Erasmus
N ot everyone understands More, who is as difficult a subiect as
Alexander or Achilles. J
He is of middle height, well shaped, complexion pale, without a
touch of colour m it save when the skin flushes. The hair is black
shot with yellow, or yellow shot with black; beard scanty eyes
grey, with dark spots an eye supposed in England to indicate
genius, and to be never found except in remarkable men. The ex¬
pression is pleasant and cordial, easily passing into a smile, for he
has the quickest sense of the ridiculous of any man I ever met The
right shoulder is rather higher than the left, the result of a trick in
walking, not from a physical defect. The rest is in keeping. The
^sign of rusticity is in the hands, which are slightly coarse.
has been careless of appearance, but he has
still the charm which I remember when I first knew him. His health
is good, though not robust, and he is likely to be long-lived. His
father though in extreme old age, is still vigorous. He is careless in
what he eats. (I never saw a man more so.) Like his father, he is
a water-drinker. His food is beef, fresh or salt, bread, milk, fruit,
and especially eggs. His voice is low and unmusical, though he loves
music; but it is clear and penetrating. He articulates slowly and
distinctly, and never hesitates.
He dresses plainly; no silks, or velvets, or gold chains. He has
no concern for ceremony, expects none from others, and shows little
nimselt. He bolds forms and courtesies unworthy of a man of sense,
and tor that reason has hitherto kept clear of the Court. All Courts
are full of intrigue. There is less of it in England than elsewhere, for
there are no affectations in the King ; but More loves freedom, and
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 207
likes to have his time to himself. He is a true friend. When he
hnds a man to be of the wrong sort he lets him drop, but he enjoys
nothing so much as the society of those who suit him and whose
character he approves.^ Gambling of all kinds (balls, dice, and
such like) he detests. None of that sort are to be found about him.
In short, he is the best type of companion.
His talk is charming, full of fun, but never scurrilous or malicious
Me used to act plays when young; wit delights him, though at his
own expense ; he writes smart epigrams ; he can make fun of any¬
thing. He is wise with the wise, and jests with fools—with women
especially and his wife among them. He is fond of animals of all
SwtT wV 0 ^ tC f their habits - Ml the birds in Chelsea come
fnY bo fed * He has a menagerie of tame beasts, a monkey, a
brouJhftn e v and a . w ® aseL , He bu J rs any singular thing which is
o faht to him. His house is a magazine of curiosities, which he
delights m showing off. e
He controls his family with the same easy hand : no tragedies
no quarrels. If a dispute begins it is promptly settled. He has
^ Cnemy , n ° r become an enemy. His whole house
breathes happiness, and no one enters it who is not the better for
the visit. He is indifferent to money. He sets apart so much of his
income as will make a future provision for his family; the rest he
spends or gives away. J
™™ M ° re ha li bee ? nev f r bn 0 "™ to accept a present. Happy the
commonwealth where the magistrates are of such material! Eleva-
baS not elated him or made him forget his humble friends, and
he returns whenever he can to his beloved books. He is always kind
^ways generous. Some he helps with money, some with influence!
When he can give nothing else he gives advice. He is Patron-
General to all poor devils. on
He has a fine intellect and an excellent memory, information all
arranged and pigeon-holed to be ready for use. He is so ready in
Cof^a^ood^ Can PU2 f tbe best dhdnes °u their own subjits.
anv m«n^ 3U i ge / n !r UCb P T tS ’ SayS More has more genius than
any man m England. He is religious, but without superstition. He
Sif 18 b? urs .^ r Pfy e \ but he uses no forms, and prays out of his
ea^ee ^ W * th b ] s fnends about a life to come, and you
can. see that he means it and has real hopes. ■
_ Such is More, and More is an English courtier, and people fancy
that no Chnstians are to be found outside monasteries. The King
twf 1 *?! sucb 3:110 bis Court > but he invites them, forces
them, that they may be m a position to watch all that he does and
share his duties and his pleasures. He prefers the companionship
df jf 611 t ke ?° re to that of sffly y° ut bs or girls, or the rich, or the
dishonest, who might tempt him to foolish indulgences or 5u£!
ous courses If you were here in England you "would Tea?e Tfl
Sf • t §^7.^ distmguished men now surrounds the
English throne. Erasmus m England to a friend on tke Continent
208 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Erasmus Writes to Bluebeard
T he heart of a king is in the hands of God. When God
well to any nation he gives it a king who deservesTff
perhaps after so many storms He now looks on us with fa^ur'
havrng inspired the present reigning monarchs with a desire
and the restoration of piety. ur P eace
To you is due the highest praise. No prince is better preoared
for war and none more wishes to avoid it, knowing as you doW
deadly a scourge is war to the mass of mankind, while you have so
well used your respite that you have cleared the roads of robbers
so long the scourge and reproach of England ; you have suppressed
vagabonds ; you have strengthened your laws, repealed the bad on es
and supplied defects. You have encouraged learning. You have
improved discipline among the monks and clergy. You have reeol
realm fh** & n ? kle race of men is a finer ornament to yofr
realm than warlike trophies or splendid edifices. y
T1 You T ke yours | lf the pattern of, what you prescribe for others
The king s command goes far. But the king’s example goes farther'
Who better keeps the law than you keep it ? Who less seeks un'
worthy objects ? Who is truer to his word ? Who is juster and
fairer m all that he does ? In what household, in whaAollege or
** more wisd0I ^ nd integrity than *t£
Tk !. P° et ’ s golden age, if such age ever was, comes back under
her^ fc SS ' ^ fnCnd ° f EngIand does not congratulate
her . What enemy does not envy her good fortune ? By their
monarch s character realms are ennobled or depraved. Future ages
will ted how England throve, how virtue flourished in the reig/of
Henry the Eighth, how the nation was born again, how piety revived
how learning grew to a height which Italy may envy, and how the
prince who reigned over it was a rule and pattern for all time to come
. Jf nC , e 1 /voided kings and courts. Now I would gladly migrate
to England if my infirmities allowed. I am but a graft upon her
not a native, yet when I remember the years I spent there, the
friends I found there, the fortune (small though it be) which I owe to
r, I rejoice m England s felicity as if she were my natural mother.
For yourself, the intelligence of your country will preserve the
memory of your virtues, and scholars will tell how a king once reigned
there who m his own person revived the virtues of the ancient heroes.
Letter to Henry the Eighth
It Might Have Been
O F all sad words of tongue or pen
The saddest are these, It might have been.
Whittier
HENRY THE EIGHTH, BY HOLBEIN
EDWARD THE SIXTH. BY HOLBEIN
A CHINESE PRIEST OF THE
TANG DYNASTY
THE MOURNING WOMAN, BY A
SCULPTOR OF OLD GREECE
209
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
I Mourn No More My Vanished Years
I mourn no more my vanished years :
Beneath a tender rain,
An April rain of smiles and tears.
My heart is young again.
The west-winds blow, and, singing low,
1 hear the glad streams run ;
The windows of my soul I throw
Wide open to the sun.
I break my pilgrim staff, 1 lay
Aside the toiling oar ;
The angel sought so far away
1 welcome at my door.
Enough that blessings undeserved
Have marked my erring track ;—
That, whereso’er my feet have swerved,
His chastening turned me back ;
That more and < more a Providence
Of love is understood,
Making the springs of time and sense
Sweet with eternal good :
That all the jarring notes of life
Seem blending in a psalm.
And all the angels of its strife
Slow rounding into calm.
And so the shadows fall apart,
And so the west-winds play ;
And all the windows of my. heart
I open to the day.
Whittier's Psalm
A Story of a Dark and Lonely Night
A bout seven hundred lambs, which were once under my care at
weaning time, broke up at midnight and scampered off in three
divisions across the hills, in spite of all that I and an assistant lad
could do to keep them together. Sirrah, my man ! said I in great
affliction, they are awa\
The night was so dark that I could not see Sirrah, but the faithful
animal heard my words, words such as of all others were sure to set
him most on the alert; and without much ado he silently set off in
search of the recreant flock. We spent the whole night in scouring the
hills for miles around, but of neither the lambs nor Sirrah could we
obtain the slightest trace. It was the most extraordinary circumstance
that had occurred in my pastoral life. We had nothing for it (day
having dawned), but to return to our master and inform him that
we had lost his whole flock of lambs.
f.t.—14 •
210
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
On our way home, however, we discovered a body of lambs at the
bottom of a deep ravine, and the indefatigable Sirrah standing in
front of them, looking all around for some relief but still stand in <r
true to his charge* &
The sun was then up ; and when we first came in view of them we
concluded that it was one of the divisions which Sirrah had been
unable to manage until he came to that commanding situation but
what was our astonishment when we discovered that not one lamb
of the whole flock was wanting ! How he had got all the divisions
collected m the dark is beyond my comprehension. The charge was
left entirety to himself from midnight until the rising of the sun • and
if all the shepherds in the forest had been there to have assisted him
they could not have affected it with greater propriety. All that I can
further say is that I never felt so grateful to any creature below the
sun as I did to my honest Sirrah that morning.
St&ry told by James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd
The Slave to His Master
In the Festival of Saturn the slave of ancient Rome might do as he vleased far
fLw eq T-^P n 8 Saturnalia. Here the poet Horace Likes a slave talk this
master freely m those days of privilege. w
Y ou praise the fortune and the manners of men of old, and yet if
on a sudden some god were for taking you back to those daVs
you would refuse. What if you are found to be a greater fool even
than I, who cost you five hundred drachmas ?
Are you my master, you, a slave to the dominion of so many men
and things—you whom the praetor’s rod, though placed on your head
tln-ee or four times over, never frees from base terror ? Why you
who lord it over me are the wretched slave of another master’ and
you are moved like a wooden puppet by wires that others pull.
Who, then, is free ? The wise man who is lord over himself, whom
neither poverty nor death nor bonds affright, who bravely defies his
passions, and scorns ambition, who in himself is a whole, smoothed
and rounded, so that nothing from outside can rest on the polished
surface, and against whom Fortune in her onset is ever maimed.
Of these traits can you recognise any one as your own ? You
cannot, for you have a master, and no gentle one, plaguing your soul
pricking your weary side with the sharp spur, and driving you on
agamst your will. 6 J
If I am tempted by a smoking pasty, I am a good-for-naught, but
you—does your heroic virtue defy rich suppers ?
And you cannot bear to be in your own company, you cannot
emp oy your leisure aright, you shun yourself, a runaway, a vagabond,
seeking now with wind and now with sleep to baffle Care. In vain I
tliat black consort dogs you and follows your flight.
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
211
I Am Dying , Egypt, Dying
A xthoxy: I am dying, Egypt, dying ;
My spirit is going ; I can no more.
Cleopatra : Noblest of men, woo ’t die ?
Hast thou no care of me ? Shall I abide
In this dull world, which in thy absence is
No better than a sty ? O, see, my women,
The crown o’ the earth doth melt. My lord !
O, withered is the garland of the war,
The soldier’s star is fallen : young boys and girls
Are level now with men ; the odds is gone.
And there is nothing left remarkable
Beneath the visiting moon. Shakespeare
v am dying, Egypt, dying,
JL Ebbs the crimson life-tide fast.
And the dark Plutonian shadows
Gather on the evening blast;
Let thine arms, O Queen, enfold me,
Hush thy sobs and bow thine ear ;
Listen to the great heart-secrets,
Thou, and thou alone, must hear.
Though my scarred and veteran legions
Bear their eagles high no more,
And my wrecked and scattered galleys
Strew dark Actium’s fatal shore,
Though no glittering guards surround me,
Prompt to do their master’s will,
I must perish like a Roman,
Die the great Triumvir still.
Let not Caesar’s servile minions
Mock the lion thus laid low ;
Twas no foeman’s arm that felled him,
Twas his own that struck the blow;
His who, pillowed on thy bosom,
Turned aside from glory’s ray.
His who, drunk with thy caresses.
Madly threw a world away.
I am dying, Egypt, dying : '
Hark 1 the insulting foeman’s cry.
They are coming ! quick, my falchion.
Let me front them ere I die.
Ah.! no more amid the battle.
Shall my heart exulting swell;
Isis and Osiris guard thee !
Cleopatra, Rome, farewell!
William Haines Lytle
212
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Old Man Broken
K ATHARINE: Didst thou not tell me, Griffith, as thou led’st
That the great child of honour. Cardinal Wolsev
Was dead ? J>
me,
Griffith : Well, the voice goes, madam :
For after the stout Earl Northumberland
Arrested him at York, and brought him forward,
As a man sorely tainted, to his answer,
He fell sick suddenly, and grew so ill
He could not sit his mule.
Katharine : Alas, poor man 1
Griffith : At last, with easy roads, he came to Leicester
Lodged in the abbey ; where the reverend abbot, ’
With all his covent, honourably received him ;
To whom he gave these words, O, father abbot.
An old man, broken with the storms of State,
Is come to lay his weary bones among ye ;
Give him a little earth for charity!
So went to bed ; where eagerly his sickness
Pursued him still: and, three nights after this,
About the hour of eight, which he himself
Foretold should be his last, full of repentance.
Continual meditations, tears, and sorrows,
He gave his honours to the world again,
His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace.
Katharine : So may he rest; his faults lie gently on him!
Shakespeare's Henry the Eighth
A Riddle from Hamlet
-pissT Gravedigger: Come, my spade. There is no ancient
X gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers : they hold
up Adam s profession. What is he that builds stronger than either
the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter ?
Second Gravedigger : The gallows-maker, for that frame outlives
a thousand tenants.
First Gravedigger : I like thy wit well, in good faith : the gallows
does well; but how does it well ? It does well to those that do ill
Now^ thou dost ill to say the gallows is built stronger than the church;
argal, the gallows may do w;ell to thee. Cudgel thy brains no more
about it, for your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating ; and
when you are asked this question next, say a grave-maker: the houses
that he makes last till Doomsday.
From the scene at Ophelia 9 s grave
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
218
Poor Richard’s Advice for Hard Times
Poor Richard*$ Almanack was published for twenty-five years by Benjamin
Franklin. One of its famous chapters is a summing-up of Poor Richard’s homely
counsel , given here in the form of a talk by an old countryman .
I stopped my horse lately where a great number of people were
collected at an auction. The hour of the sale not being come,
they were conversing on the badness of the times, and one of the
company called to a plain, clean old man with white locks, “ Pray,
Father Abraham, what think you of the times ? Will not these
heavy taxes quite ruin the country ? How shall we ever be able to
pay them ? What would you advise us to do ? 55
Friends (says he) the taxes are indeed very heavy ; and, if those
laid on by the Government were the only ones we had to pay we might
more easily discharge them; but we have many others, much more
grievous to some of us. We are taxed twice as much by our idleness,
three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our
folly ; and from these taxes the Commissioners cannot ease or deliver
us. However, let us hearken to good advice, and something may
be done for us. God helps them that help themselves, as Poor
Richard says.
It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people
one-tenth part of their time to be employed in its service; but
idleness taxes many of us much more : sloth, by bringing on diseases,
absolutely shortens life. Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labour
wears, while the used key is always’bright, as Poor Richard says.
Rut dost thou love life, then do not squander time, for that is the
stuff life is made of. How much more than is necessary do we spend
in sleep, forgetting that the sleeping fox catches no poultry.
If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be,
as Poor Richard says, the greatest prodigality, since lost time is
never found again. Let us then up and be doing, and doing to the
purpose, so by diligence shall we do more with less perplexity. Sloth
makes all things difficult, but industry all easy, and he that riseth late
must trot all day and shall scarce overtake his business at night, while
laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes Mm.
But with our industry we must likewise be steady, settled, and
careful, oversee our own affairs with our own eyes, and not trust too
much to others, for, as Poor Richard says :
■ I never saw an oft removed tree.
Nor yet an oft removed family,
That throve so well as those that settled be.
# Three removes are as bad as a fire. Keep thy shop and thy shop
will keep thee. A little neglect may breed .great mischief.' For
want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost;
and for want of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain
by the enemy—all for want of a little care about a nail.
214
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
So much for industry, and attention to one’s own business . k, *
to these we must add frugality. A man may keep his nose all his life
to the grmdstone, and die not worth a groat at last A f„+ W i!
mates a lean will. The Indies have rn/madeSpStarich tecaSt”
out-goes are greater than her in-comes. USe h
Away, then, with y our expensive follies, and you will not have
much cause to complain of hard times, heavy taxes, and chargeable
families. What maintains one vice would bring up two children
You may thmk perhaps that a little punch now and then diet1S?*
more costly clothes a little finer, can be no great matter •bnfreim!
ber many a little makes a mickle. Beware of little expenses : a small
Smk a great ship ’ as Poor Richard says. Who dainties love
Shan beggars prove ; and, moreover, fools make feasts and wise min
eat them. Here you are all got together to this sale of fineries and
nick-nacks. You call them goods, but if you do not take caJe thlv
will prove evils to some of you. You expect they will be sold chea/
but if you have no occasion for them they must be dear to you
Remember that Poor Richard says, Buy what thou hast no need of'
and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessaries. Many have been ruined’
by buying good pennyworths. Silks and satins, scarlet and velvets
put out the kitchen fire. By these and other extravagance the
greatest are reduced to poverty and forced to borrow. When the
well is dry they know the worth of water. n
Again Pride is as loud a beggar as Want, and a great deal more
mllJVw y ° U haTC bought ° ne fine thing y™ must buy tel
more, that your appearance may be all of a piece, but Poor Dick savs
it is easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow
it. And it is as truly folly for the poor to ape the rich, as for the frog
to swell m order to equal the ox. It is, however, a folly soon punished
for, as Poor Richard says, Pride that dines on vanity sups on con-
emp , ride breakfasted with Plenty, dined with Poverty, and
supped with Mamy. And after aU, of what use is this prideof appear-
l S ° mUCh 18 nsked ’ 80 much is suffered ? It cannot
promote health, nor ease pam ; it makes no increase of merit in the
person ; it creates envy, it hastens misfortune.
w „tl n ° W t0 c< ? ncIud( ~ Experience keeps a dear school, but fools
will learn m no other. However, remember this : They that will not
Iln^nI I1S I led n ann °l be helped ’ and ’ further > that if you win not hear
reason she wiU surely rap your knuckles, as Poor Richard says.
Thus the old gentleman ended his harangue. The people heard
tOT d im P t P a r s 0 frfrh?dh d0Ctrme ’ and immediatel y practised P the con-
SeSb b uTt ff
1 - n&r&Er
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
215
The Laws of the King of Babylon
Written on a stone about eight feet high are the lares of King Hammurabi , King
of Babylon, 4000 years ago. They are engraved in 3614 lines which have been
translated for us by Mr C. II. TV. Johns . It is one of the remarkable documents of
human history , and these are some of Us decrees ,
I F a man weave a spell upon a man and has not justified himself, he
shall be put to death.
If a man has uttered threats against witnesses in a capital suit,
that man shall be put to death ; if he has offered money to witnesses
he shall himself bear the sentence.
If a judge has judged a judgment and afterwards altered it, he
shall be expelled from his judgment seat.
If a man has carried on brigandage he shall be put to death ; if
the brigand has not been caught the city and governor in whose land
the brigandage took place shall render back what was lost.
If a man’s house is on fire and a man coming to extinguish it
should take the property of the owner, that man shall be thrown into
that fire.
If a constable on an errand of the king goes not or sends one in
place of himself, he shall be put to death.
If one should leave his field or his garden or his house to waste,
and they should be taken by another for three years, they shall not be
given back to him who returns.
If a man has taken a field to cultivate and has not caused the com
to grow, he shall be put to account and compelled to give com like
its neighbour.
If a man has neglected to strengthen his bank of the canal and
the waters have carried away the meadow, the man who neglected
the bank shall render back the com which is lost.
If a man has lost nothing but says he lias lost something, he shall
be compelled to give whatever he has claimed.
If a woman hates her husband and says “ Thou shalt not possess
me ” the matter shall be enquired into, and if she has been economical
and has no vice she shall take her marriage portion and go to her
father’s house. If she has not been economical and has wasted
her house,' has gone about, and belittled her husband, she shall
be drowned. ■
If a man should strike his father, his hands shall be cut off; if he
causes the loss of a gentleman’s eye, he himself shall lose an eye. If he
shatters a gentleman’s limb, he himself shall lose a limb ; if he shatters
a poor man’s limb, he shall pay a mina of silver. If a man makes the
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
216
- -- — —vSTkJ
tooth of a man who is his equal to fall rmf u* 7 «
If he malKS the *°° th a “-'to
rs^-ss^r?*•»
cow-hide whip. ^ wim sixty strokes of a
If a builder has built a house which folk ~
its owner, the builder shall be put to death If if- aUSes of
the owner’s son the builder’s son shall die.’ ^ * the death of
haints value!^ reli0atrf “ SMp Which was be shall receive
no remedy^ bUU ^ ^ ‘ ““ oans<id him to die, that case has
iV ebuchadnezzar Calling
ss 4 fz?z.
‘he messenger ot tfe
of tejate SghtrS »d '“‘“r' ” P °" the threshold
never had any king mie T& SfJ'lf' 8 “* “ p - the win*
up with bitumen aXick. The P 0 l ’ 1"? W* 1 »
at I excavated. I caused its fnnnd.it,V W , nC 1 ! “ytather had worked
sununit like a mounts* f ° Undatl0M to be bud and raised up its
I caused themto£coined tith SlTk.ng of heaven and earfh,
brilliant as the day. nm ^ and I made them
BaM e i f 3 t e Ln?w f 0 : rhe at t i0n f ? e , aVen and earth . ‘be tower of
sculptured stones I made like 3 brm 33 *° ld “ d
tem^o?
the disobedient! smS^thd^w ^ °u a11 warriors, sweep away
enemies, sweep’them all awav a f° n . s ^ devastate t] ^ e Ia nds of the
of heaven and earth n™vf 7 ‘ t the P resence of Marduk, king
my prosperity. ’ ^ 017 wor ^ s pronounce blessing, command
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 217
King Alfred Dreams of a New Day for Old England
Is there not something curiously interesting today in this remarkable letter
from King Alfred, addressed to one of his bishops over a thousand years ago ?
K ing Alfred bids greet Bishop Waerferth with his words lovingly
and with friendship.
I let it be known to thee that it has very often come into my mind
what wise men there formerly were throughout England, both church
and lay folk, and how happy times there were then throughout
England, and how the kings who had power over the nation in those
days obeyed God and His ministers, and preserved peace, morality,
and order at home, and at the same time enlarged their territory
abroad, and prospered both in war and in wisdom ; and how zealous
were God s ministers in teaching and in learning, and in all the services
they owed Him ; and how men came from oversea in search of in¬
struction, which we should now have to get from thence if we would
have them.
So far has it fallen in England that few there are on this side
Humber who understand the English of their service or can translate
a letter from Latin, nor are there many, I know, beyond Humber
more learned. There were so few of them that I cannot remember
one south of Thames when I first began to reign. God be thanked
that we have, any teachers among us now.
Therefore I command thee, as I believe thou wouldst, to free
thyself from worldly matters and apply the wisdom which God had
given thee as thou art able. Consider what punishment shall fall
upon us fox the sake of this world if we have neither loved wisdom
ourselves nor suffered other men to obtain it, if we have loved the
name of Christian only, and very few of us its duties. When I con¬
sidered all this I remembered I had seen, before the land had been
ravaged and burnt, how its churches stood filled with treasures and
books, and with a multitude of His servants, but they had very little
knowledge of the books, and could not understand them, for they
were not written in their own language.
Therefore it seems well to me, if ye think so, for us also to translate
the books most needful for all men to know into the speech which all
men know, and (as we are well able if we have peace) to mal-o all the
youth in England of free men rich enough to devote themselves to it,
to learn while they are unfit for other occupation till they are well able
to read English writing ; _ and let those be afterwards taught Latin
who are to continue learning and be promoted to higher rank.
When I remembered how Latm-leaming had decayed in England,
and yet many could read English, I began during the various and
manifold troubles of this realm to translate into English the book
which is called in Latin Cura Pastoralis, and in English Shepherd’s
Book, sometimes word for word, and sometimes according to the
218 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
sense, as I had learned it from Plegmund my arehbishnn a
my bishop, and Grimbold and John my masl-priests. P ’ d Asser ’
. When 1 had learned it as I could best understand and „i ,
mtepret it, I translated it into English ; and I will send a
every btshopne in my kmgdom s and on each there is a
50 marcus. I command in God’s name that no man take ? th
from the book or the book from the minster.
The King of Oread Sorrow
tn the year 878 the army of the pagans drove many by force and
1 poverty and fear to sad over the sea, and they subdued aSost all
the dwellers in that region under their sway. ost all
In those days King Alfred, with a few of his nobles and with some
soldiers and vassals passed his life in great sorrow and unrest aS
the woods and marshes of the land of Somerset; nor had he anything
wherewith to support life, save that which by constant raids he^might
take from the pagans, or from Christians who had submitted to the
pagan yoke. From Assej ., s Ufe ofAlfr ^ the
Amid the Troubles of This World
T besought my trusty friends that out of God’s books of the lives
h nd , m ' r f!f S ° f tlle ® amts would set down for me the instruc¬
tion which follows, so that, strengthened in my mind through memory
d +^ e ’ 1 amid the troubles of th is world, sometimes think of
the thmgs of heaven. Alfred’s preface to one of his books
Alfred and His Memory
T HAVE sought to live worthily, and after my life to leave to them that
JL come alter me a remembering of me in good works. Alfred
The King Makes Himself Known to His Son
N ow for the story of Richard Plantagenet. In the year 1720 I
waited on Lord Heneage, Earl of Winchelsea, at Eastwell House
ana found him sitting with the register of the parish of Eastwell open
before him. He told me he had been looking there to see who of lis
™ were me ?*l oned u in it- Ba t, says he, I have a curiosity
me ’ a ” d 1 tanediatel 5' Scribed
Richard Plantagenet was buried the 22d day of December, anno ut
supra. Ex Registro de Eastwell, sub anno 1550.
This is all the registers mention of him. The story my lord told
me was tms.
" Tho “ aS Moyle built Eas twell Place he observed his
chief bricklayer, whenever he left off work, retired with a book. Sir
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 219
Thomas had curiosity to know w r hat book the man read, and, looking
into it, found it to be Latin. Hereupon he examined him, and
finding he. pretty well understood that language, inquired how he
came by his learning. Thereupon the man told him, as he had been a
good master to him, that he was boarded with a Latin schoolmaster,
without knowing who his parents were, till he was fifteen or sixteen ;
a gentleman came once a quarter and paid for his board, and took
care to see that he wanted nothing. One day this gentleman took
him to a fine great house, where he passed through several stately
rooms, in one of which he left him, bidding him stay there.
Then a man, finely dressed, with a star and garter, came to him,
asked him some questions, talked kindly to him, and gave him
some money.
Some time after the gentleman came to him again and told him
he must take a journey into the country. They went into Leicester¬
shire and came to Bosworth Field ; and he w'as carried to King
Richard’s tent. The king embraced him and told him he was his
son. “ But, child,” says he, “ tomorrow I must fight for my crown.
And, assure yourself, if I lose that, I wall lose my life too : but I hope
to preserve both. Do you stand in such a place (directing him to a
particular place) where you may see the battle, out of danger, and
when I have gained the victory, come to me; I will then own you
to be mine, and take care of you. But if I should be so unfortunate
as to lose the battle, then shift as well as you can, and take care to let
nobody know that I am your father ; for no mercy will be shown to
any one so nearly related to me.” Then the king gave him a purse of
gold, and dismissed him.
He followed the king’s directions; and when he saw the battle
was lost, and the king killed, he hasted to London, sold his horse and
fine clothes, and, the better to conceal himself from all suspicion of
being son to a king, and that he might have means to live by his
honest labour, put himself apprentice to a bricklayer. But, having a
competent skill in the Latin tongue, he w r as unwilling to lose it; and
having an inclination also to reading, and no delight in the conversa¬
tion of those he was obliged to work with, he generally spent all the
time he had in reading by himself.
Sir Thomas said, “ You are now old, and almost past your labour;
I will give you the running of my kitchen as long as you live.” He
answered, “Sir, you have a numerous family; I have been used to
live retired ; give me leave to build a house of one room for myself,
in such a field, and there, with your good leave, I will live and die.”
Sir Thomas granted his request ; he built his house, and there
continued to his death.
From a Letter written in 1733 by Dr Thomas Brett to Dr
William Warren and published in Peek's Desiderata Curiosa
220
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
No Name in History Like This
A lfred is the most perfect character in history. A saint without
superstition, a scholar without ostentation, a warrior all whose
wars were fought in the defence of his country, a conqueror whose
laurels, were never stained by cruelty, a prince never cast down by
adversity, never lifted up to insolence in the day of triumph, there is no
other name in history to compare with his. Professor Freeman
The Fame of Francis Drake
T he stars above would make thee known
If men here silent were :
The sun himself cannot forget
His fellow voyager. Ben Jonson
Queen Elizabeth Passes By
We take this little-known picture of Elizabeth from a description by a visitor to
her Court. He was Paul Hentzner, who was tutor to a young German nobleman and
brought his pupil to England in 1598. This is one of the things he wrote.
