Ecclesiastes 9:15

15. Poor wise man, etc. Events like this are not very rare. Cooper’s “Naval History of the United States” relates, that the sailing-master of the flagship in the battle of Plattsburg, (Lake Champlain,) quietly arranged a cable before the action, by which alone it was afterward possible to bring the ship about, so that its remaining broadside could be brought to bear. The opening of this broadside turned the battle both on lake and shore. Yet the modest and skilful hero though thanked by his commodore received no public reward or recognition for nearly thirty years, when his widow was granted an ample pension. “Republics,” it is said, “are ungrateful;” rather, often unmindful.