Frontin

“ It is the gage flung down, and the silver trumpet ringing defiance to falsehood and tyranny deceit, dulness, superstition. It is Truth, the champion, shining and intrepid, and fronting the great world-tyrant with armies of slaves at his buck. ”

“ Franklin was over forty; his mother was still alive. She stood in the forefront of all women for him, just as Captain Anthony stood in the forefront of all men. We may suppose that these groups were not very large. ”

“ When that book and those words were read to Fronto, while I and many more were sitting with him, it was the opinion of a person present, and one by no means unlearned, that it was absurd and frigid in a historical work to say "with many mortals" instead of "with many men," and savoured too much of poetry: then said Fronto to him who had expressed this view:
"Do you, a man of the correctest taste in other things, affirm that you think 'many mortals' an absurd and frigid expression? ”

“ What was there about this dismal, silent place that seemed to leap at him all at once from the dimness, he knew not whence? Was it the shack with its solitary light, or the broad river lapping with soft sighings and low weeping sounds among the piles below, or was it something in the altered aspect of the guiding figure that led him forward, slow and ever slower, as if with dragging feet, and yet with feet that trod so softly?
"Spider," said he at last, speaking in hushed and breathless manner, "Spider—where are we?" ”

“ The Major stared keenly at well-opened, grey eyes which stared back at him under level brows; at straightish nose, widish mouth and strong, deep-cleft chin; each feature in turn was the object of his wistful scrutiny and he must even trace out the scar that marked his left temple and seek to hide it with the limp side-curls of his peruke. Then he turned away and seating himself at his desk leaned there, head on hand, staring blindly at the written sheets before him.
And behind his thoughts was a line from the posy on the sundial:
"Youth is joyous, Age is melancholy:"
The Major sighed. ”

“ Has he been the faithful governor of some province? Has he commanded an army? Nothing of the kind. Not even those everyday duties about your person does he discharge more than others; nay, he is, if you wish the truth, remiss enough. For neither does he haunt your house at daybreak, nor pay his respects to you daily, nor attend you everywhere, nor keep you always in sight. See to it then that, if anyone ask you why you love Fronto, you have an easy answer ready. ”

“ The Front has its own peculiar exhilaration, like big game-hunting, discovering the North Pole, or anything that's dangerous; and it has its own peculiar reward—the peace of mind that comes of doing something beyond dispute unselfish and superlatively worth while. It's odd, but it's true that in the front-line many a man experiences peace of mind for the first time and grows a little afraid of a return to normal ways of life. ”

“ Actually I said to Franklin, and he will bear witness to it, that now we were in the exact atmosphere which was most grateful to me. I looked on all the simple little streets, the one and a half story houses with sloping roofs, the rows of good trees and unfenced lawns, and wished and wished and wished. If one only could go back—supposing one could—unreel like a film, and then represent one’s life to oneself. ”

“ Only we two and nothing but the sea with us. You think it would be all right; the only chief mate he ever had—Mr Franklin here and Mr Franklin there—when anything went wrong the first word you would hear about the decks was ‘Franklin!’—I am thirteen years older than he is—you would think it would be all right, wouldn’t you? Only we two on this poop on which we saw each other first—he a young master—told me that he thought I would suit him very well—we two, and thirty-one days out at sea, and it’s no good! It’s like talking to a man standing on shore. ”

“ The progress already made, forms a bright page in our history, and the last great discovery which has realized the vision of our venerated Franklin, making the lightning of heaven the agent of earth, seems like a stray beam from the science of the skies. ”

“ It is the spirit of the frontier which is described, and one can by it, perhaps, the better understand why men, and women, too, willingly braved every privation and danger that the westward progress of the star of empire might be the more certain and rapid. ”

“ While its cadence was continued by Colonel Franklin and the Jedge, the four boys, in marching rhythm, sang out cheerily into the crisp cold night:
"When other lips and other hearts,
Their tales of love shall tell,
In accents whose excess imparts
The power they feel so well. ”

“ COLONEL FRANKLAND.
⁠Such a woman, an thou wilt.—What kind of forehead has this child?
MISS FRANKLAND.
⁠Somewhat broad and low.
COLONEL FRANKLAND.
⁠And the nose?
MISS FRANKLAND.
⁠Rather short than long; and the nostrils on either side are curved so prettily, that they look like two little delicate shells.
COLONEL FRANKLAND.
⁠Is it possible! This was the peculiarity in her face.
MISS FRANKLAND.
⁠You droop your head, dear uncle;—you tremble. Let me bring this child to you. ”

“ Franzén was a true lyric poet, fixing with masterly art the fleeting traits of common life in a glorified and fascinating form. At a time when revolution shrieked against every traditional bond of society, the lyre of Franzén breathed innocence and peace. ”

“ I determined to give a week's strict attention to each of the virtues successively. Thus, in the first week my great guard was to avoid every (the least) offense against Temperance, leaving the other virtues to their ordinary chance, only marking every evening the faults of the day. Thus, if in the first week I could keep my first line, marked T., clear of spots, I supposed the habit of that virtue so much strengthened, and its opposite weakened, that [Pg 99] I might venture extending my attention to include the next, and for the following week keep both lines clear of spots. ”

“ But he knew from long experience that on the frontier—the ragged edge of civilization—where life is wild and strenuous, only strong men could succeed; men sound in limb, keen in intellect, and thoroughly consecrated to the Master's cause. ”

“ The more power you wanted the more you had to get hold of the ground and dig for it; and the more solid you were, the more heavy, solid things you could get, the more you could pull solid, heavy things round in this world where you wanted them. Franklin turned to the sky, and turned power on from above, and decided that the real and the solid and the substantial in this world was to be pulled about by the Invisible. ”