W e arrived at the royal palace of Greenwich. It was here Eliza¬
beth, the Queen, was bom, and here she resides.
We were admitted into the Presence Chamber, hung with rich
tapestryand the floor after the English fashion, strewed with hay.
At the door stood a gentleman dressed in velvet.
It was Sunday, when there is usually the greatest attendance of
nobility. In the same hall were the Archbishop of Canterbury, the
Bishop of London, a great number of Counsellors of State, Officers of
the Crown, and Gentlemen, who waited the Queen’s coming out;
which she did from her own apartment, when it was time to go
to prayers. First went Gentlemen, Barons, Earls, Knights of the
Garter, all richly dressed and bareheaded. Next came the Chancellor,
bearing the seals in a red-silk purse, between two, one of which
carried the Royal Sceptre, the other the Sword of State, in a red
scabbard, studded with golden Fleur-de-Lys.
Next came the Queen, in the sixty-fifth year of her age, as we are
told, very majestic; her face oblong, fair, but wrinkled ; her eyes
small, yet black and pleasant; her nose a little hooked; her lips
narrow; and her teeth black.
She had in her ears two pearls, with very rich drops ; she wore
false hair, and that red; upon her head she had a small crown,
reported to be made of some of the gold of the celebrated Lunebourg
Table. Her bosom was uncovered, as all the English ladies have it
till they marry; and she had on a necklace of exceeding fine jewels.
Her hands were small, her fingers long, and her stature neither
tall nor low. Her air was stately, her manner of speaking mild
and obliging.
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
221
As she went along in all this state and magnificence she spoke very
graciously, first to one, then to another, whether foreign ministers
or those who attended for different reasons, in English, French,
and Italian.
Whoever speaks to her, it is kneeling; now and then she raises
some with her hand. While we were there, W. Slawata, a Bohemian
baron, had letters to present to her; and she, after pulling off her
glove, gave him her right hand to kiss, sparkling with rings and jewels,
a mark of particular favour. Wherever she turned her face everybody
fell on their knees.
The ladies of the court followed next to her, very handsome and
well-shaped, and for the most part dressed in white. She was guarded
on each side by the Gentlemen Pensioners, fifty in number, with gilt
battle-axes. In the ante-chapel petitions were presented to her, and
she received them most graciously, which occasioned the acclamation
of Long live Queen Elizabeth ! She answered it with, 1 thank you,
my good People .
In the chapel was excellent music ; as soon as it and the service
was over, which scarce exceeded half an hour, the Queen returned
in the same state and order and prepared to go to dinner. But while
she was still at prayers we saw her table set out with the follow¬
ing solemnity.
A Gentleman entered the room bearing a rod, and along with him
another who had a table-cloth, which, after they had both kneeled
three times with the utmost veneration, he spread upon the table, and
after kneeling again they both retired. Then came two others, one
with the rod again, the other with a salt-cellar, a plate, .and bread.
When they had kneeled and placed what was brought upon the table,
they too retired with the same ceremonies performed by the first.
At last came an unmarried lady, dressed in white silk, who, when
she had prostrated herself three times in the most graceful manner,
approached the table and rubbed the plates with bread .and salt,
with as much awe as if the Queen had been present.
When they had waited there a little while the Yeomen of the
Guard entered, bare-headed, clothed in scarlet, with a golden rose
upon their backs, bringing In at each turn a course of 24 dishes,
served in plate most of it gilt. These dishes were received by a
gentleman in the same order they were brought, and placed upon the
table, while the lady-taster gave to each, of the Guard a mouthful to
eat of the particular dish he had brought, for fear of any poison.
During the time that this Guard were bringing dinner, twelve trum¬
pets and two kettle-drums made the hall ring for half an hour together.
At the' end of this ceremonial a number of unmarried ladies
appeared, who, with particular solemnity, lifted the meat off the
table .and conveyed it into the Queen’s inner chamber.
222 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Shadows Close About the Queen
r P H ® tr b™pb of Mount joy flung its lustre oyer the last days of
1 Btabeth, but no outer triumph could break the gloom which
gathered round the dying queen. Lonely as she had Ilways been
her loneliness deepened as she drew towards the grave. ’
The statesmen and warriors of her earlier days had dropped one
by one from her Council-board ; and their successors were watchW
her last moments and intriguing for favour in the coming reiSf
Her favourite, Lord Essex, was led into an insane outbreak of revS
which brought him to the block. The old splendour of her comt
waned and disappeared. uurc
As she passed along in her progresses the people whose applause
she courted remained cold and silent. The temper of the age in
feet, was changing, and isolating her as it changed. Her own
England, the England which had grown up around her, serious
moral, prosaic, shrank coldly from this brilliant, fanciful, unscrupulous
c l dd °j eart h and tbe Renascence. She had enjoyed life as the men
of i er da y ej W ed and n °w that they were gone she clung to it
with a fierce tenacity. s T
She hunted, she danced, she jested with her young favourites sh*
coquetted and scolded and frolicked at sixty-seven as she had done at
!i „ The Q ueen > wrote a courtier a few months before her
JSSjr*,, Tif neV6r f 0 ,pliant these many years, nor so set upon
jollity. She persisted m her gorgeous progresses from country-
house to country-house. She clung to business as of old.
But death crept on. Her face became haggard, and her frame
shrank almost to a skeleton. At last her taste for finery disappeared
and she refused to change her dresses for a week together. A strange
melancholy settled down on her: “ she held in her hand,” says one
who saw her in her last days, “ a golden cup, which she often put to
her lips : but m truth her heart seemed too full to need more filling.”
Gradually her mind gave way. She lost her memory, the violence of
her temper became unbearable, her very courage seemed to forsake
her. She called for a sword to lie constantly beside her, and thrust it
from time to time through the arras, as if she heard murderers stirring
there. Food and rest became alike distasteful. She sate day and
mght propped up with pillows on a stool, her finger on her lip, her
eyes fixed on the floor, without a word. If she once broke the silence
it was with a flash of her old queenliness. When Robert Cecil
“ S ^ r * t »,^ she must go to bed, the word roused her like a trumpet.
Must. she exclaimed is Must a word to be addressed to
princes . Little man, little man, thy father, if he had been alive,
durst not have used that word. 95
« Then as her anger spent itself, she sank into her old dejection.
^ cl P^umptuous,” she said, “ because thou knowest I
snau cue.. bhe rallied once more when the ministers beside her bed
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 223
named Lord Beauchamp, the heir to the Suffolk claim, as a possible
successor. 44 1 will have no rogue’s son,” she cried hoarsely, 44 in my
seat.” But she gave no sign, save a motion of the head, at the
mention of the King of Scots. She was in fact fast becoming insen¬
sible ; and early the next morning the life of Elizabeth, a life so great,
so strange and lonely hi its greatness, passed quietly away.
John Rickard Green in his Sho-rt History
The Schoolmaster to the Young Gentlemen of England
I t is your shame (I speak to you all, you young gentlemen of Eng¬
land) that one maid should go beyond you all in excellency of
learning and knowledge of divers tongues. Point forth six of the
best given gentlemen of this court and all they together show not as
much goodwill, spend not so much time, bestow not so many hours
(daily, orderly, and constantly) for the increase of learning and know¬
ledge as doth the Queen’s Majesty herself.
Yea, I believe that, beside her perfect readiness in Latin, Italian,
French, and Spanish, she readeth here now at Windsor more Greek
every day than some Prebendary of this church doth read Latin in a
whole week.
Among all the benefits God hath blessed me with, next the know¬
ledge of Christ’s true religion I count this the greatest—that it pleased
God to call me, one poor minister, in setting forward these excellent
gifts of learning in this most excellent prince, whose example, if the
rest of our nobility would follow, then might England be in learning
and wisdom a spectacle to all the world.
Roger Ascham on Queen Elizabeth
Carry No Tales
C arry no tales, be no common teller of news, be not inquisitive of
other men’s talk, for those that are desirous to hear what they
need not, commonly be ready to babble what they should not.
Roger Ascham
■■■Martin Luther Can Do No Other
I t was not. the thought-that be would be condemned and led to the
stake that ■ shook the Reformer on the morning of Ms second
appearance before the Imperial Diet. It was something more terrible
than to die. The crisis had come and he felt unable to meet it. Let
us draw near:
O God, my God , hearest.thou my need ? I am ready to lay down my
life for thy truth . I will never separate myself from thee , though the
world should be filled with devils , though my body should be slain, should
be racked on the wheel .
224
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
It is one of those solemn points in history where the seen touches
the unseen, where earth and heaven meet. touenes
. fr ° mhis ] Ws ’ and in the calm reigning i n his soul
feels that he has received an answer to his prayer. U1
At four of the clock the grand marshal and the herald presents
themselves Through crowded streets was the Reformer conducted
to the town hall When Luther should be admitted no one could sav
° ne A°i Ur i PaSSed, / I ! d then anotller; the ^former was still stanS
amid the hum and clamour of the multitude. But his tranquillity*!
■forsake him. He was in a sanctuary apart. *
The night began to fall; torches were kindled in the hall At last
the door opened and Luther entered. He stood before theEmperor
“ d l0 ° ked “ ^ •
The Chancellor rose and demanded his answer. The fate of ages
hangs upon it. The Emperor leans forward, the princes sit motion-
less, the guards are still, all eager to catch the first words of the monk.
He salutes the Emperor, the princes, and the lords. Of the
volumes on the table, the authorship of which he acknowledged
there were three sorts, he said. There was one class in which he
expounded with simplicity and plainness the first principles of faith
and morals. In the second class he had waged war against the Papacy
the errors m doctrine, the scandals in life, and the tyrannies in govern¬
ment, by which it had fettered and entangled the conscience, blinded
the reason, and depraved the morals of men. There was a third
class of his writings in which he had attacked those who defended the
errors which corrupted the faith, the scandals which disgraced the
priesthood, and the exactions which robbed the people and ground
them mto dust. 6
He could not retract it, but if he had spoken evil let them bear
witness of it. He was but dust and ashes, liable to err, and therefore
it well became him to invite all men to examine what he had written.
Let him but be convinced that he was in error and he would throw his
books into the flames.
. warned this assembly of monarchs of a judgment to come, a
judgment not from the grave only but on this side of it. They were
on their trial. They, their kingdoms, their crowns, their dynasties
stood at a great bar. It was to them the day of visitation ; it was
now to be determined whether they were to be planted in the earth,
whether their thrones should be stable, or whether they should be
swept away in a deluge of wrath and eternal desolation.
Luther sat down and rested, and he then rose once more and
repeated in Latin what he had said in German. The princes found
COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE, BY GHEERAEDTS
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
225
that a change came over the scene. Luther no longer stood at their
bar ; they had suddenly to stand at his*.
The Chancellor rose and with a fretted air said to Luther, “ You
have not yet answered the question put to you. We demand a direct
and precise answer. Will you or will you not retract ? 55
Luther stood unmoved, and this is what he said :
I cannot submit my faith either to the Pope or to the Councils ,
because they have frequently erred and contradicted one another . Unless
I am convinced by scripture , or on plain and clear grounds of reason , I
cannot and will not retract , for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything
contrary to conscience . Here 1 stand . I can do no other . God help me .
A History of Protestantism
Cromwell Comes
I T was about the noon of a glorious day of June
That we saw their banners dance and their cuirasses shine,
And the man of blood was there, with his long essenced hair,
And Astley, and Sir Marmaduke, and Rupert of the Rhine.
Like a servant of the'Lord, with his Bible‘and his sword.
The General rode along us to form us for the fight;
When a murmuring sound broke out, and swelled into a shout,
Among the godless horsemen upon the tyrant’s right.
And hark ! like the roar of the billows on the shore,
The cry of battle rises along their charging line :
For God ! For the cause ! For the Church ! For the laws !
For Charles, King of England, and Rupert of the Rhine !
The furious German comes, with his clarions and his drums,
His bravoes of Alsatia and pages of Whitehall:
They are bursting on our flanks ! Grasp your pikes I Close your
ranks !
For Rupert never comes but to conquer or to fall.
They are here ; they rush on ; w r e are broken ; we are gone ;
Our left is borne before them like stubble on the blast.
O Lord, put forth Thy might! O Lord, defend the right!
Stand back to back in God’s name, and fight it to the last!
.Stout Skippen hath a wound, the centre hath given ground.
Hark 1 Hark i What means the trampling of horsemen on our
rear ?
Whose banner do I see, boys ? Tis he ! Thank God I tis he, boys
Bear up another minute 1 Brave Oliver is here 1
Their heads all stooping low, their points all in a row.
Like a whirlwind on the trees, like a deluge on the dikes.
Our cuirassiers have burst on the ranks of the accurst, .
And at a shock have scattered the forest of his pikes.
Macaulay
F.T. —15
226
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
John Wycliffe Waits for the End
C ourtenay, Bishop of London, summoned Wycliffe before him
Forty years ago the reformer had come up to the university •
Oxford had become his home, and now it was turning against him"
Weakened by labours, by trials, by that ardent soul which preyed
upon his feeble body, he might have refused to appear. But Wycliffe
who never feared the face of man, came before them with a
good conscience.
We may conjecture that there were among the crowd some
disciples who felt their hearts burn at the sight of their master ; but
no outward sign indicated their emotion. The solemn silence’ of a
. court of justice had succeeded the shouts of enthusiastic youths.
Yet Wycliffe did not despair; he raised his venerable head, and
turned to Courtenay with that confident look which had made the
regents of Oxford shrink away. Growing wrath against the priests of
Baal, he reproached them with disseminating error in order to sell
their masses. Then he stopped and uttered these simple and energetic
words, “ The truth shall prevail.” Having thus spoken, he prepared
to leave the court : his enemies dared not say a word ; and, like his
divine Master at Nazareth, he passed through the midst of them and
no man ventured to stop him. He then withdrew to Lutterworth.
Living peacefully among his books and his parishioners, Wycliffe
looked upon his end as near and entertained no idea that it would
come in peace. A dungeon on one of the Seven Hills, or a burning
pile in London, was all he expected. “ Let the blow fall; I await
its coming.”
The stroke was spared him. Wycliffe therefore continued tran¬
quilly to preach Jesus Christ; and on the 29th of December, 1384,
as he was in his church at Lutterworth, in the midst of his flock, at
the very moment that he stood before the altar and was elevating
the host with trembling hands, he fell upon the pavement struck with
paralysis. He was carried to his house by the affectionate friends
around him, and after lingering forty-eight hours resigned his soul
to God on the last day of the year.
Thus was removed from the church one of the boldest witnesses
to the truth. The seriousness of his language, the holiness of his
life, and the energy of his faith had intimidated the popedom.
Travellers relate that if a lion is met in a desert it is sufficient to look
steadily at him, and the beast turns away roaring from the eye of
man. Wycliffe had fixed the eye of a Christian on the Papacy, and
the affrighted Papacy had left him in peace. Hunted down unceas¬
ingly while living, he died in quiet. The Heformation in England
had begun. J. H. Merle D'AubignS
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
227
The Prayer of Columbus
A battered, wrecked old man,
Thrown on this savage shore, far, far from home.
Pent by the sea, and dark rebellious brows, twelve dreary months
Sore, stiff with many toils, sickened, and nigh to death,
I take my way along the island’s edge,
Venting a heavy heart.
I am too full of woe !
Haply I may not live another day ;
1 cannot rest, O God, I cannot eat or drink or sleep,
Till I put forth myself, my prayer, once more to Thee.
All my emprises have been filled with Thee !
My speculations, plans, begun and carried on in thoughts of Thee
Sailing the deep or journeying the land for Thee.
Oh I am sure they really come from Thee !
The urge, the ardour, the unconquerable will.
These sped me on.
The end 1 know not, it is all in Thee.
One effort more, my altar this bleak sand ;
That Thou, O God, my life hast lighted,
With ray of light, steady, ineffable, vouchsafed of Thee,
For that, O God—be it my latest word, here on my knees.
Old, poor, and paralysed—I thank Thee.
My terminus near.
The clouds already closing in upon me.
The voyage baulked, the course disputed, lost,
1 yield my ships to Thee.
Steersman unseen ! henceforth the helms are Thine ;
Take Thou command.
My hands, my limbs, grow nerveless ;
My brain feels racked, bewildered ;
Let the old timbers part—I will not part,
I will cling fast to Thee, O God, though the waves buffet me ;
Thee, Thee, at least I know.
What do I know of life ? What of myself ?
1 know not even my own work ;
Dim, ever-shifting guesses of if spread before me.
Of newer, better worlds.
And these things I see suddenly— what mean they ?
As if some miracle, some hand divine, unsealed mine eyes,
Shadowy vast shapes smile through the air and sky.
And on the distant waves sail countless ships.
And anthems in new tongues I hear saluting me.
Walt Whitman
228 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Beggar Man and His Little Son
tn the springtime of the year 1471, and at noon of day under a
1 burning sun which turned to ashes the roads of Andalusia upon a
hill about half a league from the small seaport of Palos, two strangers
fared afoot, their shoes worn with walking, their clothes (in which
might be detected the remains of a certain costliness) sullied with
dust, paused to seat themselves in the shadows of the gateway of a
small monastery, called Santa Maria de Rabida. -
One of them was a man who had scarcely reached the middle of
life, of tall stature, robust in figure, majestic in his bearing, with a
noble brow, an open countenance, a pensive gaze, and mild and
gracious lips. His hair, of a blond lightly tinted with brown in his
early youth, was prematurely marked at the temples by those grev
shadows which misfortune and mental labour hasten. His fore¬
head was lofty; his complexion was paled by thought and bronzed
by sun and sea. The tones of his voice were manly, sonorous, and
penetrating, like the accents of a man accustomed to give utterance
to profound ideas.
The other was a child of eight to ten. His features, more feminine
but already matured by the fatigues of his life, had so lively a resem¬
blance to those of the first stranger that it was impossible not to
recognise in him either his son or brother.
. These two strangers were Christopher Columbus and his son
Diego. The monks, touched by the noble aspect of the father and
the gracefulness of the child, invited them to enter and offered them
shelter. While Columbus and his child refreshed themselves with
water, bread, and olives at the table of their hosts, the monks in¬
formed their prior of the arrival of the two strangers, and the strange
interest attaching to their distinguished appearance in opposition to
their poverty. The prior descended to converse with them.
This head of the convent of Rabida was Juan Peres de Marchenra,
former confessor of Queen Isabella, who with Ferdinand then ruled
over Spain. A man of sanctity, science, and erudition, he had pre-
ferred the shelter of his cloister to the honours and intrigues of the
court; but his very retreat had preserved for him a great reputation
in the palace, and a powerful influence over the mind of the Queen.
The prior saluted the stranger, embraced the child, and gently
made himself acquainted with the circumstances which had forced
them to travel on foot the most unfrequented routes of Spain and
borrow the shelter of the humble roof of a poor and solitary monas¬
tery. Columbus told the story of his obscure life, and laid bare to
the attentive monk his grand conceptions. The prior, affected at
first with compassion, was soon afterwards stirred into enthusiasm.
He saw in him one of those messengers of God who are repulsed from
the threshold of princes, whither they bear in the hands of want the
invisible treasures of truth. Alphonse Louis de Lamartine
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
229
Columbus Dying
C olumbus perceived that life was about to fail him. He called to
one of Ms servants, the last companion of his wanderings, of his
glory and Ms misery, to bring to his bedside a little breviary, the gift
of Pope Alexander at a time when sovereigns treated him as a
sovereign. He wrote his will on a page of this book, to which he
attributed a virtue of divine consecration*
Strange spectacle for his poor servant! This old man, forsaken
by the world, and stretched upon a pauper’s bed in a hired house of
Segovia, gave away in his will seas, hemispheres, islands, continents,
nations, empires !
41 1 pray my sovereigns and their successors,” said he, 44 to observe
for ever my wishes in the distribution of my rights, my wealth, and
my offices. 1 who, born at Genoa, came to serve them in Castile, and
who discovered in the West the mainland, the islands, and the Indies!
My son shall possess my dignity of Admiral of that part of the ocean
which lies to the west of a line drawn from one pole to the other.”
Passing from this point to the distribution of the revenues which had
been secured him by Ills treaty with Isabella and Ferdinand, the old
man divided, with liberality and wisdom, the millions which ought
to return to his family among his sons and Bartholomew Ms brother.
He had a thought for that city of Genoa where time had garnered
up Ms paternal house, but where still remained a far-off kinsman, like
the roots which live in the earth after the tree has been felled. 46 1
command my son, Diego,” he wrote, 44 to support for ever in the city
of Genoa a member of our family, who shall reside there with his wife
and to.assure him an honourable livelihood, as shall become a person
who is allied to us. I wish this kinsman, to preserve his footing and
nationality in that city, in the quality of a citizen ; for it is there that
I was bom, and it is from thence that I have come.”
Columbus, this duty done, surrendered all his thoughts to that God
whom he had always considered as .a single and veritable Sovereign, as
if he was lifted up directly by that Providence of which he felt himself to
be the peculiar instrument and minister. Resignation and enthusiasm,
the two supports of his life, did not fail him in his death. He humbled
himself under the hand, of nature and rose again under that of God,
which he had always beheld in Ms triumphs.and reverses, and which
he saw more closely at the moment of his departure from earth..
He was wholly lost in penitence for his errors and hope of his two¬
fold immortality. A poet at heart, as we see him in his .compositions,
he yielded to the sacred poetry of the Psalms the last aspirations of his
soul and the last faint utterances of his lips. He pronounced in Latin
his farewell of the world, and with a loud voice returned his. soul into
the hands of his Creator—a servant satisfied with his work, and
released from the visible world whose boundaries he had enlarged,,
to enter the world unseen, and conquer the immeasurable space of
the boundless universe.
230
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
All the qualities of the truly great man were combined in fnli,
bus : genius, work, patience ; obscurity of condition vl?
strength of nature ; steadfastness, gentle but inflexible to tfi^ S
resignation to the will of Heaven, wrestling with the world
brooding thought in solitude, heroic execution of thought t° ng '
intrepidity and coolness against the elements in tempests t? ° n ’
death in rebellions, confidence in the star-not of mTbutof hS^
lty; life hazarded with temerity and without looking hehtoi
him, m casting himself into that unknown and phantom^erowd 1 ^
SesaH A^° n ° f 15d ° * ea g ues ’ far ^e irrepass^ble S n thlt of
aeSa f j 4 -t^ fitness ’ n °bihty, and dignity of outward form whieh
re vealed the greatness of his soul and enchained the eyes and mhds 0 f
all; language harmonising with the elevation of his thoughts^
eloquence which convinced kings and subdued the seditiouf spirit of
his crews; an immense, ardent, and active love of humanity- the
X d ° m t 0f + a legl 4 f la l t0r and the ™iHness of a philosopher^ the
administration of his colonies ; a paternal compassion for the
’ for g et folness of injuries, majesty of pardon towards his
nemies ; a constant presence of God in the mind, of justice in the
conscience, of pity m the heart; gratitude in succ^s, resignatXn in
suffering, adoration everywhere and always—such was Columbus
We know of no man more perfect. He contained in his sole self
before tw 11 ' W&S of Personifying the ancient world
before that unknown world which he was the first to enter, and to
bear to the men of another race all the virtues of the old continent
vnthout any of its vices. No one by the grandeur of his influence £s
better deserved the name of the Civiliser.
., Hls . mfluen f e on civilisation was without limit. He completed
the universe ; he perfected the physical oneness of the globe. It was
5r°/i VanCe ’ ? ar beyoad what had been done before him, the work
ol God, the moral unity of the human race. The work in which Colum¬
bus thus co-operated was too grand to be recompensed by the im¬
position of his name on the fourth continent of the earth. America does
not bear his name ; mankind, brought together and re-united through
his labours, shall bear it over all the globe. Alphonse de Lamartine
Pursuing Fame
O nce in the keen pursuit of fame
I, schoolboy-like, pursued a bubble ;
But death, before I gained a name,
Stepped in and saved a world of trouble.
By Sir Walter Scott’s friend John Leyden
The Widow’s tSong
S leep, little darling, sleep ;
God watch o’er thee.
Thou’rt all that’s left i’th world
To comfort me. Edwin Waugh
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
231
Plant Daisies at His Feet
The son of Sussex peasants , Robert Realf emigrated to America and did mission¬
ary work in the slums of New York .
When the controversy over slavery broke out he started a paper and met John
Broom , who proposed to make Mm Seereiary-of-State in Ms Government! After
Brown was captured Realf joined the Army, cheering many a camp-fire with his
songs . Domestic troubles bowed him down , and he died tragically by his own hand in
California . He left for posterity this picture of himself as he saw himself .
S ay naught but good of the dead, and when
For me this end has come and I am dead.
And the little voluble chattering daws of men
Peck at me curiously, let it then be said
By some one brave enough to speak the truth:
Here lies a great soul killed b}^ cruel wrong.
Down all the balmy days of his fresh youth
To his bleak, desolate noon, with sword and song,
And speech that rushed up hotly from the heart.
He wrought for liberty, till his own wound
(He had been stabbed), concealed with painful art
Through wasting years, mastered him, and he swooned.
And sank there where you see him lying now
With the word Failure written on his brow.
But say that he succeeded. If he missed
World’s honours and world’s plaudits, and the wage
Of the world’s deft lacqueys, still his lips were kissed
Daily by those high angels who assuage
The thirstings of the poets (for he was
Bom unto singing) and a burthen lay
Mightily on him, and he moaned because
He could not rightly utter to the day
What God taught in the night. Sometimes, nathless,
Power fell upon him, and bright tongues of flame,
And blessings reached him from poor souls in stress ;
And benedictions from black pits of shame.
And little children’s love, and old men’s prayers.
And a Great Hand that led him unawares.
So he died rich. And if his eyes were blurred
With big films—silence i he is in his grave.
Greatly he suffered ; greatly, too, he erred ;
Yet broke Ms heart in trying to be brave,
He was a-weary, but he fought his fight.
And stood for simple manhood ; and was joyed
To see the august broadening of the light
And new Earths heaving heavenward from the void.
He loved his fellows, and their love was sweet;
Plant daisies at his head and at his feet.
232
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Overcome Evil With Good
L et love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil
cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affeetioned one tn
another, with brotherly love, in honour preferring one another • not
slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord ; rejoicing in
hope ; patient in tribulation ; continuing instant in prayer • dis
tributing to the necessity of saints ; given to hospitality. ’
Bless them which persecute you; bless, and curse not.
Rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that ween
Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things'
but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own
conceits.
Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the
sight of all men. If it be possible, live peaceably with all men.
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place'unto
wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the
Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst
give him drink, for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, for there is no
power but of God ; the powers that be are ordained of God. Whoso¬
ever therefore resisteth the power resisteth God.
Render to all their dues ; tribute to whom tribute is due ; custom
to whom custom ; fear to whom fear ; honour to whom honour.
Owe no man anything, but to love one another, for he that loveth
another hath fulfilled the law. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour ;
therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. St Paul to the Romans
Plato , Thou Reasonest Well
I t must be so—Plato, thou reason’st well,
Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after immortality ?
Or whence this secret dread and inward horror
Of falling into nought ? Why shrinks the soul
Back on herself and. startles at destruction ?
- Tis the Divinity that stirs -within us,
Tis Heaven itself that points out an Hereafter,
And intimates Eternity to man.
Eternity !—thou pleasing-dreadful thought 1
Through what variety of untried being,
Through what new scenes and changes must we pass !
The wide, the unbounded prospect lies before me ;
But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it.
Here will I hold : If there’s a Power above us
(And that there is, all Nature cries aloud
Through all her works), he must delight in Virtue ;
And that which he delights in must be happy :
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 2 SB
But when ? —or where ?— This world was made for Caesar.
Pm weary of conjectures : this must end them*
(Laying his hand on Ms sword)
Thus I am doubly armed ; my death and life,
My bane and antidote, are both before me,
This in. a moment brings me to an end,
But this informs me I shall never die.
The soul, secured in her existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger and defies its point.
The stars shall fade away, the Sun himself
Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years ;
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amidst the w r ar of elements,
The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds. Addison
What Cromwell Saw in Ludgate Circus
I T is the year 16S0, and Cromwell is still in his early manhood.
One bright morning, with St Paul’s to his back, Cromwell entered
Ludgate Circus. In the midst of the Circus stood a scaffold, and
around it was a great throng, crowding and pressing toward the place
of torture. At the foot of the scaffold was a venerable scholar, his
white hair flowing upon his shoulders, a man of stainless character
and spotless life, renowned for his devotion, eloquence and patriotism.
When the executioner led the aged pastor up the steps, the soldiers
tore off his garments. He was -whipped until blood ran in streams
down his back, both nostrils were slit and his ears cropped off, hot
irons were brought and two letters, “ S-S ”—sower of sedition—were
burned into his forehead.
