Page images
PDF
EPUB

10

"The next with dirges due in sad array

Slow through the church-way path we saw him borne,— Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn."

THE EPITAPH

5 Here rests, his head upon the lap of Earth,

A Youth, to Fortune and to Fame unknown;
Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth,
And Melancholy marked him for her own.

Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere ;
Heaven did a recompense as largely send :

He gave to Misery all he had, a tear;

He gained from Heaven ('t was all he wished) a friend.

No further seek his merits to disclose,

Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,

15 (There they alike in trembling hope repose,) The bosom of his Father and his God.

ground; earth.

[ocr errors]

curfew: a bell rung at bedtime. In the early days of English history it was the signal to cover the fires of the household and go to bed. The summer twilight in England, it must be remembered, lasts much longer than in America. - lea: open field or meadow. save: except. - glebe: broke an old form still used in poetry. — joc'und: merry. — awaits, etc.: an inverted sentence of which hour is the subject. fretted: carved. — pregnant with celestial fire: filled with celestial fire. living: waking to life; animating. Hampden: a noted English statesman and patriot. madding: mad. e'en: even. - melancholy the love of meditation, thoughtfulness; a somewhat rare use of the word.

THE SECRET OF SUCCESS

ANDREW D. WHITE

ANDREW D. WHITE (1832- ) is an eminent American scholar and diplomat.

NOTE. The following pages are the conclusion of a lecture on "The Statesmanship of Bismarck," delivered July 13, 1909, before the summer session of Cornell University.

Something less

than a year since, I passed a day amid my old haunts on the shore of the German Ocean and visited Friedrichsruhe, the second of the two great estates given Bismarck in gratitude for his services to his country.

There it was that he had passed the happiest years of his later life. In those

broad forests I trod

PRINCE BISMARCK

(After a painting by Franz von Lenbach)

his favorite paths, rested in his accustomed seats, looked forth over the prospects which he had most enjoyed. In

5

[graphic]

the old, hospitable mansion I lingered in the room where he died, all things in it remaining as at his death hour; sat in his workroom, at his table. In the rooms where he was wont to lavish hospitality I talked with his grandson, 5 the heir to his title, a bright boy of twelve years, and he seemed to welcome kindly my hope expressed to him that he would bear worthily his great name. Noteworthy were the manifold tokens of love and gratitude from the fellowcitizens of the great Chancellor, among them a striking 10 copy of the picture representing him standing before the emperor William the First, in the sumptuous hall of Louis the Fourteenth at Versailles, and announcing to the world the German Empire.

But one thing remained, of deeper interest than all else. 15 Hard by, in a chapel of plain hewn stone, was his tomb, a single block of granite above it, bearing the simple words which he had ordered placed upon it: "Prince Bismarck

a faithful servant of Kaiser William the First." Significant of much is it that no mention is made of the two 20 succeeding emperors whom he served. But of far deeper significance is the inscription over the adjacent altar. In letters of gold it gives Bismarck's favorite text, that which Schleiermacher placed in his hands at his confirmation in his boyhood, words of St. Paul to the Colossians: "Do it 25 heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.'

[ocr errors]

There is the key to Bismarck's character, without which no man can understand him. Faults he had, and

great faults; errors he committed, and great errors; but at the foundation of the whole man was his loyalty to duty, and this was enforced by his unconquerable will. This it was which gave him that success which astonished the world, which made him the greatest German since 5 Luther, and one of the greatest men who ever lived.

My friends, you are entering life; I am leaving it. Let me tell you that his key to success is yours. I have seen sixty successive generations of students graduated at American colleges and universities, forty-two of them 10 here at Cornell. I have watched their after careers. Some who seemed likely to succeed have failed; some who seemed likely to fail have made successes. And it has become clear to me that the great secret of all success worth having is character-sound, solid, truthful, 15 wholesome character-based upon a sense of duty and enforced by a strong will. Without this you will have no success worth having. With this all the success worth having is sure.

Friedrichsruhe (frēd ́rīks rua) · "Frederick's rest." Bismarck: a great Prussian statesman, who brought about the union of the small German states into one powerful empire. After the war with France (1870-1871) he dictated the terms of peace and had the satisfaction of seeing King William of Prussia crowned emperor of Germany in the palace of the French kings. Bismarck was made Chancellor a few days later. Versailles (vair säy): a royal palace near Paris; it was the headquarters of the German invaders. Kaiser (ki'zěr): Emperor. Schleiermacher (shli'er mäk er): a famous preacher and professor. Luther: the founder of Protestantism.

[ocr errors]
[graphic]

10

TO AUTUMN

JOHN KEATS

JOHN KEATS (1795-1821) was one of the most famous English poets.
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,

For Summer has o'er-brimmed their clammy cells.

« PreviousContinue »