Volume 2 — FAME AND GLORY.
Reading edition
An Oration before the Literary Societies of Amherst College at their Anniversary, August 11, 1847.
But if there be in Glory aught of good, It may by means far different be attained, Without ambition, war, or violence,— By deeds of peace, by wisdom eminent, By patience, temperance.
Milton, Paradise Regained.
Da veniam scriptis, quorum non gloria nobis Causa, sed utilitas officiumque fuit.
Ovid, Epist. ex Ponto, III. ix., 55, 56.
Singulari in eo negotio usus opera Flacci Pomponii, consularis viri, nati ad omnia quæ recte facienda sunt, simplicique virtute, merentis semper quam captantis gloriam.—Velleius Paterculus, Hist., Lib. II. Cap. 129.
Non privatim solum, sed publice furimus. Homicidia compescimus, et singulas cædes; quid bella, et occisarum gentium gloriosum scelus?—Seneca, Epist. XCV. § 30.
Tanto major famæ sitis est quam Virtutis! Quis enim virtutem amplectitur ipsam, Præmia si tollas?
Juvenal, Sat. X. 140-142.
Wealth and children are the ornament of this present life; but good works, which are permanent, are better, in the sight of thy Lord, with respect to the reward, and better with respect to hope.—Koran, tr. Sale, Ch. 18.
For ages mingled with his parent dust, Fame still records Nushirovan the Just.
From the Persian, by Sir William Jones: Life, p. 98.
Then Peredur returned to his mother and her company, and he said to her, "Mother, those were not angels, but honorable knights." Then his mother swooned away.—The Mabinogion, tr. Lady Charlotte Guest, Vol. I. p. 300.
One day he met a poor woman weeping bitterly; and when he inquired the cause, she told him that her only brother, her sole stay and support in the world, had been carried into captivity by the Moors. Dominick could not ransom her brother; he had given away all his money, and even sold his books, to relieve the poor; but he offered all he could,—he offered up himself to be exchanged as a slave in place of her brother. The woman, astonished at such a proposal, fell upon her knees before him. She refused his offer, but she spread the fame of the young priest far and wide.—Jameson, Legends of the Monastic Orders: St. Dominick.
Lord! what honor falls to a knight that he kills many men! The hangman killeth more with a better title. It were better to be butchers of beasts than butchers of our brethren, for this were more unnatural.—Wycliffe, Of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Gueres ou peu il s'est aydé des gens d'espée en ses ambassades, si-non que de ses gens de plume, ayant opinion que l'espée ne sceut tant bien entendre ses affaires, ny les conduire et démesler, comme la plume.—Brantôme, Vies des Hommes Illustres et Grands Capitaines François, Discours XLV.
He lives in fame that died in virtue's cause.
Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act I. Sc. 2.
Honors thrive, When rather from our acts we them derive Than our foregoers.
All's Well that Ends Well, Act II. Sc. 3.
The purest treasure mortal times afford Is spotless reputation: that away, Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.
Richard II., Act I. Sc. 1.
'Tis death to me to be at enmity: I hate it, and desire all good men's love.
Richard III., Act II. Sc. 1.
Never any state Could rise or stand without this thirst of glory, Of noble works, as well the mould as story. For else what governor would spend his days In envious travel for the public good? Who would in books search after dead men's ways?
F. Greville, Lord Brooke, Fame and Honor.
Boccaline has this passage of soldiers. They came to Apollo to have their profession made the eighth liberal science, which he granted. As soon as it was noised up and down, it came to the butchers, and they desired their profession might be made the ninth. "For," say they, "the soldiers have this honor for the killing of men: now we kill as well as they; but we kill beasts for the preserving of men, and why should not we have honor likewise done to us?" Apollo could not answer their reasons, so he reversed his sentence, and made the soldier's trade a mystery, as the butcher's is.—Selden, Table Talk: War.
The soldiers say they fight for honor, when the truth is they have their honor in their pocket.—Ibid.
Certainly, as some men have sinned in the principles of Humanity, and must answer for not being men, so others offend, if they be not more.... For great constitutions, and such as are constellated unto knowledge, do nothing, till they outdo all; they come short of themselves, if they go not beyond others.... A man should be something that all men are not, and individual in somewhat beside his proper name.
