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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Great Men as Prophets of a New Era - -Author: Newell Dwight Hillis - -Release Date: August 1, 2019 [EBook #60038] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT MEN AS PROPHETS OF A NEW ERA *** - - - - -Produced by David T. Jones, L. Harrison, Al Haines & the -online Project Gutenberg team at -http://www.pgdpcanada.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - - -<p><br /><br /><br /><br /></p> - - -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<hr /> - -<h1>Great Men as Prophets<br /> -of a New Era</h1> - - -<hr /> -<h2>By Newell Dwight Hillis</h2> - - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p>REBUILDING EUROPE IN THE FACE OF -WORLD-WIDE BOLSHEVISM</p> - -<p>THE BLOT ON THE KAISER'S 'SCUTCHEON<br /> -Cloth,<br /> -GERMAN ATROCITIES<br /> -Cloth,<br /> -Each 12mo. cloth,</p> - -<p>STUDIES OF THE GREAT WAR<br /> -What Each Nation Has at Stake</p> - -<p>LECTURES AND ORATIONS BY HENRY WARD -BEECHER<br /> -Collected by Newell Dwight Hillis</p> - -<p>THE MESSAGE OF DAVID SWING TO HIS -GENERATION<br /> -Compiled, with Introductory Memorial Address<br /> -by Newell Dwight Hillis</p> - -<p>ALL THE YEAR ROUND<br /> -Sermons for Church and Civic Celebrations</p> - -<p>THE BATTLE OF PRINCIPLES<br /> -A Study of the Heroism and Eloquence of the Anti-Slavery -Conflict</p> - -<p>THE CONTAGION OF CHARACTER<br /> -Studies in Culture and Success</p> - -<p>THE FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC<br /> -Studies, National and Patriotic, upon the America of -To-day and To-morrow</p> - -<p>GREAT BOOKS AS LIFE-TEACHERS<br /> -Studies of Character, Real and Ideal</p> - -<p>THE INVESTMENT OF INFLUENCE<br /> -A Study of Social Sympathy and Service</p> - -<p>A MAN'S VALUE TO SOCIETY<br /> -Studies in Self-Culture and Character</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>FORETOKENS OF IMMORTALITY<br /> -12mo. cloth,</p> - -<p>HOW THE INNER LIGHT FAILED<br /> -18mo. cloth,</p> - -<p>RIGHT LIVING AS A FINE ART<br /> -A Study of Channing's Symphony<br /> -12mo. boards,</p> - -<p>THE MASTER OF THE SCIENCE OF RIGHT -LIVING<br /> -12mo. boards,</p> - -<p>ACROSS THE CONTINENT OF THE YEARS<br /> -16mo. old English boards,</p> - -<p>THE SCHOOL IN THE HOME</p> -</div> - -<p> </p> - - -<hr /> -<h1>Great Men as Prophets<br /> -of a New Era</h1> - -<p> </p> - -<h2>By<br /> -NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS</h2> - -<p> </p> - -<h3><i>Author of "The Investment of Influence,"<br /> -"A Man's Value to Society," "Great<br /> -Books as Life Teachers"</i></h3> - -<p> </p> - -<h3><span class="smcap">New York Chicago</span></h3> -<h2>Fleming H. Revell Company</h2> -<h3><span class="smcap">London and Edinburgh</span></h3> - - -<hr /> -<h3>Copyright, 1922, by</h3> -<h2>FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY</h2> - -<p> </p> - -<h3>New York: 158 Fifth Avenue<br /> -Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.<br /> -London: 21 Paternoster Square<br /> -Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street</h3> - - -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> -<h2>Foreword</h2> - -<p>Great institutions are the shadows that -great men cast across the centuries. A -great law, a great liberty, a great art or tool -or reform represents a great soul, organized, -and made unconsciously immortal for all time. -Explorers trace the Nile or Amazon back to -the lake in which the river takes its rise. Historians -trace institutions back to some hero -from whose mind and heart the life-giving -movement pours forth. When the scholar -travels back to the far-off beginnings of jurisprudence, -he comes to some Moses, toiling in -Thebes, to some Solon in Athens, to some Justinian -in Rome. Not otherwise the renaissance -of painting, sculpture, and architecture -begins with some Giotto, some Michael Angelo, -some Christopher Wren. Scholars often speak -of history as narratory or philosophical, but -in the last analysis, history is biographical. -These studies were prepared for the students -of Plymouth Institute in the belief that biography -is life's wisest teacher, and that the -lives of great men are the most inspiring books -to be found in our libraries.</p> - -<div class="signature">N. D. H.</div> - -<div class="signature3"><i>Plymouth Institute,<br /> - Brooklyn, N. Y.</i></div> - - -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> -<h2>Contents</h2> - -<table class="toc" summary="Contents"> -<tr> -<td class="c1">I.</td> -<td class="c2">Dante, and the Dawn After the Dark Ages<br /> (1265–1321)</td> -<td class="c3"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="c1">II.</td> -<td class="c2">Savonarola, and the Renaissance of Conscience<br /> (1452–1498)</td> -<td class="c3"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="c1">III.</td> -<td class="c2">William the Silent, and Brave Little Holland<br /> (1533–1584)</td> -<td class="c3"><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="c1">IV.</td> -<td class="c2">Oliver Cromwell, and the Rise of Democracy in England<br /> (1599–1658)</td> -<td class="c3"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="c1">V.</td> -<td class="c2">John Milton, the Scholar in Politics<br /> (1608–1674)</td> -<td class="c3"><a href="#Page_115">115</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="c1">VI.</td> -<td class="c2">John Wesley, and the Moral Awakening of the Common People<br /> (1703–1791)</td> -<td class="c3"><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="c1">VII.</td> -<td class="c2">Garibaldi, the Idol of the New Italy<br /> (1807–1882)</td> -<td class="c3"><a href="#Page_166">166</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="c1">VIII.</td> -<td class="c2">John Ruskin, and the Diffusion of the Beautiful<br /> (1819–1900)</td> -<td class="c3"><a href="#Page_190">190</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="c1"> </td> -<td class="c2">Index</td> -<td class="c3"><a href="#Page_217">217</a></td> -</tr> -</table> - - -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> -<h2>I<br /> -DANTE<br /> -(1265–1321)</h2> -<h3><i>And the Dawn After the Dark Ages</i></h3> - -<p>All scholars are agreed as to the classes -of men who build the State. There are -the soldiers who keep the State in liberty, the -physicians who keep the State in health, the -teachers who sow the land with wisdom and -knowledge, the farmers and merchants who -feed and clothe the people, the prophets who -keep the visions burning, and the poets who -inspire and fertilize the soul of the race. But -in every age and clime, the poet has been the -real builder of his city and country. The -only kind of work that lives forever is the -work of the poet. Parthenons and cathedrals -crumble, tools rust, bridges decay, bronzes -melt, but the truth, put in artistic work, survives -war, flood, fire, and the tooth of time -itself. "The poet's power," said George -William Curtis, "is not dramatic, obvious, -imposing, immediate, like that of the statesman, -the warrior and the inventor. But it is -as deep and as strong and abiding. The -soldier fights for his native land, but the poet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> -makes it worth fighting for. The statesman -enlarges liberty, but the poet fosters that love -in the heart of the citizen. The inventor -multiplies the conveniences of life, but the -poet makes the life itself worth living. We -cannot find out the secret of his power. Until -we know why the rose is sweet, or the dewdrop -pure, or the rainbow beautiful, we cannot -know why the poet is the best benefactor -of humanity. But we know that the poet is -the harmonizer, strengthener and consoler, -and that the inexpressible mystery of Divine -Love and purpose has been best breathed in -parable and poem."</p> - -<p>By common consent the three great poets -of the world are Homer, Dante and Shakespeare; -and of the three, the two supreme -names are Dante and Shakespeare. After six -centuries, what Hallam said nearly a hundred -years ago still holds true: "Dante's orbit is -his own, and the track of his wheels can never -be confounded with that of any rival." -Dante was the greatest man of his country, he -wrote the greatest book of his era, he started -the greatest intellectual movement of any age -or time. The influence of his thinking upon -the people of Italy, the Italy of his own day -and of succeeding generations, is one of the -marvels of history. He was the interpreter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> -of his age to itself; but he was also the interpreter -of man to all ages. Some names there -are whose light shines brightly for a brief -time, after the fashion of the falling stars, -but Dante's emblem is the sun, whose going -forth is unto the ends of the earth, and whose -shining brings universal summer.</p> - -<p>Dante has been well-called the "Morning -Star of the Renaissance." He was born at -the end of, perhaps, the darkest period in history,—the -five black centuries succeeding the -fall of Rome; he lived to see the first fruits of -his own sowing—that wonderful rebirth of art -and culture which was to culminate, two hundred -years later, in the canvases of Raphael -and the sculptures of Michael Angelo. It has -been beautifully said that before singing his -song Dante had to invent his harp. No graceful -phrase ever had a sounder kernel of truth. -Great poets are more than great artists in -language; they create languages, and Dante, -like his two great compeers, Homer and -Shakespeare, moulded and shaped the tongue -for future generations. He began his career -at a moment when the Latin tongue was dying -and the Italian language was still waiting to -be born. He took the vulgar speech of his -own day and gave it colour and richness, form -and substance, eternal dignity and beauty.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> -What Homer did for the Greek language, what -King Alfred's Bible did for English literature, -that, and more, did Dante for the Italian -tongue. The influence of his thinking upon -the people of Italy is indicated by the fact -that <i>The Divine Comedy</i> was printed three -times in the one year of 1472, nine times before -the fifteenth century ended, and, to-day, -there are literally thousands of volumes in the -libraries of the world upon Dante and his -poems. With loving extravagance d'Annunzio -said at the great celebration held last year in -Italy: "Single-handed Dante created Italy, -as Michael Angelo by sheer force of genius -created his <i>Moses</i>, and made it the supreme -marble in history."</p> - -<p>No one has ever been able to define genius, -though many scholars have told us what -genius is not. Many men in the English lecture -halls and universities had talent, but that -stablekeeper's son, John Keats, had genius. -More than one of the four hundred members of -the House of Lords during Charles the -Second's reign had talent, but a poor tinker, -John Bunyan, had genius, that blazed like the -sun. There were multitudes of men living in -the Thirteen Colonies, and many of them rich, -but that poor boy flying a kite, Benjamin -Franklin, had the divine gift. Not otherwise,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> -many men living in Florence at the end of -the thirteenth century had talent, but Dante -Alighieri had the gift, and he towered above -his fellows as Monte Rosa towers above the -burning plains of Italy. Strictly speaking, -Dante's gift was not that of the poet alone. -He was a moralist as well as a poet—above all -others, the singer of man's soul. He believed -himself to be ordained of God to explain the -moral order of the universe, man's share in -that order, his duty and his destiny. Blind -Homer gave us the immortal <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i>, -but Homer was a poet, not a teacher, -and if there are lessons in the story of Achilles -and Ulysses we have to learn those lessons for -ourselves. Shakespeare, the organ-voice of -England, gave us <i>Lear</i> and <i>Hamlet</i>, <i>Othello</i> -and <i>Macbeth</i>, but Shakespeare was a poet, not -a teacher, and Macbeth's sin, written though -it is in letters of fire, is nevertheless accompanied -by no comments of the author. Not -so with the immortal <i>Comedy</i> of Dante. For -Dante was a teacher first, and a poet afterward. -Without the brilliancy of intellect or -the compass of achievements that were Shakespeare's, -without the directness or the simplicity -of Homer, he was more serious than -either. He had the passion of a reformer, -the fiery courage of a prophet. He poured his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> -very heart's blood into his pages. Hating -oppression, he was like one specially raised up -to point the path to peace, and to vindicate -the ways of God to man.