Galileo Galilei
05-20-2009, 02:29 PM
An Eulogy on the Life and Character of James Madison, by John Quincy Adams (1836)
http://books.google.com/books?id=TFz8b0AGD5AC&dq=john+quincy+adams+james+madison+eulogy&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=PkVoFrynKC&sig=2Zmp1zxRYzbddFbNgDoYlBNwL2E&hl=en&ei=b2AUSq3yJ8qPmAe7pcjdAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#PPP3,M1
"Is it not to preserve, to cherish, to improve the inheritance which they have left us—won by their toils —watered by their tears—saddened but fertilized by their blood?
Are we the sons of worthy sices, and in the onward march of time have they achieved in the career of human improvement so much, only that our posterity and theirs may blush for the contrast between their unexampled energies and our nerveless impotence?
Between their more than Herculean labors and our indolent repose?
No, my fellow citizens—far be from us; far be from you, for he who now addresses you has but a few short days before he shall be called to join the multitudes of ages past—far be from you the reproach or the suspicion of such a degrading contrast.
You too have the solemn duty to perform, of improving the condition of your species, by improving your own.
Not in the great and strong wind of a revolution, which rent the mountains and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord—for the Lord is not in the wind—not in the earthquake of a revolutionary war, marching to the onset between the battle field and the scaffold—for the Lord is not in the earthquake—Not in the fire of civil dissension—In war between the members and the head—In nullification of the laws of the Union by the forcible resistance of one refractory State—for the Lord is not in the fire ; and that fire was never kindled by your fathers!
No!
It is in the still small voice that succeeded the whirlwind, the earthquake and the fire.
The voice that stills the raging of the waves and the tumults of the people—that spoke the words of peace—of harmony—of union.
And for that voice, may you and your children's children "to the last syllable of recorded time," fix your eyes upon the memory, and listen with your ears to the life of James Madison."
http://books.google.com/books?id=TFz8b0AGD5AC&dq=john+quincy+adams+james+madison+eulogy&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=PkVoFrynKC&sig=2Zmp1zxRYzbddFbNgDoYlBNwL2E&hl=en&ei=b2AUSq3yJ8qPmAe7pcjdAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#PPP3,M1
"Is it not to preserve, to cherish, to improve the inheritance which they have left us—won by their toils —watered by their tears—saddened but fertilized by their blood?
Are we the sons of worthy sices, and in the onward march of time have they achieved in the career of human improvement so much, only that our posterity and theirs may blush for the contrast between their unexampled energies and our nerveless impotence?
Between their more than Herculean labors and our indolent repose?
No, my fellow citizens—far be from us; far be from you, for he who now addresses you has but a few short days before he shall be called to join the multitudes of ages past—far be from you the reproach or the suspicion of such a degrading contrast.
You too have the solemn duty to perform, of improving the condition of your species, by improving your own.
Not in the great and strong wind of a revolution, which rent the mountains and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord—for the Lord is not in the wind—not in the earthquake of a revolutionary war, marching to the onset between the battle field and the scaffold—for the Lord is not in the earthquake—Not in the fire of civil dissension—In war between the members and the head—In nullification of the laws of the Union by the forcible resistance of one refractory State—for the Lord is not in the fire ; and that fire was never kindled by your fathers!
No!
It is in the still small voice that succeeded the whirlwind, the earthquake and the fire.
The voice that stills the raging of the waves and the tumults of the people—that spoke the words of peace—of harmony—of union.
And for that voice, may you and your children's children "to the last syllable of recorded time," fix your eyes upon the memory, and listen with your ears to the life of James Madison."