What crime has this pastor committed ? Perhaps he had lifted
a firebrand upon the King’s palace ; perhaps he had organised some
foul gunpowder plot to overthrow the throne itself. Perhaps he had
been guilty of treason, or some foul and nameless sin against the
State. Not so. The reading of the decision of the judge and the
decree of the punishment made clear the truth. It seemed that a
fortnight before, the aged pastor had been commanded to give up his
extempore prayers and the singing of the Psalms, and has been com¬
manded to read the written prayers and sing the hymns prescribed
by the State Church. But the gentle scholar had disregarded the
command, and on the following Sunday, walked in the ways familiar
and dear to him by reason of long association.
He had dared to sing the same old Psalms and lift his heart to
God in extempore prayer, after the manner of his fathers.
Newell Dwight HUlis
We Are Not Always Free
I F it be my liberty to walk abroad in the fields it is not my wisdom
to do so when my house is on fire.
Cromwell , justifying a limitation of liberty
284 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Cromwell's Last Prayer
7 the winds J he dying Oliver was heard uttering
words like these, presewed for us by his faithful attendant.
L covenant with The* thioug^gra^ ^1??! mav ea i tUre il 1 ana b
Thee, for Thy people. Thou LcESde
a mean instrument to do them some good, Lnd Thee servW ^I
many of them have set too high a value upon me thrmo*i rli? ’ an , d
and would be glad of my death ; Lord Ce^r'
me, continue and go on to do good for them. Give them consistent
of judgment, one heart and mutual love ; and go on to deliver th ^
and with the work of reformation ; and makftS Nat. S Cta&
glorious in the world. Teach those who look too much on Thv
instruments, to depend more upon Thyself. Pardon such as dS
to trample upon the dust of a poor worm, for they are Thy people too
And P^don the folly of this short prayer even for Jesus Christ’s
sake. And give us a good night, if it be Thy pleasure. Amen
or two or thme days life still flickered and to his wife and children
TS bedhe said ’ Love not this world ; it is not S
that you should love this world. s
On September 3, the day of Worcester and Dunbar, he sighed
deeply and passed to his inheritance. ’ gned
From accounts of CromwelVs Death
Oliver Cromwell's Lamp Goes Out
T N ^ tbe beginning of September the symptoms appeared upon him
1 and, askmg one of his physicians what he thought of his case, the
doctor answered My lord, there is no more oil in that lamp which has
given so much light to both Church and State. P
The dying Protector replied, with a magnanimity worthy of him
When do you think it will go out ? The |hysician told him in tTo
days at the farthest, upon which Cromwell said, It is time, then, to
se e my mind. From an old paper of the time
tjefore his plans could be realised the overtaxed strength of the
r suddenly gave way. He saw too clearly the chaos into
which bis death would plunge England and was unwilling to die.
Do not think I shall die,” he burst out with feverish energy to ti e
physicians who gathered round him.
* ^fy er rose every side for his recovery, but death grew
steadily nearer till even Cromwell felt that his hour was coming.
*r Uld be W ^, mg frj bve,” the dying man murmured, “to be
tother serviceabie to G°d and His people, but my work is done.
Yet God will be with His people.”
A storm which tore roofs from houses and levelled huge trees in
■3™. * preIude
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
285
Something Has Been Gained
T heir works follow them—as I think this Oliver Cromwell’s works
have done and are still doing. Somewhat has been gained for
poor mankind. Men’s ears are not now slit off; star chambers,
branding irons* are gone. Carlyle
On the Storm in which Cromwell Died
W e must resign ! Heaven his great soul does claim
In storms as loud as his immortal fame ;
His dying groans, his last breath, shake our isle.
And trees uncut fall for his funeral pile.
Edmund Waller
Charles Stuart’s Advice to His Son
S ON, if these papers come to your hands, they may be so far useful
to you as to state your judgment aright in what hath passed;
and they may also give you some directions how to remedy the present
distempers, and prevent the like for time to come.
I had rather you should be Charles le Bon than le Grand, Good
than Great; I hope God hath designed you to be both.
With God I would have you begin and end, who is King of Kings,
the Sovereign Disposer of the kingdoms of the world, who pulleth
down one and setteth up another. The best government and highest
sovereignty you can attain to is to be subject to Him, that the
sceptre of His word and spirit may rule in your heart.
The true glory of princes consists in advancing God’s glory, in the
maintenance of true religion and the Church’s good; also in the
dispensation of civil power with justice and honour to the public peace.
Take heed of abetting any factions, or applying to any public
discriminations in matters of religion, contrary to what is in your
judgment and the Church well settled. Your partial adhering to any
one side gains you not so great advantage in some men’s hearts (who
are prone to be of their filing’s religion) as it loseth you in others.
Take such a course as may either with calmness and charity quite
remove seeming differences and offences by impartiality ; or so order
affairs that you shall not need to fear or flatter any faction. For if
ever you stand in need of them, or must stand to their courtesies,
you are undone : the serpent will devour the dove.
When you have done justice to God, your own soul, and EBs
Church, in the profession and preservation both of truth and unity in
religion, the next main hinge on which your prosperity will depend
and move is that of civil justice, wherein the settled laws of these
236 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
kingdoms, to which you are rightly heir, are the most excellent ml.
you can govern by-which, by an admirable temperament give v^
much to subjects industry, liberty, and happiness, and yet resIS
Never charge your head with such a crown as shall hv ife •
oppress the whole body. Your prerogative is best shewed and'exer-
cised m remitting rather than exacting the rigour of the law« tk
being nothing worse than legal tyranny. § WS> there
Take heed that outward circumstances and formalities of religion
devour not all or the best encouragements of learning, industry and
piety; but with an equal eye and impartial hand distribute favours
St, m t0 a11 as y° u find them for their real goodness
both m abilities and fidelity, worthy and capable of them. This will’
be sure to gam you the hearts of the best, and the most, too; who
though they be not good themselves, yet are glad to see the severer
ways of virtue sweetened by temporal rewards.
Time will dissipate all factions, when once the rough horns of
men s covetous and ambitious designs shall discover themselves!
which were at first wrapped up and hidden under the soft and smooth
pretensions of religion, reformation, and liberty. As the wolf is not
bi+^v, 1 ’ S ° hC ^ lU “f 6 i? stly hated ’ when h e shall appear no
better than a wolf under sheep’s clothing.
But as for the train of the vulgar, who in their simplicity follow
those disguises, my charge and counsel to you is that as you study
really to exceed, m true and constant demonstrations of goodness
piety and virtue, even all those men that make the greatest noise and
tentations of religion, so you shall neither fear any detection, nor
shall you frustrate the just expectations of your people.
wW?/ 0 PaSSio ^ hetay you to any study of revenge upon those
whose own sm and folly will punish them in due time.
It is all I have now left me, a power to forgive those that have
deprived me of all; and I thank God I have a heart to do it.
Be confident, as I am, that the most of all sides who have done
amiss have done so not out of malice, but misinformation or mis¬
apprehension of thin gs
i m ore loyal and faithful to me and you than those
subjects who, sensible of their errors and our injuries, will feel in
tieir own souls most vehement motives to repentance, and earnest
desires to make some reparations. As your quality sets you beyond
any duel with any subject, so the nobleness of your mind must raise
you above the meditating any revenge. You will have more inward
omplacency m pardoning one than in punishing a thousand.
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 287
If God shall see fit to restore me to those enjoyments the laws
have assigned to us, and no subjects without a high degree of guilt
and sin can divest us of, then may 1 have better opportunity, when
1 shall be so happy to see you in peace, to let you more fully under¬
stand the things that belong to God’s glory, your own honour, and
the kingdom’s peace.
But if you never see my face again, and God will have me buried
in such a barbarous imprisonment and obscurity wherein few hearts
that love me are permitted to exchange a word or a look with me,
1 do require and entreat you, as your father and your King, that you
never, suffer your heart to receive the least check against or dis¬
affection from the true religion.
Nor would I have you to entertain any dislike of parliaments;
which in their right constitution, with freedom and honour, will never
injure or diminish your greatness, but will rather be as interchangings
of love, loyalty, and confidence between a prince and his people.
Nothing can be more happy for all than in fair, grave, and honourable
ways to contribute their counsels in common, enacting all things by
public consent, without tyranny or tumults.
And, if neither I nor you be ever restored to our rights, I hope
God will give me and you that grace which will teach and enable us
to want as 'well as to wear a crown, which is not worth taking up or
enjoying upon, sordid, dishonourable, and irreligious terms. Keep
you to true principles of piety, virtue, and honour, you shall never
want a kingdom.
My prayer to God Almighty is (whatever becomes of me, who am,
I thank God, wrapt up and fortified in my own innoeency and His
grace) that He would be pleased to make you an anchor, or harbour
rather, to these tossed and weather-beaten kingdoms. When they
have destroyed me (for I know not how far God may permit the
malice and cruelty of my enemies to proceed, and such apprehensions
some men’s words and actions have already given me), as I doubt not
but my blood will cry aloud for vengeance to Heaven, so i beseech
God not to. pour out His wrath upon the people who have either
deserted me, or engaged against me, through the artifice and hypocrisy
of their leaders, whose mw T ard horror will be their first tormentor.
For those that loved me, I pray God they may have no miss of me
when I am gone. For those that repent of any defects in their duty
toward me, as I freely forgive them in the -word of a Christian king,
so I believe you will find them truly zealous to repay with interest
that loyalty and love to you which was due to me. What good 1
intended,' do you perform, when God shall give you power,
I pray God bless you, and establish your kingdoms in righteous¬
ness, your soul in true religion, and your honour in the love of God
and your people.
238 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
John Brown Goes to His Reward
H e stepped out of gaol with a bright serene countenance
his head like a victorious hero going to his reward. Close to
door stood a Negro woman with a child in her arms. tile
to Said hiS CeU COmpan!o11 ’ 1 ■* going
I know I am, said Brown.
As his eye fell on the soldiers he straightened himself up proudly
As they ascended a little eminence the scaffold broke upon his s 3
but it did not cause him even a flutter of fear. His eye roamed over
the landscape tracing the dim outline of the Blue Ridge Mountains
This is a beautiful country,” he said. At the foot of the scaffold he
was assisted out of the waggon, and turning to the mayor and others
he said, Gentlemen good-bye,” and walked with firm step and erect
frame up the scaffold steps. F ct
The sheriff asked, Shall I give you a handkerchief and let von
drop it as a signal? and he said No ; lam ready at any time, but do
not keep me needlessly waiting.
. Virginia refused this last request of John Brown, and for ten
“ m ^ es il he was ^ while the military, among them John Wilkes
Booth, the murderer of Lincoln, went through a series of aimless
evolutions until the civilians began to cry Shame.
John Brown was buried at the foot of a rock about fifteen yards
from his door. Blow ye the trumpet, blow,” the hymn with which
he lulled his little ones to sleep, was sung around his grave. Then
Wendell Phillips spoke : ■
How feeble words seem here ! How can I hope to utter what your
hearts are full of! I fear to disturb the harmony which his life
breathes round this home. One and another of you, his neighbours,
say, I have known him five years,” “ I have known him ten years.”
It seems to me as if we had none of us known him. How our
admiring, loving wonder has grown, day by day, as he has unfolded
trait alter trait of earnest, brave, and tender Christian life ! We see
him walking with radiant, serene face to the scaffold, and think what
an iron heart, what a devoted faith! We take up his letters and
this iron heart seems all tenderness. Marvellous old man! Your
neighbour farmer went, surrounded by his household, to tell the
s ayes there were still hearts and right arms ready and nerved for
their service.
He has abolished slavery in Virginia . History will date Virginian
emancipation from Harper's Ferry .
True, the slave is still there. So, when the tempest uproots a
pme on our hills, it looks green for months, a year or two. Still, it is
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 209
timber 5 not a tree. Thus has John Brown loosened the roots of the
slave system.
Surely such a life is no failure. How vast the change in men’s
hearts ! Insurrection -was a harsh, horrid word to millions a month
ago. John Brown went a whole generation beyond it, claiming the
right for white men to help the slave to freedom by arms. Harper’s
Ferry was no single hour, standing alone— taken out from a common
life ; it was the flowering of fifty years of single-hearted devotion.
He must have lived wholly for one great idea, when those who owe
their being to him and those whom love has joined group so har¬
moniously around him, each accepting serenely his and her part.
I feel honoured to stand under such a roof. Hereafter you will tell
children standing at your knees, 64 1 saw John Brown buried; I sat
under his roof.”
God make us all worthier of him whose dust we lay among these
hills he loved. Here he girded himself and went forth to battle.
Fuller success than his heart ever dreamed God has granted him.
He sleeps in the blessings of the crushed and the poor, and men
believe more firmly in virtue now that such a man has lived.
Adapted from a Life of John Brown
Where Old John Brown is Laid
N ot any spot six feet by two
Will hold a man like thee ;
John Brown will tramp the shaking earth
From Blue Ridge to the sea,
Till the strong angel come at last
And opes each dungeon door.
And God’s Great Charter holds and waves
O’er all his humble poor.
And then the humble poor will come
In that far-distant day.
And from the felon’s nameless grave
They’ll brush the leaves away ;
And grey old men will point the spot
Beneath the pine-tree shade,
As children ask with streaming eyes
Where Old John Brown is laid.
Written by Edmund Sears at the Memorial
Service at the grave of John Brown
What Be Must Bo
I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound
to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have. I
must stand with anybody that stands right; stand with him while
he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.
Abraham Lincoln
40 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Abraham Lincoln Finds Himself Famous
uzil iho" sr? with the murdeMd mm jus * »<■
Witness: Yes.
You stood near the two men ?
Yes.
Was it in the open field ?
No ; in the timber.
What kind of timber ?
Beech timber.
The leaves of beech are rather thick in autumn *
Rather.
You could see the prisoner shoot ?
Yes.
How near did this happen to the meeting-place ?
Three-quarters of a mile away^
Where were the lights ? -
Up by the minister’s stand.
That was three-quarters of a mile away ?
I have already said so.
Was there a candle where the prisoner was standing ?
No. What would he want a candle for ?
Then how did you see the shooting ?
By moonlight.
r ? OU *i aW this shootin g> at ten o’clock at night, in beech
rniber, three-quarters of a mile away from the lights ? Saw
the man point the pistol and fire ? Saw it all by moonlight ?
i:es, I have already said so.
Then the young lawyer slowly drew from Us pocket an
nat^visible^ S ^ 0We ^ on n ^tit °f crime the moon was
His Monument a People Free
H IS grave a nation’s heart shall be.
His monument a people free.
Caroline Atherton Mason on Lincoln
. : In Brief
T HE world is country : to do good is my religion.
Thomas Paine
ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S
SUNSET AT STONEHENGE
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
241
His Soul Goes Marching On
J ohn Brown '5 bod}’ lies a-mould’ring in the grave,
John Brown’s body lies a-monlcFring in the grave,
John Brownes body lies a-mou Idling in the grave,
But iih soul goes marching on.
He captured Harper’s Ferry with his nineteen men so true.
Ami he frightened old Virginia till she trembled through
and through,
They hung him lor a traitor, themselves the traitor crew,
But his soul guer marching cm
Fooling the People
Y ou may fool some of the people all the time, you may fool ali the
people some of the time, but you never can tool all the people all
the time. Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln Sfwnds Alone
T he^ tragic events of the future were mercifully hidden. Mr
4 Lincoln was planning yet another generous offer to shorten the
period of conflict. He remembered that the rebels, notwithstanding
all their offences and errors, were yet American citizens, members of
the same nation, brothers of the same blood. He remembered, too,
that the object of the war was the maintenance of one Government
and one Union. Not only must hostilities cease, but dissension,
suspicion, and estrangement be eradicated. Filled with such thoughts
and purposes, he designed a new proposal as a peace offering to the
States in rebellion, a liberal indemnity for the loss of State property
on absolute cessation of the war and the abolition of slavery by the.
Southern States.
He called his Cabinet together and read to them the draft of a
proclamation offering the Southern States four hundred million
dollars, a sum equal to the cost of the war for 200 days.
This was indeed going to the extreme of magnanimity, and it
turned out that he was more humane and liberal than his con¬
stitutional advisers. The indorsement in his own handwriting on the
manuscript draft records the result of Ms appeal and suggestion ;
February 5, 1885 . Today these papers, which explain themselves ,
were drawn up and submitted to the Cabinet^ and unanimously dis¬
approved by them .— A. Lincoln.
. ^lith the words, “You are all opposed to me, sadly uttered,
the President folded, up the paper and ceased the discussion!
Adapted from a Life qf Lincoln
F.T.—16
242 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Sayings of Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln to a religious deputation urging immediate Emancipation
I am approached with the most opposite opinions and advice bv
religious men who are equally certain that they represent the
divine will. I am sure that either the one or the other class is mis¬
taken in their belief. I hope it will not be irreverent for me to sav
that, if God would reveal His will to others on a point so connected with
my duty, it might be supposed that He would reveal it directly to me
I can assure you that the subject is on my mind by day and night, more
than any other. Whatever shall appear to be God’s will I will’do.
Lincoln to his Cabinet on September 2, 1862
W hen the rebel army was at Frederick I determined, as soon as
it should be driven out of Maryland, to issue a proclamation
of Emancipation. I said nothing to anyone, but I made the promise
to myself and (here he hesitated a little) to my Maker. The rebel
army is now driven out and I am going to fulfil that promise.
I have got you together to hear what I have written down.
I know very well that many others might do better than I can, and
if I was satisfied that the public confidence was more fully possessed
by any one of them, and knew of any constitutional way in which he
could be put in my place, he should have it. But there is no way in
which I can have any other man put where I am. I am here; I
must do the best I can, and bear the responsibility for the course I
feel I ought to take.
Lincoln in a Speech to Congress
F ellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress
and this Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves.
No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another
of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in
honour or dishonour to the latest generation. We say we are for
the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know
how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it.
We-—even we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility. In
giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free—honourable
alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or
meanly lose the last, best hope of Earth. Other means may succeed;
this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just; a
way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud and God must
foreverbless.
From the Emancipation Proclamation
. . . that on the first day of January in the year of Our Lord 1863
all persons held as slaves within any State shall be then, thence¬
forward, and for ever free . . . and upon this act, sincerely believed
to be an act of Justice, warranted by the Constitution upon milit ary
necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the
gracious favour of Almighty God.
243
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
There is no Name so Loved
T hebe is no name in ail our country’s story
So loved as his today:
No name which so unites the things of glory
With life’s plain common wav*
Robert Whitaker on Abraham Lincoln
The Civil War Draws Near Its Close
O n the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts
were anxiously directed to an impending Civil War. All dreaded
it; all sought to avert it. Both parties deprecated war ; but one of
them would make war rather than let the nation survive ; and the
other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.
Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration
which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of
the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should
cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less funda¬
mental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the
same God ; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may
seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance
in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces ; but let
us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not
be answered—that of neither has been answered fully.
The Almighty has His own purposes. “ Woe unto the world
because of offences ! for it must needs be that offences come ; but
woe to that man by whom the offence cometh.” If we shall suppose
that American slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence
of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His
appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both
North and South this terrible war, as the -woe due to those by whom the
offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine
attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him ?
Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty
scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it
continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman’s two hundred
and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop
of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the
sword—as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said.
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
With malice towards none ; with charity for all; with firmness
in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish
the work we are in ; to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him
who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—
to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace
among ourselves and with all nations.
Lincoln on his second election, during the war
244
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Tragic Drama of the Last Hour of Abraham Lincoln
N o one, not even the comedian who uttered them
remember the last words of the piece that was spoken tw -T
-the last Abraham Lincoln heard upon earth. The Lgedy b
box turned play and players to the most unsubstantial of phLToms!
* r? e 5 e w ® re ® ve human beings in a narrow space : the greatest man
of his time in the glory of the most stupendous success of our hTs Jv
his wife, proud and happy; a pair of betrothed lovers withalHV
promise of felicity that wealth and social position could give them •
a r? + H handsome y° un S actor, the pet of his little world TV
glitter of fame, happiness, and ease was upon the entire group vet
m an instant everything was to be changed. 8 P ’ yet
Quick death was to come to the central figure, the central figure of
the century s great and famous men. Over the rest hung fates from
which a mother might pray early death to save her children in their
infancy. One was to wander with the stain of murder upon his soul
m frightful physical pam with a price upon his head and the curse of
a world upon his name, until he died a dog’s death in a burning barn
the wife was to pass the rest of her days in melancholy and madness •
and one of the lovers was to slay the other and end his life
a raving maniac. lie
The murderer seemed to himself to be taking part in a plav
Holding a pistol m one hand and a knife in the other, he opened the
box door, put the pistol to the President’s head, and fired.
Then, rushing forward, Booth placed his hand on the railing of the
box and vaulted to the stage. It was a high leap, but nothing to
such am athlete. He would have got safely away but for his spur
catching m the flag that draped the front of the box. He fell the
torn flag trailing on his spur, but though the fall had broken his leg
he rose instantly and, shoutmg Sic Semper Tyrannis, fled rapidly
across the stage and out of sight. p y
„ J he cr y ran g °ut, “He has shot the President,’’ and from the
audience, stupid at first with surprise and wild afterward with excite¬
ment ana horror, two or three men jumped upon the stage in pursuit
of the assassin. But he ran through the familiar passages, leapt upon
his horse, rewarding with a kick and a curse the boy who held him,
and escaped into the night.
The President scarcely moved ; his head drooped forward slightly,
his eyes closed. He was carried to a house across the street and laid
^ PO fk a * bed U l a Smal ! room - The wound would have brought instant
death to most men, but his vital tenacity was remarkable. He was,
ot course, unconscious from the first, but he breathed a regular and
slow respiration throughout the night. As the dawn came and the
moonlight grew pale his pulse began to fail, but his face even then
scarcely more haggard than those of the sorrowing men around
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
245
him* His automatic moaning ceased, a look of unspeakable peace
came upon Ms worn features, and at twenty-two minutes after seven
be died. Stanton broke the silence by saying “ Now he belongs to
the ages.”
Booth had been recognised by dozens of people as he stood before
the footlights, but his swift horse quickly carried him beyond hap¬
hazard pursuit. He rode into Maryland, being very soon joined by
David Herold. The assassin and his wretched acolyte came at
midnight to Mrs Surratt's Tavern and afterwards pushed on through
the moonlight to the house of a surgeon named Mudd, who set Booth’s
leg and gave him a room. After parting with him they were given
into the charge of a Thomas Jones, a contraband trader. He kept
Booth and Herold hiding at the peril of his life for a week, feeding
and caring for them in the woods near his house, watching for an
opportunity to ferry them across the Potomac. But there is no
final escape than suicide for an assassin with a broken leg. At each
painful move their chance of discovery increased, Jones was able,
after repeated failures, to row his fated guests across the Potomac,
Arriving on the Virginia side, they lived the lives of hunted animals
for two or three days longer, folding to their horror that they were
received by the staunchest Confederates with more of annoyance
than enthusiasm, though none indeed offered to betray them.
Booth had by this time seen the comments in the newspapers on
Ms work, and bitterer than death and bodily suffering was the blow
to his vanity. He confided his feelings of wrong to his diary, com¬
paring himself favourably with Brutus and William Tell, and com¬
plaining : I am abandoned with the curse of Cain upon me, when, if
the world knew my heart, that one blow would have made me great.
On the night of April 25 he and Herold were surrounded as they
lay sleeping in a barn. When called upon to surrender Booth refused.
Herold came out. The bam was fired, and while it was burning
Booth, clearly visible through the cracks in the building, was shot by
a sergeant of cavalry.
Upon the hearts of a people glowing with the joy of victory the
news of the President’s assassination fell as a great shock. It was the
first time the telegraph had been called upon to spread over the world
tidings of such deep and mournful significance. In the stunning
effect of the unspeakable calamity the country lost sight of the
national success of the past week, and it thus came to pass that there
was never any organised expression of the general rejoicing in the
North over the downfall of the rebellion.
As soon as it was announced that Mr Lincoln was to be buried at
Springfield, Illinois, every town and city on the road begged that the
train might halt within its limits and give its people the opportunity of
testifying their grief and reverence. The train went up the Hudson
River by night, and at every town and village on the way vast waiting
246 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
crowds were revealed by the fitful glare of torches an< i a-
hymns were sung. The day spent at Cleveland W* d dlrges and
the depths of emotion it brought to light • some nf +? xam P led in
honour have said that it was at this point thevwff ? e . gUai 4 of
the place that Lincoln was to hold in history. ^ ^ n to appreciate
The ceremonies at the grave were simple and touching tv .
Simpson delivered a pathetic oration, but the SS
most eloquent words uttered anywhere that dnv g “ tle ® t and the
read over his grave, as the friends of Raphael chose the d * ,^ e
canvas of the Transfiguration to be the chief ornament of iTCS
John G. Nicolay
Punch Apologises to Abraham Lincoln
Punch made much fun of Abraham Lincoln during the Cton
War, and at Ms death offered this brave apology to his memory.
Y°u lay a wreath on murdered Lincoln’s bier
AJ f’ y T ho w * h m °cking pencil wont to trace,
Broad for the self-complaisant British sneer
His length of shambling limb, his furrowed face
His punt gnarled hands, his unkempt, bristling hah.
His garb uncouth, his bearing ill at ease.
Mis lack of all we prize as debonair
Of power or will to shine, of art to please ;
Tcm, whose smart pen backed up the pencil’s laugh,
udging each step as though the way were plain :
Reckless, so it could point its paragraph.
Of chief’s perplexity or people’s pain. ’
Beside this corpse, that bears for winding-sheet
The Stars and Stripes he lived to rear anew,
■Between the mourners at his head and feet
bay, scurrile jester, is there room for you 7
Yes : he had lived to shame me from my sneer,
±o lame my pencil and confute my pen ;
1 omake me own this hind of princes peer.
This rail-splitter a true-born king of men.
My shallow judgment 1 had learned to rue
Noting how to occasion's height he rose ;
Now his quaint wit made home-truth seem more true :
JtLo'w, %ron-Uke 9 his temper grew by blows ;
Bow humble, yet how hopeful he could be ;
How m good fortune and in ill the same ;
Nor bitter m success, nor boastful he,
1 hirsty for gold, nor feverish for fame.
Tom Taylor
247
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
When Abraham Lincoln Died
T hose who mourned most deeply were the blacks. They were the
only ones who had blessed him heartily as their saviour in life.
They sang songs in his honour and said that their Messiah was now
in Heaven. Tad, who lived only a few years more, believed the same
thing. When he stood beside the coffin at the White House he asked,
44 Is Father in heaven now ? Then I am glad, for lie was not really
happy here.”
Never again, since Abraham Lincoln lived and died, has an inno¬
cent man worn fetters in the United States. Since lie lived, worked,
and was slain, all men to whom God has given the gift of life are
there bom free. Emil Ludwig
They Come Beset by Riddling Rail
This stirring chorus comes into Thomas Hardy*s famous Epic of the Dynasts t
and deals with the Battle at Albuera in Spain , between the British and Spanish on
the one side and Napoleon*s forces on the other .
T hey come beset by riddling hail.
They sway like sedges in a gale ;
They fail, and win, and win, and fail. Albuera !
They gain the ground there, yard by yard,
Their brows and hair and lashes charred,
Their blackened teeth set firm and hard.
Their mad assailants rave and reel,
And face, as men who scorn to feel.
The close-lined, three-edged prongs of steel.
Till faintness follows closing-in.
When, faltering headlong down, they spin
Like leaves. But those pay well who win Albuera.
Out of six thousand souls that sware
' To hold the mount, or pass elsewhere.
But eighteen hundred muster there.
Pale colonels, captains, ranksmen lie.
Facing the earth or facing, sky ;
They strove to live, they stretch to die.
Friends, foemen, mingle ; heap and heap.
Hide their hacked bones. Earth !—deep, deep, deep.
Where harmless worms caress and creep.
, Hide their hacked bones. Earth I—deep, deep, deep.
Where harmless worms caress, and creep.
What man can grieve ? what woman weep t
Better than waking is to sleep ! Albuera I
Thomas Hardy
248
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Let Him Not Be Forgotten
uffer no pomp at my funeral. Lay me quietly in the earth and
put a sundial over my grave, and let me be forgotten.
Last words of John Howard
Youth Above All
T here is a feeling of Eternity in youth which makes us amends for
everything. To be young is to be as one of the Immortals.
William Hazlitt
The Spark Divine
N ot hopeless, round this calm sepulchral spot,
A wreath presaging life we twine ;
If God is Love, what sleeps below was not
Without a spark divine.
