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The later Romans, who sought in the fortunes and misfortunes of their forefathers mere materials for school themes, made Regulus the prototype of heroic misfortune as they made Fabricius the prototype of heroic poverty, and put into circulation in his name a number of anecdotes invented by way of due accompaniment incongruous embellishments, contrasting ill with serious and sober history.
On the left is the Deanery, but nothing of antiquity is to be seen from the exterior. In the hall are some good fragments of old glass, some of it probably part of the original embellishments of the house, though some may have been brought from the Cathedral, and some is again quite modern. Some panels of early date, brought from another room, have also lately been put up in the hall.
This cross, which was of great antiquity, and had undergone many mutilations and alterations since its erection in 1486, when it boasted, amongst other embellishments, images of the Virgin and Saint Edward the Confessor, was still not without some pretensions to architectural beauty.
It was not produced by beauty of proportion or graceful embellishments; it was designed to awe the people, and kindle sentiments of wonder and astonishment. So far as this end was contemplated it was nobly reached; even to this day the traveller stands in admiring amazement before those monuments that were old three thousand years ago.
Stripped of all accessories and embellishments, the question resolves itself into this: Which shall we choose for our portion, Life or Death? There can be no accommodation between the two; and whichever we select as our guiding principle must produce results of a kind proper to itself. The whole of this momentous question turns on the place that we assign to desire in our system of thought.
More than one writer asserts that they did not covet them, or, at least, by Pizarro's orders, affected not to do so. He would not have them betray their appetite for gold, and actually refused gifts when they were proffered!23 It is more probable that they saw little display of wealth, except in the embellishments of the temples and other sacred buildings, which they did not dare to violate.
The idea would have gradually grown into a tradition, receiving embellishments in succeeding generations, until little wood children at their mother's knees came to listen in awe to the story of how, once upon a time, the Sun-god loved a beautiful maiden, and drove his fiery chariot across the black night-fields to her prison door, scorching to death all who strove to gainsay him.
When I approached the Doctor's cottage a pretty old place, on which he seemed to have expended some money, if I might judge from the embellishments and repairs that had the look of being just completed I saw him walking in the garden at the side, gaiters and all, as if he had never left off walking since the days of my pupilage.
That the judge's right to this story was that of discovery, not of invention, is well attested; and if he or any one else allowed fictitious embellishments to gather upon it by oft telling of it in merry hours, the story had certainly lost all such superfluities the day it came to me, as completely as if some one had stolen its clothes while it was in swimming.
That is the slogan. Let us "take stock" often and see where we stand. We will not be afraid of the weak points. We will get after them and get hold of ourselves at the same time. Some book might give us help a fine play, or some form of athletics will start us to thinking. Self-analysis teaches us to see ourselves in a true light without embellishments or undue optimism.
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