Enduring Beauty

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  “Beauty is the quality which makes to endure. In a house that I know, I have noticed a block of spermaceti lying about closets and mantel-pieces, for twenty years together, simply because the tallow-man gave it the form of a rabbit; and, I suppose, it may continue to be lugged about unchanged for a century. Let an artist scrawl a few lines or figures on the back of a letter, and that scrap of paper is rescued from danger, is put in portfolio, is framed and glazed, and, in proportion to the beauty of the lines drawn, will be kept for centuries. Burns writes a copy of verses, and sends them to a newspaper, and the human race take charge of them that they shall not perish.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson. (1803–1882).   Essays and English Traits.

Ingratitude

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A boat was wrecked in a storm on Lake Michigan at Evanston. Northwestern students formed themselves into rescue teams. One student, Edward Spencer, saved 17 people from that sinking ship. When he was carried exhausted to his room, he asked, "Did I do my best? Do you think I did my best?"

Dr. R.A. Torrey related this incident many years later in a meeting in Los Angeles, California. A man in the audience called out that Edwards Spencer was present, in the room. Dr. Torrey invited Spencer the platform. An old man with white hair slowly climbed the steps as the applause rang out.

Dr. Torrey asked him if anything in particular stood out in his memory about that shipwreck. "Only this, sir," he replied, "of the 17 people I saved, not one of them thanked me."

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