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Deserving Fame Over Seeking It

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Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 24, 1859

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 13, No. 14.

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Deserving Fame Over Seeking It

GREAT minds had rather deserve contemporaneous applause, without obtaining it, than obtain without deserving it : if it follow them, it is well, but they will not deviate to follow it. With inferior minds the reverse is observable,—so that they can command the flattery of knaves while living, they care not for the execrations of honest men when dead. Milton neither aspired to present fame, nor even expected it; but, to use his own words, his high ambition was “to leave something to after ages, so written, that they should not willingly let it die.” And Cato finally observed, he would much rather that posterity should inquire why no statues were erected to him, than why they were.