Of fall of favorites, projects of the great,
Of old mismanagements, taxations new;
All neither wholly false, nor wholly true.
Alexander Pope, “Temple of Fame.”
Modern Transportation
Of all inventions, the alphabet and printing-press excepted, those inventions which abridge distance have done most for the civilization of our species. Every improvement of the means of locomotion benefits mankind morally and intellectually as well as materially, and not only facilitates the interchange of the various productions of nature and art, but tends to remove national and provincial antipathies, and to bind together all the branches of the great human family.—Macaulay, “History of England.”
Erskine’s Toast
Sink your pits, blast your mines, dam your rivers, consume your manufactures, disperse your commerce, and may your labors be in vein.
Our Dead
Alexander the Great, before giving signal for the banquet to be served, looked searchingly around upon the faces of all present and called out: “Are all here who fought at Issos?” After a pause Clitus answered, “All, Alexander, but those who fell there.” Which was thought to be an ill response for such an occasion, but to which Alexander quickly replied: “Then all who fought at Issos are here, since the glorious dead are always in our memory.”—Ctesippus to Aristotle.