It is for themselves to decide what shall be said of them
hereafter, and through all future time,--whether they shall be blessed
or banned, cursed or canonized. The judgment that shall be passed upon
them and their work will be given according to the result, and from it
there can be no appeal. The Portuguese have a well-known proverb, that
"the way to hell is paved with good intentions;" but it is not
the laborers on that broad and crowded highway who gain honorable
immortality. The decisions of posterity are not made with reference to
men's motives and intentions, but upon their deeds. With posterity,
success is the proper proof of merit, when nothing necessary to its
winning is denied to the players in the world's great games. Richmond is
worshipped, and Richard detested, not because the former was good and
great, and the latter wicked and weak, for Richard was the better and
the abler man, but for the reason that the decision was in Richmond's
favor on Bosworth Field. The only difference between Catiline and
Caesar, according to an eminent statesman and scholar, is this: Catiline
was crushed by his foes, and Caesar's foes were crushed by him.
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