OF ALL THINGS

BY

ROBERT C. BENCHLEY

NEW YORK

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

1921

Table of contents

TO
HENRY BESSEMER

Without whose tireless patience, unswervingindustry and inexhaustible zeal the Bessemersteel converter would never have become areality, this book is affectionately dedicated by

THE AUTHOR.

These sketches appeared originally in Vanity Fair, TheNew York Tribune Sunday Magazine, Collier's Weekly,Life, and Motor Print, all but two of these magazinesimmediately afterward having either discontinued publicationor changed hands. To those which are oldenough to remember, and to the new managements ofthe others, the author offers grateful acknowledgment forpermission to reprint the material in this book. (As amatter of fact, permission was never asked, but theyprobably won't mind anyway.)

PREFACE

When, in the Course of human events, it becomesnecessary for one people to dissolve the political bandswhich have connected them with another, and to assumeamong the powers of the earth, the separate and equalstation to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature'sGod entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions ofmankind requires that they should declare the causeswhich impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident,—that all menare created equal, that they are endowed by their Creatorwith certain unalienable Rights; that among these areLife, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That tosecure these rights, Governments are instituted amongMen, deriving their just powers from the consent of thegoverned,—That whenever any Form of Government becomesdestructive of these ends, it is the Right of thePeople to alter or to abolish it, and to institute newGovernment, laying its foundation on such principlesand organizing its powers in such form, as to them shallseem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments longestablished should not be changed for light and transientcauses; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, thatmankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable,than to right themselves by abolishing the formsto which they are accustomed. But when a long trainof abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the sameObject, evinces a design to reduce them under absoluteDespotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw offsuch Government, and to provide new Guards for theirown future security. Such has been the patient sufferanceof these Colonies; and such is now the necessitywhich constrains them to alter their former Systems ofGovernment. The history of the present King of GreatBritain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations,all having in direct object the establishment of an absoluteTyranny over these States. To prove this, let Factsbe submitted to a candid world.

R.C.B.


"The Rookery"
Breeming Downs
Wippet-cum-Twyne
New York City
August 24, 1921

CONTENTS