.… Our Ancestors wrought in a magnanimous spirit of rivalry with Nature, or in kindly fellowship with her .… When they planted, they chose out her trees of longest life,–the Oak, the Chesnut, the Yew, the Elm,–trees which it does us good to behold, while we muse on the many generations of our Forefathers whose eyes have reposed within the same leafy bays .…

You that assert that you owe nothing to Posterity, … are ignorant of your greatest earthly benefactor. Posterity has cast her shadow before, and you are at this moment reposing beneath it. Whatever good, whatever pleasure, whatever comfort, you possess, you owe mainly to Posterity. The heroic deeds that were done by men of former times, the great works that were wrought, the great fabrics that were raised by them, their mounds and embankments against the powers of evil, their drains to carry off mischief, the wide plains they redeemed from the overflowings of barbarism, the countless fields they enclosed and husbanded for good to grow and thrive in;–for whom was all this achieved but for Posterity? .… Except for Posterity, except for the vital magnetic consciousness that while men perish man survives, the only principle of prudent conduct must have been: ‘Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.’