FREEDOM
Hereditary bondsmen! Know ye not
Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?
Byron—Childe Harold. Canto II. St. 67.
Freedom has a thousand charms to show,
That slaves howe’er contented, never know.
Cowper—Table Talk. Line 260.
He is the freeman, whom the truth makes free,
And all are slaves besides.
Cowper—The Task. Bk. V. Line 733.
When Freedom from her mountain height
Unfurled her standard to the air,
She tore the azure robe of night,
And set the stars of glory there.
Drake—The American Flag.
My angel—his name is Freedom,—
Choose him to be your king;
He shall cut pathways east and west,
And fend you with his wing.
Emerson—Boston Hymn.
Yes, to this thought I hold with firm persistence;
The last result of wisdom stamps it true;
He only earns his freedom and existence
Who daily conquers them anew.
Goethe—Faust.
Know ye why the Cypress tree as Freedom’s tree is known?
Know ye why the Lily fair as Freedom’s flower is shown?
Hundred arms the Cypress has, yet never plunder seeks;
With ten well-developed tongues the Lily never speaks!
Omar Khayyam—Frederich Bodenstedt, Translator.
What is freedom? Rightly understood,
A universal license to be good.
Hartley Coleridge.