Not long ago I was speaking of Offenbach, trying to do justice to his marvellous natural gifts and deploring his squandering them.And I was imprudent enough to say that posterity would never know him.Now posterity is proving that I was wrong, for Offenbach is coming back into fashion....
He is known as poet, theologian, and philosopher.But his own desire was that posterity might regard him as a theologian.In addition to this indeterminateness of position, which always seriously detracts from a great name, Coleridge presents the unfortunate example of a man who, instead of laboring with settled convictions, and achieving success by virtue of their operation, seems to have only striven after them....
No one was ashamed of economising with his slaves in this manner; the law of slavery itself existing principally as a money-making institution.I mention these little matters, that posterity may understand the conventional feeling of the colony, on such points.When everything was ready, we had to listen to much good advice from our friends, previously to launching ourselves into the world....
In his own eyes he was always the first person.He had been made unhappy by the thought that posterity might rate Pompey above himself.Closer acquaintance had reassured him about Pompey, but in Caesar he was conscious of a higher presence, and he rebelled against the humiliating acknowledgment....
There is a general belief that by paying for war by loans we hand the business of paying for it on to posterity.In fact, we can no more make posterity pay us back our money than we can carry on war with goods that posterity will produce....
The effect he produces while we are reading him vanishes as we lay down the book, and we can recall nothing but a succession of flavors.It is not to be expected that posterity will take much interest in him, for his point and meaning are impressional....
By no means convinced that posterity would do the right thing, he nevertheless had no grudge against posterity.Just then there was a sharp scream at the top of the spiral staircase....
The query of a humourist, why he should do anything for posterity since posterity had done nothing for him, set me to thinking in my early youth in the most serious way.I felt that posterity had done much for its forefathers.It had given them an infinite horizon for the future beyond the bounds of their daily effort....
Singular as it may seem, this play was not well received at court, and Racine felt mortified.Boileau told him, however, that posterity would declare it the best of all his plays, and he was right.It was about this time that the dramatist received the keenest blow which he had experienced hi his lifetime, and which broke his heart....
But how this may be, I leave to thine and Wisdom's censure.And that posterity may not be ignorant of the course and truth of the matter, I have put it down in writing.For why should I speak of those feigned letters, in which I am charged to have hoped for Roman liberty?...
This lady's philosophical subtlety of reasoning on grave questions finds effective expression in a prose of singular precision and vigour.But it is as a poet that posterity will hail her in the coming ages of our Race....
But this decision at last is reached, that the next morning, before dawn appears, they shall issue secretly from the town and find the camp disarmed, and the knights still sleeping in their beds.Before they wake and get their armour on there will have been such slaughter done that posterity will always speak of the battle of that night.Having no further confidence in life, the traitors as a last resort all subscribe to this design....
This is due to the fact that the intelligence and character of the masses are incomparably lower than the intelligence and character of the few who produce some thing valuable for the community.I trust that posterity will read these statements with a feeling of proud and justified superiority....
The deed was done; and Santa Anna, the mighty chief who mowed down four hundred unarmed men, was immortalized!Fear not, brave heart, that posterity will forget thee!Rest assured that the lapse of time cannot obliterate the memory of thy mighty deeds!...
It may be said in passing that Beethoven frequently managed to disappoint the persons for whom he wrote.This did not lead him to doubt or distrust his powers, knowing intuitively that posterity would justify him.The Mass in C is to-day one of the best known of all masses, and is frequently performed at high festivals in churches having a good equipment of chorus and orchestra....
But I did wish for the safety of the Senate and shall never cease to wish for it, nor, though they have abandoned me, can I consider it a crime to have desired the safety of that venerable order.That posterity may know the truth and the real sequence of events, I have drawn up a written memorandum concerning the whole affair.For, as for these forged letters upon which is founded the accusation against me of having hoped for Roman freedom, why should I say anything about them?...
