Reconnaissance

“ It is fitting, then, that we pause, not merely to praise the departed, but also to consider the significance of a noble life, and the duties and responsibilities which so great an example urges upon us,—in short, the lesson of a life of service. ”

“ Which is the most necessary, the most noble, and the most exalted? Which ought to be surrounded with the greatest respect, covered with the greatest honours, and recompensed with the most considerable rewards? ”

“ Glory and honor fall to the share of that nobility who neither know, see, nor feel any other happiness than honor and glory. Respect and esteem are for those ministers and magistrates, whose whole life is a continued succession of labour, and who watch day and night over the happiness of the empire. ”

“ Moreover, know thou that neither being a man of learning nor being a follower is in itself a source of glory. If thou art a man of learning, thy knowledge becometh an honour, and if thou art a follower, thine adherence unto leadership becometh an honour, only when these conform to the good-pleasure of God. ”

“ If, by the wonderful beauty of Thy works, I have been led into boldness, if I have sought my own honor among men as I advanced in the work which was destined to Thine honor, pardon me in kindness and charity, and by Thy grace grant that my teaching may be to Thy glory, and the welfare of all men. Praise ye the Lord, ye heavenly Harmonies, and ye that understand the new harmonies, praise the Lord. Praise God, O my soul, as long as I live. ”

“ To all—their due! If the creations of the mind stand paramount in our estimation, let appropriate honour be rendered to the skill of hand and eye, which alone can give vitality and form to our noblest conceptions. ”

“ And you, most honourable and magnificent lords, the worthy and revered magistrates of a free people, permit me to offer you in particular my duty and homage. If there is in the world a station capable of conferring honour on those who fill it, it is undoubtedly that which virtue and talents combine to bestow, that of which you have made yourselves worthy, and to which you have been promoted by your fellow-citizens. ”

“ There are dignities of God, and there are dignities of man. Charity of heart, duty towards one's neighbour, loyalty, and truth―these are the dignities of God. To be a duke, a minister of State, or a high official―these are the dignities of man. The men of old cultivated the dignities of God, and the dignities of man followed. ”

“ Nor unworthily, thy servants,
Nor thy courts with indiscretion;
Let thy dwellings sing good manners,
And thy walls re-echo virtue.
After mind the hero searches.
And the best of men seek honor,
Seek for honesty and wisdom ”

“ What so truly suits with honour and honesty as the discovering things unknown, erecting towns, peopling countries, informing the ignorant, reforming things unjust, teaching virtue and gain to our native mother country:—so far from wronging any as to cause posterity to remember thee, and, remembering thee, ever honour that remembrance with praise? ”

“ The voice of humanity honour, and justice, calls upon us as a nation to remedy those evils, by sending some intelligent surgeon to live amongst them. They at present pant for the pruning-hand of civilization and the arts; love and adore us as beings of a superior nature, but gently upbraid us with having left them in the same abject state they were at first discovered. ”

“ For actions are the words of Providence; The mouth of consequences speaks aloud, And Nature's language is the voice of God: "'Tis just," says he, "the people should be shown, The man that wears it, can deserve the crown. Merit will make my choice appear so just, They'll own him fit for the intended trust; Confirm by reason my exalted choice, And make him King by all the people's voice. ”

“ But honour, which is esteem and regard, that thou owest to all men; and if all, then thy inferiors. But why for all men? Because they are the creation of God, and the most noble part of his creation too: they are also thy own kind: be natural, and assist them with what thou canst; be ready to perform any real respect, and yield them any good or countenance thou canst. ”

“ Your principalities shall come down, the honour and power on which you value yourselves and in which you confide, even the crown of your glory, your goodly or glorious crown: when you are led away captives, where will your principality and all the badges of it be then?" Blessed be God there is a crown of glory, which those shall inherit who do humble themselves, that shall never come down. ”

