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CHAPTER XII.

"I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise and to the unwise." On one occasion, acknowledging his indebtedness to all the Ages of the Past, Vin was heard to say:

"I am debtor to Aristophanes, to Aristides, to Arkwright, and to Alfred; to Buddha, to Barre, Burke, Bacon and Bancroft, to Buckle, to Buckner, and to Blackstone; to Confucius, to Cicero, to Clement, Copernicus, Columbus and Crompton; to Diodorus, Descartes, Demosthenes, Darwin, and to Draper; to Epictetus, Euripidas, Edison, Erickson, and to Emerson; to Fichte, to Fulton, and to Franklin; to Galileo, to Goethe, and to Gibbon; to Herodotus, to Hume, and to Hugo; to Hubbard, Haeckel, Huxley and Humboldt; to Isocrates, Isaiah, Ibsen, and to Ingersoll; to Jeremiah, to Jesus, to Justinian, and to Jefferson; to Knox, Kant, and to Kepler; to Laplace, Locke, Leibnitz, Lecky, Longfellow, Luther, and to Lincoln; to Marcus Aurelius, Magellan, Morse, Moses, Mahomet, Montesquieu, and to Macaulay; to Napoleon and to Newton; I am debtor to Origin, to Pathagoras, Plutarch, Plato, Pope, Pindar, Paine, and to Pike; to Ridpath and to Rawlins; to Socrates, Stevenson, Spencer, and Shakespeare; to Tacitus, Tyndall, Tucker, and to Tocqueville; to Volta and to Voltaire; to Watts, Webster, and to Washington;

to Zurababel, to Zoroaster and to XenophonDiscoverers, Explorers, Historians, Inventors, Poets, Philosophers, Scientists, Statesmen, Students, Thinkers! I am debtor to the myriad millions who have suffered and toiled and thought! I am debtor to the vast esoteric learning of the world! I thank the brave men with brave thoughts, and the Mothers who taught them to be Brave, Strong, and True! They are the Atlases upon whose broad and mighty shoulders rests the grand fabric of our civilization. They are the men who have broken and are steadily breaking the shackles of superstition! I am debtor to all those who have appealed to Reason, to Honor, to Law, to Liberty, to Justice, to Freedom, to Equality, to the Known, to Life, to Love, to Friendship, to Happiness, to Truth, here! in this world! I thank them! They have made civilization possible!"

BOOK II

EGYPTIAN ACHIEVEMENTS

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