</p> - -<p>The great thinker was born in Florence in -the year 1265. His era was the era of the -Dark Ages; his century one of the submerged -centuries. For five hundred years black darkness -had lain upon the world. It was an era -of war, when barons were constantly at strife. -Feudalism was entrenched behind stone walls, -the landowners were masters, and the serfs -were slaves. Every road was infested with -bandits. There was no shipping upon the -Mediterranean. The mariner's compass had -not yet been invented. Commerce was scant -and factories almost unknown. Men lived, -for the most part, on coarse bread and vegetables, -without luxuries, and without what we -call the simplest necessities. The common -people were huddled in miserable villages, behind -stone walls, with unpaved streets and -windowless houses, in which ignorance, filth, -squalor, and bestiality prevailed. Peasants -wore the same leather garments for a lifetime. -The dead were buried under the churches. -Prisoners rotted in dungeons under the banqueting -hall of the castle. Two hundred -years were to pass before Columbus set foot<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> -upon the deck of the <i>Santa Maria</i>. Two -hundred and fifty years were to pass before -Michael Angelo could lift the dome above St. -Peter's. But if the peasant was ignorant, and -the poor man wretched, the nobleman and -courtier was the child of luxury and gilded -vice. It was an age of contrasts so violent as -to be all but incredible to the modern reader. -There were no books, for the art of printing -was still to be invented, yet in an age of parchment -manuscripts young noblemen were -taught to speak in verse and to write in -rhymed pentameters. There was no science -of geography and the world was believed to be -a flat board with a fence around it. Yet in this -era, when few men could spell and fewer read, -the very monks in the monasteries were writing -theses on problems so abstract as to weary -the modern scholar. For five hundred years -the world had looked to the Church, but the -Church had descended to the perpetration of -crimes so terrible, that their mere chronicle -sickens the heart and chills the blood.</p> - -<p>Into this world of paradox and contradiction—a -world of gloom, shot through with -fitful gleams of superstition—was born Dante, -the poet of love and hope and divine regeneration. -We know little of Dante's parentage, as -we know all too little of his life, but this much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> -we do know—the family was the noble family -of the Alighieri, followers and supporters of -the party then in power in Florence. Dante -was educated by his mother, and by his mother's -relative, the scholar-poet Brunetto Latini. -Like John Stuart Mill he was a mental -prodigy from infancy. Like Milton he was -trained in the strictest academical education -which the age afforded. Like Bacon he was -a universal scholar before he passed out of his -teens. Like Pope he thought and wrote in -verse before he could write in prose. Among -his friends and intimates were the poets Guido -Cavalcanti and Cino da Pistoria, Dino Frescobaldi -and Lapo Guianni, the musician Casella -and the artist Giotto. With such companions -and under such guidance, Dante -mastered all the sciences of the day at a time -when it was not impossible to know all that -could be known.</p> - -<p>But dreamer and student though he was, he -early insisted upon sharing the burdens of the -State. On two occasions he bore arms for his -country. While still in his twenties he was -offered the post of ambassador to Rome; before -he was thirty he had represented his -native city at foreign courts, and from his -thirtieth to his thirty-fifth year his voice was -heard with growing frequency in municipal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> -affairs. In the summer of the year 1300, -when he was thirty-five years of age, he was -chosen as one of the Priors, or magistrates, of -Florence.</p> - -<p>The opening year of the new century—the -year in which Giotto was meditating his immortal -<i>Duomo</i>, with its famous tower—was -ushered in by a civic revolution in Florence. -Dante, with other innocent citizens, was banished -and condemned to death by burning. A -statesman, he saw his party defeated and -driven from the land; a man of property, he -lost his whole fortune; one of the proudest of -men, he was forced to humble himself and live -on foreign alms. Inspired by the noblest intentions, -the world gave him no thanks, but -drove him forth like a wild beast, branded -his name with foul crimes and condemned him -to wander over the hills of Italy till death at -last gave him release. He never saw Florence -again. For years he knew poverty, neglect -and hatred. Sick with the noise of political -dissension, he strained his eyes toward the -hills for the appearance of a universal monarch; -but the vision was never realized. We -know but little of his wanderings. Many -cities and castles have claimed the honour of -giving him shelter; we know only that in old -age he was compelled to "climb the stranger's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> -toilsome stairs, and eat the bitter bread of -others."</p> - -<p>Such, briefly sketched, is the life-history of -this man who has been called "the voice of -ten silent centuries." In an era of luxury he -had lived simply and frugally; in an era of -debate and publicity, he had preferred seclusion; -drawn at last into public life by his own -sense of duty, he had been driven forth into -exile, to die alone in a foreign city. It is the -greatness of Dante that, in spite of defeat and -disappointment, in spite of every form of -hardship, in the face of every conceivable -form of adversity, he went on with his work -and completed his masterpiece, the greatest -achievement in the whole history of Italian -literature. Out of his own heart-break he -distilled hope and encouragement for others -and from the broken harmonies of his own -life he created a world-symphony.</p> - -<p>The best-loved books in our libraries are -books of heroism, books of eloquence, books of -success, and books of love. It is a matter of -misfortune that no history of human love has -ever been written. Scholars have set forth -the history of wars, the history of engines and -ships, the history of laws and reforms, but no -library holds a history of the greatest gift of -man, the gift of love. That is the one creative<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> -gift that belongs to his soul. Beyond all -other writers, the author of the <i>Divine -Comedy</i> is the poet of love. Love was the -inspiration of his youth, the beacon of his -middle life and the transfiguring glory of his -old age. All his poems are monuments to the -abiding and ennobling power of a pure passion. -His love for Beatrice has fascinated -the generations, and remains to-day one of the -few immortal love stories of the world, as -moving as the romance of Abelard and -Héloise, and infinitely more exalting. No -understanding of his poems is possible without -a knowledge of that love and its tremendous -influence upon his life and work.</p> - -<p>Beatrice Portinari, the object of Dante's -devotion, was the daughter of a merchant, living -in a street not far from his father's house. -Dante saw her but a few times, and she died -when he was twenty-seven, but from the -moment when, on that bright spring morning, -he first viewed her lovely face, his whole heart -and mind were kindled. "She appeared to -me," he writes, "at a festival, dressed in that -most noble and honourable colour, scarlet—girden -and ornamented in a manner suitable -to her age, and from that moment love ruled -my soul. After many days had passed, it -happened that passing through the streets,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> -she turned her eyes to the spot where I stood, -and with ineffable courtesy, she greeted me, -and this had such an effect on me that it -seemed I had reached the furthest limit of -blessedness." He describes but three other -meetings. While he was absent from the city—probably -during one of the two campaigns -in which he fought—her father gave her in -marriage to another man. She was only -twenty-four when she died.</p> - -<p>No one will ever know whether Beatrice was -indeed the loveliest girl in Italy; whether she -really was the daughter of intellect, or -whether the greatness was in Dante, who projected -the image of beauty, created by his -imagination and superimposed upon Beatrice. -We all know that it is within the power of the -sun in the late afternoon to cast the brilliant -hues of gold and purple upon the vine and -transform slender tendrils into purest gold. -Dante had a powerful intellect, the finest -imagination of any known artist, vast moral -endowments—gifts, however, that in themselves -are impotent. The sailing vessel, no -matter how large the sails, is helpless until -the winds fill the canvas, and hurl the cargo -toward some far-off port. Just as Abelard -waited for the coming of Héloise; just as -Robert Browning's soul was never properly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> -enkindled before the coming of Elizabeth -Barrett, so the intellect of Dante waited for -Beatrice. The quality and quantity of flame -in the fireplace is not determined by the size -of the match that kindles the fire, but by the -quality of fuel that waits for the spark. The -strength and power of Dante's attachment was -in the vast endowments of his soul, and not -in Beatrice. It may well be that thirty years -later, Dante, who realized that he was the -strongest man then living in the world and -who was at once a scholar, a statesman and a -soldier, during the solitude of his exile in a -distant city turned his mind backward and -broke the alabaster box of genius upon the -head of a commonplace girl, just as Raphael -lent the beauty of St. Cecilia to the face and -figure of a flower-woman, a girl whose face -and figure furnished the outlines for his drawing, -but held no part of the divine, ineffable -and dazzling loveliness of an angel.</p> - -<p>Whatever the truth—and there is little -chance that we shall ever know the truth—this -much is certain: Dante's earliest long -poem, the famous "<i>Vita Nuova</i>" (New Life) -celebrates his love for Beatrice, and is nothing -more than a journal of the heart, a secret -diary of his emotions. The <i>Vita Nuova</i> is as -far removed from the modern sentimental love<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> -tale as June is removed from some almanac -prepared a year in advance of the weather -changes predicted. It records Dante's first -glimpse of Beatrice, the adoration she -awakened in him, and the fervour of devotion -to which she lifted him; it describes his premonition -of her death, and it ends with his -resolve to devote his remaining years to her -memory. The last chapter of the book looks -forward to the <i>Divine Comedy</i>. About a year -after Beatrice's death, he writes: "It was -given me to behold a wonderful vision, wherein -I saw things which determined me to say -nothing further of this blessed one unto such -time as I could discourse more worthily concerning -her. And to this end I labour all I -can, as she in truth knoweth. Therefore if it -be His pleasure through whom is the life of -all things that my life continue with me a few -years, it is my hope that I shall yet write concerning -her what hath not before been written -of any woman." Completed years later, the -immortal <i>Comedy</i> exists to-day as the most -wonderful tribute to a woman ever penned -by any poet.</p> - -<p>In a mood of lofty pride, Dante placed himself -among the six great poets of all time. -To-day, all scholars applaud the accuracy and -humility of his judgment. Every strong man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> -knows what he can do. He is conscious of his -own vast reserves. So often has he measured -himself with his fellow-men that he realizes the -number, the magnitude and relative strength -of his divine endowments. All men of the -first order of genius have realized the endowment -they have received from God and their -fathers. And the <i>Divine Comedy</i> justifies -Dante's pride in his own powers. It cannot -be classified with a phrase nor dismissed with -a label. It is not a poem, like one of Tennyson's -<i>Idylls of the King</i>; it is rather an encyclopedia -upon Italy. It is at one and the same moment -an autobiography, a series of personal reminiscences, -a philosophy, an oration and the -spiritual pilgrimage of a thirteenth century -<i>Childe Harold</i>, with here and there a lyric -poem. The motive which inspired Dante -was his sense of the wretchedness of man in -this mortal life. The only means of rescue -from this wretchedness he conceived to be the -exercise of reason, enlightened by God. To -convince man of this truth, to bring home to -him the conviction of the eternal consequences -of his conduct in this world, to show him the -path of salvation, was Dante's aim. To lend -force and beauty to such a design he conceived -the poem as an allegory, and made himself -to be its protagonist. He depicts a vision, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> -which the poet is conducted first by Virgil, as -the representative of human reason, through -Hell and Purgatory, and then by Beatrice, -as the representative of divine revelation, -through Paradise to the Heaven, where at last -he beholds the triune God.