The phrase, “public office is a public trust,” has of late become common property.
—Charles Sumner (May 31, 1872).
Charles Sumner, a distinguished American statesman, was born in Boston, January 6, 1811, and died in Washington, D. C., March 11, 1874. His speeches, orations, etc., were collected and published (1870-83) in a 15-vol. edition.
There are many moments in friendship as in love, when silence is beyond words. The faults of our friends may be clear to us, but it is well to seem to shut our eyes to them.
—Ouida.
Louise de la Ramée (Ouida), a famous English novelist of French extraction, was born at Bury St. Edmunds, January 7, 1839, and died January 25, 1908. Among her numerous works are: “Held in Bondage,” “Strathmore,” “Chandos,” “Idalia,” “Under Two Flags,” “A Leaf in the Storm,” “Pascarel,” “In a Winter City,” “Friendship,” “A Village Commune,” “Wanda,” “A House Party,” “Guilderoy,” “Moths,” “A Rainy June,” “Views and Opinions,” etc.
The Darwinian theory, even when carried out to its extreme logical conclusion, not only does not oppose, but lends a decided support to, a belief in the spiritual nature of man. It shows us how man’s body may have been developed from that of a lower animal form under the law of natural selection; but it also teaches us that we possess intellectual and moral faculties which could not have been so developed, but must have had another origin; and for this origin we can only find an adequate cause in the unseen universe of Spirit.
“Darwinism,”—A. R. Wallace.
Alfred Russel Wallace, a renowned English naturalist, was born at Usk in Monmouthshire, January 8, 1822, and died November 7, 1913. He wrote: “Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro,” “The Malay Archipelago,” “On the Geographical Distribution of Animals,” “Tropical Nature,” “Darwinism: An Exposition of the Theory of Natural Selection,” “Man’s Place in the Universe,” “My Life: A Record of Events and Opinions,” “Is Mars Habitable?” “The World of Life,” “Social Environment and Moral Progress,” “The Revolt of Democracy,” etc.
I have always held the old-fashioned opinion that the primary object of a work of fiction should be to tell a story.