cultivating considerable faculties to that one end; seeking to
accomplish his soul as far as he can, that he may do most good on earth,
and take a higher existence up to heaven; a man intent upon a sublime
and spiritual duty: in short, living as it were in it, and so filled
with the consciousness of immortality, and so strong in the link between
God and man, that, without any affected stoicism, without being
insensible to pain,--rather, perhaps, from a nervous temperament,
acutely feeling it,--he yet has a happiness wholly independent of it.
It is impossible not to be thrilled with an admiration that elevates
while it awes you, in reading that solemn 'Dedication of himself to
God.' This offering of 'soul and body, time, health, reputation,
talents,' to the divine and invisible Principle of Good, calls us
suddenly to contemplate the selfishness of our own views and hopes, and
awakens us from the egotism that exacts all and resigns nothing.

"But this book has mostly struck upon the chord in my own heart in that
characteristic which my father indicated as belonging to all biography.
Here is a life of remarkable fulness, great study, great thought, and
great action; and yet," said I, coloring, "how small a place those
feelings which have tyrannized over me and made all else seem blank and
void, hold in that life! It is not as if the man were a cold and hard
ascetic it is easy to see in him, not only remarkable tenderness and
warm affections, but strong self-will, and the passion of all vigorous
natures. Yes; I understand better now what existence in a true man
should be."

"All that is very well said," quoth the Captain, "but it did not strike
me. What I have seen in this book is courage. Here is a poor creature
rolling on the carpet with agony; from childhood to death tortured by a
mysterious incurable malady,--a malady that is described as 'an internal