Core: noun, the most important part of a thing, the essence; from the Latin cor, meaning heart.


Volume 1.1 This View’s Prose February 11, 2002


    Farewell Address (141 Years Ago Today)    
         
   

My Friends: No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.

   
         
   

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
Speech at Springfield, Illinois, February 11, 1861

   
    The Literature of the United States Volume II pp. 124-125    

    Last Prayer in the Tower of London    
         
   

Lord, give me patience in tribulation, and grace in everything to conform my will to Thine, that I may truly say: Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo, et in terra.

The things, good Lord, that I pray for, give me the grace to labor for.  Amen.

   
         
   

St. Thomas More (1478-1535)
Written after being condemned to death, July 1535

   
    The Tower Works: Devotional Writings p. 309    

    The Defense of Liberty    
         
    What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling seacoasts, the guns of our war steamers, or the strength of our gallant and disciplined army. These are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All of them may be turned against our liberties, without making us stronger or weaker for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage, and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises.
   
         
    Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
Speech at Edwardsville, Illinois, September 11, 1858
   
    Collected Works Volume III p. 95    


This View from the Core © E. L. Core 2002

Cor ad cor loquitur — J. H. Newman — “Heart speaks to heart”