Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1884-12-11
MEMORABLE SAYINGS.

We may place first in this catalogue ;
few of those sayings which sprang lesl
from the exigency of the moment thar
from train of thought habitual to tht
speaker.
Such, for example, was the wish utter
ed by the Roman Emperor, Caligula
would that the Roman people had but
one neck" in order that he might have
the pleasure of annihilating the nation
at a single blow.
In like manner, some of the senti-
ments adopted by rulers as their mottoes
are most instructive when taken in con
junction with their reigns.
"He who knows not how to dissimu
late, knows not how to reign" was all
the French king, Louis XI, thought ne
cessary for the son who was to succeed
him as Charles VIII.
We are afforded no slight clue to the
strange character and crooked policy OF
the cunning and wary king by his ac>
knowledgment of this sentiment as q
principle of government.
II am the state" was the motto adopt
ed at an early age by another French
king, Louis XIV, and from the time Of
his personal assumption of government
until the close of his long reign the whole
Kingdom of France did, indeed, appear
to center in the person of the monarch.
Two German Emperors of the last Gen.
tury have left records of conscious fall
ure in the task of government.
Misfortune will never leave me till /
leave it," said Charles VII, the unhappy
rival of Maria Theresa.
Equally despairing was the epitaph
which the well-meaning, if ill-sdvised,
Joseph H., proposed for himself, "Here
lies a monarch who, with the best inten-
tions, never carried single design into
execution"
This verdict can hardly fail to remind
the reader of the more satirical judgment
of the Earl of Rochester on Charles IL,
of England, "Who never said foolish
thing, and never did wise one"
1t has often been proposed to make q
collection of the last words of remarka-
bic persons, although they are said to
express but seldom the ruling passion of
their life.
The last words of Archimedes stand
out foremost among the exceptions to
this rule. 1t is related that this great
mathematician and engineer was occu
pied with mathematical problem at the
moment when Marcellus carried by as
sault the city of Syracuse (B. c. 2l2) and
that be was so intent on this occupation,
that he knew nothing of what was going
on in the city.
Even when be was reused by the pres
ence of a Carthaginian soldier, who
brandished his sword in a threatening
manner over his head, he only looked up
to request his enemy, "Wait until l have
finished my demonstratinnJp'
Unfortunately the man did not under>
stand the languag nor recognize the
person of whom Marcellus would fain
have spared, but killed Archimedes on the
spot. But more frequently the import
ance of the occupations of this world
fade before the approach of death.
Notable among the expressions of dy-
ing men for sadness mingled with regret,
are the words which Wolsey addressed
to Sir William Kingston, Constable of
the Tower, who had been sent to arrest
him. They are better known in the al
tered form in which they occur in
play of Henry Ill, but the
original version is thus preserved to rs:
''If had served my God as diligently
as have served my king, He would not
have given me over in my gray hairs"
Characteristic of the spirit which had
her career were the words ad
dressed from the scaffold to a statue of
Liberty by Madame Roland, "Oh, Liber
tyl how many crimes are committed in
thy name"
1t may be, though she knew it not,
that her execution was part of the Di-
vine retribution for the blood of the
murdered king, which, under the gnise
of false liberty, the Girondist party
had joined in shedding.
The last words of the great English
William Pitt, are said to have
been, "Ob, my country! how leave my
alluding to the withdrawal of
Austria from the coalition which had
been formed against Napoleon.
There are some historical sayings
which have passed into the region of
proverbs. Foremost among these we
fnd, "The die is cast" by which Caesar
the irrevocable nature of the
step he had taken. when, by bringing |
bis legions across the river which FORM |
I'D the boundary of his province, he
the laws of the state, and |
declared war against Ponpey |
and his adherenis.
1t is worthy of remark that this same
act of she Roman general, which opentd
he long civil wars, gives US the similar
Droverbial phrase, ITO cross the Rubi> /
,pn."