</p> - -<p>The action of the <i>Divine Comedy</i> opens in -the early morning of the Thursday before -Easter in the year 1300. Dante dreams that he -had "reached the half-way point in his path of -life, at the entrance of an obscure forest." -He would advance, but three horrible beasts -bar the way, a wolf, a lion and a leopard, -symbolical of the temptations of the world—cupidity, -the pride of life and the lusts of the -flesh. Then the shade of Virgil appears, representing -the intellect and conscience, glorified—to -serve as his guide in the long wanderings -through the Inferno. Virgil tells him he -can accompany him only through Hell and -Purgatory, but that Beatrice shall conduct -him through those happy spheres, the portals -of which a pagan may not enter. So begins -that wondrous journey through the regions -of the damned, over the entrance of which is -written the awful words: "All hope abandon -ye who enter here." The world through -which the two poets journey is peopled, not -with characters of heroic story, but with men<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> -and women known personally or by repute to -Dante. Popes, kings, emperors, poets and -warriors, Florentine citizens of all degrees are -there, "some doomed to hopeless punishment, -others expiating their offenses in milder torments -and looking forward to deliverance in -due time." Hell is conceived as a vast conical -hollow, reaching to the center of the earth. It -has three great divisions, corresponding to -Aristotle's three classes of vice, incontinence, -brutishness and malice. The sinners, by -malice, are divided from the last by a yet more -formidable barrier. They lie at the bottom -of a pit, with vertical sides, and accessible -only by supernatural means; a monster named -Geryon bears the poets down on his back. At -the very bottom of the pit is Lucifer, immovably -fixed in ice. And climbing down his -limbs, the travellers reach the center of the -earth, whence a cranny conducts them back -to the surface, which they reach as Easter Day -is dawning.</p> - -<p>Purgatory is conceived as a mountain, rising -solitary from the ocean on that side of the -earth that is opposite to ours. It is divided -into terraces and its top is the terrestrial Paradise, -the first abode of man. The seven terraces -correspond to the seven deadly sins, -which encircle the mountain and are reached<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> -by a series of steep climbs, compared by Dante -to the path from Florence to Samminiato. -The penalties are not degrading, but rather -tests of patience or endurance; and in several -cases Dante has to bear a share in them as he -passes. At one point, the poet hesitates when -he comes to a path filled with a sheet of flame; -but Virgil speaks: "Between Beatrice and -thee there is but that wall." Dante at once -plunges into the heart of the flames. On the -summit of the mountain is the Earthly Paradise, -"a scene of unsurpassed magnificence," -where Beatrice, representing divine knowledge, -divine love and purity, is waiting to -lead the wanderer through the nine spheres of -the old Ptolemaic system to the very throne -of God.</p> - -<p>Such is the general scheme of the poem, in -which Dante's conception of the universe is -depicted in scenes of intense vividness and -dramatic force. It embraces the whole field -of human experience. Its aim is "not to delight, -but to reprove, to rebuke, to exhort, to -form men's characters" by teaching them -what courses of life will meet reward, what -with penalty hereafter; to "put into verse," -as the poet says, "things difficult to think." -The title given it is often misunderstood. The -men of the Middle Ages gave the name<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> -"Tragedy" to every poem that ended sadly, -and the name "Comedy" to every tale that -ended happily. There are no traces of wit -and humour in this book with its descriptions -of the cleansing pains of Purgatory and the -highest reaches of Paradise. Men who have -little imagination seem quite unable to transport -themselves back into the life and thought -of the thirteenth century. Even Voltaire -calls Dante a savage, and Goethe, who blundered -often in his judgments of men and -books, and often had to reverse himself, thought -Dante's work "dull and unreadable." But -that reader who supposes that Dante is -giving a literal description of the physical torments -of hell, or imagines that Michael Angelo, -in his <i>Last Judgment</i>, was portraying his -own literal belief, will find nothing inspiring -in this wonderful book.</p> - -<p>During the last six centuries the thinking of -the world has changed. Physical pain has -assumed new importance. No man living to-day -has ever witnessed a brother man sentenced -by a court to be burned alive, or later -on, has been tried himself, and upon a false -charge sentenced to death by flame. We stand -aghast at Dante's miseries and monsters, furies -and gorgons, snakes and fires, lakes of pitch -and pools of blood, a physical hell of utter and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> -unspeakable dreariness and despair. But -Dante's was an era of outbreaking and almost -universal physical cruelty; sinners and criminals -could not be reached by argument, for -they could not think; there was but one way to -approach animal man, and that was from the -animal side. Through fear, Dante endeavoured -to scourge men back from the horrors of iniquity. -He appealed to material men through -the imagery of material flames, and slowly by -this scourge, tried to drive them back toward -obedience, sympathy and love for the poor and -the weak. For their allurement also he -showed them a golden city in the far-off blue, -with the flowers blooming in the fields of -Paradise. He used his unrivalled genius to -make vice and sin revolting and infinitely repulsive, -just as he tried to make truth, kindness -and justice alluring.</p> - -<p>This volume, therefore, represents "the life -history of a human soul redeemed from sin -and error, from lust and wrath and mammon, -and restored to the right path by the reason -and the grace which enable him to see things -as they are." Dante's conception is that -"penalty is the same thing as sin, only it is -sin taken at a later period of its history and a -little lower down the stream." It is in life, -here and now, that men's hands are fouled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> -with the pits of greed; their tongues tipped -with envenomed hate; their hearts steeped in -crimson ooze. It is here and now that -materialists "load themselves down with sacks -of yellow clay," that misers plunge into "the -boiling pitch of avarice." The genius of the -<i>Inferno</i> is that sins are seeds, big with the -harvest of their own penalty.</p> - -<p>Our age makes little of the <i>Purgatory</i> itself—this -realm which Dante describes as the -place where the human soul is cleansed and -made worthy to ascend to heaven. It is described -as a kind of vestibule of Paradise, -where the soul fronts the results of wrong-doing, -through the debt of penalty and the -evil inclination of the will, and the instincts -that have been perverted. The sins of which -men are cleansed are the sins against love and -pride, envy and anger; the sins of the body, -avarice and gluttony and passion. The angels -that cleanse are the angels of forgiveness and -peace. On that island of cleansing Virgil and -Dante land, and place their hands upon the -ground and bathe in dew their tear-stained -cheeks. But climbing up the steep way of -penitence is like climbing up a craggy mountainside, -toiling on hands and knees, with tire -that almost brings despair; and yet the higher -Dante climbs the easier the task. Just as in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> -the <i>Inferno</i>, Dante placed certain well-known -figures—Judas Iscariot, who for avarice betrayed -his Lord, and Alberigo who with horrible -treachery murdered his own guests at a -banquet, and that "youth who made the Great -Refusal"; so in the <i>Purgatory</i> he shows us -many men known to history who have stumbled -here and there and are breast-buried in -the rubbish of the world, to whom comes some -angel bringing release, and whispering -"Loose him, and let him go."</p> - -<p>When he approaches the confines of Paradise -and sees from afar the glorified form of -Beatrice, Dante asks that God may become to -his soul like a refiner's fire and cleanse away -any stain or dross of sin. Gladly he enters -that healing flame, guided by a sweet voice, -which sang, "Come, ye blessed of my Father;" -but, says Dante, "When I was within I would -have flung myself into molten glass to cool -myself, so immeasurable was the burning -there." Then, broken down with utter remorse, -he falls in a swoon; but he is plunged -in the waters of forgetfulness and refreshed, -like young plants; re-clad as if by the angel of -spring, he issues from the wave, pure and -true, ready to mount to the stars beyond.</p> - -<p>Strangely enough, this book, the <i>Inferno</i>, is -the most widely read. The <i>Purgatory</i> is less<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> -frequently opened, while men value least of -all the <i>Paradise</i> of Dante. Doubtless the -reason is that experience has brought familiarity -with sin, so that all men understand its -penalties, and at the selfsame time know -something of penitence and of pardon, while -the nature of that realm of perfect happiness, -righteousness and peace is beyond human experience. -But if any man was ever purified -by suffering and earned the right to trust his -visions and surrender himself to the pictures -that noble imagination painted, that man was -Dante. On the side of culture the measure of -education of any man is his knowledge of -Shakespeare. On the side of imagination and -of pure and tender goodness, a man is a man -just in proportion as he knows his Dante. -James Russell Lowell's supreme essay was his -essay on Dante, and he tells us that the great -Italian "wrote with his heart's blood, like an -inspired prophet of old." 'Midst all his poverty, -exile and grief, he rose triumphant over -sorrow and neglect. He never lost his confidence -in the ultimate victory of right and -truth. Hating oppression, he struggled as a -prophet of liberty. Offered an invitation to -return to his native city, on the condition that -he would humiliate himself by confessing that -he had done a wrong, he accepted an exile's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> -death rather than be faithless to his great convictions. -Climbing the stairs of other men's -houses, he salted his bread with his own tears.</p> - -<p>An old man at fifty-six, his last days were -spent in Ravenna, in the house of a noble -duke, who recognized in Dante the greatest -man of his time. Long afterward, Byron -sought out the house where Dante died, and -falling upon his knees, beat upon his breast -and wept, at the recollection of the sorrows -that overwhelmed the master of them all. -Just as Bunyan was rewarded for the second -book in English literature by twelve years in -Bedford Jail, so Dante, as a reward for writing -the greatest book in Italian literature, was -exiled from his home and city, pursued by -spies, hunted over the hills with hounds, made -to conceal himself in dens and caves of the -earth, and brought to an untimely death. -Dying, Dante might have used the words -which, later, fell from the lips of Bacon, "I -leave my name and fame to foreign lands, and -to my own country when long time has -passed." Let us believe that after having lived -for fifty-six years in at once an <i>Inferno</i> and a -<i>Purgatory</i>, at last Dante, the prisoner, was redeemed -out of his dungeon, the exile out of his -loneliness, the fugitive out of his rags and -crusts, and the cave wherein he was hiding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> -from his pursuers; that the man who for years -held heart-break at bay at last was brought in -out of the night, the fire-mist and the hail, -into the imperial palaces of God, where one -word of welcome repaid him ten thousand -times for the bitter, grievous years, and where -one word of love leaped forth from the ineffable -light—and in a moment, his every -wound was healed!</p> - - -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> -<h2>II<br /> -SAVONAROLA<br /> -(1452–1498)</h2> -<h3><i>And the Renaissance of Conscience</i></h3> - -<p>When the first warm days of May come -to a land chilled through with the -frosts of winter, all pastures and meadows, all -vineyards and orchards, even the desert and -the mountain rift awake to a new bloom and -beauty. The revival of learning which culminated -in that golden age known as the Renaissance -was ushered in by the poet Dante, with -his love for Beatrice and his immortal poem -called the <i>Divine Comedy</i>. Dante has been -likened unto that angel who descended -from Heaven and, standing with one foot on -the sea and one on the land, lifted the trumpet -to his lips, and wakened the whole world. -To Dante belongs the double glory "of immortalizing -in verse the centuries behind him, -while he inaugurated a new age and created -a new language." But if Dante's face was -turned upward and backward, his work was -taken up by the great humanist, Petrarch, -whose face was toward the future. Soon the -whole land was awake, and while other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> -countries were held in the grip of ice and -winter, full summer burst upon Italy.