His own image... was no longer the reflection of a clumsy, dirty, gray bird, ugly and offensive. He himself was a swan! Being born in a duck yard does not matter, if only you are hatched from a swan's egg.
Bio: Philip Hone was Mayor of New York City from 1825 to 1826. He was most notable for a detailed diary he kept from 1828 until the time of his death in 1851.
