The Penn's Grove record., 1883-04-21
The Sayings CT Great People

George Ill. IS sayings are, like his
own image stamped on copper, poor in
expression, but very strongly stamped.
1t was the same with Madame de Pom
padour's celebrated expressions of reck-
~lessness "Apres nous, lie deluge,'' a
saying which has become part of his
tory, partly from its truth, partly from
its vivid expression of the selfshness
and. recklessness which made it his
torical. And it is this quality of per-
sOnal eX~pressiveness which, when the
character so stamped is not poor, but
has anything magnificent or noble in it,
that makes a great saying take rank
with a great deed. Louis XIV.'s
declaration on his death-bed to Madame
de Maintenon II imagined it more
difficult to die, " as though his departure
at least must have involved a convul-
sion of nature and Pitts grand fare
well to power, when he returned, dying,
from Bath, "Fold up the map of
Europe, =" are excellent specimens of the
sort of sayings which, though contain
ing no thought at all, nothing but a
great consciousness of power, yet i'm"
press us more than the most vivid
wisdom or the most poignant wit.
This is why dignity tells for SO much in
a saying of this kind,-for so much
more, indeed, than even truth. Burke's
grand sentence on the hustings, when
referring to the death of another candi-
date "What shadows we are, and
what shadows we pursue !" makes an
even greater impression on the imagina-
ton than the other sentence II do
not know how to draw up an indict-
ment against a whole people," not be
cause it embodies half the political
wisdom of the second sentence, but be-
cause it recalls Burke and This soaring
imagination more impressively to the
mind. Even Lord Chesterfield, with
all his thinness and superficialty,
makes his mark upon us directly he be-
gins to delineate himself. ''There is a
certain dignity to be kept up in
pleasures, as well as in business" and
"Knowledge may give weight, but ac-
complishments give lustre, and many
more people see than weigh" paint so
exactly IA man thoLghtfully and con-
~sistently anxious about appearances,
that they impress us almost as much as
one of DIR. Johnson's vivid self-por-
traitures Of a much nobler kind. In
deed they impress us not only almost as
much, but for nearly the same reason,
that by imaging the mar who lived in
appearances, they throw Zip in strong
relief on our minds the recollection of
men to whom mere appearances were
naught.
Sayings, however excellent, which do
not convey in them any self-portraiture
are seldom wildly associated with their
authors. How many of u readers
will remember who it was that said,
"Nothing is certain but death and
taxes - OF, "We must all hang to-
gether, else we shall all hang separa-
tely,' OF even, st is better to wear out
than rust out,'' which last does re-
present the energy of "a certain kind of
temperament, but energy so common
that it marks rather a class than an in
dividual. Benjamin Franklin said the
two first sayings, and Bishop Cumber-
land the last, but we should be surprised
to find anyone in a company of literary
men who could have pronounced on the
spot to whom any n of the three was
to be attributed. On the other hand,
we seldom inappropriate sayings con-
tanning much less that it is worth while
to remember if only they wildly por-
tray a memorable tigure,-like Fred
erick the Greats indignant, "Wollt ihr
INNER leben 2" (''Do you fellows want
to live forever ?") when his soldiers
showed some Discrimination to being
shot down, or Gambetta's peremptory,
81 faudra on Sc soumettre, on
Sc de METRE" of Marshal Mac
Mahon's Government Of Combat.
Thus, the most impressive of all
| sayings are probably those of great
rulers who contrived to embody the
| profound confidence they felt that a
| life of command was before them, in a
few weighty words. Julius Caesars
''Veni, vidi, vici," and his question to
the skipper who feared for the loss of
| his boat, "What dost though fear, when
| Caesar is on board ?n or his disdainful
apology fer an unjust divorce, Caesars
wife ought to be free even from sus-
picion,' are likely to be in everyone's
mouth as long as the world lasts. And
80, perhaps is Napoleon's, 81 succeeded
not Louis XIV, but Charlemagne,"
and the same great mans remark,
Imagination rules the world" and, 81
ought to have died at Waterloo"
But the most influential Of all great
sayings are those which combine great
force and weight of character with a
precept, expressed or implied. Thus,
Cavour's remarkable prophecy, written
seven-and-twenty years before its fulfil
ment, SIN my dreams, | see myself al
ready Minister of the Kingdom of
Italy THE most impressive of all
precepts to have faith in great national
cravings or, again, his expressive say
ing, SIN politics, nothing is so absurd
as raneor !" or, II will have nc estate
of siege; anyone a govern with a
state of SIEGE viii do more TO keep
Italy united, to keep her governments
statesmanlike, and TO keep her people