death. Often in battle there is no doubt that if a man will throw away his arms and fall on his knees before his pursuers, he may escape death; and in other dangers there are other ways of escaping death, if a man is willing to say and do anything. The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death. I am old and move slowly, and the slower runner has overtaken me. My accusers are keen and quick, and the faster runner, who is unrighteousness, has overtaken them. And now I depart hence, condemned by you to suffer the penalty of death, and they too go their ways, condemned by the truth to suffer the penalty of villainy and wrong. I must abide by my award. Let them abide by theirs. I have a favor to ask. When my sons are grown up, I would ask you, O my friends, to trouble them as I have troubled you, if they seem to care about riches, or anything, more than about virtue; or if they pretend to be something when they are really nothing - then reprove them, as I have reproved you, for not caring about that for which they ought to care, and for thinking that they are something when they are really nothing. If you do this, I and my sons will have received justice at your hands. The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways I to die, and you to live. Which is better, God only knows. (From Dialogues of Plato, translated by BENJAMIN JOWETT) THE CRISIS OF YOUR HISTORY You will hear every day the maxims of a low prudence. You will hear that the first duty is to get land and money, place, and name. "What is this Truth you seek? What is this Beauty?" men will ask, with derision. If, never theless, God have called any of you to explore truth and beauty, be bold, be firm, be true. When you shall say, "As others do, so will I; I renounce, I am sorry for it, my early visions; I must eat the good of the land, and let learning and romantic expectations go until a more convenient season" then dies the man in you; then once more perish the buds of art, and poetry, and science, as they have died already in a thousand thousand men. The hour of that choice is the crisis of your history." RALPH WALDO EMERSON (From Literary Ethics) MY CREED I WOULD be true, for there are those who trust me; I would be brave, for there is much to dare. I would be friend of all the foe, the friendless; I would be humble, for I know my weakness; HOWARD ARNOLD WALTER LO, HERE HATH BEEN DAWNING Lo, here hath been dawning Another blue day; Think, wilt thou let it Slip useless away? Out of eternity This new day is born; Into eternity At night will return. Behold it aforetime Lo, here hath been dawning Another blue day; Think, wilt thou let it Slip useless away? THOMAS CARLYLE |