Classic words

Some of those choice ones I mentioned coming across in Edith Wharton's collection of four novellas called Old New York; these are from a story called "The Spark", in which the narrator is comparing a character he admires for having been fully aware of certain experiences in his life, to the way "...some famous figures, puppets of fate, have been tossed from heights to depths of human experience without once knowing what was happening to them - forfeiting a crown by the insistence on some prescribed ceremonial, or by carrying on their flight a certain monumental dressing-case." Love that last bit, certainly applies to our criminally bad POTUS.