Sir Thomas Browne, Vulgar Errors: Of Credulity and Supinity.
Fame, if not double-faced, is double-mouthed, And with contrary blast proclaims most deeds; On both his wings, one black, the other white, Bears greatest names in his wild aëry flight.
Milton, Samson Agonistes, 971-974.
The extremes of glory and of shame, Like East and West, become the same; No Indian prince has to his palace More followers than a thief to the gallows.
Butler, Hudibras, Part II. Canto I. 271-274.
Who fears not to do ill, yet fears the name, And free from Conscience, is a slave to Fame.
Denham, Cooper's Hill, 129, 130.
The secret pleasure of a generous act Is the great mind's great bribe.
Dryden, Don Sebastian, Act V. Sc. 1.
On pend un pauvre malheureux pour avoir volé une pistole sur le grand chemin, dans son besoin extrême; et on traite de héros un homme qui fait la conquête, c'est-à-dire qui subjugue injustement les pays d'un état voisin.... Prendre un champ à un particulier est un grand péché; prendre un grand pays à une nation est une action innocente et glorieuse.—Fénelon, Examen de Conscience sur les Devoirs de la Royauté, Direction XXV.
Content thyself to be obscurely good; When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, The post of honor is a private station.
Addison, Cato, Act IV. Sc. 4.
Nor Fame I slight, nor for her favors call; She comes unlooked for, if she comes at all.
Pope, Temple of Fame, 513, 514.
To glory some advance a lying claim, Thieves of renown and pilferers of fame.
Young, Sat. III. 87, 88.
Ah! who can tell how hard it is to climb The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar?
Beattie, Minstrel, I. 1.
I would wish for immortality on earth for no other reason than for the power of relieving the distressed.—Maria Theresa: Coxe's History of the House of Austria, Vol. II. Ch. 44.
Adieu, mon cher et illustre maître; nous avons fait un beau rêve, mais il a été trop court. Je vais me remettre à la géométrie et à la philosophie. Il est bien froid de ne plus travailler que pour la gloriole, quand on s'est flatté pendant quelque temps de travailler pour le bien public.—Condorcet, à Voltaire, 1776: Œuvres, Tom. I. p. 115.
Un temps peut arriver, où les princes, lassés de l'ambition qui les agite, et de ce retour habituel des mêmes inquiétudes et des mêmes projets, tourneront davantage leurs regards vers les grandes idées d'Humanité; et si les hommes du temps présent ne doivent pas être spectateurs de ces heureuses révolutions, il leur est permis du moins de s'unir par leurs vœux à la perfection des vertus sociales, et aux progrès de la bienfaisance publique.—Necker, De l'Administration des Finances de la France, Part. I. Ch. 13.
Les nations ne doivent porter que le deuil de leurs bienfaiteurs. Les représentans des nations ne doivent recommander à leur hommage que les héros de l'humanité.—Mirabeau, Éloge Funèbre de Franklin.
I have had occasion to know many thousand persons in the course of my travels on this subject [of the Slave-Trade], and I can truly say that the part which these took on this great question was always a true criterion of their moral character.—Clarkson, History of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, Vol. II. p. 460.
Not thus the schoolmaster in his peaceful vocation.... His is a progress not to be compared with anything like a march; but it leads to a far more brilliant triumph, and to laurels more imperishable than the destroyer of his species, the scourge of the world, ever won. Such men—men deserving the glorious title of Teachers of Mankind—I have found laboring conscientiously, though perhaps obscurely, in their blessed vocation.... Their calling is high and holy; their fame is the property of nations; their renown will fill the earth in after ages, in proportion as it sounds not far off in their own times.—Lord Brougham, Speech at Liverpool, July 20, 1835.
Lieutenant-Colonel Wheeler, in his despatch (Camp Cudjah, August 24, 1840) to Captain Douglas, describing the storming of an Afghanistan fort, says: "I directed Lieutenant Paterson to concentrate as heavy a volley as he could close to the gate: this had the desired effect, shook the gate, and enabled the Grenadiers of the Forty-Eighth, under that officer, to force it, and carry the fort in beautiful style, bayoneting all within it!"—Haydon, Lectures on Painting and Design, Vol. II. p. 262.