Sir Francis Doyle on a favourite dog
The Laughing and the Weeping
W hen a friend laughs it is for him to disclose the subject of his
joy; when he weeps it is for me to discover the cause of his
sorrow. Joseph Francois Desmahis
The Death Roll of Ideas
T he number of the soldiers killed in the Great War is known. The
number of the ideas and beliefs destroyed by it remains still
unknown. Gustave Le Bon
All We Like Sheep
S how me half a dozen people whom I can persuade that it is not the
sun that gives light, and I should not despair of whole nations
holding the same opinions. Fonienelle
The Emperor Looks Back
W hat an egregious fool must I have been to have squandered so
much blood and treasure in an absurd attempt to make men
think alike when I cannot even make a few watches keep time
together. The Emperor Charles the Fifth amusing
himself as a watchmaker after his abdication
So Many to So Few
T he gratitude of every home, except in the abodes of the guilty,
goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied
by their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide
of world war by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the
field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
Winston Churchill
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
249
The »s 'nMi'st Story of the English Throne
This to yrd-puinre rtf Gerrge the Third is one
cf the most pathetic passages in Thackeray
G eo! i'ii-; the Third end his queen lived in a very unpretending but
eligeut-l V'vu Ii Tiie king’s mother inhabited Carlton
A d.Dwh Iu;:u. cbiiimcrAc. narrow-minded woman, she
educated h cl. Thun cncurclmi; to her lights. She kept him very
close ; she held the tightest rein over him ; d:e had curious prejudices
and bigotries.
His nmtlwr\s bigetrv and hatred he inherited with the courageous
obstinacy of his oven race ; but he was a firm believer where his
fathers hind been free-tiiinkemu and a true and fond supporter of the
Church of which he was the Makar defender*
The king lamented, not without pathos, in his after life that his
education had been neglected. He was a dull lad brought up by
narrow-minded people. The cleverest tutors in the world could have
done little probably to expand that small intellect, though they might
have improved his taste, and taught his perceptions some generosity.
But he admired as well as lie could. There is little doubt that a
letter written by the little Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-
Strelitz . . . struck the young monarch greatly, and decided him
upon selecting the young princess as the sharer of his throne. They
met, and they were married, and for years they led the happiest
lives. It is said the king winced when lie first saw his homely little
bride ; but, however that may be, he was a true and faithful husband
to her, as she was a faithful and loving wife. They had the simplest
pleasures—little country dances, to which a dozen couples were
invited, after which delicious excitement they would go to bed
without any supper and get up quite early the next morning, and
perhaps the next night have another dance ; or the queen would,
play on the spinet, or the king would read to her a paper out of The
Spectator, or one of Ogden’s sermons.
O Arcadia ! what a life it must have been S There used to be
Sunday drawing-rooms at Court, but the young king stopped these
as he stopped all godless gambling. Many stories, mirthful and
affecting, are told of his behaviour at the concerts he ordered. When
he was blind and ill lie chose the music for the Ancient Concerts once,
and the music and words he selected were from Samson Agonistes,
and all had reference to his blindness, his captivity, and his affliction.
There is something exceedingly touching in that simple early life
of the king. As long as his .mother lived he was a shy, awkward boy
under the tutelage of that hard parent. She must have been a
clever, domineering, cruel woman. She kept her household lonely
and in gloom.
What virtue he knew he tried to practise; what knowledge he
could master he strove to acquire. He was for ever drawing maps*
250 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
for example, and learned geography with no small care and industry
He knew all about the family histories and genealogies of his gentry
and pretty histories he must have known. He knew the whol
Army List, and all the facings and the exact number of the buttons 6
all the tags and laces, and the cut of all the cocked-hats, pigtails and
gaiters in his army. ... 5
Yet there is something grand about his courage. The battle of the
king with his aristocracy remains yet to be told by the historian who
shall view the reign of George more justly than the trumpery pane¬
gyrists who wrote immediately after his decease. It was he, with the
people to back him, who made the war with America ; it was he and
the people who refused justice to the Roman Catholics ; and on both
questions he beat the patricians.
His courage was never to be beaten. It trampled North under
foot; it bent the stiff neck of the younger Pitt; even his illness never
conquered that indomitable spirit. As soon as his brain was clear
it resumed the scheme, only laid aside when his reason left him ; as
soon as his hands were out of the strait-waistcoat they took up
the pen and the plan which had engaged him up to the moment of
his malady.
Even Americans, whom he hated and who conquered him, may
give him credit for having quite honest reasons for oppress ing them.
Remember that he believed himself anointed by a Divine com¬
mission ; remember that he was a man of slow parts and imperfect
education ; that the same awful will of Heaven which placed a crown
upon his head, which made him tender to his family, pure in his life,
courageous and honest, made him dull of comprehension, obstinate of
will, and at many times deprived him of reason. He was the father
of his people; his rebellious children must be flogged into obedience.
Wars and revolutions are, however, the politician’s province ; let
us return to our Court gossip. Yonder sits our little queen, sur¬
rounded by many stout sons and fair daughters. The history of the
daughters, as little Miss Burney has painted them to us, is delightful.
They were handsome : she calls them beautiful; they were most kind,
loving, and ladylike ; they were gracious to every person, high and
low, who served them. They had many little accomplishments of
their own. This one drew : that one played the piano ; they all
worked most prodigiously, and fitted up whole suites of rooms
with their needles.
A quieter household, a more prosaic life, cannot be imagined.
Rain or shine, the king rode every day for hours, poked his red face
into hundreds of cottages round about, and showed that shovel hat
and Windsor uniform to farmers, to pig-boys, to old women making
apple-dumplings; to all sorts of people, gentle and simple, about
whom countless stories are told. Nothing can be more undignified
than these stories. He used to give a guinea sometimes; sometimes
251
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
feel in his pockets and find he had no money; often ask a man a
hundred questions : about the number of his family, about his oats
and beans, about the rent he paid for his house, and ride on. Our
fathers read these simple tales with fond pleasure ; liked the old man
who poked his nose into every cottage; who lived on plain whole¬
some roast and boiled ; who despised your French kickshaws; who
was a true hearty English gentleman.
Their Majesties were very sociable potentates : and the Court
Chronicler tells of numerous visits which they paid to their subjects,
gentle and simple ; with whom they dined ; at whose great country
houses they stopped; or at whose poorer lodgings they affably
partook of tea and bread-and-butter. Some of the great folk spent
enormous sums in entertaining their sovereigns.
The king rose every morning at six, and had two hours to himself.
He thought it effeminate to have a carpet in his bedroom. Shortly
before eight the queen and the royal family were always ready for
him, and they proceeded to the king’s chapel in the castle. There
were no fires in the passages ; the chapel was scarcely alight; prin¬
cesses, governesses, equerries grumbled and caught cold ; but, cold
or hot, it was their duty to go ; wet or dry, light or dark, the stout old
George was always in his place to say Amen to the chaplain.
All the world knows the story of his malady. History presents no
sadder figure than that of the old man, blind and deprived of reason,
wandering through the rooms of his palace, addressing imaginary
parliaments, reviewing fancied troops, holding ghostly courts. I
have seen his picture as it was taken at this time hanging in the apart¬
ment of his daughter. The poor old father is represented in a purple
gown, his snowy beard falling over his breast, the star of his famous
Order still idly shining on it. He was not only sightless ; he became
utterly deaf. All light, all reason, all sound of human voices, all the
pleasures of this world of God, were taken from him. Some slight
lucid moments he had ; in one of which the queen, desiring to see
him, entered the room and found him singing a hymn and accom¬
panying himself at the harpsichord. When he had"finished he knelt
down and prayed aloud for her, and then for his family, and then
for the nation, concluding with a prayer for himself that it might
please God to avert his heavy calamity from him ; but, if not, to give
him resignation to submit. He then buret into tears, and his reason
again fled.
O brothers, I said to those who heard me first in America, O
brothers ! speaking the same dear mother-tongue, 0 comrades !
enemies no more, let us take a mournful hand together as we stand by
this royal corpse, and call a truce to battle ! low he lies to whom the
proudest used to kneel, and who was east lower than the poorest.
Hush! Strife and Quarrel, over the solemn grave! Sound,
trumpets, a mournful march ! Fall, dark curtain, upon his pageant,
his pride, his grief, his awful tragedy! W. M. Thackeray
252 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Grime of Being Young
T he atrocious crime of being a young man which the honourable
gentleman has with such spirit and decency charged upon me
I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny ; but content myself
with wishing that I may be one of those whose follies may cease
with their youth, and not of that number who are ignorant in suite
of experience. The first William Pitt replying to Hebert Walpole
Thomas Carlyle Writes to Benjamin Bisraeli
S ib, Yesterday to my great surprise I had the honour to receive
your letter containing a magnificent proposal for my benefit
which will be memorable to me for the rest of my life. ’
Allow me to say that the letter, both in purport and expression
is worthy to be called magnanimous and noble, that it is without
example in my own poor history, and I think it is unexampled, too, in
the history of governing persons towards men of letters at the present
or at any time ; and that I will carefully preserve it as one of the
things precious to memory and heart. A real treasure or benefit#
independent of all results from it. ’
This sai’d to yourself and reposited with many feelings in my own
grateful mind, I have only to add that your splendid and generous
proposals for my practical behoof must not any of them take effect;
that titles of honour are, in all degrees of them, out of keeping with
the tenor of my own poor existence hitherto in this epoch of the
world, and would be an encumbrance, not a furtherance, to me ; that
as to money, it has, after long years of rigorous and frugal, but also
(thank God and those that are gone before me) not degrading poverty,
become in this latter amply abundant, even superabundant; more
of it, too, now a hindrance, not a help to me ; so that royal or other
bounty would be more than thrown away in my case ; and, in brief,
that except the feeling of your fine and noble conduct on this occasion,
which is a real and permanent possession, there cannot anything be
done that would not now be a sorrow rather than a pleasure.
With thanks more than usually sincere, I have the honour to be,
Sir, your obliged and obedient servant, T. Carlyle
5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, December 29, 1874.
George the Third to James the Great
G eorge tele Third to James Watt : Well, my man, and what
have you to sell ?
Jantes Watt to George the Third: What kings covet, may it please
your Majesty—Power.
253
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Times to Queen Victoria
A profound sensation teas caused throughout England by the appearance
of the following leading article in The Times on December IS, 1864.
Y esterday was the third anniversary of the death of the late
Prince Consort, and it was marked by a touching ceremonial.
Her Majesty and the younger members of the Royal Family visited"
the beautiful mausoleum which has been erected over the princess
remains and paid a fresh tribute of affection to his memory. It
seems but the other day that the Queen and the nation suffered this
great bereavement, but in the meantime how many changes have
taken place !
In the queen’s own family the Prince of Wales has passed from
youth into manhood, and now there is an heir to the throne in the
second generation. One more daughter has left her royal mother’s
house for a foreign home.
In the affairs of the world there has been constant movement, wars
and revolutions, immense social and commercial activity, bringing
ever new duties to all classes, and particularly to those who stand
highest and are nearest to the throne. Yet the lapse of time has not
yet brought a due alleviation of sorrow to the chief sufferer.
Oppressed by a great grief, Her Majesty has retired from the
world, and devoted her life to recollections of the past. Never has a
husband been more justly mourned than the eminent man who was so
suddenly snatched away three years since ; but in all bereavements
there is a time when the days of mourning should be looked upon as
past. The living have their claims as well as the dead ; and what
claims can be more imperative than those of a great nation and the
society of one of the first European capitals ? We might also speak
of Her Majesty’s own youthful family, whose introduction into the
social life which belongs to their station depends on the resumption
by the Court of its ordinary habits. But we will confine ourselves to
the public functions which the occupant of the Throne may be
expected to fulfil, and ask, in all duty and loyalty, whether the "time
has not now come when they should once more beperformed in person.
_ The Queen’s most loyal subjects are precisely those who think it is
254
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
rise superior to party suggestions and stand as the representative of
the nation and the guardian of the Executive. But, for any sovereign
to be able to fulfil this high duty when required, a proper intercourse
with the world and a knowledge which seclusion soon loses are
absolutely necessary.
The Court of England in recent times has always been so conducted
as to give the sovereign a familiarity with the most trustworthy
opinions of the time by means of intercourse with the ablest and most
respected persons in the land. To relinquish these means of learning
what English people think and feel on all subjects, to dry up the
sources of the royal tact which is the most valuable quality a constitu¬
tional sovereign can possess, is to abandon something of the preroga¬
tive of the Crown. It is impossible for a recluse to occupy the British
Throne without a gradual weakening of that authority which the
sovereign has been accustomed to exert. The regulation of a house¬
hold may be in the power of such a ruler, but the real sway of an
empire will be impossible.
For the sake of the Crown as well as of the public we would,
therefore, beseech Her Majesty to return to the personal exercise of
her exalted functions. ... In the early days of Her Majesty’s reign
nothing was more gratifying to the public than to learn that there was
a royal speech at the opening or closing of the Session, and not a
Message. Equally beneficial was it to the interests of the Constitu¬
tion that with the chief enterprises of the day the name of the queen
should be connected. Whether it was an industrial exhibition, or a
naval review, or a new public building, it pleased the people and
strengthened the throne when Her Majesty was on the spot. Such
influences have a constitutional value in a State like ours.
It is also fair to say that the society of England requires its chief
hostess and its natural leader. It may be that in time the London
season may accustom itself to do without the Palace, but it is not
desirable that we should attain that point of republican simplicity.
For every reason we trust that, now that three years have elapsed
and every honour that affection and gratitude could pay to the
memory of the Prince Consort has been offered, Her Majesty will
think of her subjects’ claims and the duties of her high station, and
not postpone them longer to the indulgence of an unavailing grief.
The Triumph of the Gross
W e are trying to readjust the life of the world ; what is to be the
ultimate principle dominating that process of readjustment ?
Is it to be Christian or pagan ? It may be either, but a choice has
to be made. Is the Cross or materialism to become supreme ? One
or the other must prevail.
That is the stark, the ultimate reality which Good Friday compels
us to face. Mankind has been beset by appeals to the baser motives.
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 255
by voices that deride as foolish the idea of permitting Christian ethics
to regulate mundane affairs. Good Friday brings a pause to such
clamour. It dies down, and we become aw r are of another appeal
when w T e stand before the Cross of Calvary,
To be emotionally stirred by that spectacle of august and suffering
love is not enough; the message of the Cross calls to thought, to
resolve, to action. It entreats us to discern., beneath all our secon¬
dary troubles, the plain issue of life or death, of Christianity or pagan¬
ism, that confronts us today. It urges, with a truth which bitter
experience has made unquestionable, that eager and strenuous
concern for material things alone can bring no peace either to a world
or an individual soul. It insists that true riches and true happiness
have to be sought along a road other than that which we supposed
would bring us to prosperity. It does not promise that, if we are
wholeheartedly Christian, w r e shall be able to mould circumstances
to our liking. But we shall try to mould them to God’s liking, and
that effort, even if it fails to change the circumstances, infallibly will
change ourselves. It will give us a part in the one victory that
matters—the victory of Good Friday, the triumph of the Cross".
We incline to think of the Crucifixion as the world’s supreme
tragedy. . That, in a sense, it was ; though the real tragedy lay not in
the Crucifixion but in the sin and hatred which brought it about.
But on Good Friday the disciples w r ere in no mood for such distinc¬
tions. To them, as to all their contemporaries, the Cross was a word
of horror. And the candour of the Gospels pictures the unrelieved
tragedy of the Cross for the disciples on the first Good Friday.
They had shrunk aghast and uncomprehending. from their
Master’s reiterated predictions. It was impossible to link Him in
thought with that awful ignominy ; impossible to doubt, to the last
moment, that somehow He wmuld triumph over His enemies. Yet the
gloom steadily deepened, no Divine power intervened, Jesus was
crucified, and the disciples fled in an extremity of despair. If ever
there was a symbol of hideous disaster and irretrievable defeat, that
symbol was the Cross on Good Friday. Then came Easter, making all
things new. Yet the character of that change is often misunderstood.
It seems natural to contrast the tragedy of Good Friday with the
victory of Easter. That was not the view of the early Christians.
Such a view has no resemblance to that found in the New Testament.
There the Passion is regarded as central; each detail of the story
Is set down with scrupulous care, and the Resurrection is given less
space, as being not the contradiction of the Passion but its conse¬
quence. So far from wishing Ms converts to' forget the Cross or to
speak of it with horror, St Paul would have them glory in it. It was
on the Cross, and not in spite of the Cross, that Jesus conquered.
He is acclaimed as overthrowing the banded powers of evil, triumph¬
ing over them, not in the Resurrection, but in the Cross. The Cross,
rather than the empty sepulchre, was to 'become the Christian sign of
256 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
triumph, was to lead processions and crown the churches and gleam
from their altars.
When, accordingly, we turn our thoughts to the malice and
obtuseness of which human nature is capable, and contemplate what
they brought about on Calvary, we shall rightly keep Good Friday as
a day of profound penitence. When again we place ourselves in
imagination beside the first disciples and attempt to view the Cruci¬
fixion through their eyes, we shall think of the scene as supremely
tragic. But when we regard the Cross as did St Paul and the rest
of the early Church, we shall glory in it with high thanksgiving.
If on Good Friday we can return to this New Testament belief in
the triumph of the Cross, we shall not merely replace one abstract
opinion by another. The change will have consequences of a
practical kind, and of a kind that will have a special value in the
present circumstances of the world. We shall gain new courage and
a changed outlook.
It is something if we have learned already from Holy Week and
Easter to believe that, after the endurance of tribulation and seeming
defeat, miraculous victory may follow, when our buried hopes will
rise to fulfilment from the grave of despairBut it is far more to
discern that endurance of tribulation is itself the victory. No
miracle, but the inevitable operation of God’s law will bring about the
resurrection of all that is good.
We live at a time in history when the forces of evil are strong,
when peace and civilisation and Christianity often seem endangered.
On the other hand, religious faith is making progress in unexpected
ways, while brave and resolute men and women throughout the world
are striving for goodwill and trying to win a happier future for the
human race. To dedicate to such ends whatever of influence we
possess, to endure through the darkest days with serene courage, to
think little of our own needs and much of our neighbour’s, to be
unashamed in our religion and frank in making the Father’s Will our
supreme rule in conduct—to do that is to fulfil the teaching of Good
Friday, to follow so far as we may the supreme example of the
Crucified, and to share in the triumph of the Cross.
For after nineteen centuries the Cross remains the Sign of victory,
and in this Sign we shall conquer. From the leading article in The
Times on Good Friday 1933
The Man Who Forgot
T o one who thought Sir Thomas More had offended
him Erasmus wrote:
What you write about More is all nonsense; why,
he does not even remember grave injuries.
PORTRAIT OF A .LADY, BY REMBRANDT
257
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Three Friends Meet in English Literature
A hundred years and more ago there died in New York Joseph Rodman Drake
and Ms great friend FitzGreene Halleck wrote this beautiful tribute to his memory. *
G reen be the turf above thee.
Friend of my better days S
None knew thee but to love thee.
None named thee but to praise.
Tears fell, when thou wert dying,
From eyes unused to weep,
And long, where thou art lying,
Will tears the cold turf steep.
When hearts whose truth was proven,
Like thine, are laid in earth.
There should a wreath be woven
To tell the world their worth.
It should be mine to braid it
Around thy faded brow,
But I’ve in vain assayed it,
And feel I cannot now.
While memory bids me w T eep thee.
Nor thoughts nor words are free,
The grief is fixed too deeply
That mourns a man like thee.
Nearly sixty years passed by, and John Greenleaf Whittier paid this tribute to
FitzGreene Halleck , who had passed on to the “friend of his better days”
N ot his the soldier’s sword to wield,
Nor his the helm of State,
Nor glory of the stricken field.
Nor triumph of debate.
He toiled and sang ; and year by year
Men found their homes more sweet.
And through a tenderer atmosphere
Looked down the brick-walled street.
Alive, he loved, like all who sing
The echoes of Ms song;
Too late the tardy meed we bring,
The praise delayed so long.
Our lips of praise must soon be dumb,
Our grateful eyes be dim;
0, brothers of the days to come,
. Take tender charge of him.!
New hands the wires of song may sweep.
New voices challenge fame ;
But let no moss of years o’er creep
The lines of Halleck’s name.
.F.T.—17
258
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Royal Visit
No one knows who wrote this rare and vivid poem. It was found
in Christ Church Library at Oxford, and is a seventeenth-century
manuscript. From its abrupt opening it might be a fragment, yet it
is so perfect that we would not have it a line longer or shorter .
Y et if his majesty, our sovereign lord,
Should, of his own accord
Friendly himself invite,
And say, “ I 5 11 be your guest tomorrow night,”
How should we stir ourselves, call and command
All hands to work ! “ Let no man idle stand !
Set me fine Spanish tables in the hall,
See they be fitted all;
Let there be room to eat,
And order taken that there want no meat!
See every sconce and candlestick made bright
That without tapers they may give a light!
Look to the presence are the carpets spread,
The dais o’er the head,
The cushions in the chairs,
And all the candles lighted on the stairs ?
Perfume the chambers, and in any case
Let each man give attendance in his place.”
Thus, if the king were coming, would we do.
And twere good reason too ;
For tis a duteous thing
To show all honour to an earthly king,
And after all our travail and our cost,
So be he pleased, to think no labour lost.
But at the coming of the King of Heaven
All’s set at six and seven :
We wallow in our sin,
Christ cannot find a chamber in the inn.
We entertain him always as a stranger,
And, as at first, still lodge Him in the manger*
Not the Way to Heaven
W E may not go to heaven in feather beds ; it is
not the way. Sir Thomas More
A Celebrated Problem
T was a celebrated problem among the ancient mythologists
what was the Strongest thing, what the Wisest, and what the
Greatest ? Concerning which twas this determined, that the
strongest thing was Necessity, the wisest was Time, and the greatest
was the Heart of Man. Norris ofBemerton in the 17th century
259
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Prophecies that Came True
Erasmus Darwin Looking Forward in 1792
S oon shall thy arm, Unconquered Steam, afar
Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car ;
Or on the wide-waving wings expanded bear
The flying-chariot through the fields of air.
Fair crews triumphant, leaning from above,
Shall wave their fluttering kerchiefs as they move ;
Or warrior-bands alarm the gaping crowd.
And armies shrink beneath the shadowy cloud.
From the Botanic Garden
Tennyson Looking Forward in 1842
M en, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new :
That which they have done but earnest of the things that thev
shall do : J
For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see.
Saw the vision of the world and all the wonder that would be ;
Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails.
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales ;
Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew
From the nations’ airy navies, grappling in the central blue ;
Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rushing warm,
With the standards of the people plunging through the thunder¬
storm ;
Till the war drums throbbed no longer and the battle-flags were
furled
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.
There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe,
And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law.
From Locksley Hall
Four Things Small and Wise
T hebe be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are
exceeding wise:
The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the
summer;
The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in
the rocks;
The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands;
The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings ’ palaces ,
Solomon
260
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
James Watt is Bead
M b James Watt, the great improver of the steam-engine, died on
August 25, 1819, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. This
name fortunately needs no commemoration of ours, for he that bore
it survived to see it crowned with undisputed and unenvied honours ;
and many generations will probably pass away before it shall have
gathered all its fame.
We have said that Mr Watt was the great improver of the steam-
engine ; but in truth he should rather be described as its inventor.
It was by his inventions that its action was so regulated as to make it
capable of being applied to the finest and most delicate manufactures,
and its power so increased as to set weight and solidity at defiance.
By his admirable contrivance it has become a thing stupendous alike
for its force and its flexibility—for the prodigious power it can exert,
and the ease and precision and ductility with which that power can
be varied, distributed, and applied. The trunk of an elephant, that
can pick up a pin or rend an oak, is as nothing to it. It can engrave a
seal, crush masses of obdurate metal before it, draw out without
breaking a thread as fine as gossamer, and lift a ship of war like a
bauble in the air. It can embroider muslin and forge anchors, cut
steel into ribands, and impel loaded vessels against the fury of the
winds and waves.
It would be difficult to estimate the value of the benefits which
these inventions have conferred upon this country. There is no
branch of industry that has not been indebted to them; and in all
the most material they have not only widened most magnificently the
field of its exertions, but multiplied a thousandfold the amount of its
productions. It was our improved steam-engine that fought the
battles of Europe, and exalted and sustained, through the late tre¬
mendous contest, the political greatness of our land. It is the same
great power which now enables us to pay the interest of our debt, and
to maintain the arduous struggle in which we are still engaged with
the skill and capital of countries less oppressed with taxation.
But these are poor and narrow views of its importance. It has
increased indefinitely the mass of human comforts and enjoyments,
and rendered cheap and accessible all over the world the materials
of wealth and prosperity. It has armed the feeble hand of man, in
short, with a power to which no limits can be assigned ; completed
the dominion of mind over the most refractory qualities of matter;
and laid a sure foundation for all those future miracles of mechanic
power which are to aid and reward the labours of after generations.
It is to the genius of one man, too, that all this is mainly owing.
Certainly no man ever bestowed sueh a gift on his kind. The
blessing is not only universal, but unbounded ; and the fabled
inventors of the plough and the loom, who were deified by the erring
261
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
gratitude of their rude contemporaries, conferred less important
benefits on mankind than the inventor of our steam-engine.
This will be the fame of Watt with future generations : and it is
sufficient for his race and his country. But to those to whom he
more immediately belonged, who lived in his society and enjoyed
his conversation, it is not, perhaps, the character in which he will be
most frequently recalled, most deeply lamented, or even most
highly admired.
Independently of his great attainments in mechanics, Mr Watt
was an extraordinary and in many respects a wonderful man.
Perhaps no individual in his age possessed so much and such varied
and exact information—had read so much, or remembered what he
had read so accurately and well. He had infinite quickness of
apprehension, a prodigious memory, and a certain rectifying and
methodising power of understanding which extracted something
precious out of all that was presented to it. His stores of miscel¬
laneous knowledge were immense, and yet less astonishing than the
command he had at all times over them.
There was nothing of effort or impatience, any more than of
pride or levity, in his demeanour. He had in his character the
utmost abhorrence for all sorts of forwardness, parade, and preten¬
sions, and never failed to put all such impostures out of counten¬
ance, by the manly plainness and honest intrepidity of his language
and deportment.
In his temper and dispositions, he was not only kind and affec¬
tionate, but generous, and considerate of the feelings of all around
him ; and gave the most liberal assistance and encouragement to all
young persons who showed any indications of talent or applied to
him for patronage or advice. His health, which was delicate from
his youth upwards, seemed to become firmer as he advanced in
years; and he preserved up almost to the last moment of his existence
not only the full command of his extraordinary intellect, but all the
alacrity of spirit and the social gaiety which had ill umin ed his
happiest days. Obituary in the Edinburgh Review, 1819
I Will Lift up Mine Eyes Unto the Hills
T will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my hel p.
My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved; he that keepeth thee
will not slumber.
The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; he shall preserve
thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from
this time forth, for evermore. Psalm, 121
262
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Butchers
A mong those foolish pursuers of pleasure the people of Utopia
reckon all that delight in hunting, or gaming, of whose madness
they have only heard, for they have no such things among them
But they have asked us : What sort of pleasure is it that men can
find in throwing the dice ? And what pleasure can one find in hearing
the barking and howling of dogs ? Nor can they comprehend the
pleasure of seeing dogs run after a hare, more than seeing one dog
run after another. 8
But if the pleasure lies in seeing the hare killed and torn by the
dogs this ought rather to stir pity that a weak, harmless and fearful
hare should be devoured by strong, fierce, and cruel dogs. Therefore
all this business of hunting is, among the Utopians, turned over to
their butchers, and the butchers are all slaves, and they look on
hunting as one of the basest parts of a butcher’s work, for they account
it both more profitable and more decent to kill those beasts that are
more useful to mankind, whereas the killing and tearing of so small
and miserable an animal can only attract the huntsman with a false
show of pleasure, from which he can reap but small advantage.
They look on the desire of the bloodshed, even of beasts, as a mark of
a mind that is corrupted with cruelty, or that at least, by too frequent
returns of so brutal a pleasure, must degenerate into it.
Sir Thomas More
Remember Thy Creator
R emember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the
evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt
say, I have no pleasure in them;
While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not
darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain :
In the days when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the
strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they
are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, and the
doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is
low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters
of musick shall be brought low ;
Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall
be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper
shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long
home and the mourners go about the streets :
Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken,
or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at
the cistern. Ecclesiastes
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Moses to His People
263
Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, but am store of speech.
W KEN thou art in tribulation, if thou turn to the Lord thy God
he will not forsake thee. Thou shait love the Lord thy God
witn all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind*.
