The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 01Brann, William Cowper
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The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 01
Brann, William Cowper
Brann, William Cowper, 1855-1898; Essays; Reformers
Should the paleologists
unearth the World building, they will find in the basement
an imperishable object about the size of a bushel-basket,
which will puzzle them not a little, but which his
contemporaries could readily inform them was the gall-bag
of Josef Phewlitzer's circulation liar. The discovery of
Editor Dana's office cat nicely embalmed may get us
accredited with the worship of felis domestica alias
cream-canner, as a "judgment" for our persistent slander of
the ancient Egyptians. But seriously, is it not a trifle
startling to reflect of how little real importance all our
feverish work and worry is, and how small a space it is
ordained to occupy in the mighty epic of mankind! Here we
have been fretting, fuming, and even fighting for months
past to "save the country," only to learn that it will in
nowise stay saved--is hastening rapidly on to the tomb of
the world's history, will pass in turn through that gloomy
sepulcher of countless nations into the great inane, the
eternal void, the all-embracing night of utter nothingness!
With all our patriotism and scannel-piping, our boasting and
our battlefields, our solemn Declarations and labored
Constitutions, we are but constructing a house of cards.
"The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made of, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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