Life lives only in success. SWIFT. That life is long that answers life’s great end. YOUNG’S NIGHT THOUGHTS. For the multitude of failures I have encountered I am sorry. CLARA BARTON. Life is so short at best. CLARA BARTON. It’s now three minutes past twelve and I am thirty-three. Alas, my friend, the years pass swiftly by, but I do not regret them so much for what I have done, as what I _might_ have done. BYRON. HAD BUT A FEW MOMENTS TO LIVE Clara Barton supplied the place of mother and sister to the sick soldiers, and this she did for many months, while in the deadly miasma of the South Carolina marshes. Much of this time she was with the soldiers and facing the guns of Fort Wagner. There with the shot and shell whistling about her, the heroic woman could be seen at all hours of the day and night stooping over the wounded soldiers, and tenderly administering to their wants. An officer who had been with the Army of the Potomac said that he had seen this woman upon the field of battle, sitting with the head of a dying soldier in her lap, apparently unconcerned and then only for the comfort of the poor fellow who had but a few moments to live. XXIX Clara Barton—representing the mercy and magnanimity of the nation. Columbus (Ohio) _Despatch_. Clara Barton—her works of mercy in war and peace made her an international figure. _New York Tribune._ Everybody’s business was nobody’s business, and the stricken victims perished. CLARA BARTON. The door that never creaked a hinge for the feeble child of want may swing wide open at the thundering knock of the Marshal’s Staff. CLARA BARTON. The incentive to help and heal another in distress is spontaneous, generally the result of sympathetic impulse and kindness—a thing of the feelings and consequently of sudden growth. CLARA BARTON. “The other ladies could not endure the climate at Morris Island,” and, as I knew somebody must take care of the soldiers, I went. CLARA BARTON. The idea of humanity in distress is not entirely modern; Alexander was accompanied in his march by the most famous physicians of the age. CLARA BARTON. Homer and Plato were so struck with Egyptian Science and skill that they declared the Egyptians were all doctors. CLARA BARTON. It is probable that the first practitioners in common life were women. CLARA BARTON. A wise physician, skilled, our wounds to heal Is more than armies to the public weal.