Charles Sumner; his complete works; Volume 2 (of 20)

istory or philosophy. We must endeavor to observe these nimble-footed phantoms from a nearer point of view, to follow their movements, to note their principle of life, and to direct upon them

with innumerable eyes to see, innumerable ears to hear, and

, ingens, cui quot

uli subter (mi

ora sonant, tot su

ave escaped the unpleasing personification of her sister, Fame. These two names were often used in the same sense; but the former more exclusively designated that splendor of renown which was

s and minds. Its value and significance are, therefore, measured by the weight justly attached to this opinion. If those from whom it proceeds are enlightened, benevolent, and just, it may be the mark of honor

fable and mythology of early Greece, were triumphs of brute force. Conqueror of the Nemean lion and the many-headed hydra, strangler of the giant Ant?us, illustrious scavenger of the Augean stables, grand abater of contemporary nuisances, he was hailed as hero and commemor

one bold Hector

, and rough a

n the enormous we

ve in these de

easy as a swa

he tossed and sh

al and intellectual nature, or that which distinguishes man from

f Pindar-the Theban eagle, whose pride of place is still undisturbed in the Grecian firmament-are squandered in commemoration of these petty or vulgar contests. In Sparta honor was the monopoly of the soldier returning with his shield, or on it. The arts of peace yielded servile precedence to the toils of war, in which were absorbed life and education. Athens, instinct with the martial spirit, did not fail to

must have been slain in battle without any considerable detriment to the Roman power. Her most illustrious characters cherished this barbarous spirit. Cato the Censor, that model Roman, hearing that the Athenian ambassadors had captivated the youth of Rome by the charms of philosophy, abruptly dismissed them, and, with the spirit of a Mohawk Indian, declared his reprehension of such corrup

y end of Cato at Utica, whose philosophical suicide is so familiar to English readers from Addison's tragedy: first, the calm perusal of Plato's Dialogue on the Immortality of the Soul; then the plunging of the dagger into his body; the alarm of friends; the timely prese

ul of men." As the son is about to leave, the mother instructs him how to secure an honorable name. "Now hear," says the ambitious mother to her child. "If by chance thou comest by a church, there chant thy paternoster. When thou seest victuals and drink to satisfy thy appetite, help thyself thereto. If thou shouldest hear a cry of distress, go and know the cause, but in particular if it is the voice of a female. Should any precious jewel attract thy eyes, take it; and bestow on

Fame full dearly

ld by measure

the price stil

or cost a pound

knight of renown, by Lope de Vega, reveals exploits which were little better than performances of a brawny porter and a bully. Passions of a rude nature were gratified at will. Sanguinary revenge and inhuman harshness were his honorable pursuits. A furious blow of his clenc

his enemy. The cannibal of the Feejee Islands, only recently explored by an expedition from our shores, is praised for his adroitness in lying,-for the dozen men he has killed with his own hand,-for triumphant capture, in battle, of a piece of tapa-cloth attached to a staff, not unlike one of our flags; and when dead, his club is placed in his hand, and extended across the breast, to indicate in the next world that the deceased was a chief and a warrior.[194] This is barbarous Glory! But among nations professing Christianity, in our day, there is a powerful public o

et recognized the peculiar Christian sentiment of Human Brotherhood, without difference of country, color, or race,-that does not feel, in the concerns of state, as of private life, the enkindling supremacy of those principles of Justice and Benevolence which send their heavenly radiance into the home of poverty, the darkness of ignorance, and the solitude of the prison, which exhibit the degradation

s mundane Glor

omes now this w

e because it ch