So to the Abbey he was brought. All public business was suspended, and
public men of every rank followed him to the grave. Members of
Parliament were there in numbers to show their reverence for one whose
eloquence had ever been put to the noblest uses, and, fitly enough, his
body was laid close to the tombs of Pitt and Fox.
"If you carry this point in your life, that life will be far better
spent than in being prime minister many years," a much-loved friend had
said to Wilberforce when he first resolved to devote himself to the
cause of the slave, and to set aside all thought of his own career and
ambition. The young enthusiast had counted the cost, but it had not
changed him from his determination, and though he lived and died plain
William Wilberforce, member of parliament, the Abbey roll of honour is
made richer by his name, and he rests worthily in the Statesmen’s
Corner, great as any of those among whom he lies.
Just as Wilberforce was nearing the close of his life, a young spinner
in some mills near Glasgow, glowing with enthusiasm, was resolving to
offer himself as a medical missionary to China or Africa. David
Livingstone, for he it was, came of homely Scottish stock.
"The only point of family tradition I feel proud of is this," he
declared. "One of my forefathers, when on his death-bed, called his
children round him and said, ’I have searched diligently throughout all
the traditions of our family, and I never could find there was a
dishonest man among them.... So I leave this precept with you, Be
honest.’"
[Illustration: DAVID LIVINGSTONE.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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