Which is the noble character for after ages to admire,--yon fribble dancing in lace and spangles, or yonder hero who sheathes his sword after a life of spotless honor, a purity unreproached, a courage indomitable, and a consummate victory?
Lodge reflects on the contrasting legacies of superficiality versus honor in historical figures.
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His ideal of public service was to be found in his life, and as his life drew to its close he had to meet his ideal of sacrifice face to face.
He was also--and this is very revealing and explanatory, too, of his vast popularity--a man of ideals.
The blood of some ancestral Scotch covenanter or of some Dutch reformed preacher facing the tyranny of Philip of Spain was in his veins, and with his large opportunities and his vast audiences he was always ready to appeal for justice and…
Of all the ideals that lift men up, the hardest to fulfill is the ideal of sacrifice.