</p> - -<p>Scholars have interpreted the Renaissance -from many different angles. Students of -literature identify it with the discovery and -reproduction of the manuscripts of the Greek -and Latin authors. Artists associate it with -Giotto's paintings and tower, with Michael -Angelo's <i>Moses and Last Judgment</i>, and with -the names of Alberti and Leonardo. Scientists -point toward the discoveries of Copernicus -and Columbus, just as jurists think of the rise -of popular freedom and the overthrow of -tyranny. Practical men associate the new era -with the art of printing and the manufacture -of paper and gunpowder, with the use of the -compass by mariners, and the telescope by -astronomers. But none of these interpretations -fully suffice to explain the new era, with -its new energy of the intellect and its outburst -of unrivalled genius.</p> - -<p>The mental and emotional condition of -Europe at the beginning of the fifteenth -century may be likened to the vague longings -in the heart of that child, who, legend hath it, -was carried away from his father's castle by -a band of gipsies. The gipsies carried the boy -to Spain, and there they taught him to ride -and hunt and steal after the gipsy fashion.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> -But he had the blood of his ancestors within -him, and there was something burning and -throbbing within. Sometimes in his dreams -he saw a beautiful face leaning over him, and -heard the bosom pressure words of his mother, -who could not be forgotten. Not otherwise -was it with society at the beginning of the -fifteenth century. For centuries the books, -the arts, the tools, once so familiar to -Virgil and Horace, to Mæcenas and Cæsar -Augustus had lain neglected on the shores of -that Dead Sea called the Dark Ages. Vague -and uneasy memories haunted Europe. Imagination -increased the value of the lost -treasure. Looking backward through an -atmosphere roseate through fancy, Helen's -face took on new loveliness. Achilles became -the ideal knight, Ulysses a divine hero, and -Penelope the sum of all the gifts distributed -among ideal women.</p> - -<p>But in the middle of the fifteenth century -occurred the fall of Constantinople, that -Saragossa sea into which had been drawn the -literary treasures of the preceding centuries. -Constantinople had become a treasure-house in -which were assembled the manuscripts that -had been carried away by the citizens of -Rome fleeing from the Huns. As the centuries -came and went, merchants, bankers,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> -rich men from far-off provinces had taken -their jewels, carved furniture, ivories, paintings, -bronzes, marbles, rugs, silks, laces, and -housed their treasure in palaces, looking out -upon the Bosphorus. So that in 1452, when -the advancing Saracens approached the city, -the scholars and rich men of Constantinople -fled to their boats, and spreading canvas -sailed into the western sun. Months passed -before these fugitives dropped anchor at the -mouth of the Po. One morning, an old man, -wrapped in a cloak stained with the salt seawater, -stepped from a little boat to the wharf -of Florence. Being poor and also hungry he -made his way to a bread-shop. Having no -money, he drew from beneath his cloak a -parchment. When the bread-shop was filled -with listeners he began to read the story of -Helen's beauty and Achilles' courage; the -story of Ulysses' wanderings and Penelope's -fidelity; the tale of blind Œdipus, and of his -daughter's loving care. He recited the oration -of Pericles after the plague in Athens, -and told the story of the wanderings of -Æneas. With ever-increasing excitement the -men of Florence listened. At last, waking -from the spell, they lifted the stranger upon -their shoulders and carried him to the palace -of a merchant prince, and bade him tell the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> -story, and soon the merchant's house was -crowded with young men preparing pages of -vellum and sheets of leather, while writers -copied the poems and the dramas of the old -manuscript, and artists turned the vellum -pages into illuminated missals. The spark -became a flame. Learning became a glorious -contagion. The fires spread from village to -village, and city to city. The dawn of the -modern world had come.</p> - -<p>In the city of Florence, circumstances and -climate were singularly favourable to the new -movement. Florence was the city of flowers; -it lay upon the banks of the Arno, set amidst -orange groves, and its palaces, art galleries, -and churches, when the vineyards were in full -bloom, looked like a string of pearls lying in -a cup of emeralds. All that Athens had been -to the age of Pericles, Florence was to be to the -era of Savonarola. Neither time nor events -have availed to lessen the hold of Florence -upon the great men of earth. Because of her -rich associations with genius and beauty, the -greatest souls of the earth have often turned -feet toward Florence, as the birds of paradise -leave the desert to seek out the oasis with its -fountain and flowers. Florence was the city -of Dante with his <i>Divine Comedy</i>, the city of -Giotto, with his tower, of Gioberti, with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> -gates of wrought iron that are so beautiful -that Michael Angelo said they were worthy to -be the gates of Paradise. To Florence in -after years went Robert Browning, to write -<i>The Ring and the Book</i>, and Elizabeth Barrett, -with the finest love sonnets in literature. -To Florence centuries later went George Eliot, -to write her <i>Romola</i>, and in Florence, -Keats and Shelley dreamed their dreams of -song and verse. To Florence came Cavour, -the statesman, and Mazzini, the reformer, -Garibaldi, the soldier, to build the new Italy. -Many the scholar and patriot who has said -with Robert Browning, "Italy is a word -graven on my heart." And it was to Florence -that there came in the year 1490 Savonarola, -the greatest moral force the city ever -knew.</p> - -<p>Savonarola was a man of almost universal -genius. He was an orator, and the fire of his -eloquence still burns in the sermons he has -left the world. He was a reformer, and descended -upon the sins of his age like a flame -of fire, shaking Italy like the stroke of an -earthquake. He was a prophet, and he -dreamed dreams of a new Italy and of a -golden age in morals. He was a statesman -and he was created a preacher, and he fulfilled -the dreams of a divine Orpheus, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> -drew all things to him by the mystery and -magic of his speech. He was a martyr, and -wore, not the red hat of the cardinal, but the -fire that belonged to the chariot of flame, in -which his soul rode up to Heaven to meet his -God. Like all men of the first order of genius -he was great on many sides. It was his glory -that he awakened the moral sense and brought -the life of God into the soul of man. Savonarola -was like the Matterhorn or the Breithorn -that lift their peaks so high that they -look out upon the Rhine of the north and the -Po of the south, upon the vineyards of France -and the valleys of Austria.</p> - -<p>In the very year that Constantinople fell, -and the scholars fled, carrying their manuscripts—as -sparks fly from the hammer falling -upon an anvil—Savonarola entered into being -in the beautiful little city of Ferrara. His -grandfather was a physician, a teacher of the -youth of his town, and a member of the -council. He had achieved some honour as a -scholar, and won much gold and favour as a -skillful surgeon. To his father's house came -a few leading men of the villages round about -to read the pages of Dante and to talk about -the manuscripts that had thrown all Italy into -a fever of excitement. The boy had a hungry -mind, and rose early and sat up late to read<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> -the copies of the few books that his father had -in the little library. His native town was the -capital of the little state, and the Duke of Este -was his father's friend. When the boy was -six years of age, Pope Pius II passed through -Ferrara on his way to a celebration in Venice, -and in preparation for his coming a crimson -canopy was stretched above the street, while -in the public square a throne was erected, and -when the Pope had taken his seat therein a -procession of children passed by, strewing -flowers at the feet of the Pope. Young men -and women sang songs in his honour, and -chanted hymns of his praise, midst clouds of -golden incense filling all the air. On the outskirts -of the crowd stood the miserable poor, -the half-starved peasants, the ragged children, -the miserable lepers. Their faces were gaunt, -their eyes hollow, their bread, crusts, their -garments, rags, and the spectacle of gluttony, -drunkenness and luxury, in contrast with the -vast multitude of starving poor, created such -a revulsion in the mind of the boy that from -that hour all should have known that it was -only a question of time when this gifted youth -would become an ascetic and a reformer.</p> - -<p>The revulsion in the heart of Savonarola -was inevitably deepened by the lust and -cruelty laid to the door of the Church itself.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> -That was a dark hour for the Papacy and -Italy. Paul II was a Venetian merchant, -greedy, ambitious, who, in middle age, saw -that the Pope was incidentally an ecclesiastic, -but essentially an emperor, a statesman and a -banker. Everything he touched in business -turned to gold. He had agents out in all the -world buying diamonds, pearls, rubies and -emeralds. He hired architects, sculptors and -painters, and made the church an art gallery. -"Once the church had wooden cups and plates -for the communion, but golden priests. Now," -wrote Savonarola, "the church has golden -cups and plates, but wooden-headed priests." -The Rome of that time was a Rome of art and -vice, gold and blood, cathedrals and mud -huts. The least shocking page in the papal -history of the time describes Alexander -VI, and his son Cæsare and his daughter -Lucretia, standing in the open window of the -papal palace, looking down into the courtyard, -filled with unlucky criminals. These -prisoners, sentenced to death, ran round and -round the court, while Cæsare let fly his -arrows, and the Pope and Lucretia applauded -each lucky hit. The scene is one of many, -and the knowledge of such scenes inevitably -brought about rebellion in the soul of Savonarola.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>At the beginning of his career, the young -reformer attracted but little attention. He -entered a monastery and became a monk, and -his novitiate was chiefly marked by a fervour -of humilities. He sought the most menial -offices, and did penance for his sins by the -severest austerities. He was soon worn to a -shadow, but his gaunt features were beautified -by an expression of singular force and benevolence. -Luminous dark eyes sparkled and -flamed beneath his thick brows and his large -mouth was as capable of gentle sweetness as -of power and set resolve. But the spectacle -of the sensualism, drunkenness, cruelty, theft, -ignorance and wretchedness of Florence, that -had a handful of aristocrats at one extreme -and thousands of paupers at the other, gradually -filled his soul with burning indignation. -He began to see visions and to make prophecies -which afterward were mysteriously -fulfilled. His first success as a preacher came -when he was thirty-one and the following year -at Brescia, in a sermon on the Apocalypse, he -shook men's souls by his terrible picture of -the wrath to come. A halo of light was reported -to have been seen about his head, and -when, six years later, he returned to Florence, -to preach in the cathedral, his fame as an -orator had gone before him and the cloister<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> -gardens were too small to contain the crowds -that flocked to hear him.</p> - -<p>The occasion of his first sermon in the -cathedral was one long remembered in the -city. The vast multitudes saw a gaunt figure -whose thick hood covered the whole head and -shoulders. From deeply sunken eye-sockets -there looked out two eyes that blazed as with -lightning. The nose was strong and prominent, -with wide nostrils, capable of terrible -distention under the stress of emotion. The -mouth was full, with compressed, projecting -lips, and large, as if made for a torrent of -eloquence. The speaker was a visionary, and -a seer. At one moment he melted his audience -to tears, at another he stirred them to horror, -again quickening their souls with prayer and -pleadings, that had in them the sweetness of -the very spirit of Christ. Soon the walls of -the church reëchoed with sobs and wailings, -dominated by one ringing voice. One scribe -explains fragments of the sermon with these -words: "Here I was so overcome with weeping -that I could not go on." The poet, Mirandola, -tells us that Savonarola's voice was like a clap -of doom: a cold shiver ran through the marrow -of his bones, and the hair of his head -stood on end as he listened. The theme that -morning was this: "Repent! A judgment of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> -God is at hand. A sword is suspended over -you. Italy is doomed for her iniquity." The -speaker prophesied coming bloodshed, the ruin -of cities, the trampling down of provinces, the -passage of armies, and the devastating wars -that were about to fall on Italy.