Oh, hands of mine that the unnumbered years
Evolved from hoof and wing and claw and fin,
’T is ours to bring from out the stress and tears,
A godlike figure fashioned from within.
LOUISA M. ALCOTT
CHAPTER IV
SOME EVERY-DAY VIRTUES
I would rather be right than president!" Each, whatever his estate, in his own unconscious breast bears the talisman of fate.—John Townsend Trowbridge.
At first thought those words seem to be the declaration of an unusually upright and conscientious person. But let us study them a little more deeply and closely.