Soon or late, prince or pauper, and you and I, wear this Order as at last we sit and wonder at the years gone by.
¶ Let us silently pass on, leaving Bismarck here, in the one solemn moment of his life; when he attains to real grandeur, stamps himself as greater than when he sat before kings.
For now he possesses his own soul, in peace.
And in this last picture, the end is greater than the beginning; the defeat than the victory; the downfall than the glory; and the disillusion than the dream.
¶ His final consolation was the Book of Job; and he read therein these strange and solemn words:
¶ What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life?
Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh of brass?
¶ So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.
When I lie down, I say, when shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro, unto the dawning of the day.
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.