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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Washington was wholly free from the vulgar ambition of the usurper, and the desire of mere personal aggrandizement found no place in his nature.
He fought to free the colonies from England, and make them independent, not to play the part of a Cæsar or a Cromwell in the wreck and confusion of civil war.
George Washington will always hold the love and reverence of men because they see embodied in him the noblest possibilities of humanity.
There is nothing in human beings at once so sane and so sympathetic as a sense of humor.