
Tablet to the First Letter of the Living
Source: 1800s, Auguries of Innocence (1803), Line 29
Tablet to the First Letter of the Living
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 332.
Published version, in the Atlantic Monthly (February 1862)
He has sounded out the trumpet that shall never call retreat,
He has waked the earth's dull sorrow with a high ecstatic beat...
First manuscript version (19 November 1861).
The Battle Hymn of the Republic (1861)
Context: He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat.
Oh! be swift my soul to answer him, be jubilant my feet!
Our God is marching on.
“Who waite for dead men shall goe long barefoote.”
Part I, ch 9.
Proverbs (1546)
The Ethics of Belief (1877), The Weight Of Authority
Context: In regard, then, to the sacred tradition of humanity, we learn that it consists, not in propositions or statements which are to be accepted and believed on the authority of the tradition, but in questions rightly asked, in conceptions which enable us to ask further questions, and in methods of answering questions. The value of all these things depends on their being tested day by day. The very sacredness of the precious deposit imposes upon us the duty and the responsibility of testing it, of purifying and enlarging it to the utmost of our power. He who makes use of its results to stifle his own doubts, or to hamper the inquiry of others, is guilty of a sacrilege which centuries shall never be able to blot out. When the labours and questionings of honest and brave men shall have built up the fabric of known truth to a glory which we in this generation can neither hope for nor imagine, in that pure and holy temple he shall have no part nor lot, but his name and his works shall be cast out into the darkness of oblivion for ever.
“Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.”
As quoted in Gospel of Matthew 26:33 - 35 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2026&version=KJV;SBLGNT. Jesus responds: "Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice." After this Peter protests: "Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee." These are some of the anecdotes of the Denial of Peter.
“Your shallow men shall dream, dreams, your insightful men shall see visions.”
1860s, Letter to Horace Greeley (1862)