“ At length my guide moved forwards, but so silently that his progress was more like that of a shadow than of anything having life and weight in it. His hand was still carried behind him, the open palm towards me, and every motion of the fingers instinct with intelligence and warnings of the presence of danger the most imminent and deadly. The Fan (my guide was a splendid specimen of that noblest of the Central African tribes) again stopped. ”

“ It was not till later that I learned—by assistance of Miss Rachel, who was the first to make the discovery—that these puzzling shifts and transformations in Mr. Franklin were due to the effect on him of his foreign training. At the age when we are all of us most apt to take our coloring, in the form of a reflection from the coloring of other people, he had been sent abroad, and had been passed on from one nation to another, before there was time for any one coloring more than another to settle itself on him firmly. ”

“ Now, in a while, lifting her eyes, they encountered those of the smiling Cavalier above the mantel. Then, as she looked, she stretched out her arms with a sudden yearning gesture:
“Oh!” she whispered, “if I were only—just a picture, like you.” ”

“ I here took the opportunity to ask Franklin if it was necessary, in communicating with absent individuals, to use those external appliances? “Not always; thought can commune with thought if upon the same plane; but a mind like that of our great statesman cannot readily communicate with one whose mind on earth never rose above the domestic affairs of life. In such cases, external means are necessary.”
“Come,” said he, turning; “I will show you something more remarkable than this.” So saying, he led me through an open door into one of the spacious gardens which grace the palace on either side. ”

“ There seemed to be frontier behind me and frontier in front of me. Evidently, however, what had happened was that I had lost my sense of direction and had wandered in the arc of a circle, returning to the same fence that I had been so long in getting through. This solution of the mystery came to me suddenly, and I at once searched the landscape for something in the way of a landmark to guide me. For once my faithful friend, the North Star, had failed me. The sky was pitch black and there wasn't a star in the heavens. ”

“ With Franklin grasp the lightning's fiery wing,
Or yield the lyre of Heaven another string
“The Swedish sage admires, in yonder bowers,
His winged insects, and his rosy flowers ;
Calls from their woodland haunts the savage train,
With sounding horn, and counts them on the plain—
So once, at Heaven's command, the wanderers came
To Eden's shade, and heard their various name.
"Far from the world, in yen sequestered clime,
Slow pass the sons of Wisdom, more sublime ”

“ If I had been alone I might have once more tried the effect of argument; but in the presence of the guide I held my peace; my heart flew back to my sweet Virlandaise, and I approached the central chimney. ”

“ She greeted me with a studied ease.
"You are down very early," I said, wondering why she did not always dress her hair so.
"Oh, I'm fond of the early morning; but you—what brings you down at such an unusual hour?" ”

“ Why useless hang those arms that could climb the tallest tree or draw the toughest bow? Alas! Every part of that frame which we lately beheld with admiration and wonder is now become as inanimate as it was three hundred years ago! We will not, however, bemoan thee as if thou wast forever lost to us, or that thy name would be buried in oblivion. ”

“ And now, sinking upon this stone, I set my elbows upon my knees, and my chin in my hands, and, fixing my eyes upon the ever-moving waters of the brook, fell into a profound meditation.
From this I was suddenly aroused by the clink of iron and the snort of a horse.
Wondering, I lifted my eyes, but the bushes were very dense, and I could see nothing. But, in a little, borne upon the gentle wind, came the sound of a voice, low and soft and very sweet—whose rich tones there was no mistaking—followed, almost immediately, by another—deeper, gruffer—the voice of a man. ”

“ Oh, we had much rather think of these, and close our eyes on all this maelstrom-misery, and tinselled grandeur. We feel stifled. We throw up the window, and wonder what can ail us? for unrest, unquiet, and strife seem to be in the very atmosphere that we breathe. ”

“ It is no exaggeration to say that this intellect was an organ lacking in no element of power except that which can be supplied by a profound spiritual insight and a kindling imagination alone. The Many-Sided Franklin, the title of the essay by Paul Leicester Ford, is a felicitous touch of description. The life, the mind, the character of the man were all manifold, composite, marked by spacious breadth and freedom. ”

“ Fernande strained her ears to listen, and soon she heard a stealthy, furtive movement in the undergrowth close by, and she was conscious of that curious, unerring sense which in the midst of Nature's silence proclaims the presence of a hidden human being. ”

“ The ceremony will be repeated on a quieter scale the day after to-morrow, if the Gods will. Your Gratia has done your part for you. I do not know if she has greeted her Lady. Farewell, my sweetest of masters. My mother sends you her greeting.
Marcus Aurelius to Fronto.
? 148–149 A.D. To my master.
May you keep your birthday, my master, both sound in health now and strong in all years to come, happy, and with all your wishes granted; which yearly prayer of mine grows ever more comprehensive as my capacity for affection increases and the period of our most sweet intercourse lengthens! ”

“ The frontier was the place and the time of the strong man, of the self-sufficient but restless individual. It was the home of the rebel, the protestant, the unreconciled, the intolerant, the ardent—and the resolute. ”

“ There are some minds, of which Franklin’s is a good type, so versatile and so shifty that they can turn with advantage to any opening that chances to offer, no matter in what direction; and such minds do right in seizing every opportunity, wherever it occurs. ”

“ The Gods, if we deserve it, will deal kindly with my daughter and your wife. [64] that all may go well, and will bless our household with children and grandchildren, and will see to it that those, who have been and shall yet be born of you. shall be like you. Daily tiffs indeed and disagreements I have with our little Victorinus or our little Fronto. While you never ask any reward [65] of any one for act or speech. your little Fronto prattles no word more readily or more constantly than this Da (Give) . ”

“ Franklin, a lover of science and friend of man, in the latter part of his life said, that after a century from the time of his decease he would like to revisit the earth to see what improvements would be made in that time. ”