“ Intrusted early in life with high command, and subjected from the first to serious responsibility, he possessed that singleness of heart and integrity of purpose which, even more than talent or audacity, are the foundations of true and moral courage, and the only pure path to public greatness; a sense of duty, a feeling of honor, a generous patriotism, a forgetfulness of self, constituted the spring of all his actions. ”

“ There are many things, then, which allure us both by their dignity and also by the advantage which may be derived from them: such as glory, dignity, influence, friendship. Glory is the fact of a person's being repeatedly spoken of to his praise; dignity is the honourable authority of a person, combined with attention and honour and worthy respect paid to him. Influence is a great abundance of power or majesty, or of any sort of resource. ”

“ First, What, in the more popular acceptation, are Fame and Glory? Secondly, To what extent, if any, are they proper motives of conduct or objects of regard? and, Thirdly, What are True Fame and Glory, and who are the men most worthy of honor? Already, in stating these questions, scenes and characters memorable in history rise before us, while from a distance we discern the dazzling heights of human ambition. ”

“ Hitherto our struggle has been deemed noble, great, and wise; we have been looked upon as the consecrated and inspired ones of a Divine World-Plan. Should our work perish with you, then will our honour be changed into dishonour, our wisdom into folly. ”

“ Here is something practical, which all can appreciate, and all are ready to honor. We honor the courage which conceived, the skill which executed, and, above all, the success which crowned the undertaking. ”

“ I beseech you not to listen to him. "Let no man beguile you into a voluntary humility!" Honour to whom honour is due—the honour of your success is due to your noble selves. "You owe nothing, absolutely nothing whatever, to your institutions, to your citizenship. ”

“ During my four weeks' sojourn in England I have had another lofty honor, a continuous honor, an honor which has flowed serenely along, without halt or obstruction, through all these twenty-six days, a most moving and pulse-stirring honor—the heartfelt grip of the hand, and the welcome that does not descend from the pale-gray matter of the brain, but rushes up with the red blood from the heart. It makes me proud and sometimes it makes me humble, too. ”

“ What a career, what love of adventure, what hardships endured with heroic fortitude, what leadership that could inspire others to passionate loyalty, and superhuman endurance under unspeakable trials, and what a fate! ”

“ The men and women whose names we honor and celebrate are invariably those with lives founded primarily upon this great law. Note if you will, every truly great life in the world's history, among those living and among the so-called dead, and tell me if in every case that life is not a life spent in the service of others, either directly, or indirectly as when we say—he served his country. Whenever one seeks for reputation, for fame, for honor, for happiness directly and for his own sake, then that which is true and genuine never comes, at least to any degree worthy the name. ”

“ And as we follow in the straight and narrow path, the path of our fathers, the Gods—the path of exaltation and glory, so shall we, according to the golden rule, the higher law, witness our posterity, or, at least a fair percentage of them, following after us. And thus honor will be added to honor, and glory to glory, for endless will be our increase and eternal our progression in the grand science of life, in all that is noble, intellectual and Godlike; extended will be our authority and power, enlarged will be our rule and dominion, even beyond the capacity of our frail comprehension. ”

“ Let fame and power and the glory of this world be striven for and won in loyalty and steadfastness and truth, in service of those who need aid, in mercy to the vanquished and in humility before God, with assurance that He is truth and loyalty and power, and never fails those who obey and serve Him. ”

“ We honor all men in the Lord, but not in the spirit and fashion of the world which passes away. And though we do not pull off our hats or give flattering titles, or use compliments, because we believe there is no true honor in using them, yet we treat all men with seriousness and gentleness, though it be with plainness, and our superiors with a modest distance, and are ready to do them any reasonable benefit or service, in which we think real honor consists. ”

“ As natural life the body warms, And, scholars teach, the soul informs, So honour animates the whole, And is the spirit of the soul. Those numerous virtues which the tribe Of tedious moralists describe, And by such various titles call, True honour comprehends them all. Let melancholy rule supreme, Choler preside, or blood, or phlegm, It makes no difference in the case, Nor is complexion honour's place. ”