Ye have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that
y° u ‘ .} ^ U T do ™ before the Lord forty days and" forty
ha § st redee d mS. d ’ ° ^ G ° d ’ deStr ° y not th > r P eo P Ie which thou
The Lord hearkened unto me at that time and would not destroy
.^ ee ‘ 7l A . nd ao f. what doth the Lord require of thee but to fear God,
£ ,T al * “ a11 ^ ^ and to fo ve him ? The Lord had a delight
in thj, fathers to love them, and he choose their seed after them, you
above all people. Thy fathers went down into Egvpt with JhJe “
score and ten persons, and now the Lord thy God hfth made See
as the stars of heaven for multitude*
. diligently keep all these commandments, to do them,
bto T ’"‘"‘S' aI1 his ™ 5 ' s ’ * nd to
nun, then will the Lord drive out all nations before vou, and ve shall
possess greater nations, and mightier than yourselves. Every place
jmur feet shall tread shall be yours. There shall no man be abfe to
stand before you*
, lt aon f ta P ass » if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice
of the Lord thy God that eurses shall come upon thee. Thv sons and
thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and there shall be
no might in thine hand. The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours,
shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up. Thou" shait be
oppressed and crushed alway. Thou shait become an astonishment,
a proverb, and a byword among all nations. Thou shait carry much
seed out into the field and shait gather but little in, for the locust
shall consume it. Thou shait have olive trees throughout all thy
coasts but thou shait not anoint thyself with oil, for thine olive
shall cast its fruit. Thou shait beget sons and daughters but shait
not enjoy them, for they shall go into captivity.
_The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from afar, from the
fu °Vif 6a f th ’ f S swlft as the . ea gle Aieth ; a nation whose tongue
thou shait not understand, a nation of fierce countenance, which shall
not regard the old, nor show favour to the young, and shall eat the
fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed.
Ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven
tor multitude, because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the Lord
thy God. The Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the
one end of the earth to the other ; and among these nations shait thou
wj 11 i. ^? Se ’ ne P'b er shall the sole of thy foot have rest ; but the
Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and
264
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
sorrow of mind, and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee ; and
thou shalt fear day and night. In the morning thou shalt say,
Would God it were even ! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it
were morning ! And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again,
and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bond-
women, and no man shall buy you.
This commandment which I command thee this day, it is not
hidden from thee, neither is it far off. The word is very nigh unto
thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.
See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and
evil. I call heaven and earth to record this day that I have set
before you life and death, blessing and cursing : therefore choose life,
that both thou and thy seed may live, that thou mayest love the
Lord thy God, and obey his voice and cleave unto him, for he is thy
life, and the length of thy days. Old Testament
Proverbs of Solomon
B etter is a dinner of herbs where love is than a stalled ox
and hatred.
Go to the ant, thou sluggard ; consider her ways and be wise.
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
A wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish son is the heaviness
of his mother.
Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with¬
out right.
Hatred stirreth up strifes ; but love covereth all sins.
Where no counsel is the people fall; but in the multitude of
counsellors there is safety.
He that trusteth in his riches shall fall, but the righteous
shall flourish.
Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction, but
he that regardeth reproof shall be honoured.
He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of
fools shall be destroyed.
Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.
A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.
A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of
the heart the spirit is broken.
Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way
of righteousness.
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty ; and he that
ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.
265
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Three Things Too Wonderful
T here be three things that be too wonderful for me, yea, four
which I know not.
The way of an eagle in the air : the way of a serpent on a rock ; the
way of a ship in the midst of the sea ; and the way of a man with a maid .
Solomon
Six Things the Lord Both Bate
T hese six things doth the Lord hate : yea, seven are an abomina¬
tion unto him :
A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a
heart ^tliat deviseth wicked imaginations, feet swift in running to
mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord
among brethren. Solomon
Through All Generations
T ore , thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.
" Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst
formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting
thou art God.
Thou tumest man to destruction ; and sayest Return, ye children
of men.
For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday, when it
is past, and as a watch in the night.
Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep:
in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up ; in the evening it
is cut down, and withereth.
For w r e are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are
we troubled.
Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the
light of thy countenance.
For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our
years as a tale that is told.
The days of our years., are threescore .years and ten; and if by,
reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength
labour and sorrow;. for it. is soon cut off, and we fly away.
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts
unto wisdom.. Psalm 90 , written about 3400 years ago
266
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Path of the Just is as the Shining Light
H appy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth
understanding,
For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver,
and the gain thereof than fine gold.
She is more precious than rubies, and all the tilings thou canst
desire are not to be compared unto her.
Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches
and honour.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know
understanding.
Get wisdom, get understanding : forget it not; neither decline
from the words of my mouth.
Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee ; love her, and she
shall keep thee.
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom, and with
all thy getting get understanding.
Exalt her, and she shall promote thee; she shall bring thee to
honour, when thou dost embrace her.
She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace ; a crown of
glory shall she deliver to thee.
Take fast hold of instruction. Let her not go: keep her, for she
is thy life.
' Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of
evil men.
Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away, for they
sleep not; they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine
of violence.
But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more
and more unto the perfect day. Solomon
Surely He Shall Deliver Thee
H e that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide
under the shadow of the Almighty.
Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and
from the noisome pestilence.
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow
that flieth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness,
nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right
hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. From Psalm 91
267
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Her Price is Far Above Rubies
W ho can find a virtuous woman ? Her price is far above rubies.
^ The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he
shall have no need of spoil.
She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.
She is like the merchant’s ships: she bringeth her food from afar.
She riseth while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household,
and a portion to her maidens.
She considered a field, and buyeth it; with the fruit of her hands
she planteth a vineyard.
She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengthened her arm.
She perceiveth that her merchandise is good; her candle goeth
not out by night.
She layetii her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold
the distaff.
She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reaeheth forth
her hands to the needy.
She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and deiivereth girdles unto
the merchant.
Strength and honour are her clothing, and she shall rejoice in time
to come.
She openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the
law of kindness.
She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the
bread of idleness.
Her children arise up and call her blessed; her husband also and
he praiseth her.
Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou exeelJest them all.
Sohmon'
As for Man, His Days Are as Grass
L ike as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear him. For he knoweth our frame ; he remembereth that we
are dust.
As for man, his days are as grass ; as a flower of the field, so he
flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone ; and the
place thereof shall know it no more.
But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon
them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children.
From Psalm 103
268
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Sayings From the Psalms
T he Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear ?
The Lord is the strength of my life ; of whom shall I be afraid ?
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out
of all his troubles.
The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek
the Lord shall not want any good thing.
A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of
many wicked.
The meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in
the abundance of peace.
I have been young and am now old, yet have I not seen the
righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit
within me.
Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest
where she may lay her young.
O sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvellous
things ; with trumpets and sound of comet make a joyful noise
before the King. Let the sea roar, the world, and they that dwell
therein ; let the clouds clap their hands ; let the hills be joyful to¬
gether before the Lord, for he cometh to judge the earth. With
righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh
my help.
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion ; slow to anger, and
of great mercy.
The Lord looseth the prisoners ; the Lord openeth the eyes of the
blind ; the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down ; the Lord loveth
the righteous ; the Lord preserveth the strangers; he relieveth
the fatherless and widow; but the way of the wicked he turneth
upside down.
They Shall Mount Up with Wings as Eagles
H ast thou not known ? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting
God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not,
neither is weary ? There is no searching of his understanding. He
giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he
increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and
the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength ; they shall mount up with wings as eagles,
they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 269
God is Our Refuge and Strength
/'-'>od is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
v-* Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and
though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
Though the waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains
shake with the swelling thereof.
There is a river the streams whereof shall make glad the city of
God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her ; she shall not be moved. God shall
help her, and that right early.
He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth. He breaketh
the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder. He bumeth the chariot
in the fire.
Be still, and know that I am God : I will be exalted in the earth.
From Psalm 46
A. Little Child Shall Lead Them
T he people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. They
that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath
the light shined. For unto us a child is bom, unto us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder ; and his name shall
be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting
Father, The Prince of Peace.
Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness
the girdle of his reins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the
leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion
and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
Isaiah
They Shall Learn War No More
H e shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people;
they shall beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears
into priming hooks ; nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more. Isaiah
The Widow’s Mite
J esus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people
cast money in. Many that were rich cast in much, and there
came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which mok*
a farthing.
He called unto him his disciples, and saith. Verily I say unto you
that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast
into the treasury; for all they did cast in of their abundance, but
she of her want cast in all that she had, even all her living.
270 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Good Samaritan
A cektain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master,
what shall I do to inherit eternal life ? He said unto him, What
is written in the law ? How readest thou ? And he answering said,
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all
thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind ; and thy
neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered
right: this do, and thou shalt live.
But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is
my neighbour ? And Jesus said :
A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell
among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him,
and departed, leaving him half dead.
By chance there came down a certain priest that way ; and when
he saw him he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite, when
he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the
other side.
But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was;
and when he saw him he had compassion on him, and went to him,
and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his
own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
On the morrow, when he departed, he took out two pence, and
gave them to the host, and said, Take care of him ; and whatsoever
thou spendest more, when I come again I will repay thee. Which
now of these three, thinkest thou, v^as neighbour unto him that fell
among thieves ?
And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus
unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. St Luke
Letter of a Prodigal Son
Antonins Longus to Nilous, his mother .
M any greetings. I continually pray that you are in good health,
and make supplication for you before our Lord Serapis.
I would have you know that I never expected you were coming up
to the city. This was why I never came into it. But I was ashamed
to come up to Karanis, for I am going about in rags.
I write to tell you that I have not any clothes. I entreat you,
mother, to be reconciled to me. But I know what I have brought on
myself. I have been chastised as I have been because I have sinned.
I heard from Postumus, who found you in Arsinoe county, and
he has unseasonably told you all. Don’t you know I would rather
become a cripple than know that I owed anybody twopence ?
Come yourself, I beseech. Don’t fail.
Written in the Second Century after Christ
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 271
The Rich Young Ruhr
A nd, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what
good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life ? He said
unto him, Why caliest thou me good ? There is none good but God.
But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments,. The young
man saith unto him. All these things have I kept from mv youth up ;
what lack I yet ? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go
and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalf have
treasure in heaven ; and come and follow me.
But when the young man heard that saying he went away sorrow¬
ful, for he had great possessions. St Matthew
Tim Rids Into Jerusalem
Nineteen centuries separate these km descriptions of a ride info Jerusalem .
The first is written in the first century of our Era and the second in the twentieth
W hen they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Beth-
phage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples,
saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straight¬
way ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her : loose them, and
bring them to me. If any man say aught unto you ye shall say,
The Lord hath need of them, and straightway he will send them.
The disciples did as Jesus commanded them, and brought the ass,
and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.
A very great multitude spread their garments in the way ; others
cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way;
and the multitudes cried, saying, Hosanna, to the Son of David S
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord I Hosanna in
the highest 1 Si Matthew
W hen fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn.
Some moments when the moon was blood.
Then surely I was bom.
With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant 'wings.
The devil’s walking parody
On all four-footed things.
The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me ; lam dumb,
I keep my secret.still.
Fools ! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet;
There was a shout about my ears.
And palms before my feet.
G. JL Chesterton (The Donkey )
272 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Blessed Are They
The chief foundation-stone of our English language is the Bible . This is
how it has grown up, shown in one of its noblest passages as written by John
Wycliffe, as improved by William Tyndale, and as perfected by the forty-
nine translators in the Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster. u
B lessid be pore men in spirit, for the kyngdom of heuenes is
hem.
Blessid be mylde men, for thei schulen weeld the erthe.
Blessid be thei that mournen, for thei schulen be counfortid.
Blessid be thei that hungren and thirsten rightewisnesse, for
thei schulen be fulfillid.
Blessid ben merciful men, for thei schulen gete merci.
Blessid ben thei that ben of clene herte, for thei schulen se
god.
Blessid be pesible men, for thei schulen be cleped goddis
children.
Blessid ben thei that suffren persicusioun for rightewisnesse,
for the kyngdom of heuenis is hern.
Wycliffe's Bible, about 1382
B lessed are the povre in sprete, for theirs is the kyngdome of
heven.
Blessed are they that morne, for they shalbe conforted.
Blessed are the meke, for they shall inherit the erth.
Blessed are they which honger and thurst for rightewesnes,
for they shalbe filled.
Blessed are the mercifull, for they shall obteyne mercy.
Blessed are the pure in herte, for they shall se God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shalbe called the
chyldren of God.
Blessed are they which suffre persecucion for rightewesnes
sake, for theirs ys the kyngdome of heuen.
Tyndale's Testament, 1535
B lessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteous¬
ness, for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the
children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Authorised Version, 1612
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
273
The Book Our Lord Immortalised
Some of the familiar ’words of Jtsus have a striking resemblance to passages in
one of the popular -works rf his dap, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, It
cannot he doubted that Jesus read this book and that it influenced his thought.
These parallel passages make it quite dear.
Words of Jesus
ith what measure ye mete,
it shall be measured to
you again.
The Sermon on the Mount
Whosoever shall do and teach
them, the same shall be called
great in the Kingdom of Heaven..
Sermon on the Mount
Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself. St Matthew
So likewise shall my heavenly
Father do also unto you if ye
from your hearts forgive not
every one of their trespasses.
Si Matthew
I was a-liimgered, and ye gave
me meat.
1 was thirsty, and ye gave me
drink.
I was a stranger, and ye took
me in;
Naked, and ye clothed me.
I was. sick, and ye visited me.
I was in prison, and ye came
unto me. . Si Matthew
Take ■ heed'' to yourselves. If.
thy brother trespass against thee,
rebuke him; and if he repent,
forgive him. : Si Luke
Words of the Patriarchs
ven as a man doeth to his
neighbour even so will the
Lord do to him.
Testament of Zebulun
Whosoever teaches noble things
and does them shall be enthroned
with kings.
From the Testament of Lewi
Love the Lord through all
your life,..
And one another with a true
heart.
From the Testament of Dan
If he be shameless and per¬
sisted in his wrong-doing, even so
forgive him from the heart, and
leave to God the avenging.
Testament of Gad
I was sold into slavery, and the
Lord of all made me free.
I was taken into captivity, and
His strong hand succoured me.
I was beset with hunger, and
the Lord Himself nourished me.
I was alone, and God com¬
forted me. I was sick, and the
Lord visited me.
I was in prison, and my God.
showed favour unto me;
In bonds, and He released me ;
Slandered, and He pleaded my
cause. Testament of Joseph
Love ye one another from the-
heart. If a man .speak, against
thee, speak peaceably to him, and
in thy .soul hold not guile. If he
repent and confess, forgive Mm.
. . Gad
F.T.—18
274
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Prodigal Son
A ceetain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his
father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.
And he divided unto them his living.
Not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and
took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance
with riotous living. When he had spent all there arose a mighty
famine in that land; and he began to be in want; and he joined
himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields
to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks
that the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him.
When he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my
father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
I will arise, and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I
have sinned again heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy
to be called thy son ; make me as one of thy hired servants.
And he arose, and came to his father; but when he was yet a
great way off his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and
fell on his neck, and kissed him.
The son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven,
and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But
the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it
on him ; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring
hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and be merry, for
this my son was dead, and is alive again ; he was lost, and is found.
And they began to be merry.
Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and drew nigh
to the house he heard music and dancing; and he called one of the
servants, and asked what these things meant.
He said unto him, Thy brother is come ; and thy father hath
killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound.
He was angry, and would not go in; therefore came his father
out, and intreated him. And he said to his father, Lo, these many
years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy com¬
mandment ; and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make
merry with my friends ; but as soon as this thy son was come, which
hath devoured thy living, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.
And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I
have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad;
for this thy brother was dead and is alive again ; and was lost, and
is found. St Lvke
275
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Pharisee and the Publican
H e spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that
they were righteous, and despised others.
Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee,
and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with
himself: God, I thank thee that 1 am not as other men are, extortioners,
unjust, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, 1 give tithes
of all 1 possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift
up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast,
saying, God be merciful to me a simmer. St Luke
Behold, I Show You a Mystery
B ehold, I show you a mystery : We shall not all sleep, but we shall
all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the
last trump : for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must
put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this
mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death,
W'here is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ?
The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is the law. But
thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, immoveable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that
your labour is not in vain in the Lord. St Paul
Who Shall Separate Us ?
W ho shall separate us from the love of Christ ? Shall tribulation,
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or
sword ? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors,
through him that loved us, for I am persuaded that neither death nor
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be
able to separate us from the love of God.
From PauFs Letter to the Romans
This Nightingale
I T were a heavenly health,
It were an endless wealth,
A life for God himself.
To hear this nightingale . . .
John Skelton, 16th-century Poet Laureate
276
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Sayings of St Paul
T he kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness
and peace.
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise, and the weak to confound the mighty.
All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient *
all things are lawful for me, but 1 will not be brought under the power
of any.
We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which
are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the
things which are not seen are eternal.
If a man be overtaken in a fault, restore such a one in the spirit
of weakness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
Be not deceived; God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap.
Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap,
if we faint not.
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and evil speaking, be
put away from you.
Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, what¬
soever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever
things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be
any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
" Be at peace among yourselves. Be patient toward all men. See
that none render evil for evil. Rejoice evermore. Pray without
ceasing. In everything give thanks. Prove all things. Hold fast
that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil.
Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-
imnded, nor trust in uncertain riches.
Follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, but foolish and un¬
learned questions avoid, knowing that they gender strifes.
The just shall live by faith. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
I am ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course ; I have kept
faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.
What Doth the Lord Require of Thee ?
W hat doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to
love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God ? Micah
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
277
The Philosophy of Galilee
W hat shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and
lose his own soul ?
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all
thy soul, and with all thy mind ; and thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself.
Beware of covetousness, for a man’s life consisteth not in the
abundance of things which he possesseth.
If any man desire to be first, he shall be last, and servant of all.
They that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
'Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God
the things which are God’s.
Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your
pearls before swine.
Every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account of in
the day of judgment, for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by
thy words thou shalt be condemned.
There is nothing from without a man that entering into him can
defile him, but the things which come out of him are they which
defile a man.
Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation.
How can one enter into a strong man’s house and spoil his goods
except he first bind the strong man ?
He that is not with me is against me.
Take heed that ye do not your alms before men ; do not sound a
trumpet before thee as hypocrites do. When thou doest alms let
not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and
dust doth corrupt and thieves break through and steal; but lay for
yourselves treasures in heaven, for where your treasure is, there will
your heart be also.
■: No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and
love the other or he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye
cannot serve God and mammon
/ Take no thought for what ye shall eat or drink, nor what ye shall
put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment ?
Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor
gather into bams ; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not,
neither do they spin, yet even Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these. If God so clothe the grass of the field, shall
he not much more clothe you ? Therefore take no thought, saying.
278
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
What shall we eat, or What shall we drink ? but seek first the king¬
dom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added
unto you. u
Take j 10 ! kou f for morr °w, for the morrow shall take
thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof. J
Of all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you
do ye even so to them. ^ 5
,, Ente3 L, ye , “ * ke s *rait gate, for wide is the gate and broad is
the way that leadeth to destruction, but strait is the gate and narrow
is the way which leadeth unto life.
. Be ;y are of false prophets which come in sheep’s clothing but
inwardly are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits
Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? A good tree
cannot bring forth evil fruit, nor a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Judge not, that ye be not judged. Why beholdest thou the mote
that !s m thy brother’s eye but not the beam that is in thine own
eye . First cast out the beam of thine own eye, and then shalt thou
see clearly to cast out the mote of thy brother’s eye.
If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him of his
fault alone, but if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or
two more. If he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church
but it he neglect to hear the church let him be unto thee as a
heathen man.
i. * f , thou krin g th y gift to the altar and remember that thy brother
hath brought aught against thee, first be reconciled to thy brother
fu j en °ff er thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, lest
the adversary deliver thee to the judge and thou be cast into prison.
If thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cast them off.
Resist not evil. Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek,
turn to him the other. If any man take away thy coat, give him
thy- cloak also, and whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go
with him twain. 6 ’ s
Give to him that asketh thee.
y° ur enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them
that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.
Behold a sower went forth to sow. Some seeds fell by the way-
side, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell upon
stony places, and because they had no root they withered away.
Some tell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up and choked them.
But other fell into good ground and brought forth fruit, some thirty,
some sixty, some a hundredfold.
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 279
The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took
and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened. It
is like a merchantman seeking goodly pearls, who, when he had found
one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Except ye become as little children ye shall not enter the kingdom
of heaven. Whoso shall offend one of these little ones it were better
for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were
drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world for offences,
for it needs be that offences come, but woe to that man by which
the offence cometh.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees ! for ye devour widows’
houses, and for a pretence make long prayers.
Woe unto you, ye blind guides, for ye pay tithe of mint and anise
and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law—
Judgment, Mercy, and Faith. Why strain ye at a gnat and swallow
a camel ? Ye make clean the outside of the cup and platter, but
within they are full of extortion and excess. Cleanse first that which
is within, and the outside may be clean also.
No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is
fit for the kingdom of God.
Every one that doeth evil hateth light, but he that doeth truth
cometh to the light.
If thou canst believe all things are possible. If ye have faith as
a grain of mustard seed ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove
hence, and it shall be removed.
He that, is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.
Unto whom much is given of him shall much be required.
Collected from the Sayings of Jesus
Love Letter from a Coffee House
M adam, It is the hardest thing in. the world to be in love and
yet attend to business. As for me, all w 7 ho speak, to me find
me out, and I must lock myself up, or other people will do it for me.
A gentleman asked me this, morning what news from Lisbon, and
I anserd she’s exquisitely handsome.. Another desired to know when
I had been last at Hampton Court. I reply’d twill be on Tuesday
come se’ennight. Prithee allow me at least to Msse your hand before
that day, that my mind may be in some composure. O love !
A thousand torments dwel about thee, ■
Yet who would live to live without thee ?
. Methinks I could write.a volume to you, but al the language on
earth would fail in saying, how much, .and' with what disinterested
passion, I am ever yours,. Richd Steeue.
■ Written in Si James's Coffee House, September l s 1707 ■ .
280
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Old Lady Remembering
B eneath her lids the pictures flit
Of memories far away ;
Her look has not a hint in it
Of what she sees today. Thomas Ashe
Honour Most Of All
I could not love thee, Dear, so much
Loved I not honour more. Richard Lovelace
The Cook Without a Kitchen
P eople say that the German has no talent for politics;
but how can a man learn to cook if he is forbidden to
enter the kitchen ? Prince Lichnowsky
Some Valiant Deed
M y hour at last has come ;
Yet not ingloriously or passively
I die, but first will do some valiant deed
Of which mankind shall hear in after time.
Homer's Iliad
Stay , Traveller , Stay
S tay, weary traveller, stay !
Beneath these boughs repose ;
A step out of the way
My little fountain flows.
And never quite forget
The monumental urn
Which Simus here hath set
His buried child to mourn.
From Ancient Greece, translated by C. Merivale
A Child's Prayer
F ather, we thank Thee for the night
And for the pleasant morning light,
For rest and food and loving care,
And all that makes the world so fair.
Help us to do the thing we should,
To be to others kind and good.
In all we do, in all we say,
To grow more loving every day.
By a Writer Unknown
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 281
The Green Caravanserai
T he bed was made, the room was lit,
By punctual eve the stars were lit;
The air was still, the water ran ;
No need there was for maid or man,
When we put up, my ass and I
At God’s green caravanserai.
Old Play
Envy Me Wot
O man, whosoever thou art, and whensoever thou cometh (for come
I know thou wilt), I am Cyras, the founder of the Persian Em¬
pire ; envy me not the little earth that covers my body.
The Epitaph which much moved
Alexander on Ms visit to Persia
To an Ass y Long Ago
S weet ass, go gently, go
By night and day, sang she ;
Rock gentle as a cradle
Or a mother’s knee,
For thou must bear my Baby
As thou must bear me ;
O do not break His slumber,
Go gently, go, sang she.
By a Writer Unknown
More and More and Less and Less
A specialist is a man who keeps on learning more and more about
less and less until ultimately he know r s everything about nothing,
while the politician is a man who keeps on learning less and less about
more and more until ultimately he knows nothing about everything.
A Twentieth-century Saying
The Little Child so High
U pon this tall pagoda’s peak
My hand can nigh the stars enclose ;
I dare not raise my voice to speak.
For fear of startling God’s repose.
A Chinese poet of the tenth century on being
taken as a child to the top of a pagoda
Fortune’s Smile
tf Fortune smiles, who doesn’t ? . If Fortune doesn’t,
[who does ?
Chinese Proverb
282 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Warm for Three Winters
O ne kind word will keep you warm for three winters.
Chinese Proverb
The Rider on the Tiger
H e who rides a tiger cannot dismount.
Chinese Proverb
Poor Man’s Grace
H eavenly Father bless us,
And keep us all alive,
There’s ten of us to dinner
And not enough for five.
By a Writer Unknown
The King to His Friends
tv-ing James advising his friends to go to their country houses :
■IN- Gentlemen, at London you are like ships at sea which show
like nothing, but in your country villages you are like ships in a river
which look like great things.
The King Stoops
just before the charge was read out to Charles Stuart at the Trial
j the silver head of his staff happened to fall off, at which
he wondered. But no man moved to pick it up and the Kins
stooped for it himself. Record of the Trial
The Slanderer
W hq loves another’s name to stain,
He must not dine with me again.
On Augustine of Hippo’s dining-table
Farewell to an Eastern Traveller
T hy journey be auspicious ; may the breeze,
Gentle and soothing, fan thy cheek; may lakes
AH bright with lily cups delight thine eye,
The sunbeam’s heat be cooled by shady trees,
The dust beneath thy feet the pollen be
Of lotuses.
From a Sanskrit play 1600 years old
What He Knew
J never learned how to tune a harp or to play upon a lute, but I
1. know how to raise an obscure city to wealth and greatness.
Themistocles
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 283
Horace Walpole Gives Thanhs
T hank you for your lamentations on my gout; it was, in propor¬
tion to my size, very slender ; when I had what I called big shoes
I could have danced a minuet on a silver penny#
The Comedy and the Tragedy
L ife is a comedy to him who thinks and a tragedy to him
w T ho feels. Horace Walpole
The Ghost
T he ghost of Raleigh pursued the House of Stuart to the
scaffold. Professor Trevelyan
So Goes the Round
W ar begets Poverty ; Poverty, Peace ;
Peace begets Plenty, then riches increase.
Riches bring Pride, and Pride is War’s Ground.
War begets Poverty—so goes the round.
Written by Robert Haynian in 1630
The Difference
T he witty and learned Duchess of Milan having asked a company of
guests what was the difference between herself and a clock,
Bernard Fontenelle, the French scholar, answered, “ The difference
is this that a clock marks the hours but your Grace mal-pg ^
forget them.”
The Little Ship in the Great Sea
T hey sav that I am small and frail,
And cannot live in stormy seas;
It may be so ; yet every sail
Makes shipwreck in the swelling breeze.
Not strength nor size can then hold fast,
But Fortune’s favour. Heaven’s decree :
Let others trust in oar and mast.
But may the gods take care of me.
From the Greek Anthology
White as Snow
O god, the cleanest offering
Of tainted earth below
Unblushing to Thy feet we bring :
A leper white as snow !
Johm Bannister Tabb on Father
Damien, who became a leper
284
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Good We Bo
T he good we do today becomes
The happiness of tomorrow.
Hindu Proverb
Sir Humphry Davy Looks Back
™ E source of the little information and intelligence I possess I
T must refer to a restless activity of spirit, a love of glory which
ever belonged to my infancy, and a sensibility easily excited.
Accident opened to me in early youth a philosophical career,
which I pursued with success. In manhood fortune smiled on me
Ind mademe independent; I then really became a philosopher, and
pursued my travels with the object of instructing myself and benefit-
SJ mankind. I have seen most parts of Europe, and conversed, I
befieveTwith all the illustrious men of science belonging to them
I have added some little to the quantity of human knowledge, and
I ham endeavoured to add something to the quantity of human
happiness. Humphry Davy shortly before he died
1 Tell Thee, Priest
T tell thee, priest, when shoemakers make shoes
JL That are well sewed, with never a stitch amiss ;
When tailors steal no stuff from gentlemen ;
When tanners are with curriers well agreed,
And both so dress their hides that we go dry ;
When tinkers make no more holes than they found »
When thatchers think their wages worth them work ;
When colliers put no dust into their sacks ;
When Davy Diker digs and dallies not;
When smiths shoe horses as they would be shod ;
When brewers put no baggage in their beer ;
When vintners mix no water with their wine ;
When printers pass no errors in their books ;
When pewterers infect no tin with lead ;
When searchers see all comers in a ship ;
When sycophants can find no place in court,
But are espied for echoes, as they are ; _
When all these things are ordered as they ought.
And see themselves within my glass of steel:
Even then, my priest, may you make holiday,
And pray no more but ordinary prayers.
F J George Gascoigne
At Rest
H ebe lies my wife 1 here let her lie 1
Now she’s at rest, and so am I.
John Dryden
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
285
r
A Very Early Riser
A t the Last Day, while all the rest
Are soundly sleeping underground.
He will be up, clean-shaved and dressed,
An hour before the trumpets sound.
Gerald Massey
God Gives Every Bird Its Food
G od gives every bird its food, but does not throw
it into the nest. Old Proverb
The First Casualty
T he first casualty when war comes is truth.
