I, therefore, in full possession of my native honesty, but knowing the liability of all men to be elected to public office, and for that reason feeling uncertain how soon I may be in danger of losing it, do hereby renounce all claim to being considered the FIRSTperson who gave utterance to a certain simile or comparison referred to in the accompanying documents, and relating to the pupil of the eye on the one part and the mind of the bigot on the other.I hereby relinquish all glory and profit, and especially all claims to letters from autograph collectors, founded upon my supposed property in the above comparison, - knowing well, that, according to the laws of literature, they who speak first hold the fee of the thing said.I do also agree that all Editors of Cyclopedias and Biographical Dictionaries, all Publishers of Reviews and Papers, and all Critics writing therein, shall be at liberty to retract or qualify any opinion predicated on the supposition that I was the sole and undisputed author of the above comparison.But, inasmuch as I do affirm that the comparison aforesaid was uttered by me in the firm belief that it was new and wholly my own, and as I have good reason to think that I had never seen or heard it when first expressed by me, and as it is well known that different persons may independently utter the same idea, - as is evinced by that familiar line from Donatus, -"Pereant illi qui ante nos nostra dixerunt," -now, therefore, I do request by this instrument that all well-disposed persons will abstain from asserting or implying that I am open to any accusation whatsoever touching the said comparison, and, if they have so asserted or implied, that they will have the manliness forthwith to retract the same assertion or insinuation.
I think few persons have a greater disgust for plagiarism than myself.If I had even suspected that the idea in question was borrowed, I should have disclaimed originality, or mentioned the coincidence, as I once did in a case where I had happened to hit on an idea of Swift's.- But what shall I do about these verses I was going to read you? I am afraid that half mankind would accuse me of stealing their thoughts, if I printed them.I am convinced that several of you, especially if you are getting a little on in life, will recognize some of these sentiments as having passed through your consciousness at some time.I can't help it, - it is too late now.The verses are written, and you must have them.Listen, then, and you shall hear WHAT WE ALL THINK.
THAT age was older once than now, In spite of locks untimely shed, Or silvered on the youthful brow;That babes make love and children wed.
That sunshine had a heavenly glow, Which faded with those "good old days,"When winters came with deeper snow, And autumns with a softer haze.
That - mother, sister, wife, or child -
The "best of women" each has known.
Were schoolboys ever half so wild?
How young the grandpapas have grown,That BUT FOR THIS our souls were free, And BUT FOR THAT our lives were blest;That in some season yet to be Our cares will leave us time to rest.
Whene'er we groan with ache or pain, Some common ailment of the race, -Though doctors think the matter plain, -
That ours is "a peculiar case."
That when like babes with fingers burned We count one bitter maxim more, Our lesson all the world has learned, And men are wiser than before.
That when we sob o'er fancied woes, The angels hovering overhead Count every pitying drop that flows And love us for the tears we shed.
That when we stand with tearless eye And turn the beggar from our door, They still approve us when we sigh, "Ah, had I but ONE THOUSAND MORE!"That weakness smoothed the path of sin, In half the slips our youth has known;And whatsoe'er its blame has been, That Mercy flowers on faults outgrown.
Though temples crowd the crumbled brink O'erhanging truth's eternal flow, Their tablets bold with WHAT WE THINK, Their echoes dumb to WHAT WE KNOW;That one unquestioned text we read, All doubt beyond, all fear above, Nor crackling pile nor cursing creed Can burn or blot it: GOD IS LOVE!
