A Word Fitly Spoken . . .

Proverbs says, "Like apples of gold in frames of silver are words fitly spoken." A well-spoken word fits its context like an apple of gold in a frame of silver.

Abraham Lincoln used this proverb to point to the apples of gold in our own constitution: "Without the Constitution and the Union, we could not have attained the result; but even these are not the cause of our great prosperity. There is something back of these, entwining itself more closely about the human heart. That something is the principle of "Liberty to all" -- the principle that clears the path for all -- gives hope to all -- and, by consequence, enterprise and industry to all. The expression of that principle, in our Declaration of Independence, was most happy, and fortunate . . . The assertion of that principle, at that time, was the word "fitly spoken," which has proved an "apple of gold" to us. The Union, and the Constitution, are the pictures of silver, subsequently framed around it. The picture was made, not to conceal, or destroy the apple; but to adorn and preserve it. The picture was made for the apple -- not the apple for the picture."