Hiram Johnson
These Above All
n things essential Unity ; in things doubtful Liberty ;
in all things Charity. Old Saying
A Rare Spirit
H e could always be made happy when tired if
someone mentioned the name of Shakespeare.
Life of Temple Gairdner
The Great Conqueror
H e is twice a conqueror who conquers himself in
the moment of victory. Publilius Syrus
They Never Happened
am an old man and have had many troubles, but most
of them never happened. Cawed over a mantelpiece
Let Us Do It Now
I shall pass through this world but once. Any good thing
therefore that I can do, or any kindness I can show to
any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor
neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
By a Writer Unknown
i
w
Why They Loved Him
E love him for the enemies he has made.
Said of a President of America
The Slaves
S lavery enchains a few, but more enchain
themselves to slavery. Seneca
286
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
His Nets in Many Streams
I cast my nets in many streams
To catch the silver fish of dreams.
Karle Wilson Baker
Alas Poor Brother
P ooh Cleon out of envy died,
His brother thief to see
Nailed near him to be crucified
Upon a higher tree.
Translated by Francis Hodgson from the Greek Lucilius
Ask Your Purse
sk your purse what you should buy.
German Proverb
A Beggar
B etteb to die a beggar than to live one.
Old Proverb
Knowing All
T o understand all is to forgive all.
French Saying
K
T
Two Men Looked Out
i\vo men looked out through prison bars j
The one saw mud, the other stars.
Writer unknown
N‘
The Poet's Shoe-strings
P oetry has never brought in enough to buy shoe-strmgs.
Wordsworth
Keeping War Alive
ro one ever has succeeded in keeping nations
at war except by lies. Salvador de Madariaga
The Valiant and the Virtuous
T t er name was Margaret Lucas, youngest sister to Lord Lucas of
H Colchester, a noble familie, for all the brothers were yaliant and
all the sisters virtuous. Epitaph on Margaret , Duchess ofNewcast
The Three Johns
it 1 here are three Johns : the real John, known only to his Maker;
1 John’s ideal John, never the real one, and often very unlike him.
Thomas’s ideal John, never the real John, nor Johns
very unlike either. Oliver Wendell Holmes
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 287
Two Friends in Arabia
r T~'Bs Mystic : All that he knows I see.
-*■ The Philosopher: All that he sees I know.
Inscriptions on Three Gates
the First: Be Bold.
On the Second : Be bold, be very bold.
On the Third : Be not too bold.
The Bigot, the Fool, and the Slave
H e that will not reason is a bigot ; he that cannot reason is a fool:
he that dare not reason is a slave.
William Drummond
His Country’s Friend
A MAN who would give his life to serve his country but would not
do a base thing to save it.
Said of Lord Saltoun, in the 17th century
The World of Fools
T he world of fools has such a store,
That he who would not see an ass
Must bide at home and bolt his door.
And break his looking-glass.
Writer Unknown
The Little Beauty
T his is a little work, but beautiful to look upon like a rose in a
garden, or a violet in a basket of flowers.
Inscription on a small bath in ancient Greece
Adam and Eve
W hen Adam delved and Eve span
Who was then a gentleman ?
Cry of the Peasants in the Rising of 1381
The Bathers
T he immortals bathe when the bath is first opened, at the fifth
hour the demi-gods, and later all the rubbish.
On a bath in ancient Greece
Delivering the Goods
I t is the cock that does the crowing but the hen
delivers the goods. Familiar Saying
288
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Nonsense
I flatter myself that we are almost the only people
who understand nonsense. Hazlitt on the English
Every Man Decideth
T o every man there openeth
A high way and a low,
And every man decideth
The way his soul shall go.
John Oxenham
The Beggar and the Prince
would recommend every young man to take to heart the following
lines. There are . 8
two points in the adventure of the diver :
One when, a beggar, he prepares to plunge.
One when, a prince, he rises with his pearl.
- Sir Ernest Shackleton
Our Paradise
M emory is the only Paradise from which we cannot be
turned out. Jean Paul mdkt#r
Jean Paul Richter
The Adventure of Being Alive
M erely to be alive is adventure enough in a world like this, so
erratic and disjoined ; so lovely and so odd, and mysterious
and profound. It is, at any rate, a pity to remain in it half-dead.
Walter de la Mare
Down to Kew in Lilac Time
G o down to Kew in lilac-time, in lilac-time, in lilac-time;
Go down to Kew in lilac-time (it isn’t far from London)
And you shall wander hand in hand with love in summer’s wonderland;
Go down to Kew in lilac-time (it isn’t far from London).
Alfred Noyes
Our Little Maid
H ere lies, but seven years old, our little maid.
Once of the darkness, oh, so sore afraid !
Light of the World, remember that small fear,
And when not moon nor stars do shine, draw near.
Epitaph on a little child, by Walter de la Mare
Upstairs
I came upstairs into the world, for I was bom in a cellar.
William Congreve
PRINCESS MARGARET, BY VELASQUEZ
289
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Broken Vow
T loved thee, beautiful and kind,
i And plighted an eternal vow ;
So altered are thy face and mind,
Twere perjury to love thee now.
Robert Nugent
The Good and the Bad
O God, show pity toward the wicked, for on the
good Thou hast already bestowed mercy in
having made them good. Sadi the Persian
I
The Pearls
F the diver were to think of the jaws of the
I
I
crocodile tie would never find the pearls.
Sadi the Persian
He Was Not Born For That
WILL love with you ; I will not hate with you.
I was not bom for that. Sophocles
A Great Man Leaving the World
cannot bear to leave the world with all the
misery in it. Lord Shaftesbury, dying
Socrates Does Without
H ow many things are here which I do not want!
Socrates at a Fair
The Fourth Kingdom
K ing James said to the fly, Have I three kingdoms,
and thou must needs fly into my eye ?
John Seldom
A Sad Day for Bottom the Weaver
It was the punishment of a man who played Bottom the Weaver on
a Sunday in Puritan England to carry these lines in front of him:
G ood people, I have played the beast,
And brought ill things to pass ;
I was a man, but thus have made
Myself a silly ass.
i
Alas For His Country
tremble for my country when I reflect that
God is just. Thomas Jefferson
r.T.— 19
290
w
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Today and Tomorrow
e have to live today by what truth we can get, and be
ready tomorrow to call it falsehood. William James
The Stars and the Rocks
I T is often a temptation to throw the compass overboard
and steer by the stars, but those who do are apt to get
on the rocks. J. a. Spender
It Does Not Follow
I t does not follow that because old men have made
mistakes young men are infallible. J. A. Spender
o
Bo Not Write It Down
h, no, do not write it down. If you write it
it can be rescinded.
St Francis
Stronger Than Evil
T he Gates of Thought are stronger than
the Gates of Hell. Hegel
Quiet Conversation
S ilence —a conversation with an Englishman.
Heinrich Heine
The Rainbow
I F life an empty bubble be,
How sad for those who cannot see
The rainbow in the bubble.
Frederick Locker-Lampson
His Best Friends
ome, my best friends, my books, and lead me on.
Abraham Cowley
All He Wanted
C
D iogenes who lived in a tub was sitting in the sun one day when
Alexander passed by, and, seeing a man of such simple needs,
the emperor said to him, What can I do for you ?
Please get out of my light, said Diogenes.
The Pride of Humility
t~\iogi 2 nes : I tread the ambition of Plato under my feet.
' Plato : Yet in how great pride swellest thyself, O Diogenes,
while thou thinkest thyself to tread any man’s pride under thy feet.
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 291
The Ladye of Our Race to a Little One in Us Cradle
rJAf eSe T SeS ’ mr f tten 0,1 tAe eve of revolutions which shook all Europe in 1848
° curtained room in an old mansion where lies a sleeping
infant, and by its cradle come the fairy queens who rule our birth according to the
fairy tales. One by one they come. w me
N ot deigning on the boy a glance to east
Swept careless by the gorgeous Queen of Gain ;
More scornml still, tne Queen of Fashion passed
With mincing gait and sneer of cold disdain.
The Queen of Power tossed high her jewelled head ;
And o’er her shoulder threw' a wrathful frown :
The Queen of Pleasure on the pillow shed
Scarce one stray rose-leaf from her fragrant crown.
Still Fay in long procession followed Fay ;
And still the little couch remained unblest:
But, when those wayward sprites had passed away,
Came One, the last, the mightiest, and the best"
Oh, glorious lady, with the eyes of light
And laurels clustering round thy lofty brow,
Who by the cradle’s side didst watch that night,
Warbling a sweet strange music, who wast thou ?
Yes, darling, let them go (so ran the strain).
Yes ; let them go, Gain, Fashion, Pleasure, Power,
And all the busy elves to whose domain
Belongs the nether sphere, the fleeting hour.
Without one envious sigh, one anxious scheme,
The nether sphere, the fleeting hour resign.
Mine is the world of thought, the world of dream.
Mine all the past, and all the future mine.
Fortune, that lays in sport the mighty low.
Age, that to penance turns the joys of youth,
Shall leave untouched the gifts which I bestow, 9
The sense of beauty and the thirst of truth.
There are who, while to vulgar eyes they seem
Of all my bounties largely to partake.
Of me as of some rival’s handmaid deem.
And court me but for gain’s, power’s, fashion’s sake.
To such, though deep their lore, though wide their famo ,
Shall my great mysteries be all unknown;
But thou, through good and evil, praise and blame,
Wilt not thou love me for myself alone ?
Yes ; thou wilt love me with exceeding love ;
And I will tenfold all that love repay,
Still smiling, though the tender may reprove.
Still faithful, though the trusted may betray.
292
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
For aye mine emblem was, and aye shall be,
The ever-during plant whose bough I wear.
Brightest and greenest then, when every tree
That blossoms in the light of time is bare.
In the dark hour of shame, I deigned to stand
Before the frowning peers at Bacon’s side :
On a far shore I smoothed with tender hand,
Through months of pain, the sleepless bed of Hyde :
I brought the wise and brave of ancient days
To cheer the cell where Raleigh pined alone ;
I lighted Milton’s darkness with the blaze
Of the bright ranks that guard the eternal throne.
And even so, my child, it is my pleasure.
That thou not then alone should’st feel me nigh,
When in domestic bliss and studious leisure,
Thy weeks uncounted come, uncounted fly ;
Not then alone, when myriads, closely pressed
Around thy car, the shout of triumph raise ;
Nor when in gilded drawing-rooms, thy breast
Swells at the sweeter sound of woman’s praise.
No : when on restless night dawns cheerless morrow,
When weary soul and wasting body pine,
Thine am I still, in danger, sickness, sorrow,
In conflict, obloquy, want, exile, thine ;
Thine, where on mountain waves the snowbirds scream
Where more than Thule’s winter barbs the breeze,
Wliere scarce, through lowering clouds, one sickly gleam
Lights the drear Mayday of Antarctic seas ;
Thine, when around thy litter’s track all day
White sandhills shall reflect the blinding glare ;
Thine, when through forests breathing death, thy way
All night shall wind by many a tiger’s lair.
Thine most, when friends turn pale, when traitors fly.
When, hard beset, thy spirit, justly proud,
For truth, peace, freedom, mercy, dares defy
A sullen priesthood and a raving crowd.
Amidst the din of all things fell and vile.
Hate’s yell, and Envy’s hiss, and Folly’s bray,
Remember me ; and with an unforced smile
See riches, baubles, flatterers pass away.
Yes : they will pass away ; nor deem it strange :
They come and go, as comes and goes the sea :
And let them come and go : thou, through all change,
Fix thy firm gaze on virtue and on me.
Macaulay
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
To a Soul Going Out Into the Dark
M y pretty soul, my fleeting soul.
Who guest and comrade wert to me,
To what dim undiscovered goal,
Pale little spectre, now wilt flee,
On timid wings of frigid fear,
Forgetting all thy wonted cheer ?
Hadrian , Roman Emperor of Britain
A Little While the Rose
A little while the rose,
And after that the thorn :
An hour of dewy morn.
And then the glamour goes.
Ah, love in beauty bom,
A little while the rose !
Translated by Henry Van Dyke
His Life Summed Up
H e slept beneath the moon
He basked beneath the sun ;
He lived a life of going to do
And died with nothing done.
Old epitaph written by James Albery
Beauty
TF Beauty grows old, share it before it be gone ; and if it abides, why
1 fear to give it away ? From the Greek Anthology
The Secret
W hen a German knows he is going to die his emotions all break
forth and he weeps pitifully. A Frenchman sobs and calls for
his mother. But Tommy Atkins is silent as if he had a secret with
the Almighty. Walter Hines Page, American Ambassador
His Wafcih
I am to be shot in an hour’s time. Dearest, your hubby will die
with your name on his lips, your face before bis eyes.
I cannot tell you, sweetheart, how much it means to me to leave
you alone, you and my sweet little Annie. I leave my medals to
my father, and my watch to the officer who is executing me, because I
believe him to be a gentleman. An English officer captured by Irish
rebels in 1921, writing to his wife
B
294 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Good Comfort
e of good comfort, maisters, for I have espied land.
Diogenes to Ms pupils, on coming
to a blank page in a long lecture
Cabbages and Kings
A ristippus to Diogenes : If you knew how to flatter kings vou
would not need to live on herbs. 6 J
Diogenes: If you knew how to live on herbs you would not need tn
flatter kings.
The Master of Demosthenes
D iogenes was taking his breakfast in a small shop when he saw
Demosthenes pass, and called to him. As he took no notice
Diogenes said, “ So you are ashamed to be seen in a shop, are you ?
”hy» your master, the common people, comes here every day.”
fm /, Aehan
The Sentry At His Post
T he highest of us is but a sentry at his post.
George John Whyte-Melville
The Poorest Way
T he poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer.
Theodore Roosevelt
Civilisation
C ivilisation is being poisoned by its own waste products.
Dean Inge
This Field Is Never Quiet
T he battle of freedom is never done ; that
field is never quiet. II. W. Neoinson
Fools
T he ultimate result of sheltering men from the effects of
folly is to fill the world with fools. Herbert Spencer
The Fairy Tale
pvERY man’s life is a fairy tale written by God’s fingers.
y have not seen one who loves virtue as he loves beauty.
Confucius
A Man and His Dog
T would not give much for that man’s Christianity
1 whose dog did not benefit by it. Rowland Hill
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 295
The Immortal Legacy of the Vmonquered Dead
“• •*"» •'» *xffe. Yd thcri’is inotdiij, “ "
O PoKoni Hearts IFAo ia y oar ffto-y Carm
O valiant hearts who to vour slorv came
Through dust of conflict and^hrLTbattle-flame •
iranquil you lie, your knightly virtue proved,
Your memory hallowed in the Land vou loved.
Proudly you gathered, rank on rank to war.
As who had heard God’s message from afar *
All you had hoped for, all you had, you gave
lo save Mankind — yourselves you scorned to save*
Sjdendid you. passed, the great surrender made.
Into the light that never more shall fade *
Deep your contentment in that blest abode.
Who wait the last clear trumpet-call of God.
Long years ago, as earth lav dark and still,
Rose a loud cry upon a lonelv hill,
While in the frailty of our human clay,
Christ our Redeemer passed the selfsame way.
Still stands His cross from that dread hour to this
Like some bright star above the dark abyss ;
Still through the veil the Victor’s pitying eyes
Look down to bless our lesser Calvaries.
These were His servants, in His steps they trod.
Following through death the martyred sons of God •
Victor He rose ; victorious too shall rise
They who have drunk His cup of sacrifice.
O risen Lord, O shepherd of our dead,
Whose cross has brought them and whose staff has led
In glorious hope their proud and sorrowing Land
Commits her children to Thy gracious Hand.
By Sir John Arkwright, sung at the
burial of America’s Unknown Warrior
The Things That Will Remain
tMn S s 1 l ? re “ nat ure are the height, the depth, the length
Of the mountains and the ocean and the plain,
things that tell so wondrously the magnitude and strength
Of the hand that made the things which will remain.
Brian Brooke
296 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Better Far to Pass Away
B etter far to pass away
While the limbs are strong and young,
Ere the ending of the day, ’
Ere Youth’s lusty song be sung.
Hot blood pulsing through the veins,
Youth’s high hope a burning fire,
Young men needs must break the chains
That hold them from their heart’s desire.
My friends, the hills, the sea, the sun.
The winds, the woods, the clouds, the trees :
How feebly, if my youth were done,
Could I, an old man, relish these !
With laughter, then. I’ll go to meet
What Fate has still in store for me,
And welcome Death if we should meet,
And bear him willing company.
My share of fourscore years and ten
I’ll gladly yield to any man.
And take no thought of where or when,
Contented with my shorter span.
For I have learned what love may be,
And found a heart that understands,
And known a comrade’s constancy,
And felt the grip of friendly hands.
Come when it may, the stem decree
For me to leave the cheery throng,
And quit the sturdy company
Of brothers that I work among.
No need for me to look askance.
Since no regret my prospect mars.
My day was happy—and perchance
The coming night is full of stars.
Richard Molesworih Dennys
His Tem/ple
I have a temple I do not
Visit, a heart I have forgot,
A self that I have never met,
A secret shrine—and yet, and yet.
This sanctuary of my soul
Unwitting I keep white and whole.
Unlatched and lit, if Thou should’st care
To enter or to tarry there.
Charles Hamilton Sorley
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The God We Make
297
T ™ INK we a11 have ma de our God too small.
I There was a Young Man, a good while ago,
Who taught that doctrine . . . but they murdered him
because he wished to share the Jewish God
With other foik.
_ . They are long-lived, these fierce
Uld hating gods of nations ; but at last
There surely will be spilled enough of blood
To drown them all!
Sad jesting ! If there be no God at all,
Save in the heart of man, why, even so—
Yea, all the more—since we must make our God,
Ufa, let us make Him large enough for all.
Or cease to prate of Him !
m i tt- , • Yet ^ is hard
To make Him big enough ! For me, I like
Ihe English and the Germans and the French
The Russians, too ; and Serbians, I should think.
Might well be very interesting to God.
What was it he said so long ago
('Hie Young Man who outgrew the Jewish God) ?
Not a sparrow faJleth ? Ah, God, God,
And there shall fall a million murdered men !
Karle Wilson Baker
The Poplars
O’ t ^ g ?’ ee . n English meadow—it’s there that I would lie
A skylark singing overhead, scarce present to the eve
And a row of wind-blown poplars against an English sky. ’
The elm is aspiration, and death is in the yew,
And beauty dwells in every tree from Lapland to Peru :
Hut there s magic m the poplars when the wind goes through.
When the wind goes through the poplars and blows them silver white
The wonder of the universe is flashed before my sight: ’
I see immortal visions ; I know a god’s delight.
And so I sing the poplars ; and when I come to die
h will not look for jasper walls, but cast about my eye
i or a row of wind-blown poplars against an English sky.
Bernard Freeman Trotter,
. about to die in France
298 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Comrades, Farewell
tn a wood they call the Rouge Bouquet
1 There is a new-made grave today,
Built by never a spade nor pick
Yet covered with earth ten metres thick.
There lie many fighting men,
Dead in their youthful prime,
Never to laugh nor love again
Nor taste the Summertime.
For Death came flying through the air
And stopped his flight at the dug-out stair
Touched his prey and left them there,
Clay to clay.
He hid their bodies stealthily
In the soil of the land they sought to free
And fled away.
Now over the grave abrupt and clear
Three volleys ring;
And perhaps their brave young spirits hear
The bugle sing:
Go to sleep ! Go to sleep !
Danger's past ;
Now at last , Goto sleep !
There is on earth no worthier grave
To hold the bodies of the brave
Than this place of pain and pride
Where they nobly fought and nobly died.
Never fear but in the skies
Saints and angels stand
Smiling with their holy eyes
On this new-come band.
Farewell! Farewell!
Comrades true, born anew , peace to you l
Your souls shall be where the heroes are
And your memory shine like the morning star,
Joyce Kilmer
On a Friend Who Fell
O brother, I have sung no dirge for thee :
Nor for all time to come
Can song reveal my grief ? s infinity : ■
The menace of thy silence makes me dumb.
Robert Sterling, killed on
St George's Day, 1915
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Now God Be Thanked
N °w God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour
And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping.
Rupert Brooke , died on St George’s Day, 1915
299
I Have a Rendezvous With Death
I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
men Spring comes round with rustling shade
And apple blossoms fill the air.
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.
It may be he shall take my hand
And lead me into his darkland
And close my eyes and quench my breath •
It may be I shall pass him still. ” ’
I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope of battered hill,
When Spring comes round again this year
And the first meadow flowers appear,
God knows twere better to be deep
Pillowed in silk and scented down,
Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,
Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,
where hushed awakenings are dear.
But Pve a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town.
When Spring trips north again this year,
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous. Alan Seeger
To His Daughter Betty, the Gift of God
tn wiser days, my darling rosebud, blown
t ,° beaut 7 P rou d as was your mother’s prime.
In that desired, delayed, incredible time.
You’ll ask why I abandoned you, my own,
And the dear heart that was your baby throne,
lo dice with death. And oh ! they’ll give vou rhyme
And reason: some will call the thing sublinie,
And some decry it in a knowing tone.
So here, while the mad guns curse overhead.
And tired men sigh with mud for couch and’ floor
Know that we fools, now with the foolish dead, ’
Died not for Flag, nor King, nor Emperor,
But for a dream, bom in a herdsman’s shed.
And for the secret Scripture of the poor. Torn Kettle
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Sailor, What of the Debt We Owe You?
QAILOR, What of the debt we owe you ?
C) Day or night is the peril more 9
Who so dull that ho Ms to Cw you
Sleepless guard of our island shore ?
Safe the corn to the farmyard taken •
Gram ships safe upon all the seas •’
H sSor n rf/ nd a faith shaken :
bailor, what do we owe for these ?
Andrew John, Viscount Stuart
The Sea Is His
T™, Sea is His : He made it,
A -Black gulf and sunlit shoal
From barriered bight to where the long
Leagues of Atlantic roll: ^
SmaH strait and ceaseless ocean
Me bade each one to be :
The Sea is His : He made it,
And England keeps it free.
c °mit me the splendid captains
Who sailed with courage high
To chart the perilous ways unknown :
Tell me where these men lie!
To light a path for ships to come
They moored at Dead Man’s Quay;
The Sea is God’s-He made it, Y '
And these men made it free.
° h r,?E e Iand of ^gland,
°h Mother of hearts too brave,
nsay histrust shall pass from thee
Who guardest Nelson’s grave.
WhoM hnM e ^ ragga ^ S yet sha11 Iearn
Who d hold the world m fee,
The Sea is God’s, and England—
England shall keep it free.
R. E. Vernede
March On
T^dhim flag LastGrusade !
d * S 6 - ranks of the Last Brigade !
to . the fields where the world’s re-made
And the ancient dreams come true ! *
Tom Kettle
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
A Little Boy in the Morning
H E tT U "? t , come > an <J still r wait.
He whistles at another gate
Where angels listen. Ah, I know
Ue will not come, yet if I go
he did not pass
arefooted m the flowery grass ?
The moon leans on one silver horn
Above the silhouettes of morn,
And from their nest sills finches whistle
Sow YT 8 ' pIUCk the do ™y *istle
5?" 15 th e m om so gay and fair
Without his whistling in its air ?
The world is calling, I must go.
he did not pass
Darefooted m the shining grass ?
Francis Ledwidge
A I oung Man’s Prayer
T> Y all the glories of the day
5" ,-f nd the cool evening’s benison.
By that last sunset touch that lav
Upon the hills when day was done,
Dy beauty lavishly outpoured
And blessings carelessly received.
By all the days that I have lived.
Make me a soldier, Lord.
? y J all , 1 ° f 1 aU man ’ s hopes and fears
f“d ail the wonders poets sing
Tie laughter of unclouded years
And every sad and lovely thing,
By the romantic ages stored *
With high endeavour that was his.
By all his mad catastrophes.
Make me a man, 0 Lord.
I, that on my familiar hill
Saw with uncomprehending eyes
A hundred of Thy sunsets spill
Their fresh and sanguine sacrifice,
Bre the sun swings his noonday sword.
Must say goodbye to all of this:
By all delights that I shall miss.
Help me to die, O Lord.
William Noel Hodgson two days before he fell in Frat
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Home Thoughts in Laventie
G reen gardens in Laventie 1
Soldiers nnHr 1m Am f Iia
VJ Soldiers only know the street
Where the mud is churned and splashed about
Jj»y battle-wendxng feet;
And yet beside one stricken house there is a wlimAo
Look for it when you pass. ^ere is a glimpse of grass.
Beyond the church whose pitted spire
Seems balanced on a strand
Of swaying stone and tottering brick
Two roofless ruins stand,
Wetad’jgSySi 0 . 11 ^ Whe “ the back wal1 £houM have bee.
The grass was never trodden on.
The little path of gravel
Was overgrown with celandine,
No other folk did travel
Along its weedy surface, but the nimble-footed mouse
Running from house to house.
Hungry for Spring I bent my head.
The perfume fanned my face.
And all my soul was dancing
In that little lovely place,
Swa^oa ^ &0m WMofad **«**,! town,
I saw green banks of daffodil.
Slim poplars in the breeze,
Great tan-brown hares in gusty March
A-courting on the leas ;
And meadows with their glittering stream, and silver scurrying dace
Home-what a perfect place. Edward WyndSfSIT*'
The Quiet Song
P eace, God’s own peace,
This it is I bring you
The quiet song of sleep,
Dear tired heart, I sing you.
Dream, softly dream,
Till solemn death shall find you.
With coronals of roses
Tenderly to bind you.
Peace past understanding,
Dear tired heart, I bring you ;
The quiet song of evening
Softly I sing you.
Ivor Campbell
ONE thousand famous things bo
The Strenuous Life
O N the cabin-roof I lie
Gazing into vacancy.
Make no noise and break no jest
1 am peaceful and at rest. *
Somewhere back in days gone bv
1 aid something—was it I ?
Go not ask : I have forgot
Whether it was I or not.
Sometime I may have to do
Something else ; but so mav von
Do not argue, but admit
lhat we need not think of it.
Thought has ever been my foe ;
hat is so. Yes. That is so.
Un the cabm-roof I lie
Gazing into vacancy. Arthur Hugh Sidgwick
Into Battle
T S Z “f^eci earth is warm with Spring,
T* 2 r f en g ra ss and bursting trees
Leans to the sun’s gaze glorying, S
T-3 u . lv ® rs , m the su nny breeze ;
And Life is Colour and Warmth and Light
And a striving evermore for these *
And he is dead who will not ffoht •
And who dies fighting has increase.
The fighting man shall from the sun
~ ra f e and life from the glowing earth *
Speed with the light-foot winds to run, fi ’
And with the trees to newer birth ;
And find, when fighting shall be done.
Great rest, and fullness after dearth.
AU the bright company of Heaven
Hold him in their high comradeship,
Ihe Dog-Star and the Sisters Seven
Orion’s Belt and sworded hip.
The woodland trees that stand together.
They stand to him each one a friend ;
Ihey gently speak in the windy weather :
They guide to valley and ridges’ end.
304
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The kestrel hovering by day,
And the little owls that call by night
Bid him be swift and keen as they,
As keen of ear, as swift of sight.
The blackbird sings to him, Brother, brother.
If this be the last song you shall sing,
Sing well, for you may not sing another:
Brother, smg. *
In dreary, doubtful, waiting hours.
Before the brazen frenzy starts.
The horses show him nobler powers j
O patient eyes, courageous hearts !
And when the burning moment breaks.
And all things else are out of mind
And only Joy-of-Battle takes
Him by the throat, and makes him blind.
Through joy and blindness he shall know
Not caring much to know, that still
Nor lead nor steel shall reach him, so
That it be not the Destined Will.
The thundering line of battle stands,
u a * r -^ eat h moans and sings ;
* , a 7' sha11 clasp him with strong hands
And Night shall fold him in soft wings.
Julian Grenfell
The World of One
L ife and I were alone together ;
The world and I were one.
Earth and sea were mine to tether,
Mine was the golden Sun.
Life ran clear as a limpid river;
The seas were charted seas.
God was a kind and generous giver
Giver of gifts to please. *
I dreamed and slept in shadow and Sun :
lipped the goblet’s brim,
And I was one in a world of one
That span to my will and whim.
But out of this has come a day
When I heard a bugle call.
And forth I go from a world of one
To serve for a world of all.
Leslie Coulson
ST. PETER'S. ROME
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
In Flanders Fields
I N * derS i eIds the P°PP ies blow
1 Brtwcexi the crosses, row on row,
Thfl T k !?, p aCe; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
T 6 bved ’ felt dawn ’ sa ^ sunset glow
fcS d ande d rs 'Sr ed -“ d —
Take up our quarrel with the foe :
To you from failing hands we throw
lbe torch ; be yours to hold it high.
w ye ,. br 1 < ; ak us who die
In‘ h0U8h ™P ies
John McCrae in Punch
The Sound of Running Feet
I heard a sound of running feet
And all along the dusty street
A multitude came sweeping by
On every shoulder was a load, "
Each drove his neighbour with a goad
^ ®f w , 0] 3 e sto P> and heard his cry :
Why drive ye in this dreadful race.