“ A course of conduct, regulated by these principles, confers true and solid dignity. On this foundation you have established your character as a worthy man and an excellent citizen. Acting on these principles, you have risen to immortal glory. Wherever you go, that best of blessings, the testimony of a good conscience, will attend you; and the memory of your virtues will survive when you are laid in the grave. ”

“ FROM the general passion which the French have for glory, there has been developed in the minds of individuals a certain something which they call “the point of honour;” it is properly the characteristic of every profession, but most marked in military men—theirs, indeed, is the point of honour par excellence. ”

“ Some wish to fill posts of honor and trust in their country's service; some would win respect and honor in some of the learned professions; some would seek esteem and competency in the schools of art; some would lay the foundations of a noble life in mechanism; some in agriculture; some in commerce. The avocations are many, but the spirit, the aim, the ambition is one. ”

“ And certainly no mode of honouring those immediate Authors of our Being can be more effectual, than that of doing praiseworthy Actions, which reflect Honour on those who gave us our Education; or more becoming, than that of manifesting, by some public Expression or Token, that it is to their Instruction and Example we ascribe the Merit of those Actions. ”

“ You owe a thank-offering for the glorious victories of our armies:—pay it now. You belong, too, to an honourable body, which has a noble history, and sets you many a noble example; show yourselves worthy of that body, that history, those examples, now. ”

“ On the other hand, what noble propriety and grace do we feel in the conduct of those who, in their own case, exert that recollection and self-command which constitute the dignity of every passion, and which bring it down to what others can enter into? ”

“ But those who have signalized themselves by virtuous actions, are made famous in every age, their praises being proclaimed, as it were, by a divine voice from history.
I judge it therefore honourable and commandable, and a piece of admirable wisdom and prudence, to purchase that glory which is immortal, with labours and sufferings that are but short and temporal. ”

“ And hence, by a benign ordinance of our nature, genuine honour is the hand-maid of humanity; the attendant and sustainer—both of the sterner qualities which constitute the appropriate excellence of the male character, and of the gentle and tender virtues which belong more especially to motherliness and womanhood. These general laws, by which mankind is purified and exalted, and by which Nations are preserved, suggest likewise the best rules for the preservation of individual armies, and for the accomplishment of all equitable service upon which they can be sent. ”

“ They bent in gratitude for the blessings they conferred, and were guided and directed in the daily business of life by the conviction of their responsibility to higher powers than any which they recognised in the world around them. ”

“ I shall have accomplished my purpose if I can in some degree be humbly instrumental in serving my country and my generation, by promoting the well-being of my fellow-men, and advancing the declarative glory of Almighty God. ”

“ Let them see you going out and coming in, whether on duty or by your own firesides, as men who feel that they are “ever beneath their great taskmaster’s eye;” who have a solemn duty to perform, namely, the duty of living like good men toward your superior officers, your families, your neighbours, your country, and your God—even towards that Saviour who so loved you that He died for you on the cross, to set you the example of what true men should be; the example of perfect duty, perfect obedience, perfect courage, perfect generosity—in one word—the example of a perfect Hero. ”

“ Can anything be drawn from your LIFE, CHARACTER OR CONDUCT that is worthy of being held up to the gaze of this nation as a model of VIRTUE, CHARACTER AND WISDOM?'... 'Your whole life, character and conduct' have been spotted with deeds that causes a blush upon the face of a virtuous patriot ”

“ All the glory and honour of the nations shall be brought into it. Whatever is excellent and valuable in this world shall be there enjoyed in a more refined kind, and to a far greater degree—brighter crowns, a better and more enduring substance, more sweet and satisfying feasts, a more glorious attendance, a truer sense of honour and far higher posts of honour, a more glorious temper of mind, and a form and a countenance more glorious than ever were known in this world. ”