A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do - Louis L'Amour

Much of the study of history is a matter of comparison, of relating what was happening in one area to what was happening elsewhere, and what had happened in the past. To view a period in isolation is to miss whatever message it has to offer.

"It had been my father's way to remove obstructions, to repair washouts in old trails, to leave each trail better than he had found it. "Tread lightly on the paths," he had told me. "Others will come when you have gone."

That was how I would remember my father. There was never a place he walked that was not the better for his having passed. For every tree he cut down he planted two."

Such are the amenities of social life, which oft makes a liar of the best of men.