Why urge ye such an awful pace,
What treasure do ye look to find ?
They turned upon him in amaze
Ana gaped at him with owlish gaze.
And suddenly I saw them—blind !
Where to ? We neither know nor care,
Put hurry, hurry onward there.
The multitude was called Mankind.
Colwyn Philipps
Kismet
O pal fires in the Western sky
(For that which is written must ever be)
And a bullet comes droning, winning by, ' *
lo the heart of a sentry close to me.
For some go early, and some go late
(A dying scream on the evening air).
And who is there that believes in Fate
As a soul goes out in the sunset flare ?
J2« B m Marriott- Wabwn
305
ti
6 ^E thousand famous things
Surely They Sleep Content
OURELY they sleep content, our valiant dead,
vj i? alien untimely m the savage strife :
They have but followed whither dutv led
To find a fuller life. y 5
Who then, are we to grudge the bitter price
Ot this our land inviolate through the years.
0r Jf ar the splendour of their sacrifice
That is too high for tears ?
God grant we fail not at the test—that when
We take, mayhap, our places in the fray,
ome life, come death, we quit ourselves like men,
The peers of such as they. G*
b l A n hur L f W J S Jenkins > a Marlborough boy,
of those Marlborough boys killed in the war before him
There Is No Fitter End
T here is no fitter end than this,
No need is now to yearn or sigh ;
We know the glory that is his,
The glory that can never die.
Surely we knew it all before ;
Knew all along that he was made
lor a swift radiant morning, for
w/.-« i A sacrificing swift nightshade.
Wnftm by Charles Sorley, a Marlborough boy, of Sidney Clay¬
ton Woodroffe, a Marlborough boy hilled in the war before him
How Long, 0 Lord?
H ow long, O Lord, how long, before the flood
Ut crimson-welling carnage shall abate ?
^ rom sodden plains in West and East the blood
Ut kindly men steams up in mists of hate,
Polluting Thy clean air; and nations great
in reputation of the arts that bind
The worid with hopes of heaven, sink to the state
Ut brute barbarians, whose ferocious mind
_ Gloats o er the bloody havoc of their kind.
Not knowing love or mercy. Lord, how long
bhall Satan m high places lead the blind
10 battle for the passions of the strong ?
tt 1 Th y children’s hearts that they may know
Hate their most hateful, pride their deadliest, foe.
Robert Palmer
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
To My Brother
'T' S r? 1 f° when we have peace again,
I Peace and return, to ease my heart of pain.
Crouched m the brittle reed-beds, wrapt! grey
11 watch the dawning of the winter’s day.
The peaceful, clinging darkness of the night
ihat mingles with mysterious morning l&ht
And graceful rushes melting in the haze ’
_ hue all around in winding waterways,
JLhe wildfowl gabble cheerfully and low
Or wheel with pulsing whistle to and fro,
* 9 !w s ^ en ^ dawn with joyous song,
^ SweUmg and dying, as they sweep along. . . .
Until the watchful heron, grim and gaunt.
Shows ghostlike, standing at his chosen haunt.
And jerkily the moorhens venture out,
Spreading swift-circled ripples round about.
And softly to the ear, and leisurely.
Querulous comes the plaintive plover’s cry •
And then maybe some whispering near by,
Some still small sound as of a happy sigh,
Shall steal upon my senses soft as air,
And, Brother, I shall know that you are there#
Miles Jeffrey Game Day
No One Cares Less Than I
N o one cares less than I,
Nobody knows but God,
Whether I am destined to lie
Under a foreign clod.
Were the words I made to the bugle call in the morning.
But laughing, storming, scorning.
Only the bugles know
What the bugles say in the morning.
And they do not care, when they blow
The call that I heard and made words to early
this morning. Edward Thomas
The Lamps Are Going Out
T he lamps are going out all over Europe ; we shall not
see them lit again in our lifetime.
Lord Grey to Mr J. A. Spender, looking out frot
808 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Outward Bound
npHERE’s a waterfall I’m leaving
» Unnmg 1 d i )wn the rocks in foam
There s a pool for which I’m grieving*
Near the water-ouzel’s home ^
A w-il s u here that Pd be iying
• TlS 1 the , heatIler close at hand,
curIews faintly crying
Mid the wastes of Cumberland.
Though the high gods smite and slay us
Though we come not whence we go
As the host of Menelaus g ’
Came there many years ago ;
Yet the selfsame wind shall bear us
.rrom the same departing place
Out across the Gulf of Saros*
nd the peaks of Samothrace.
W w ha ? ?, aSS in sumr ner weather,
wru C s3 ? aI1 come at eventide,
Wbeath ^ feI i s stand up together
n/r- ? a quiet things abide :
M Sun ri h u Cl ,° Ud T d Wind and river *
bun-distilled m dew and rain,
°“ W1 * Cumberland for ever
We shall go not forth again.
Nowell Oxland
And Wave Beyond the Stars That All is Wt
•D ecause of you we will be glad and gav
& "itTnSLT-
wXZ you fcd>
Maurice Baring to Julian Grenfi
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
I Looked into the Eyes of Time
T L A°°f ED 11110 the e y es of Time,
A And musingly I said,
jxt-i 1 } v 07 ! 16 a da y when y° u and I
Will both of us be dead.
sAaK rise again, to count
No hours that come and go,
And quiet you will ever bide
With Death as bedfellow. Harold Parry
There Was a Whispering in My Hearth
TT was a whispering in my hearth,
' i A sigh of the coal,
Grown wistful of a former earth
It might recall.
I listened for a tale of leaves
And smothered ferns ;
Frond-forests, and the low, slv lives
Before the fawns.
My fire might show steam-phantoms simmer
From Tune’s old cauldron,
Before the birds made nests in summer
Or men had children. ’
But the coals were murmuring of their mine.
And moans down there
0f sl ept wry sleep, and men
Writhing for air.
And I saw white bones in the cinder-shard.
Bones without number,
For many hearts with coal are charred
And few remember.
I thought of some who worked dark pits
Of war and died,
Digging the rock where Death reputes
Peace lies indeed.
Comforted years will sit soft-chaired
In rooms of amber ;
The years will stretch their hands, well-cheered
By our lives 5 ember.
The centuries will bum rich loads
With which we groaned.
Whose warmth shall lull their dreaming lids
While songs are crooned.
But they will not dream of us poor lads
Lost in the ground. Wilfred Omen
809
310 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
He Had Flung Away His Idols and Mel God
c^i a o is ra„dd7h° lly ° ( tte
that we see. ° ymcism and dishonesty, of so much
he wearied of his hocus-pocus and tookhkv? 0 ^ “7 ® ffect * At last
the seashore and flung them ikto the surf • Sf h “ d v? a f“? down to
be a man and meet my God alone.” ’ nd * e Said ’ Now 1 will
had'S&r the time 1 ^ hta had flung away u,
Charles Lister on Julian Grenfell
Was There More to Do ?
npo have laughed and talked (wise, witty fantastic t„w x
Yea, Charles, this is to have £ SJT ^
c. A. Ahngton on Charles Lister
The King’s Story
I he sent for m^to^alk'tlth him^in his^ffice! “ d
queer use of the word ^omTto 8 ^ be ' " You Americans have a
We are taking that use of the word' mere bigness or emphasis.
American and an JZ -?° m 7 0U <° ver ^re. Well, an
partment. The American readTk dmg *,V he Same raiIwa y com-
of a big battle. When he had^™* £ ap6r ddl g en tly—all the details
‘ Some fight! ’ 6 had done he P ut the paper down and said,
And some don’t! said the Englishman.
The King roared. “ A good one on you ! ”
With that i0ke ’ Sir '” 1 sutured to reply, “is that
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
311
% Nothing Like it Ever Seen on This Planet
A mV th'el™ s2r Sy sISto^cTthe
people ever sent over the sea. They are itaaneing Joslof S alS
and they have turned this whole island into gunanrl cfciii r *. •
They made a great mistake at the
than death to change their set methods, but no family L the land
from charcoal burners to dukes, hesitates one moment to 2nd it<S
mto the army. When the news comes of
whimper. When you come right down to hard facts, the conrLe and
the endurance of the British and the French excel anting ever before
seen on this planet All the old stories of bravery from Homer do^
every day by these people. Walter Page
Talking to George the Third
H ad it not been for the fact that both Page and Grey had an under-
standing sense of humour, neutrality would have proved a more
difficult path than it actually was. P
memorials preserved in the British Foreign
Mice is the cancelled £ 3 , 000,000 cheque with which Great Britain
mm? f 6 flt bama c ! a J ns 1 - ' That the ^itish should frame this
memento of their great diplomatic defeat, and hang it in the Foreign
Office is an evidence of the fact that the English are excellent sports-
t“ this G “ y USed fcq " ently 10 ““ ^ *«“»>*
One day the two men were discussing certain detentions of
American cargoes—high-handed acts which, in Page’s opinion, were
unwarranted. Suddenly his eye was attracted by the framed
Alabama cheque. He leaned over, peered at it intently, and then
quickly turned to the Foreign Secretary : “ If you don’t stop these
e vfwif’ ^ ir Edward, some day you’ll have your entire room papered
with things like that.” r F
Not long afterwards Sir Edward scored on Page. The Ambassador
called to present one of the many State Department notes. It not
mfrequentiy happened that these notes could not be presented to the
British. Government; they were so rasping and undiplomatic. On
such occasions it was the practice of the London Embassy to smooth
down the language before handing the paper to the Foreign Secretary.
I he present note was one of this kind, but Page decided to transmit
the communication in its original shape.
. Edward glanced over the document, looked up, and remarked,
with a twinkle in his eye, 46 This reads as though they thought they
are still talking to George the Third.”
_ ro & r of laughter that followed was something quite unpreee*
dented amid the di g nified walls of the Foreign Office.
Life and Letters of Walter Page
312 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Sir Edward Grey Speaking
S'welTwy ““ : Ms flgUK his eyes
‘decide ° n BeIgfam ’ S neutraIi ‘y * not reversed
sir iSSSSfST t0 accept 11 ? " asked the *"*—*..
“ No - 0f course everybody knows that there will be war ”
spoki^aiT S m ° ment ’ S ^ md th “ the *”■*!» Svc^
• “ we mus ^ remember that there are two Germanys. There
is the Germany of men like ourselves—of men like LichnowskvS
wagow Then there is the Germany of men of the war pX 7 £
Jar party has got the upper hand.” P 7 “ ne
At this point Sir Edward’s eyes filled with tears.
Thus the efforts of a lifetime go for nothing. I feel like a man
who has wasted his life.” s a man
“ 1 came away,” the Ambassador said, “ with a sort of stunned
sense of the impending ruin of half the world.” d
From the Life of Walter Page, Ambassador
Peace and Justice Shall Reign
G E ZtTri a ^° nCe mor \ Said that force and force alone shall
VJ decide whether peace and justice shall reign in the affairs of man.
There is but one response possible from us—force,'force to the
W tA X e n ^ nt ° r limit ’ the ri ghteous and trTumph^t
SfiZZ “ ake . Rl g ht the law of the world and cast every
selfish dominion down in the dust. 7
President Wilson on America coming into the War
The British People to America’s Soldiers
SXXof the United Stat6S ’ , the P e °P le of British Isles wel-
manv natfnn, ? 7 TJ* y t0 take 70111 stand beside the armies of
freedom TH X fi ^mg m the Old World the battle for human
T w t ^ am new heart and spirit in your company.
I wish I could shake the hand of each one of you and bid you god-
p d on your mission. King George’s welcome to the first American
army that ever touched our shores
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 313
N The Love That Maketh Rich
I would rather belong to a poor nation that was free than to a rich
nation that had ceased to be in love with liberty. We shall not be
poor if we love liberty. Woodrow Wilson
She Can Do No Other
I T is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceable people into war, into
the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilisation itself
seeming to be in the balance.
But right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the
things which we have always carried in our hearts—for democracy,
right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their
own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a
uni versal do mini on of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall
bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at
last free.
To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, every¬
thing that we are and everything that we have for the pride of those
who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend
her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and
happiness and the peace she has treasured. God helping her, she
can do no other. Woodrow Wilson
The Resting Place
In loving memory of one who was killed in action, aged SO.
A little while your grave will be o’ertrodden,
Soon the frail cross have fallen in the breeze.
No loving hands are there to tend and cherish
That grave in foreign soil beyond the seas.
Somewhere in France—oh, surely, my beloved,
Though sign and token all be swept away,
It is not in that land of desolation,
But in my heart that you will rest alway.
From a London newspaper
1908 Looks into 1918
T obd Roberts in 1908: We sleep under a false security, for I do
L not hesitate to affirm that we shall have a frightful war m Europe,
and that England and France will have the hardest eyperience o
their existence. They will see defeat very near, but the war will
finally be won by the genius of a French general named Foch.
Somebody to Foch in 1918: How did you win the war ?
Foch: By smoking my pipe, not getting excited, and reserving
all my strength for the task in hand.
314
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day />
of the Eleventh Month
I t was a few minutes before the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of
the eleventh month. I stood at the window of my room looking
up towards Trafalgar Square, waiting for Big Ben to tell that the war
was over. . . . Suddenly the first stroke of the chime.
I looked again at the broad street beneath me. It was deserted.
From the portals of one of the large hotels absorbed by Government
Departments darted the slight figure of a girl clerk, distractedly
gesticulating while another stroke of Big Ben resounded. Then from
all sides men and women came scurrying into the street. Streams of
people poured out of all the buildings. The bells of London begamfcn--
clash. I could see that Trafalgar Square was already swarmi»gr* Sl,,¥ ^
Around me in our very headquarters disorder had broken out.
Doors banged. Feet clattered down corridors. Everyone rose from
the desk and cast aside pen and paper. All bounds were broken.
The tumult grew. It grew like a gale, but from all sides simultane¬
ously. The street was now a seething mass of humanity. Flags
appeared as if by magic. Streams of men and women flowed from
the Embankment. They mingled with torrents pouring down the
Strand on their way to acclaim the King.
Almost before the last stroke of the clock had died away the strict,
war-straitened, regulated streets of London had become a triumphant
pandemonium. At any rate it was clear that no more work would be
done that day. Yes, the chains which had held the world were
broken. Links of imperative need, links of discipline, links of brute
force, links of self-sacrifice, links of terror, links of honour which had
held our nation, nay, the great part of mankind, to grinding toil,
to a compulsive cause—every one had snapped upon a few strokes
of the clock. Winston Churchill
As The Curtain Falls
I T is difficult to turn our attention elsewhere while our eyes and
minds are centred on the unfolding of the last act in one of the
great dramas in history.
Some people think that it is characteristic of a tragedy that it
should have what is technically known as an unhappy ending. The
ending in this case is not going to be in that sense an unhappy one.
But in ail the essentials of tragedy (the ups and downs of fortune, the
alternations of hope and fear, the interplay of heroism and suffer¬
ing and sacrifice, and let us add, the final triumph of the good cause),
the war upon which the curtain is about to fall has been unique and
supreme. It is not too much to say that it has cleansed and purged the
whole atmosphere of the world. Mr Asquith on November 2, 1918
N
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
A Spectacle to Appal Mankind
815
then the great organisations of this world are strained beyond
Vv breaking point their structure often collapses at all points
simultaneously. There is nothing on which policy, however wise, can
build ; no foothold can be found for virtue or valour, no authority or
impetus for a rescuing genius.
The mighty framework of German Imperial Power, which a few
days before had overshadowed the nations, shivered suddenly into a
thousand individually disintegrating fragments. All her Allies whom
she had so long sustained fell down broken and ruined, begging
separately for peace. The faithful armies were beaten at the front
,nd demoralised from the rear. The proud, efficient Navy mutinied.
Jevol^tion exploded in the most disciplined and docile of btates.
The Supreme War Lord fled.
Such a spectacle appals mankind ; and a knell rang in the ear of
the victors, even in their hour of triumph. Winston Churchill
1
They Told Him So
gave my life for freedom—This I know,
For those who bade me fight had told me so.
W. N. Ewer
Is It the End?
r-pHE curtain falls upon the long front in France and Flanders. The
I soothing hands of Time and Nature, the swiftrepairofpeaceM
industry, have already almost effaced the crater fields and the battle
lines which in a broad belt from the Vosges to the. sea.lately Wakened
the smiling fields of France. The rums are rebuilt, the riven trees are
replaced by new plantations. Only the cemeteries, the monuments
and stunted steeples, with here and there a mouldering trench or huge
SneSer Sf assSl the traveller with the fact that twenty-five
millions of soldiers fought here and twelve millions shed their blood
or perished in the greatest of all human contentions..
Merciful oblivion draws its veils; the crippled limp away , t e
momSers fall back into the sad twilight of memory. New youth is
here to claim its rights, and the perennial stream flows forward even
in the battle zone, as if the tale were afl a dream. _
Is this the end ? Is it to be merely a chapter in a cruel and
Is tms tne en generation in their turn be immolated
SL Xh their genius and ^cure to each m safety and
freedom a share in rebuilding the glory of EuroP^ CWljH
316
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Like Withered Leaves
T have spent the week at Versailles. It was a wotwWa i /
I Walking through the beautiful forests, the leaves were faJhn^’
but not these alone. Empires and kingdoms kums nnrl n ^’
were falling like withered leaves. 8 oJrgt7T'
the Guildhall Banquet
Three Men Lie Dying
nnHERE are two other men lying near me, and I do not think tW*
i. is much hope for them, either. One is an officer of a Scottish
regiment and the other a private in the Uhlans. They were struck
down after me, and when I came to myself I found them bending
over me, rendering first aid. Den ™JL
i The Britisher was pouring water down my throat from his flask
white the German was endeavouring to stanch my wound with an
antiseptic preparation served out to their troops by the medical
corps. The Highlander had one of his legs shattered, and the German
had several pieces of shrapnel buried in his side. German
, y Plte 0 ^ t 1 1 J eir own sufferings, they were trying to help me and
Tr^Z- C0ns ? 10us a S ain the German gave us a mSpMa
injection and took one himself. His medical corps had also provided
him with the injection and the needle, together with prSted
instructions for their use. * printed
After the injection, feeling wonderfully at ease we snoke of tho
Wore the war. We 111 s^ke’fcgS anjte
Wked of the women we had left at home. Both the German Sd the
Britisher had been married only a year.
otherTt^lT 6 ^I'nfk 1 r P h P hf did ) wh y we h ad fought each
other at all. 1 looked at the Highlander, who was falling to sleen
hSn^k!?V^ nd ’ 1 u s !? te of his drawn face and mud-stained uniform’
looked the embodiment of freedom. Then I thought of the Tri-
t f I ra n e and aU that France had done for liberty. Then I
watched the German, who had ceased to speak. He had taken a
prayer book from his knapsack, and was trying to read a service for
we wereTg^ 1 him I realised whS
mvself bvonrd/r+L He Tf dy i n f 1 m vam ’ w hile the Britisher and
the cause Of ’ W0U j d probabl y contribute something toward
the cause of civilisation and peace. A French officer dying on
the field in Flanders in 1915
That Fateful Morning
TT: Ml ? peaker ’ at eleven o’clock this morning, came to an end
kind h T wl 1CSt and m ° St * erribIe war that has ever scourged man-
eid all warn ™ “ y that tim s, this fateful morning, came to an
Mr Lloyd George in
the House of Commons
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 817
The Great War is Over
>\
N ever did the welkin ring in London as it rang today. Parliament
Street and Whitehall were packed with people. The day was
grey and chill with a threat of rain, but no one minded the weather.
There prevailed everywhere throughout London an irresistible im¬
pulse to let business go hang, to get into the streets and yell and sing
and dance and weep.
I could distinguish the hooting of motors, the ringing of handbells,
the banging of tea-trays, the shrilling of police whistles, and the
screaming of toy trumpets. And why not ? The war was over, the
war which, sick at heart, we were beginning to think would never end.
Yes, the infernal war is over, the catastrophes, alarms, fears, uncer-
"faixities, anxieties of four and a half years, the air-raids, the sinking of
food smps, the daily desolation of family circles, have culminated
in victory.
If anyone entertained a lingering doubt as to whether war was
really finished, the mad follies of the girl clerks in the Government
offices in Whitehall must have removed it. They actually showered
down upon our heads from the windows masses of official forms relat¬
ing to the war.
It was bank holiday on Hampstead Heath, on a vastly stupendous
scale. . . . But while the holiday crowd are almost entirely wage-
earners, persons of the most select social relations took part in
today’s revels. The males in the civilian section of the roysterers
had two other peculiarities: they were almost all middle-aged and
looked a shabby lot in their well-worn clothes. . . . We are in truth
an enormous family party engaged in what may be called a stupendous
house-warming, and everyone taking part is, as befits the unparalleled
occasion, in high spirits of the most extravagantly irresponsible kind
—utterly forgetful of self-propriety, pretentiousness, absorbed in the
desire to contribute something to the Pandean frolic.
As I moved about I heard not a single hard word of Germany, not
a single expression of glee that she was lying crippled, perhaps for ever.
Michael MacDonagh writing on November 11, 1918
Surely for History it is Enough
tn the sphere of force human records contain no manifestation like
1 the eruption of the German volcano.
For four years Germany fought and defied the five continents of
the world by land and sea and air. The German Armies upheld her
tottering confederates, intervened in every theatre with success, stood
everywhere on conquered territory, and inflicted on their enemies
more than twice the bloodshed they suffered themselves. To break
their strength and science, and curb their fury, it was necessary to
318 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
bring all the greatest nations of mankind into the field against then^
resources, measureless sacrificf
the sea blockade, could not prevail for fifty months. Small states
were trampled down m the struggle; a mighty Empire was batwS
int ? unrecognisable fragments; and nearly twenty million men
perished or shed their blood before the sword was wrested from Sat
terrible hand. Surely, Germans, for history it is enough !
Winston Churchill
The Fall of Lord Kitchener
™ failure of the Dardanelles Expedition was fatal to Lord Kit
1 chener. The conduct of the Gallipoli Campaign showed <S£-
to° plainly the limitations of this great figure at this period of hfs
Jjf e ®? d m tb J? tr emendous situation, both as an organiser and a man
of action. His advocacy of the offensive in France which had failed
so conspicuously at Loos and in Champagne was upon record Under
the agony of the Gallipoli evacuation \i s wll^wi had pS
crumpled, and the long series of contradictory resolves which had
Shf^eSke re fecS? nt ° f ^ terriWe qUCSti0n WaS ° bvious t0 H
Already m November had come direct rebuff. His plan for a
m t th % Gulf ° f Alexand retta, though devised byhim in
!eriet ^ffi theatre ?! °P e3 ' atlons t had been decisively vetoed. In a
, nes telegrams, the inclination of which could scarcely be obscure
he was encouraged to transform his definite mission at the Dardanelles
mto a general and extensive tour of inspection. On December 3
Staffs Committee dete rmined to recreate the Imperial Genera!
The end of his great story is approaching; the long life full of
action, lighted by hard-won achievement, crowned by power such as a
the .haO™. t Ti I p,1 , e , “ Uld bestow ’ was now declining through
. onlusl1 ° ( the “S ht ’ de 'P waters
ttelMW deS * med *° preSerre him “ d ™°wn from
Better to sink beneath the shock
Than moulder piecemeal on the rock.
The solemn days when he stood forth as Constable of Britain
we?r^dId 0S ined i5 e ° ple braced themselves for war!
a warrior’s* dentfi 1 dUty C ? U ? d 0ldy reach its consummation in
a warriors death. His record m the Great War as strategist
tionsthlnom jU u ged by the eyes of other genera-
fort his champt Wn ‘ j bet us b ?P e tiley will also remember the com-
WcoftatetfrK. p “ sonaUty s*- “’^SSatSw*
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
819
> A Great Man Betrayed by His Country
I ALWAYS thought our people were at least as capable as those of any
other nation. But I liked to study what other nations had accom¬
plished. I had gone to Germany too often, and had read her litera¬
ture too much, not to give ground to narrow-minded people to say
that Germany was my spiritual home.
Anyhow, in August 1914, a formidable section of the public here
had turned against me. I did not think that this was good for the
Government, and in the autumn of 1914 I felt bound to go to the
Prime Minister and to say that, as the attacks on me must obviously
affect the general position, it would probably be better that I should
li&t remain in office. He laughed at the idea of this, but I took a
more serious view of it.
I was never depressed by even the most violent abuse. I was
well content to endure, for if the Army came home victorious I
believed that it would return with witnesses in my defence whose
testimony would be irresistible. So it proved in the end.
But before the war ended in our victory I had, of course, a
disagreeable time. I was threatened with assault in the street, and
I was on occasions in some danger of being shot at. But on the
other hand I had a multitude of loyal and devoted friends whose
hopes had through years rested on my efforts. . . . My special
adherents in the Army, and outside it, were firm as rocks.
After the victory in France came, and the British troops had
returned to London, with the victorious Commander-in-Chief,
Douglas Haig, riding with the King at their head, all London was in
a state of rejoicing. I was left alone, solitary in my study at Queen
Anne’s Gate. It was after dark that evening when my servant came
upstairs to me and said that there was an officer who wanted to see
me, but who would not give his name. The door was opened, and
who should enter but a friend who was indeed intimately known
to me, Field-Marshal Douglas Haig, come from a triumphant ride
with his Sovereign along the Mall.
“ I am not going to remain,” he exclaimed ; “ my purpose is to
leave with you a book in which I have written something.” With
that he insisted on going away. The book was a volume containing
his Despatches, and on the page at the beginning he had written these
affectionate words:
To Viscount Haldane of Chan, the greatest Secretary of State for
War England has ever had. In grateful remembrance of his successful
efforts in organising the Military Farces for a war on the Continent,
notwithstanding much opposition from the Army Council and the half¬
hearted support of his Parliamentary friends. — Haig, F.M.
A page from the Autobiography of Lard Haldane
320 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Bag of Pearls
I saw an Arab sitting in a circle of jewellers and relating as follows •
Once on a time, having missed my way in the desert and having
no provisions left, I gave myself up for lost, when I happened to find
a bag full of something. I shall never forget the relish and delight
that I felt on supposing it to be fried wheat; nor the bitterness and
despair which I suffered on discovering that the bag contained pearls
A Persian writer of the 12th century
No Man Slept the Night He Died
N o man in England slept the night he died :
The harsh, stern spirit passed without a pang*
And freed of mortal clogs his message rang. * ^
In ever wakeful mind the challenge cried :
Think not of me : one servant less or more
Means nothing now : hold fast the greater thing :
Strike hard, love truth, serve England and the King I
Servant of England, soldier to the core,
What does it matter where his body fall ?
What does it matter where they build his tomb ?
Five million men, from Calais to Khartoum,
These are his wreath and his memorial.
Christopher Morley on Lord Kitchener,
drowned during the Great War
The Hand That Ceased to Write
A mong the drivers of the Balkan Convoy was a young Irishman
who had vainly tried to enter the British Army but had been
rejected for ill-health, and who died in Salomca: In his last letter
he wrote : '', —
The risks, as the days go by, seem of smaller and smaller account.
I miss many, very many, of the little luxuries at home, but I have enough
and to spare. We are all so prone to put our own selves before the part
we are playing in stemming the tide of human suffering that never seems
to ebb.
While in the main we are happy, we never cease to talk of home.
Daily we conjure up what we shall do when that great day of peace shall
dawn, the hours we shall laze in the morning between sheets of snowy
white, the meals we shall have± the visits to our old haunts. There is
much to do in the meantime, work which will daily bring us near to
suffering and self-sacrifice, and teach us perhaps some lessons in un¬
selfishness and bring us nearer to finding our souls. On the whole there
is renewed courage out here, and the hope of brighter _—
The letter ends abruptly, for the writer’s hand was cold.
Laurence Binyon
PORTRAIT OF A BOY, BY CARL VAN LOO
TUTANKHAMEN AND HIS QUEEN
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
321
• An Englishman Gives Thanks
This is an Englishman’s thankoffering to his country after the Great War. The
letter appeared in The Times in 1919 , when all were looking forward to the
Great Peace.
No one knew the writer then , and his example was not widely followed ; but it is
now known that the man who laid this tribute on the altar of his country was Stanley
Baldwin.
I T is now a truism to say that in August 1914 the nation was face to
face with the greatest crisis in her history. She was saved by the
freewill offerings of her people.
The best of her men rushed to the colours ; the best of her women
left their homes to spend and to be spent; the best of her older men
worked as they had never worked before, to a common end, and with
a sensed unity and fellowship as new as it was exhilarating. It
may be that in four and a half years the ideals of many became dim,
but the spiritual impetus of those early days carried the country
through to the end.
Today, on the eve of peace, we are faced with another crisis, less
obvious but none the less searching. The whole country is exhausted.
