But I speak in this vehement manner, as I must frankly confess to you, because I want to hear from you the opposite side; and I would ask you to show not only the superiority which justice has over injustice, but what effect they have on the
possessor of them which makes the one to be a good and the other an evil to him.
From all I have said I would have you gather, my poor innocents, that great is the confusion among lineages, and that only those are seen to be great and illustrious that show themselves so by the virtue, wealth, and generosity of their
possessors. I have said virtue, wealth, and generosity, because a great man who is vicious will be a great example of vice, and a rich man who is not generous will be merely a miserly beggar; for the
possessor of wealth is not made happy by possessing it, but by spending it, and not by spending as he pleases, but by knowing how to spend it well.
The foregoing remarks lead me to say a few words on the protest lately made by some naturalists, against the utilitarian doctrine that every detail of structure has been produced for the good of its
possessor. They believe that very many structures have been created for beauty in the eyes of man, or for mere variety.
I -- alas, I alone in Flatland -- know now only too well the true solution of this mysterious problem; but my knowledge cannot be made intelligible to a single one of my countrymen; and I am mocked at -- I, the sole
possessor of the truths of Space and of the theory of the introduction of Light from the world of three Dimensions -- as if I were the maddest of the mad!
As to a happy life, whether it is to be found in pleasure or virtue or both, certain it is, that those whose morals are most pure, and whose understandings are best cultivated, will enjoy more of it, although their fortune is but moderate than those do who own an exuberance of wealth, are deficient in those; and this utility any one who reflects may easily convince himself of; for whatsoever is external has its boundary, as a machine, and whatsoever is useful in its excess is either necessarily hurtful, or at best useless to the
possessor; but every good quality of the soul the higher it is in degree, so much the more useful it is, if it is permitted on this subject to use the word useful as well as noble.
The wanton wind had been so busily kissing them all the morning that they were quite dry, so I was able to find room for them in my knapsack without danger to the other contents; and, with a hasty good-day to their recent
possessor, I set off at full speed to find a secure nook where I could throw myself down on the grass, and let loose the absurd laughter that was dangerously bottled up within me; but even before I do that it behoves me if possible to vindicate my sanity to the reader.
If Grandfather took pride in anything, it was in being the
possessor of such an honorable and historic elbow- chair.
amiable
Possessor of HER Heart whose hand is destined to another, why do you thus delay a confession of your attachment to the amiable Object of it?
If not specially observed, it was observable that while a Frayser who was not the proud
possessor of a sumptuous copy of the ancestral "poetical works" (printed at the family expense, and long ago withdrawn from an inhospitable market) was a rare Frayser indeed, there was an illogical indisposition to honor the great deceased in the person of his spiritual successor.
For to its
possessor is all possession well concealed, and of all treasure- pits one's own is last excavated--so causeth the spirit of gravity.
The raven in this story is a compound of two great originals, of whom I was, at different times, the proud
possessor. The first was in the bloom of his youth, when he was discovered in a modest retirement in London, by a friend of mine, and given to me.
Porthos foresaw that if D'Artagnan was called away he should remain the sole
possessor of the bed.