</p> - -<p>The great man of Florence at this moment -was Lorenzo the Magnificent. Lorenzo was -the most powerful figure in Italy, the most -widely-travelled, and the richest man of -his time. Tiring of luxury and flattery, he -was ambitious to be called the patron of art -and literature. He had fitted up a great -banqueting-room in his palace, in which he -could assemble painters, sculptors, architects, -actors, poets, philosophers. His seat at the -head of the table was after the fashion of a -throne, and he had made himself a kind of -dictator in the realm of learning. Always -open to flattery, he was surrounded by a group -of citizens who never ceased burning incense -at the altar of his egotism. He was at once -a politician, a poet, an amateur actor, dramatist, -and singer. At his table sat Ficino, who -translated Plato's works into Latin, and Pico -della Mirandola, who was the idol of Florentine -society. It was the latter's boast that a -single reading fixed in his memory any -language, any essay or poem, and made it his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> -forever. Other guests were Leo Alberti and -Leonardo, the two men of comprehensive -genius in all the group that lived in the palace -of the Prince. Constant adulation made -Lorenzo arrogant and vain to the last degree. -In disguise he led a group of dissipated young -men in the carnival fêtes. He wrote licentious -carnival songs and so degraded were -his followers that they went everywhither -shouting his praises as a poet superior to -Dante. And when, in July of the following -year, Savonarola was elected Prior of St. -Mark's, Lorenzo sent messengers to him, bidding -him to show more respect to the head of -the State.</p> - -<p>Savonarola refused to do so. One day the -Prince was seen walking in the garden of the -monastery. An attendant came in to Savonarola, -and announced that Lorenzo the Magnificent -was in the garden. "Does he ask for -me?" "No," replied the young monk. -"Then let him walk." Shortly afterward -the Prince sent a deputation to wait on the -new Prior, telling him that it was not good -form to preach against the Prince, who was -the patron of St. Mark's, to which Savonarola -replied, "Did I receive my position from -Lorenzo, or from Almighty God?" Savonarola's -eyes blazed, and he spake in tones of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> -thunder and the answer was, "From Almighty -God." "Then," went on the Prior, -"to Almighty God will I render homage."</p> - -<p>Lorenzo, as it chanced, was drawing near -to the end of his life. One day a messenger -came from the palace announcing his dangerous -illness. Because Lorenzo had usurped -the liberties of his country, had robbed and -oppressed his own people, Savonarola would -not go. Then a second messenger came, saying -that the Prince was dying and asked absolution. -The Prior found the Prince propped -up upon velvet pillows, and lying in a great -silken chamber. All his life long, Lorenzo -had been accustomed to soft words and pliant -service. Now this stern prophet of duty -towered above his couch like a messenger of -God. The Prior told him absolution could -not be granted except upon certain conditions. -"Three things are required of you; you must -have a full and lively faith in God's mercy; -you must restore your ill-gotten gains; you -must restore liberty to Florence." Twice the -Prince assented, but the third time his face -went white. He shivered, as if in fear, and -at length, in silence, he turned his face toward -the wall. Savonarola turned his back. He -would not grant absolution. Lorenzo died. -The news was spread through the city by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> -relatives and servants standing about the bedside -of the dead Prince. The event heaved -the soul of Florence as the tides heave the sea.</p> - -<p>The Prior was now the most influential man -in Italy. His sermons took on a new boldness, -and his denunciation of vices filled the city -with excitement. Ever increasing his power -as a preacher, he now added certain addresses -as a patriot. He hated the tyranny of the -Medici with an undying hatred. Taking upon -himself full responsibility, he sent a letter of -welcome to Charles VIII and his French -army, believing that if Florence opened her -gates to the French, the Florentines might recover -their own liberty. Having expelled the -family of the Medici, he found it necessary -to write a constitution for Florence, and his -influence in shaping that constitution was the -most powerful influence exerted in that -critical time. Leaving to others the task of -writing the code, he told the people plainly -that, of necessity, a government by one man -strengthened the single ruler toward despotism -and autocracy, while self-government, -through the choice of representatives, worked -for the diffusion of strength and responsibility. -He proposed a grand council of 3,000 -citizens appointed by the city judges, a body -that answers to our House of Representatives,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> -and another superior council of eighty citizens, -all over forty years of age, who, in turn, -were to share with the magistrates the task of -appointing the higher officers of the State. -Then he brought about a reform of taxation, -full amnesty for political offenders, made -usury a treasonable act, founded a bank that -loaned money to the poor on their character -and to the rich on their collateral. He organized -a movement against licentious plays, -against luxury, extravagance, ostentatious -dress and houses. And when the exiled -princes made an alliance with the Pope, he -denounced the crimes of the Papacy.</p> - -<p>Little by little, a great moral revival swept -over Florence and Italy, a revival that culminated -in the coming together of the Florentines -in the public square, where the people -threw upon a blazing fire their vanities, with -all the implements of gambling, fraud, and -trickery, of vice and drunkenness. Without -being himself an ascetic, without making any -sweeping attack upon pleasure through music -or the drama, Savonarola was an opponent of -every form of sensuality, and the gilded vices -that undermine sound morals. He was first -of all a preacher, changing men's lives and, -incidentally, stating the reasons for their personal -reformation. Luther changed men's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> -thinking first, and showed men why this was -wrong, and that was right, and therefore -wrought fundamental changes. But Savonarola -was less of a thinker and more of an -evangelist. He had all the action of Demosthenes, -all the earnestness of Peter the Hermit, -all the voice, the gestures and the manner of -Whitefield. He believed that the inevitable -end of sin was the Inferno of Dante, and therefore -his language was full of fire, his voice -full of tears, and he plead with men to -flee from Vanity Fair as Lot fled from -Sodom.</p> - -<p>His uncompromising spirit had long since -aroused the hatred of political adversaries as -well as of the degraded court of Rome. Even -now, when his authority was at its height, -when his fame filled the land, and the vast -cathedral and its precincts lacked space for the -crowds flocking to hear him, his enemies were -secretly preparing his downfall. From the -beginning it was plain that Socrates was fighting -a losing battle against the wicked judges -of Athens. From the beginning it must have -been plain to Dante that his cunning and insidious -foes, who felt that he alone stood between -them and their own enrichment, would -drive him an exile from Florence. And when -Savonarola came into collision with Pope<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> -Alexander VI, it was like a bird of paradise -going up against some Gibraltar of granite -and steel.</p> - -<p>Pope Alexander's two ambitions were the -advancement of his family and the strengthening -of his temporal power. It was Alexander -who, knowing that the Sultan had a rival in -the person of the young Prince Djem, seized -the young noble and put him in jail, on condition -that forty thousand ducats yearly -should be paid for his jail fee. It was to -Alexander that, later, the Turk sent dispatches -offering three hundred thousand ducats if he -would do away with the youth. History has -extenuated many of the crimes of Alexander, -but this traffic in murder for the Turks can -never be forgiven. It was Alexander also who -made impossible liberty of the press, by forcing -printers to submit their books to the control -of archbishops. It was Alexander who -maintained a harem in the Vatican. It was -Alexander whose spies were in every inn, in -every village. His secret agents were in all -the audiences of Savonarola. Alexander -looked upon the Prior as a traitor, disloyal -and dangerous to the Papacy. At first he sent -agents to Florence, and offered bribes to -Savonarola, asked if he would accept a cardinal's -hat, and invited him to Rome to visit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> -the Vatican. Savonarola answered by redoubling -his attacks. He called Rome a harlot -church, till the Pope ordered his excommunication. -And at length, becoming alarmed for -their city, the magistrates of Florence forbade -Savonarola's preaching, and closed the cathedral -to his work.</p> - -<p>Retiring to St. Mark's, the great leader -wrote letters to the crowned heads of Europe, -and called for a general council. He reviewed -the crimes of which the Pope had been -guilty, and the list of vices was long and -black. His letters to various princes were -intercepted, and taken to Alexander. Then -agents, with large sums of money, were sent to -Florence to organize a movement to destroy -the Prior. Every conceivable plot was organized -against him, but he escaped poison, -the knife, and the assassin's club. His enemies -challenged him to the ordeal by fire, and when -he asked that he might be allowed to carry the -crucifix and the sacrament in his hand they -withdrew the challenge. Thrown into prison, -the inquisitors subjected him to the most cruel -torture. He was drawn up to the ceiling by a -rope fourteen times, and then suddenly -dropped, until muscles, tendons and bones -were all but torn from their sockets. He was -denied food and water and sleep. And finally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> -his reason gave way. Bodily pain so injured -and inflamed the brain that it refused its action. -Among his last words were the words -of the dying Saviour, "In thee, O Lord, have -I trusted. Let me never be confounded."</p> - -<p>When he was condemned to the flames, he -appealed to the government of Florence, but -the rulers hastened to support the papal decree, -and insisted upon the execution of the -sentence. On the morning upon which he was -to die, the great public square in Florence -was crowded with citizens. Multitudes who -had wept during his sermons and whose lives -had been changed by his teachings, stood in -grief and trepidation around the funeral pyre, -just as the multitudes in Jerusalem stood in -fear about the cross of Christ. In pronouncing -the sentence of death, the bishop of Verona, -overwhelmed with fear and confusion, -said, "I separate thee from the Church militant -and the Church triumphant." To -which Savonarola answered, "From the -Church militant, yes, but from the Church -triumphant, that is not given unto you." -The soldiers pushed the lowest dregs of the -city, thieves, drunkards, diseased criminals, -close to his scaffold, and encouraged them to -assail him with vile words and vile deeds. At -ten o'clock of the 23d of May, 1498, his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> -enemies achieved his death. Like Elijah he -ascended unto heaven in a chariot of fire. -But soon thereafter the guilty leaders of the -Church discovered that his work had just begun. -He had aroused the conscience of the -people, who followed Luther in a revolt -against the sale of indulgences that gave the -right for the crime and sin. His assertion -of personal liberty put strength into Luther's -arm and faith into the heart of Calvin. -Erasmus borrowed from Savonarola his teachings -of reasonableness and light. In exalting -the Bible as the final source of authority, he -had enthroned that Book and the teachings of -Jesus above all popes and cardinals and -bishops. Practical men, Galileo, and Bacon, -and Erasmus, and Tyndale, borrowed courage -from his life and writings. And to this day -the influence of this preacher, prophet, -martyr, is still potent, not alone in Italy, but -throughout the world.</p> - - -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p> -<h2>III<br /> -WILLIAM THE SILENT<br /> -(1533–1584)</h2> -<h3><i>And Brave Little Holland</i></h3> - -<p>Be the reasons what they may, liberty owes -much to little lands and confined -peoples. Go back to any age and continent, -place side by side a little nation and a large -one, and if the first has made for liberty and -progress, the second has often made for bondage -and superstition. For the beginnings of -morals and religion we go back, not to that -widely extended state named Babylon, but to -little Palestine, shut in between the desert and -the deep sea. For the beginnings of art and -culture we go not to the vast, rich plains of -Asia Minor, but to that little rocky land -named Greece. For the beginnings of the republic -we go not to the sunny plains of Italy, -but to the narrow valleys between the Alpine -Mountains. What great contribution to civilization -has Russia made to the world? -But the little Swiss Republic has given us the -international postal system, international arbitration -and the referendum. Commerce owes -a great debt to little Venice. Modern banking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> -owes a great debt to little Scotland. Asia -and Africa owe a great debt to little England. -And though Holland was a narrow -strip of land but twenty miles wide and one -hundred miles long, yet the world can never -repay the debt it owes to this mother of -republics.