All the heroes, the statesmen, and the poets! All piled upon poor Curtius, who thought to have saved them all! I am loath to smile at the self-conceit of that gallant horseman, but cannot well avoid it." "It grieves me to hear you speak thus, Miriam," said Hilda, whose natural and cheerful piety was shocked by her friend's gloomy view of human destinies.

"It seems to me that there is no chasm, nor any hideous emptiness under our feet, except what the evil within us digs.

If there be such a chasm, let us bridge it over with good thoughts and deeds, and we shall tread safely to the other side.

It was the guilt of Rome, no doubt, that caused this gulf to open; and Curtius filled it up with his heroic self-sacrifice and patriotism, which was the best virtue that the old Romans knew.

Every wrong thing makes the gulf deeper; every right one helps to fill it up.