(1306)
GREATNESS, HUMAN, A BAUBLE
Having strayed by some odd eddy of circumstance into the House of Lords, when the King was present, John Wesley draws a picturesque little vignette of him.
“I was in the robe-chamber, adjoining the House of Lords, when the King (George II) put on his robes. His brow was much furrowed with age, and quite clouded with care. And is this all the world can give even to a king, all the grandeur it can afford? A blanket of ermine round his shoulders, so heavy and cumbersome he can scarce move under it! A huge heap of borrowed hair, with a few plates of gold and glittering stones upon his head! Alas, what a bauble is human greatness!”—W. H. Fitchett, “Wesley and His Century.”
(1307)
GREATNESS IN MEN
Edwin Markham describes a noble type of man in the following poem:
Give thanks, O heart, for the high souls
That point us to the deathless goals—
For all the courage of their cry