</p> - -<p>For lovers of liberty the most sacred spot -in modern Europe is the square of the Binnenhof -at The Hague. A tablet there records -the words with which William the Silent -challenged Philip II—words that were first -made the foundation of the Dutch Republic, -words that our pilgrim fathers took as the -basis of their New England institutions.</p> - -<p>"We declare to you that you have no right -to interfere with the conscience of any one so -long as he has done nothing to work injury to -another person or public scandal."</p> - -<p>We can never forget that Holland gave the -founders of our Republic their shelter, with -safety and leisure for working out their -dreams and visions of self-government. But -a full century before the Pilgrim Fathers set -foot in Leyden, Holland had become a shelter -to foreign exiles, and her citizens had pledged -themselves to a deathless hatred of all forms -of tyranny. To the cities of Holland had fled -those men who were denied liberty of thought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> -in Paris and Nuremburg. To Holland had -come the victims of oppression in Venice and -Florence. It was in Holland that the great -Humanist had lived and died, that scholar -and philosopher Erasmus, who wrought as -powerfully for reform in religion as Huss and -Savonarola. It was Erasmus who forged the -intellectual weapons used by Luther in Germany, -and Calvin in Geneva. It was Erasmus -who first made a correct text for the Greek -Testament. It was Erasmus who put the -Bible into the common languages of Europe. -And it was a group of Dutchmen who first -demanded the separation of Church and State. -Two generations before William Bradford -gathered his little band in Leyden, William -the Silent stood forth to challenge the divine -right of kings.</p> - -<p>John Ruskin once called attention to the -fact that as every great art-age has been a -reaction from an era of unendurable ugliness, -so every movement for liberty has been a reaction -precipitated by unwonted tyranny. -Certain it is that as Oliver Cromwell represented -a rebound from feudalism, and Abraham -Lincoln a reaction from the cruelty of -slavery, so William the Silent represented a -thrilling protest against the crime of a foreign -usurper. His career is as romantic and many-coloured<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> -as the career of David, the fugitive, -fleeing from Saul, or that of Robert Bruce, -hiding in caves and dens from the pursuers -who threatened his life. In youth he was the -companion of kings, but he became the -champion of the people against their king, the -idol of his followers, and the hero of a lost -cause. Like David, he knew the weariness -and painfulness of the exile's lot. Like -Lincoln, he had a face furrowed with anxiety, -and fell a victim to the assassin's bullet. -Reared in luxury, the heir to titles and vast -estates, the head of a dynasty, whose blood still -flows in the veins of Europe's rulers, for the -cause of liberty he resigned his rank, that he -might serve the poor and oppressed. He was -a statesman, and had the foresight that organizes -out of defeat, and is unconquerable because -it never knows when it is defeated. He -was a reformer, and attacked injustice and despotism -in an era when of necessity his labours -were fruitless. He was a soldier, and had the -personal daring and the strong arm that count -for more than strategic skill. He was a hero, -and though daily the hired poisoners sought -entrance to his palace, and assassins ever -dogged his steps upon the streets, despite the -six attempts upon his life, he maintained his -courage and his boundless hope. In an age<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> -when society had not yet doubted the divine -right of kings, William of Orange fronted -Philip II with a denial of this citadel of -tyranny and injustice, affirmed the principle -that the creed of a nation and the creed of -individuals is a matter of their own choice and -their own conscience.</p> - -<p>Our libraries hold no more instructive -volumes than Motley's story of the Netherlands, -their rise to material prosperity and -their struggle for liberty under the leadership -of this man known as William the Silent. -The tale of their slow growth as a maritime -nation is an epic of indomitable courage in the -face of every conceivable form of obstacle. -We see these people for the sake of liberty -retreating from the rich plains of central -Europe into the morass that the Roman historian -said was "neither land nor water." -With infinite labour they built barriers and -dikes against the North Sea, developed a -system of veins and arteries through which -they compelled the ocean to fertilize their -fields, and constructed watery highways for -carrying their commerce into distant lands. -At length a region outcast of earth and ocean -alike "wrestled from both domains their -richest treasure." Brave cities floated mermaid-like -upon the bosom of the sea. Standing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> -upon the canal boats, travellers looked -down upon cattle grazing below the level of -the ocean, beheld orchards and gardens whose -tree-tops scarcely reached the level of the -waves. Unconsciously this race that had -struggled so long and victoriously over storms -and seas was educating itself of the struggle -with the still more savage despotism of man.</p> - -<p>With intelligence and enterprise came the -development of trade, and in the fifteenth -century the Hollanders became the carriers of -the world's commerce. Their ships and their -sailors made their way around into the -Baltic, to the ports of all northern Europe, to -the ports of France and Spain, of Genoa and -Naples and Venice, to Constantinople and -Alexandria, and from thence south into all -countries and continents. As bees flitting -from orchard to orchard fertilize the fruit, so -these ships passing from port to port and -continent to continent fertilized the minds of -men. Returning home they brought bulbs, -roots and seeds that soon made Holland the -gayest flower-garden in Europe and the home -of modern floriculture and horticulture. -From the Far East they brought the suggestion -of movable types. The bleached linens, -the tapestries and woollen goods of Holland -won fame throughout the world. The homes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> -of her burghers were models of comfort and -even luxury. Small merchants of Amsterdam -and Leyden and Rotterdam became -merchant princes. Weavers and spinners of -linen and silk, workers in iron, as well as silver -and gold, left the other lands of Europe and -settled in the Dutch seaports.</p> - -<p>In that little strip of land were inclosed -208 walled cities and 6,300 villages guarded -by a belt of sixty fortresses. Little wonder -that Spain looked longingly toward this people -and meditated plans for breaking down its -fortresses, subjugating its peoples and transferring -its accumulated treasure from the -chests of the burghers to the vaults of the -Spanish dons and cavaliers. And when at -length it began to look as if the scepter of the -sea might pass from Spain to Holland, King -Philip and his soldiers, under Bloody Alva, -resolved to draw a circle of fire around little -Holland and rob her of the treasure she had -so slowly earned.</p> - -<p>Fully to understand the heroic struggle of -the Hollanders under William of Orange, we -must know the immediate cause of the controversy -and the source of the tyranny they -opposed. That cause was the Inquisition and -the tyranny was that of Spain's ambitious -rulers. At the moment of the outbreak, Spain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> -was the richest and the most powerful nation -in Europe. Victorious in Africa and Italy, -her emperor had carried war into France and -now reigned over Germany as well as those -provinces now known as Belgium and Holland. -If we ask from whence Spain derived -the money for these wars of conquest the -answer is found in the vast treasure she -acquired in the New World. Prescott tells -us that when the Spanish soldiers captured -the capital of Peru, the soldiers spent days in -melting down the golden vessels which they -found in the vaults of temples and palaces. -In that era, when the yellow metal was worth -so much, a single ship carried to Spain $15,500,000 -in gold, besides vast treasures of -silver and jewels. When Cortez approached -the palace of Montezuma the king's messengers -met the general bearing gifts from -their lord. These gifts included 200 pounds -(avoirdupois) of gold for the leader and two -pounds of gold for each soldier. The full -value of the treasure that Spain carried from -the cities and states of the New World will, -doubtless, never be known.</p> - -<p>But it must be remembered that the Spanish -soldiers who went into Mexico and Peru -turned those two countries into a wilderness. -For a full half-century these brutal soldiers,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> -burning with avarice, went everywhither, -looting towns, pillaging cities, butchering the -people, lifting the torch upon cottage and -palace alike. The awful anguish and suffering -that Spain wrought upon the helpless -people of Mexico and Peru is one of the -bloodiest chapters in history. The eagle -pouncing upon the dove, the panther leaping -upon the young fawn, but faintly interpret to -us the savage cruelty of the Spaniard as he -raged through the new world. And when -the Spanish ships came home, laden with gold -and silver the Emperor found means to -prosecute his plans for military conquest. -Spanish armies were soon marching into -northern Italy, into Austria and Germany, -into France and finally into Holland. -Flushed with victory and greedy of Holland's -treasures, Philip determined to punish these -people for their refusal to vote supplies to his -army, by establishing there the Inquisition by -the sword.</p> - -<p>The Inquisition, that mediæval instrument -for the detection of punishment of disbelievers -in the established Church, had existed in all -its horrible malignity for two hundred and -fifty years. But it remained for Philip of -Spain to make its name forever a byword and -a hissing in the mouth of history. He had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> -begun by employing it against the wealthy -Jews and Moors, who made up the richest, the -most intelligent and prosperous classes in -Spain. During the first few years after its -institution the Spanish population fell from -10,000,000 to 7,000,000. In eighteen years -Torquemada burned 10,220 persons and confiscated -the property of 97,321 others. Primarily, -the Inquisition was a machine to -search men's secret thoughts. It arrested on -suspicion, "tortured for confession and then -punished with fire." One witness brought a -victim to the rack, and two to the flames.</p> - -<p>The trial took place at midnight in a -gloomy dungeon dimly lighted by torches. -Lea tells us "the Grand Inquisitor was enveloped -in a black robe with eyes glaring at -his victim through holes cut in the hood." -Preparatory to examination, the victim, -whether man, maiden or matron, was stripped -and stretched upon a bench, after which all -the weights, pulleys, and screws by which -"tendons could be strained without cracking, -bones crushed without breaking, body tortured -without dying, were put into operation." -When condemnation was pronounced the -tongue was mutilated so that the victim could -neither speak nor swallow. When the morning -came, a breakfast with rare delicacies was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> -placed before the sufferer and with ironical -invitation he was urged to satisfy his hunger. -Then a procession was formed, headed by the -magistrates, prelates and nobility, and the -prisoner was led to the public square, where -an address was given, lauding the Inquisition, -condemning heresy and warning the people -against want of subjection to the Pope and the -Emperor. Then while hymns were sung, blazing -fagots were piled about the prisoner until -his body was reduced to a heap of ashes.