The world will little note nor long remember what we say
here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us,
the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work
which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is
rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
before us; that from these honoured dead we take increased
devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure
of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not
have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new
birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the
people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Few are the opportunities in the history of the world when the time, the
place, the occasion, and the words spoken, have combined so
poignantly to move the hearts of men.
One can imagine the vast concourse standing awestruck and uncovered
before the solemn splendour of this noble dedication, every phrase of
which will remain for generations a treasured and sacred memory in
countless thousands of homes of the great continent in the West.
Your loving old
G.P.
28
MY DEAR ANTONY,
The nineteenth century witnessed the rise of an entirely new style of
English prose.
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