Such is controlling public opinion in our age and country. A people that regards success rather than those objects for which alone success is worthy of desire,--that has not yet discerned the beauty of humble and disinterested labor in the great causes by which mankind is advanced,--that has not yet admired the golden link of harmony by which all efforts of usefulness are bound together,--that has not yet recognized the peculiar Christian sentiment of Human Brotherhood, without difference of country, color, or race,--that does not feel, in the concerns of state, as of private life, the enkindling supremacy of those principles of Justice and Benevolence which send their heavenly radiance into the home of poverty, the darkness of ignorance, and the solitude of the prison, which exhibit the degradation of the slave and the wickedness of war, while they exalt scholarship, invigorate eloquence, extend science and all human knowledge,--such a people, not unnaturally, applauds conduct less in harmony with truth, virtue, goodness, than with its own imperfect spirit. And this is what is called Reputation, Fame, Glory,--fickle as a breeze, unsubstantial as a shadow. Well does the master poet of Italy say,-- "Nought is this mundane Glory but a breath Of wind, that comes now this way and now that, And changes name because it changes side."[195] [195] Dante, Divina Commedia: _Purgatorio_, Canto XI. 100-102. II. In determining that Glory is but a form or expression of public opinion, valuable only according to those from whom it proceeds, the way is prepared for the second question,--To what extent, if any, is it a proper motive of conduct or object of regard? If we were ready to follow implicitly those simple precepts of Christianity which ordain exalted duties as the rule of life, this inquiry might be answered shortly. It is well to pursue it in other aspects. Glory occupied the philosophers of antiquity, who disputed much on its value. Chrysippus and Diogenes held it in unbounded contempt, declaring that it was not worth extending a finger for.[196] Epicurus, under the natural guidance of principles enjoining repose and indifference to public affairs, inculcated a similar contempt. His views were expressed sententiously in the precept of his school, _Conceal thy life_; and he did not hesitate to warn against regulating conduct by the opinion of others or the reputation of the world. Montaigne has pleasantly remarked, that even this philosopher, when death was at hand, relaxed from the insensibility he had enjoined,--dwelling upon the memory of his teachings, and by his will ordering his heirs to provide, in every recurring January, a festival to honor the day of his birth.[197] [196] Cicero, De Finibus, Lib. III. c. 17.