Epigraph
“To this new South, who values her high past in chief, as fit foundation of that edifice whereon she labors day by day, and with augmenting strokes.”
Dedication
TO PRISCILLA BRADLEY CABELL
“Nightly I mark and praise, or great or small,
Such stars as proudly struggle one by one
To heaven’s highest place, as Procyon,
Antarês, Naös, Tejat and Nibal
Attain supremacy, and proudly fall,
Still glorious, and glitter, and are gone
So very soon;—whilst steadfast and alone
Polaris gleams, and is not changed at all.
“Daily I find some gallant dream that ranges
The heights of heaven; and as others do,
I serve my dream until my dream estranges
Its errant bondage, and I note anew
That nothing dims, nor shakes, nor mars, nor changes,
Fond faith in you and in my love of you.”