By a natural reaction, not unlike that which led to the excesses of
the Restoration after the reign of the Puritans, all classes are in
danger of being submerged by a wave of extravagance and materialism.
It is so easy to live on borrowed money; so difficult to realise
that you are doing so. It is so easy to play; so hard to learn that
you cannot play for long without work. A fool’s paradise is only the
afternoon to a fool’s hell.
How can the nation be made to understand the gravity of the
financial situation, that love of country is better than love of money ?
This can only be done by example, and the wealthy classes have
today an opportunity of service which can never recur.
They know the danger of the present debt; they know the weight
of it in the years to come. They know the practical difficulties of
a universal statutory capital levy. Let them impose upon them¬
selves, each as he is able, a voluntary levy. It should be possible
to pay the Exchequer within 12 months such a sum as would save
the taxpayer 50 millions a year.
I have been considering this matter for nearly two years, but my
mind moves slowly; I dislike publicity, and I hoped that someone
else might lead the way. I have made as accurate an estimate as I
am able of the value of my own estate and I have arrived at a total of
about £580,000. I have decided to realise 20 per cent, of that amount
or, say £120,000, which will purchase £150,000 of the new War Loan,
and present it to the Government for cancellation.
I give this portion of my estate as a thankoffeiing in the ^ firm
conviction that never again shall we have such a chance of giving
our country that form of help which is so vital at the present time.
F.T. —21
322
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Caravan of Humanity is on the March * *
I F the future peace of the world is to be maintained, it will not be
sufficient merely to erect an institution for the purpose of settling
international disputes after they have arisen ; it will be necessary to
devise an instrument of government which will deal with the causes
and sources of disputes. The need is there, and the end of the Great
War has brought an unequalled opportunity for dealing with it.
For not only are men’s minds prepared for the new peaceful order,
but the sweeping away of the imperial systems of Europe leaves the
space vacant which the new institution must occupy. The need,
political and psychological, is imperative ; the opportunity is unique ;
and only the blindness of statesmen could now prevent the coming of
the new institution which will, more than anything else, rece^cile the
people to the sufferings they have endured in this war. It will be the
only fitting monument to our heroic dead. It will be the great
response to the age-long cry from the human heart for Peace on earth,
Goodwill among men. It will nobly embody and express the univer¬
sal spirit which must heal the deep self-inflicted wounds of humanity.
And it must be the wise regulator, the steadying influence, in the
forward movement now set going among the nations of the earth.
For there is no doubt that mankind is once more on the move.
The very foundations have been shakened and loosened, and things
are again fluid. The tents have been struck, and the great caravan
of humanity is once more on its march. Vast social and industrial
changes are coming—perhaps upheavals which may, in their magni¬
tude and effects, be comparable to war itself. A steadying, con¬
trolling, regulating influence will .be required to give stability to
progress, and to remove that wasteful friction which has dissipated
so much social force in the past, and in this war more than ever before.
These great functions could only be adequately fulfilled by the League
of Nations. Responding to such vital needs and coming at such a
unique opportunity in history, it may well be destined to mark a
new era in the government of man, and become to the peoples the
guarantee of peace, to the workers of all races the great international,
and to all the embodiment and living expression of the moral and
spiritual unity of the human race.
From General Smuts 9 s plan for a League of Nations,
written for the Allies in the Iasi weeks of the war
A Thousand Ages
M ay out Lord
Live for a thousand ages
Until the pebbles
Become a rock
Overgrown with moss.
A Japanese National Anthem, 1000 years old
323
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
* % in 9 George the Fifth to His Very Dear People
The Broadcast to the Nation by George the Fifth at the close of his Jubilee Day
A t the close of this memorable day I must speak to my people
everywhere, yet how can I express what is in my heart ?
As I passed this morning through cheering multitudes to and from
St Paul’s Cathedral, as I thought there of all these 25 years have
brought to me and to my country and my Empire, how could I fail
to be most deeply moved ? Words cannot express my thoughts and
feelmgs. I can only say to you, my very dear people, that the Queen
and I thank you from the depth of our hearts for all the loyalty and
(may I say ?) the love with which this day and always you have
surrounded us. I dedicate myself anew to your service for the years
that majsstill be given to me.
I look back on the past with thankfulness to God. My people
and I have come through great trials and difficulties together. They
are not over. In the midst of this day’s rejoicing I grieve to think
of the numbers of my people who are still without work. We owe
to them, and not least to those who are suffering from any form of
disablement, all the sympathy and help that we can give. I hope
that during this Jubilee Year all who can will do their utmost to find
them work and bring them hope.
Other anxieties may be in store, but I am persuaded that with
God’s help they may all be overcome, if we meet them with confidence,
courage, and unity. So I look forward to the future with fai th
and hope.
It is to the young that the future belongs. I trust that through
the Fund inaugurated by my dear son the Prince of Wales to com¬
memorate this year many of them throughout this country may be
helped in body, mind, and character to become useful citizens.
To the children I would like to send a special message. Let me
say this to each of them whom my words may reach : The King is
speaking to you. I ask you to remember that in days to come you will
be the citizens of a great Empire. As you grow up always keep this
thought before you ; and when the time comes be ready and proud to give
your country the service of your work, your mind, and your heart.
I have been greatly touched by all the greetings which have come
to me today from my Dominions and Colonies, from India, and from
this Home Country. My heart goes out to all who may be listening
to me now wherever you may be—here at home in town or village,
or in some far-off comer of the Empire, or it may be on the high seas.
Let me end my words to you with those which Queen Victoria used
after her Diamond Jubilee, 38 years ago. No words could more truly
or simply express my own deep feeling now : From my heart 1 thank
my beloved people. May God bless them.
324.
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Whole Earth Leapt Forward r „
In that great year when Peace came back, at the Eleventh hour of the Eleventh day
oj the Eleventh month of 1918, the earth itself appears to have leapt for joy, for it is
true that the earth took a sudden step forward. 5 J
I t has been made known as a scientific fact that when the war ended
the old earth received a sudden jolt. It was such a shock that the
lengthening earth’s day was shortened by a twenty-five-millionth.
Dr de Sitter, of the University of Leyden, who has disclosed this
strange and sudden alteration of the length of the Earth’s day, has
spent many years in examining the reasons why the day seems to
alter. It appears to be lengthening, and the month which the Moon
occupied in going round the Earth appears to be shortening. At
present the length of the Moon’s month is lessened by les^than a
thirtieth of a second in a hundred years. The length ofthe day
increases even less in a century.
In that fateful year of 1918 the length of the day changed in a
very short time from more than a six-hundredth of a second longer
to less than a five-hundredth of a second shorter. The day lost a
twenty-five-millionth of its length at the same time that the Armistice
was signed. In short, the Earth leapt forward.
Dr de Sitter calculates that if the whole Earth had shrunk by
about five inches all over the surface the result vrauld have quickened
the Earth to about that extent. But, as that evidently did not take
place, the explanation has to be sought in some unknown displace¬
ment of the lower strata of the Earth. It may be that the earth¬
quakes that have since been experienced are symptoms of it. At any
rate, whatever the cause, it is surely a remarkable thing that this
should have happened on the day when the heart of the whole world
was lifted up with joy. Edwin Sharpe Grew
We Have Kept Our Heritage
George the Fifth to the representatives of the Empire in St James's Palace
T heke is a word which gladdens me, more especially when I hear
it used by friends from overseas, many of whom say when they
visit this country that they are coming Home. It is in this spirit
that the Queen and I meet you today ; we welcome one and all to
our home.
Before I succeeded my father, the Queen and I had the privilege
of studying at first hand the Dominions Overseas and India. We
were fellow-travellers, then as now, comparing notes and sharing
impressions. We treasure these memories and keep them alive;
moreover, what we forget our four sons are now able to recall. Many
years before our happy partnership began I had as a midshipman
sailed the Seven Seas : I realised early that the Empire has man y
climes but one spirit.
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 325
I regard this as a unique gathering, where we can tell one another
of our successes, and also of our failures and mistakes. But there
will be no sharp criticism nor vain regrets, for we are in sympathy
one with another, conscious that we have acted according to our
lights for the good name and ordered prosperity of the family.
We are sometimes told that we are lacking in logic, our political
institutions loose and undefined. But I look back on the trying and
testing time through which we have passed and wonder whether a
less flexible system would have withstood the strains to which we have
been subjected. With commonsense and goodwill as our shield and
buckler we have kept, in spite of all difficulties, our heritage of
liberty, alike for the individual and for our many constituent races.
The numberless and invisible ties of sentiment and tradition which
bind ustogether are indeed delicate ; but many strands make a cable,
strong to 11 bind in times of adversity. It is my prayer, no less than
my firm belief, that this bond of the spirit may prove also the bond
of peace.
To the Schools of London
These are the last words George the Fifth sent to the children of London schools
Y ou are the heirs of a great past; but the future is yours, and is
your high responsibility. Each of you must try to be a good
citizen in a good city. To this end you must make the best of all
your powers. Strive to grow in strength, in knowledge, and in grace.
If you persist bravely in this endeavour you will work worthily for
your family, your city, your country, and for mankind.
So to live, in whatever sphere, must be noble and may be great.
My confident trust is in you.
None Shall Make Us Afraid
George the Fifth to both Mouses of Parliament assembled in the
famous Westminster Hall under the roof built by William Eufus
T he Mother of Parliaments and her children, grown to full estate,
stand now upon equal terms in common allegiance to the Crown.
The unity of the British Empire is no longer expressed by the
supremacy of the time-honoured Parliament that sits here at West¬
minster.
The Crown is the historic symbol that unites this great family of
nations and races scattered oyer every quarter of the Earth.
The United Kingdom and the Dominions, India, the numerous
Colonies and dependencies embrace such wide varieties of speech,
culture, and form of government as have never before in the world’s
history been brought into a commonwealth of peace,
. .In these days when fear and preparation for war are again astir
in the world, let us be thankful that quiet government and peace
326
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
prevail over so large a part of the Earth’s surface, and that under our
flag of freedom so many millions eat their daily bread in far distant
lands and climates with none to make them afraid.
This my Palace of Westminster, in the mighty heart of our Empire,
is the very cradle of our envied Parliamentary institutions. Here is
the anvil whereon our common law was forged to become the joint
inheritance of the United States of America and our own com¬
munity of peoples.
Beneath these rafters of medieval oak, the silent witnesses of
historic tragedies and pageants, we celebrate the present under the
spell of the past.
It is to me a source of pride and thankfulness that the perfect
harmony of our Parliamentary system with our constitutional
Monarchy has survived the shocks that have in recent years'Sestroyed
other empires and other liberties.
Our ancient Constitution, ever adaptable to change, has during
my reign faced and conquered perils of warfare never conceived in
earlier days, and has met and satisfied new democratic demands both
at home and overseas.
The system bequeathed to us by our ancestors, again modified for
the needs of a new age, has been found once more, as of old, the best
way to secure government by the people, freedom for the individual,
the ordered strength of the State, and the rule of law over governors
and governed alike.
The complex forms and balanced spirit of our Constitution were
not the* discovery of a single era, still less of a single party or of a
single person. They are the slow accretion of centuries, the outcome
of patience, tradition, and experience constantly finding channels old
and new for the impulse toward liberty, justice, and social improve¬
ment inherent in our people down the ages.
In looking back over the 25 years of my reign the thankfulness
that I feel today is chiefly for escape from danger greater than ever
before threatened our land. I can never forget how the peril from
without at once united all the parties, classes, Governments, and
races of the Empire ; men and women played their parts ; the ranks
were closed, and in the issue strength upheld the free.
Let us not, in this hour of thanksgiving, fail to remember those
who gave their lives or who live now maimed or blinded that we might
continue to enjoy the blessings of life.
Through later years our path has led uphill. In the aftermath of
war, in a world exhausted by its ordeals and impoverished by its
destruction, we set ourselves to resume our normal ways to recreate
the structure of our industry and commerce, and to respond to the
urgent desire to improve the conditions of life.
1
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
327
We were treading unfamiliar and broken ground, for there had
!*ee& far-reaching changes, especially in economic conditions. Every¬
where a feeling of uncertainty and lack of confidence hung like a
shadow over human endeavour.
But we have made headway by the earnest goodwill, prudence,
and stability of my people, and the country has attained to a measure
of industrial success which gives it confidence in the future.
I am very conscious that these years have brought hardship and
often disappointment, and I have been moved with profound admira¬
tion for the greatheartedness of my people and for the steadfast
fortitude and unbending will to overcome which they have ever
shown in their anxieties.
I sympathise deeply with those who have endured the sadness
and freemen of unemployment. It is a source of comfort to me to
feel that from these times of trial there has grown up throughout our
community a stronger feeling of fellowship one with another.
I give thanks to Almighty God, who has thus far sustained me and
my people, and I pray that we may continue to pursue the cause of free¬
dom and progress in a spirit of peace, tolerance, and understanding.
The Passing of the King
T he King’s life is moving peacefully towards its close.
The message broadcast while
George the Fifth lay dying
I am rather glad to think that the King has taken his trumpeter
with him to the other side.
A lady on hearing that Kipling , Poet of the
Empire, passed away just before King George
A Little Talk Heard by the World
This is the little talk of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Duke
and Duchess of Kent at their wedding, heard all over the world
N ever in history, we may dare to say, has a marriage been attended
by so vast a company of witnesses. For by a new and marvel¬
lous invention of science countless multitudes in every variety of
place and home are joining in this service.
The whole nation (nay, the whole Empire) are the wedding guests :
and more than guests, members of the family. For this great assembly
in the Abbey, the crowds waiting outside its walls, and the multitude
of listening people regard the family of our beloved King and Queen
as in a true sense their own.
It must be most moving to you, dear Bride and Bridegroom, to
know that this wealth of good wishes and goodwill is being offered
to you as their wedding gift. Yet in the midst of all the voices which
have acclaimed you in your coming here, and will again acclaim you
328
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS ?
as you leave, will you let one voice for a few minutes sound a deeper
note ? It may not be easy for you in all this happy excitemert to
listen ; but perhaps some echo of my words may linger among tie
memories of this great day. At least, you know that the words will
not be merely formal but spoken from the heart of a friend and
Father in God.
We all wish you happiness ; but our wishes cannot give it. Noi
can it come from outward circumstance. It can only come from
yourselves, from the spirit that is within you. You cannot choose
what changes and chances are to befall you in the coming years.
But you can choose the spirit with which you will meet them. Let
it be the spirit of the noble vows in which you have just plighted your
troth each to the other. If you will take these vows not as a form
but as a bond of honour which you will keep with unswerving loyalty,
then whatever may come you will have that inward happiness which
no pleasures of themselves can give and no sorrows can take away.
Then the home-life which awaits you will be both an abiding security
to yourselves and a welcome example to others.
Today your separate lives, with their own memories and hopes,
temptations and trials, are merged in one. Will you bring into this
new life, each for the sake of the other, the best that you can be ?
Let your deepest bond of union be in that inward region of the soul
where conscience and true ideals dwell. For there you come near to
God and God comes near to you. Keep there a reverent remem¬
brance of Him. Then His protecting hand will guide you, and by
His eternal love the love you bear each other will be ever strengthened
and enriched.
One more word. As you think of the good wishes with which the
people of this nation and Empire are surrounding you, you will, I
know, resolve that you will ever be eager to help and serve them in
such ways as you can. You, Sir, have already and fully taken your
place in this service of the community. And you, dear Bride, as
your husband’s comrade, will find a new happiness in sharing the
joys and sorrows, and in ministering to the needs of the good British
folk who have already, with a warmth so swift and so spontaneous,
taken you into their heart. I am sure that that heart is now speaking '
through my words as I say: God bless you both, God guide you,
God keep you always.
The Marriage of Queen Elizabeth
C oncerning marriage, I have been long since persuaded that I
was sent into this world by God to do those things chiefly
which may tend to His glory. I have already joined myself in
marriage to a husband,, namely the Kingdom of England. And do
not upbraid me with miserable lack of children, for everyone of you,
and as many as are Englishmen, are children and kinsmen to me*,
Queen Elizabeth's answer to Parliament,
which had urged her to marry
329
/ ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
3 The Gift He Gave to England
H ' IS eyes are bright and eager, with the brightness of the Sun,
(England, he gives them you).
His hands are strong for climbing and his feet are swift to run,
(England, he gives them you).
He has knowledge of the meadows, in the dreamy autumn days,
The brown hill and the gold hill, and the green, forgotten ways
(But he leaves them now for you).
There’s a certain ancient city where he once was free and young,
(But he leaves it now for you),
Where Oxford tales are spoken, and Oxford ways are sung,
(But he leaves them now for you),
And his heart is often w T eary for that dear old river shore.
And he thinks a little sadly of the days that come no more
(But he gives them up for you).
If his dust is one day lying, in an unfamiliar land
(England, he went for you).
Oh, England, sometimes think of him, of thousands, only one,
In the dawning, or the noonday, or the setting of the Sun
(As once he thought of you). H. Bex Freston
People, He Must Not Die
N o, Freedom ! People, No ! He must not die.
Twould be too simple, too unscorned an end.
After all law destroyed, the hour brought nigh
When holy shame must back to heaven ascend.
By this man’s deed, ephemeral Emperor,
: Daughters and sons are fatherless and sad ;
The widow weeps, kneels, sobs, her anguish o’er;
The mother seems a ghost in mourning clad.
The reels which weave his robes of royalty.
Deep dyed, are wound about with blood-stained thread;
Montmartre’s boulevard doth the vat supply,
And steeps his mantle in imperial red !
When livid Treason, of his crimes the guide.
Baps at his door, he welcomes his ally.
He is the fratricide, the parricide :
People, on this account he must not die.
Keep the man living. Noble punishment!
Would that, some day, him we may wandering find,
Naked, crouched, shivering, like reed tempest-bent.
Beneath the execration of mankind.
Clasped by the past—crammed with those crimes of his.
As with a crown all bristling o’er with nails,
Seeking dark spots—the forest, the abyss ;
Pale, scared, and whom the wolf as kindred hails.
nm
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
In some vile hulks, fetters his only sound,
Telling to the deaf rocks his vain despair ; * #
Alone, alone, Silence and Hate around— $
Men nowhere near, and spectres everywhere !
Aged, rejected by Death’s scornful hand,
Doomed, abject, trembling, through long years to plod :
People, avoid that man, marked by a brand :
Let Cain pass by, for he belongs to God.
Victor Hugo on Napoleon the Third
A Prince of Learning Writes to a Rich Lady
Erasmus, in desperate need of money, yielded to the
temptation to write to a rich lady; this is from his letter.
I T is unworthy of me (a man of letters and a philosopher) to be so
cast down as I am, when you who were born to rank dnd luxury
endure your trials so patiently.
But let Fortune thunder as she will, I will not be crushed and
leave my work undone while I have my Princess for a Cynosure to
shine upon me. Malice cannot rob me of the learning I have gained.
A little money will enable me to make use of it, and this you can
supply out of your abundance.
My muse I shall owe to you, and she shall henceforth be dedicated
to your services. Thee, dear nurse of my soul, I would not change
for Augustus and Maecenas, and future ages will marvel that in
this far comer of the world, when learning lay prostrate from neglect
and ignorance, a woman rose, who, by her benevolence, restored
learning from dust to life. When Erasmus was mocked by promises
which were not observed to him, when he had been robbed and flung
out to buffet with the waves of fortune, you, Lady, did not suffer him
to drown in penury. Continue the work which you have begun. My
writings, your own children, reach out their suppliant hands to you.
Erasmus
A Dialogue at the Gate of Heaven
There appeared in Paris in 1514 a play set at the Gate of Heaven, where Pope
Julius appeared to demand admission. This is from the conversation between the
Pope and St Peter, anonymous but thought to be written by Erasmus.
J ulius : Hey there, porter ; are you asleep or drunk ? Open
the gates, I say. Why is there no one to receive me ?
Peter: Here is fine talk. Who are you, I say ?
Julius: You know this key, I suppose, and the triple crown, and
the pallium ?
Peter : No admission without merits.
Julius: What do you mean by merits ?
Peter: Have you taught true doctrine ?
Julius : I have been too busy fighting. There are monks to look
after doctrine.
881
' ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Peter: Have you been diligent in your prayers ?
Julius: The invincible Julius ought not to answer a beggarly
fisherman, but you shall.know who and what I am. I have done more
for the Church and Christ than any pope before me. X have set all
the princes of Europe by the ears, tom up treaties, kept great armies
in the field, covered Rome with palaces, and left five millions in
the Treasury.
Peter: Invincible warrior ! All this is quite new to me, pardon
my simplicity, but how comes it that the princes are so ready to take
up arms for you, while to us they were the worst enemy we had ?
Julius : By my triple crown and by my victories I will make you
know who Julius is if you provoke me farther.
Peter: Poor worldly madman, will you boast of your treaty-
breaking and your accursed wars ? These are Satan’s arts. Power
with you Is joined with madness and vanity. What sign have you
ever shown of an apostle ? Have you increased the Church ?
Julius : I found it poor : I have made it splendid. I have filled
Rome with palaces, trains of mules and horses, troops of servants,
armies and officers ; with purple and gold, with revenues so vast
that kings are poor beside the pope.
Peter: Pray, inform me. The Church had nothing of all this
when it was founded by Christ.
Julius : You are thinking of the old affair, when you starved as
pope with a handful of poor hunted bishops about you. Time has
changed all that. Look now at our gorgeous churches, bishops like
kings, cardinals in purple gloriously attended, horses decked with
jewels, and shod with gold and silver.
Peter: He who was Lord of all became the scorn of all, and ended
with a death of shame.
Julius : He will not find many imitators in these times. The world
will not respect us and the Church will go to pieces if we are poor
and cannot defend ourselves. Money is power.
Peter: If the world saw the gifts of Christ in you it would think
more of you and not less for being poor. Then the Church would
flourish again. You call the Church flourishing when it is drunk
with luxury. We are not of your communion in this place. You
have an army of sturdy rogues behind you; go build a paradise of
your own.
Julius: I will do better than that. I will wait till I have a
larger force and will take your place by storm.
■ Is It Nothing to You , All Ye that Pass By $
H ow doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people ! She that
was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces,
how is she become tributary ! She weepeth sore in the night, and
her tears are on her cheeks.
332 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS t
Among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her. All her
friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become endmjes
Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction; she dvrelleth
among the heathen ; she findeth no rest.
The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn
feasts. All her gates are desolate; her priests sigh, her virgins are
afflicted, and she is in bitterness.
Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by ? Behold, and see if there
be any sorrow like unto my sorrow.
The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets ;
My virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; our
persecutors are swifter than the eagles ; they pursued us upon the
mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
The joy of our heart is ceased ; our dance is turned into*mourning.
Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever ; thy throne from generation to
generation. Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us
so long time ? Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and renew our
days as of old. From the Lamentations of Jeremiah
The Voice From Mount Sinai
And, the Lord spake, saying
D o not drink wine nor strong drink when ye go into the tabernacle*
lest ye die ; it shall be a statute for ever throughout your gener¬
ations. Ye shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary.
Regard them not that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards.
If a stranger sojourn with thee in your land thou shalt love him
as thyself.
_Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in
weight, or in measure. Just balances, just weights, shall ye have,
When ye reap the harvest thou shalt not make clean the corners
of thy field, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest;
thou shalt leave them to the poor and to the stranger.
The Lord spake on Mount Sinai, saying
Six years thou shalt sow thy field and prune thy vineyard and
gather in the fruit, but the seventh year shall be a sabbath for the
Lord, a year of rest unto the land.
Thou shalt number seven sabbaths, seven times seven years,
and ye shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout
the land unto all the inhabitants. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year
be. It shall be holy unto you. In the year of this jubilee ye shall
return every man to his possession.
The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is mine. Ye are
strangers and sojourners with me. Old Testament
°NE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 333
$
\ . All Men Are Equal
for* me^veoDle 1 S +n °rT ^ lu 1 rnan events > & becomes necessary
coZected motheT mdt e f li,iCa! b “ ds which ha ' 4
****£?& --
We hold these truths to be self-evident:
That all men are created equal;
are end ° wei by tMr Creaior “ rta “
TJuU among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;
That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted anion a me n
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; * ’
whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these
ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute
a new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and man-
“ 10 *"• ’ MU sum — md ‘ *
m ^ eed ’ ] vdI d * ctatet bat governments long established
should not be changed for light and transient causes; and aceord-
mgly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to
suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves bv abolish¬
ing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train
ora buses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object
evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their
right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide
new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient
sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which
constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The
history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated
injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment
of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts
be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his assent to laws the most "wholesome and neces-
sary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass
laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in
their operation till his assent should be obtained; and, when so
suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has
refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts
of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representa¬
tion in the Legislature—a right inestimable to them, and formidable
to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places
334 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the repository 0 f dfteir
public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance
with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses re¬
peatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the
rights of the people. He has refused, for a long time after such
dissolutions, to cause others to be elected ; whereby the legislative
powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at
large for their exercise, the State remaining, in the meantime, exposed
to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States ;
for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalisation of foreigners]
refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising
the conditions of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed
the administration of justice by refusing his assent to,, laws for
establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on
his will alone for the. tenure of their offices, and the amount and
payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices,
and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out
their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without
the consent of our Legislatures. He has affected to render the
military independent of, and superior to, the civil power. He has
combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our
constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws : giv ing his assent
to their acts of pretended legislation for quartering large bodies of
armed troops among us ; for protecting them, by a mock trial, from
punishment for any murders which they should commit on the
inhabitants of these States ; for cutting off our trade with all parts
of the world ; for imposing taxes on us without our consent; for
depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury; for
transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences ; for
abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighbouring province,
establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its
boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument
for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies ; for taking
away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering,
fundamentally, the forms of our governments ; for suspending our
own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to
legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here by declaring us out of his
protection, and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas,
ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our
people. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mer¬
cenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny,
already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely
paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the
head of a civilised nation.
ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
h f s constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high
seas vp bear arms against their country, to become the executioners
of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has
endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless
Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished
destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.
. ever y sta £ e of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress
in the most humble terms : our repeated petitions have been answered
only by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked
by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a
free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren.
We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their
Legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We
have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and
settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and
magnanimity, and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common
kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably
interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been
deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must therefore
acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and
hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind—enemies in war, in
peace friends.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America,
in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of
the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by
the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish
and declare that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be,
FBEE AND independent States ; that they are absolved from all
allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection
between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be,
totally dissolved ; and that, as free and independent States, they
have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances,
establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which
independent States may of right do. And for the support of this
declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Provi¬
dence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and
our sacred honour. American Declaration of Independence
The Fool and the Wise Man
A fool can ask more questions than a wise man can answer, but
a wise man cannot ask more questions than he will find a fool
ready to answer. Archbishop Whately
336 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS r
The Mind that Leaves its Mortal House « „ .
D o not suppose that when I have departed from you I shall be
nowhere or no being. Neither while I was with you did you see
my mind, but supposed it to be in this body from the actions which I
performed. Believe, therefore, that the same still exists even though
you behold none. Nor, in truth, would the honours of illustrious
men continue after death if their minds were inefficacious toward our
longer retaining them in memory. I certainly can never be persuaded
that minds live so long as they are in mortal bodies and, when they
have departed out of these, wholly die.
The dying Cyrus to his sons
Sir Thomas Browne’s Good-Night ,
T he night is come, like to the day,
Depart not thou, great God, away,
Let not my sins, black as the night.
Eclipse the lustre of Thy light:
Keep stiir in my horizon, for to me
The sun makes not the day, but Thee.
Thou, Whose nature cannot sleep,
On my temples sentry keep ;
Guard me ’gainst those watchful foes,
Whose eyes are open while mine close.
Let rio dreams my head infest
But such as Jacob’s temples blest.
While I do rest, my Soul advance ;
Make my sleep a holy trance,
That I may, my rest being wrought.
Awake into some holy thought;
And with as active vigour run
My course, as doth the nimble sun.
Sleep is a death ; O make me try.
By sleeping, what it is to die ;
And as gently lay my head
On my grave as now my bed.
Howe’er I rest, great God, let me
Awake again at last with Thee ;
And, thus assured, behold I lie
Securely to awake or die.
These are my drowsie days ; in vain
I do now wake to sleep again :
O come that hour, when I shall never
Sleep again but wake for ever.
Written in the Seventeenth Century
jS' V ■> I ■ IP - / ,-i X '; *
'Phi s book shonl * b* re t nrnv *» o n
0 " before the to marked feckiov:**
lo c/ise r f del. :y on o?er d n e oh ,r
of fivo no. ;■ ir rive oer book rill
k'- oho rye.
Pie se keep th'‘ book ol.— n. 23c
not torn down or si'in the In ••%**
nor m - k• nenoil or other tr r >r
ut)on them, 11 ^
Mm 1961
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