</p> - -<p>Such was the devilish institution Philip of -Spain determined to set up in Holland as a -means of accomplishing his twofold aim, the -punishment of "disbelievers" and the despoiling -of the Dutch burghers' treasure-chests. -Little wonder that even this sturdy -folk drew back from the thought in horror. -They were not a people to submit to such -barbarities as they had already proved, by -giving shelter to foreign exiles. When the -Inquisition was first inaugurated in Spain, -and men first stretched upon the rack as -heretics, Holland had opened her doors to the -fugitives, who fled alike from the wrath of -kings and priests. All over the world, with its -darkness and superstition, its cruelty, its -flames, its racks and thumbscrews, men of independent -minds had secretly turned their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> -thoughts toward little Holland, and their -steps toward the seaports where the Dutch -merchants bought and sold the treasures of -the sea. So, now, there developed in the -Netherlands a united protest, representing -tens of thousands of people, who deserted the -churches ruled by the officials of the Inquisition. -These protestors went into the open air -beyond the city walls where they sang songs, -and listened to the preaching of the reformed -ministers. Soon the Roman Catholics under -the guidance of the Spanish army, and the -Protestants under William of Orange, stood -over against one another like two castles with -cannon shotted to the muzzle. And finally -the storm broke, and the protestors went into -the churches their own hands had built, and -covered the floor with rubbish of broken -statues, effigies, and images, cleansing the -walls with axe and hammer and broom, and -leaving only the pulpit for the teacher, and -the plain pews for the worshippers.</p> - -<p>The spark which finally set aflame the -powder-magazine of men's hearts was the entrance -into Holland, in 1567, of the Duke of -Alva, at the head of twenty thousand of -Spain's finest troops. Bloody Alva was -the most accomplished and capable general in -Europe. He had been victorious in campaigns<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> -in Africa, Italy, France and Germany. -He has been called the most bloodthirsty man -who ever led troops to battle, and he was -sent to Holland to satiate his wolfish instincts. -His army included 6,000 horsemen, notorious -for the cruelty with which they had butchered -their captives in the Italian campaigns. Alva -promised to turn these human wolves loose -upon the sheep of Holland. Having arrived -in Antwerp and established himself in the -citadel, his first act was to organize the -"Bloody Council." This monster, whose -cruelty was never equalled by any savage -beast, announced that if in the Roman era the -Emperor contented himself with the heads of -a few leaders, leaving the multitude in safety, -<i>he</i> would order the death of the multitude, -naming a few who were to be permitted to live. -Soon the streets were filled with dead bodies. -Not content with hanging, burning, and beheading -the leaders, Alva hung the corpses -beside the road as a warning against free-thinking.</p> - -<p>In seven brief years this man brought -charges of heresy, treason and insubordination -against 30,000 inhabitants. He boasted -that he had executed 18,600, while the number -of those who had perished by battle, siege, -starvation and butchery defied all computation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> -And the more the people rebelled, the -more cruel were the methods he devised to -torment them. To the gallows he added the -stake and the sword. Men were beheaded, -roasted before slow fires, pitched to death with -hot tongs, broken on the wheel, flayed alive. -On one occasion the skins of leaders were -stripped from the living bodies and stretched -upon drums for beating at the funeral march -of their brethren to the gallows. The barbarities -committed during the sacking of starving -villages, Motley tells us are beyond belief. -"Unborn infants were torn from the living -bodies of their mothers; women and children -were violated by thousands; whole populations -burned and hacked to pieces by soldiers, and -every mode which cruelty in its wanton ingenuity -could desire."</p> - -<p>Such was the administration of the man of -whom it was said: "He possessed no virtues, -while the few vices he had were colossal." To -Philip, Bloody Alva explained his failure -to subdue the Hollanders by the statement -that his "rule had been too merciful."</p> - -<p>Over against this human monster, with his -implacable hatreds and his bestial cruelties, -stands William of Orange, the champion of -liberty and the saviour of the Netherlands. -By a strange coincidence, the first vivid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> -picture we have of this prince who gave up a -life of ease and luxury to defend the rights of -his fellow men, is the scene at the abdication -of Charles V, when, in the presence of a great -multitude at Brussels, that ruler turned over -the sovereignty of the Netherlands to his son, -young Philip II of Spain. William of -Orange was then a youth of twenty-two, a -stadtholder, or imperial governor, of three -rich provinces, and the commander of the -official army on the French frontier.</p> - -<p>"Arrayed in armour inlaid with gold," says -the historian, "with a steel helmet under his -left arm, he looked the picture of noble manhood." -Beside him, as he fronted the assemblage, -stood young Philip, a youth of twenty-eight, -dressed in velvet and gold, but physically -ill-shapen and already an object of -dislike and distrust. Impressive indeed the -contrast between these two young men, destined -in a few short years to be pitted against -each other like gladiators in the long struggle -for liberty. "The one had a genius for government, -the other possessed a talent for misgovernment. -William of Orange had a passion -for toleration; Philip II had a passion for -crushing every form of toleration." Sovereign -at twenty-eight, Philip was already a -prey to that consuming ambition which, with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> -his fierce bigotry, was soon to win him universal -hatred.</p> - -<p>How different this young prince William, -with his godlike physique, his perfect balance -of heart and intellect, his conscience that -could not endure the thought of tyranny. -Little wonder that men loved him. In person -most elegant, in manners most accomplished, -he had been educated by his mother, Juliana -of Stolberg, a woman of rare abilities and -deeply religious character. As a <i>grand seigneur</i>, -with great estates and a brilliant retinue, -he had known every temptation of wealth -and luxury. But neither the flattery of his -friends nor the adulation of his followers had -sapped his manhood. He was already a seasoned -soldier, and almost at once he was to -win fame as a diplomatist. We see him serving -at the head of his troops throughout one -more campaign; then, at the age of twenty-six, -acting as one of the three plenipotentiaries -at the treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis. -Sent to France as hostage for the fulfillment -of this treaty, we find him the cynosure of all -men's eyes at the greatest and most brilliant -court of the day. Little here to warn those -arch-plotters, Henry of France and Philip of -Spain, that he was soon to become their deadliest -foe. Yet already he was meditating rebellion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> -against the horrors they were planning. -And soon he was to give up all thoughts of -court distinction, and go forth to organize -peasants and rebels into an army, besieging his -own castle in the cause of liberty.</p> - -<p>It was while he was still at the French -court that the incident took place which gave -him his title of William the Silent. The peace -between Henry and Philip had just been concluded, -with one purpose in view as advised -by cardinals and priests. "Both sovereigns -were to massacre the Protestants in their dominions, -and in the Netherlands the Spanish -troops were to be employed for this special -purpose." The Duke of Alva was in the -secret, and King Henry supposed that William -of Orange was also. One day while -hunting, with William riding at his side, -Henry of France unfolded the horrible scheme. -The young prince heard him without a word. -He had not been told of the project, but he -betrayed his ignorance by no sign of speech or -gesture. Henry assumed that he approved of -the awful butchery. No man was ever more -grievously in error. From that moment William -of Orange knew that his call had come, -from that hour he meditated his withdrawal -from the political parties of the guilty leaders. -And when at length the martyr fires were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> -kindled in Holland, and the Inquisition, under -Bloody Alva, began its hellish tasks of -"Church discipline" William of Orange sold -his plate and jewels, abandoned the great -estates he had inherited, and throwing in his -lot with the common people, went to the defense -of the Netherlands in the struggle for -liberty of thought.</p> - -<p>William had already intervened, at the risk -of his life, on more than one occasion of strife -and bloodshed. But the harshness with which -the laws against heretics were now carried out, -the presence of Spanish troops, the filling up -of ministerial offices by Spaniards and other -foreigners was stirring the whole country, and -presently his own son, studying at the University -of Louvain, was seized and carried off -to Spain. William himself was outlawed and -his property confiscated. Finding that he had -been for years the real head of the movement -for liberty, Alva, as Governor-General, now set -a price upon his head. It was the darkest -hour of the long struggle. In constant danger -of assassination, in constant fear of betrayal, -unable to convince his own people that -the contest could never be won, William -wandered from place to place, a fugitive and -an exile.</p> - -<p>But he never once lost heart or capitulated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> -to despair. In that hour he seemed to have -the strength of ten. He was at once general, -statesman, diplomat, financier and saviour of -his people. Like David, he went through the -forest collecting outlaws and men who had -grievances; he organized a score of bands to -prey upon the Spanish army; he developed a -system of secret service by which he kept -spies in Alva's citadel and informed his people -of the enemy plans. He raised a little -army—saw it defeated—raised another, and -saw the crafty Alva refuse to fight until he -was forced to allow it to disband. In seven -years he organized four such armies, only to -be overwhelmed again and again by force of -numbers. With peasants armed with pikes -and pistols he fought veterans who had guns, -cannons and 6,000 horses. Attempt after -attempt was a failure, but he would not confess -defeat. When all seemed lost, he wrote -to his brother, "With God's help, I am determined -to go on." And at length, in the -face of defeat on land, he turned to the sea -and, organizing his little fleet of "Beggars," -became a terror to the Spanish galleons.</p> - -<p>Fascinating the story of how this term, "the -Beggars," came to be the watchword of the -Hollanders' revolt. One day when the clouds -were at their blackest, the nobles of Brussels<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> -rode in a body to the Duchess Margaret to -beseech the withdrawal of the Spanish troops. -They came plainly dressed and unarmed, and -marching four abreast into the council chamber, -petitioned her to suspend the Inquisition. -While Margaret, deeply touched, shed tears -over the piteous appeal, one of her counsellors, -named Berlaymont, spoke scornfully of the -petitioners as "a troop of beggars." The -dropping of that single word was like the -dropping of a spark into a powder-magazine. -That night a banquet was held, with three -hundred nobles present, and "Long live the -Beggars!" rose on every side. Born of a -jibe, the name "Beggars" caught the imagination -of the people; the revolt spread like -wild-fire, and henceforth the phrase became a -battle-cry, which was to ring out on every -bloody field of the long struggle.</p> - -<p>But the battle was only begun. Though -the spring of 1572 brought hope, the hope was -quickly dashed by the news of the terrible -massacre of St. Bartholomew in France. -Charles IX had aligned himself with Philip of -Spain and was seeking to exterminate the -Protestants. And Bloody Alva now redoubled -his cruelties in Holland. With incredible -ferocity, he attacked and captured the city -of Naarden, butchering every man, woman,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> -and child, and razing every building to the -ground. Haarlem was next marked for destruction. -The garrison, numbering less than -two thousand men, was reinforced by Catherine -van Hasselaar and her corps of three -hundred women, who handled spade and pick, -hot water and blazing hoops of tar during the -assaults. Alkmaar came next. Sixteen thousand -Spaniards under Don Frederic, Alva's -son, began the siege, expecting the town to fall -as Haarlem had. But the hated foreigners -were met in the breaches by women, boys and -girls, who fought with pick, stones, fire and -hot water for a full month.</p> - -<p>When the brutal Spanish troops threatened -to beat the patriots down by sheer force of -numbers, the peasants cut their dikes, flooded -their own fields and homes and renewed the -attack upon the Spaniards from the branches -of their orchards and the tops of their houses. -Clinging to the dikes by their finger-tips, -these people fought their way back into the -marshes, where the ground was more solid -beneath their feet. No pen can describe and -no brush can paint the scenes of this and the -other sieges that followed. The history of -heroism holds no more impressive spectacle -than the sight of these patriots who, in the -hour when the siege was suddenly lifted, left<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> -their dead in the streets and went staggering -toward the church to give thanks to God and -swear anew their hatred of tyranny before -their lips had even tasted bread.