One Cannot Leap A Chasm

Nourish Your Hopes, But Do Not Overlook Realities.

There Is A Good Saying To The Effect That When A New Book Appears One Should Read An Old One. As As Author I Would Not Recommend Too Strict An Adherence To This Saying.

What Is A Fine Person Or A Beauteous Face, Unless Deportment Give Them Decent Grace; Blessed With All Other Requisites To Please, To Want The Striking Elegance Of Ease; Awkward, Embarrassed, Stiff, Without The Skill Of Moving Gracefully, Or Standing Still.

There Is, Therefore, Wisdom In Reserving One's Decisions As Long As Possible And Until All The Facts And Forces That Will Be Potent At The Moment Are Revealed.

Thus Ended The Great American Civil War, Which Must Upon The Whole Be Considered The Noblest And Least Avoidable Of All The Great Mass Conflicts Of Which Till Then There Was Record.