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Was glänzt ist für den Augenblick geboren;
Das Aechte bleibt der Nachwelt unverloren.
What dazzles, for the moment spends its spirit;
What's genuine, shall posterity inherit.
GOETHE-Faust. Vorspiel auf dem Theater.
L. 41.

2

Muore per metà chi lascia un' immagine di se stesso nei figli.

He only half dies who leaves an image of himself in his sons.

GOLDONI-Pamela. II. 2.

3

As to posterity, I may ask (with somebody whom I have forgot) what has it ever done to oblige me?

GRAY-Letter to Dr. Wharton. March 8, 1758. (See also ROCHE)

Audiet pugnas, vitio parentum
Rara juventus.

Posterity, thinned by the crime of its ancestors, shall hear of those battles.

HORACE Odes. Bk. I. 2. 23.

5

Ich verachte die Menschheit in allen ihren Schichten; ich sehe es voraus, dass unsere Nachkommen noch weit unglücklicher sein werden, als wir. Sollte ich nicht ein Sünder sein, wenn ich trotz dieser Ansicht für Nachkommen, d. h. für Unglückliche sorgte?

I despise mankind in all its strata; I foresee that our descendants will be still far unhappier than we are. Would I not be a criminal if, notwithstanding this view, I should provide for progeny, i. e. for unfortunates?

ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT, during a conversation with ARAGO in 1812.

6

The man was laughed at as a blunderer who said in a public business: "We do much for posterity; I would fain see them do something for

us.

MRS. ELIZABETH MONTAGU-Letters. Jan. 1, 1742. (See also ROCHE)

7

Why should we put ourselves out of our way to do anything for posterity; for what has posterity done for us?

SIR BOYLE ROCHE. During Grattan's Parliament. See C. LITTON FLAKINER'S Studies in Irish History and Biography.

(See also GRAY, MONTAGUE, STEELE, TRUMBULL)

8

Culpam majorum posteri luunt.

Posterity pays for the sins of their fathers. QUINTUS CURTIUS RUFUS-De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni. VII. 5.

9

Quid quæris, quamdiu vixit? Vixit ad posteros. Why do you ask, how long has he lived? He has lived to posterity.

SENECA-Epistles. XCIII.

10

Les étrangers sont la postérité contemporaine. Strangers are contemporary posterity.

MADAME DE STAËL. See the Journal of CAMILLE DESMOULINS.

(See also WALLACE)

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