</p> - -<p>The struggle went on for a score of years. -Driven out of their homes, with no shelter of -tent or stable, fleeing constantly from the -enemy, hiding under the slough grass and -digging holes in the frozen sand, the patriots -perished by the thousands. In winter, when -the frost was bitter, and Alva looked out upon -ice on every side, he ordered thousands of -pairs of skates, that his men might the more -easily hunt down the fugitives. At the climax -of the struggle William the Silent, worn with -excessive labours, his health undermined by -weeks and months spent in the swamps and -in the dikes, was stricken with fever and all -but died. When the illness was at its height -and he was only a skeleton, too weak to hold -his pen in his hand, able only to whisper dispatches -to his messengers, came the news that -Leyden, already besieged for months, and now -plague-stricken, was about to surrender.</p> - -<p>The Spaniards were determined to win this -defiant city, for it was the very heart of Holland -and the most beautiful city in the -Netherlands. It lay below the level of the -ocean, protected by great dikes, and its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> -canals, shaded on either side by lime trees, -poplars, and willows, were crossed by one -hundred and forty-five bridges. Its houses -were beautiful, its public square spacious, its -churches imposing. The Spanish commander -had built sixty-six forts around the city and -so severe was the blockade that no succour by -land was possible. There were no troops in -the town, save a small corps of freebooters and -five companies of the burgher guards. "The -sole reliance of the city was on the stout -hearts of its inhabitants within the walls, and -on the sleepless energy of William the Silent -without." William, assuring them of deliverance, -had implored them to hold out at -least three months, and they had "relied on -his calm and unflinching soul as on a rock of -adamant." They were unaware of his illness, -for he had said nothing of it in his messages, -knowing that it would cast a deeper -shadow on the city.</p> - -<p>When the word reached him that the besieged -could hold out no longer, he decided -once more to call in the aid of the sea. Leyden -lay fifteen miles from the ocean, but the -ocean could be brought to Leyden, and though -he had no army with which to overwhelm the -besiegers he still had his veteran "Beggars" -and a tiny fleet of vessels. He determined to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> -sacrifice the neighbouring countryside, with -its houses and villages, its fields and flocks, if -only he might save the heroic city and its -defenders. On a day in August, the great -sluices were opened and the ocean began to -pour in over the land. While he still lay -desperately ill, waiting for the rising of the -waters, his agents were busy assembling a -fleet of flat-bottomed boats laden with herring -and bread for the starving people.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, within the city all was silence -and death. Pestilence stalked everywhere -and the inhabitants fell like grass beneath -the scythe. The only communication -was by carrier pigeons, and only the messages -from William kept up the hearts of the -defenders. The scenes of tragedy within the -walls are not to be described. And by a -stroke of evil fate the wind, blowing steadily -in the wrong direction, delayed the rising of -the waters.</p> - -<p>Even in its despair, the city was sublime. -At the climax of its sufferings, a committee -waited on the burgomaster to advise surrender. -He was a tall, haggard, imposing -figure, with dark visage and commanding -eyes. He waved his broad-leafed hat for -silence, and then, to use Motley's words, gave -answer, "What would ye, my friends, why do<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> -ye murmur, that we do not break our vows, -and surrender the city to the Spaniards—a -fate more terrible than the agony which she -now endures? I tell you I have made an -oath before the city, and may God give me -strength to keep my oath! I can die but -once; whether by your hands, the enemy's, or -by the hand of God. My own fate is indifferent -to me; not so that of the city entrusted -to my care. I know that I shall starve, if -not soon relieved, but starvation is preferable -to the dishonourable death which is the only -alternative. Your menaces move me not; my -life is at your disposal; here is my sword, -plunge it into my breast; and divide my flesh -among you. Take my body to appease your -hunger, but expect no surrender so long as -I remain alive."</p> - -<p>Then came a gale from the northwest, and -when the waters were piled up in huge waves, -the ocean swept across the ruined dikes. The -flotilla of the "Beggars," that had waited -outside, unable to advance, a painted fleet -upon a painted ocean, now surged forward in -a wild rush to save the city. Spaniards by -the hundreds sank beneath the deepening and -treacherous flood. The fortress of Alva was -destroyed. At midnight the enemy deserted -their redoubts and fled, and at daybreak the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> -ships of William the Silent came through the -canals. Soldiers threw bread to the starving -citizens, and two hours later every living person -who could walk made his way to the -church to sing a hymn of deliverance, during -which the multitude broke down and wept like -children. The day following, the wind shifted -to the east, and blew a tempest. "It was," -says the historian, "as if the waters having -done their work of redemption, had been -rolled back by an omnipotent hand, and when -four days had passed the land was bare again, -and the reconstruction of the dikes well advanced."</p> - -<p>Such was the spirit of William the Silent, -and his followers. The eventual outcome was -inevitable. At length the Spaniards came to -see that victory could be bought at one price -and one price alone—extermination. From -Spain came overtures to William of Orange. -His reply is historic: "Peace only upon three -conditions: (1) Freedom of worship, (2) A -land dedicated to liberty, (3) All Spaniards -in civil and military employment to be withdrawn -forever." In April, 1576, an act of -Union was agreed and signed at Delft, by -which supreme authority was conferred upon -him. In September of that year William -entered Brussels in triumph, as the acknowledged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> -leader of all the Netherlands, Catholic -and Protestant alike. And at length, at -Utrecht, a federal republic was established, -with a written constitution—that republic -which was to exist for two hundred years -under the motto "by concord little things -become great." William's struggle was over -and the battle won.</p> - -<p>But, all unconsciously, the architect of the -new republic was moving toward his end. -Like Moses, if he had led the people out of the -wilderness it was not given him to see the -promised land. For years his steps had been -dogged by hired assassins. There had scarcely -been an hour during his long warfare when -bribes and gold were not offered for his death. -It was a miracle that he had escaped the -dagger, the club and the cup of poison. He -was now fifty-one years of age. His portraits -exhibit him as a man whose lips were locked -with iron, whose face was furrowed with care, -his look alert and strained, his air that "of a -man at bay, having staked his life and life's -work." And yet he was one of the most -charming of companions, brilliant of address, -of so winning a manner that it was said -"every time he took off his hat he won a subject -from the King of Spain."</p> - -<p>One morning, while writing at his desk, a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> -young Spaniard who had forged the seals -obtained access to the Prince's writing room. -Because he had been searched by the guard the -visitor was without weapon. But having delivered -his forged letter, he asked the Prince -for a Bible and the loan of a few crowns. He -received a gift of twelve pieces of silver, and -went into the courtyard, where, with the -Prince's own money, he purchased a pistol -from the guard. Thence he returned to find -a hiding place in the dark passageway, and to -empty three shots into the Prince's breast.</p> - -<p>With the death of William the Silent the -Netherlands lost their noblest hero, their most -sublime patriot, and one of the greatest leaders -of all time. Few are the names worthy to be -ranked with that of this Prince of the blood -who gave his wealth, his strength and finally -his life for the cause of liberty. Ruling with -a strong hand, he was not a despot; brave, he -was not reckless; giant, he was also gentle; -warring against the Inquisition, with its -thumbscrews and fagots, he held himself -back from bloodthirstiness and revenge. The -victim of every kind of attack that hate could -devise or malignity invent, he never degraded -himself by meeting hate with hate or crime -with crime. When the long struggle for liberty -which he began was brought to an issue,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> -Spain had buried 350,000 of her sons and -allies in Holland, spent untold millions for the -destroying of freedom, and sunk from the -ranks of the first power in Europe to the -level of a fourth-rate country—stagnant in -ideas, cruel in government, superstitious in -religion. But brave little Holland had -emerged to serve forever as a rock against -tyranny and a refuge from oppression.</p> - - -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> -<h2>IV<br /> -OLIVER CROMWELL<br /> -(1599–1658)</h2> -<h3><i>And the Rise of Democracy in England</i></h3> - -<p>Society's ingratitude to its heroes and -leaders is proverbial. Earth's bravest -souls have been misunderstood in youth, -maligned in manhood and neglected in old -age. The fathers slay the prophets, the children -build the sepulchres, and the grandchildren -wear deeply the <a name="path" id="path"></a>path the heroes -trod. History teems with illustrations of this -principle. Socrates is the wisest prophet, the -noblest teacher, the truest citizen and patriot -that Athens ever had, and Athens rewards him -with a cup of poison. In a critical hour -Savonarola saves the liberty of his city, and -Florence burns him in the market-place. -Cervantes writes the only world-wide thing in -Spanish literature, and for an abiding place -Spain rewards him, not with a mansion, but -with a blanket in a dungeon, feeds him, not -upon the apples of Paradise, but on the apples -of Sodom, and gives him to drink, not the -nectar of the gods, but vinegar mingled with -gall.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>Next to the Bible in influence upon English -literature comes the <i>Pilgrim's Progress</i>. -England kept John Bunyan in jail at Bedford -for twelve years, as his reward. For some -reason, nations reserve their wreaths of recognition -until the heart is broken, until hope -is dead, and the ambitions are in heaven. The -history of the other great leaders, therefore, -leads us to expect that the greatest, because -the most typical, Englishman of all time, shall -be unique in his obloquy and shame, as he was -signal in his supreme gifts. During his life -the very skies rained lies and cruel taunts; in -his death the mildewed lips of slander took up -new falsehoods. In the grave the very dust -of this hero furnished a sure foundation for -the temple of liberty, but his grave was -despoiled. With pomp and pageantry Charles -the Second ordered his bones to be exhumed, -and the skeleton hung between thieves at -Tyburn to satisfy his hatred. For twelve -years Cromwell's skull was elevated upon a -pole above Westminster Hall, where it stood -exposed to the rains of twelve summers and -the snows of twelve winters.</p> - -<p>And now that two hundred and fifty years -have passed away, these centuries have not -availed for extinguishing the fires of hatred -and controversy, or for doing justice to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> -memory of this man, Oliver Cromwell, God's -appointed king.</p> - -<p>We would naturally expect that time would -have availed to clear the name and fame of -Cromwell and to secure for him the recognition -that his achievements deserve. But it -was hard for some royalists to forgive this man -who turned his hand against the sacred person -of the King. For nearly three centuries the -conflict has raged. The royal historians count -Cromwell the greatest hypocrite in history, the -trickster, the regicide, the political Judas of -all time. For a hundred years after his death, -no man was found brave enough to mention -the name of Oliver Cromwell in Windsor -Castle or the House of Lords. England's -Abbey has made a place for the statues of that -one-talent general, Burgoyne, whose chief -business was to surrender his troops to our -colonial soldiers, but the Abbey has no niche -for a bust of the only English general who -ranks with the great soldiers of history—Alexander, -Cæsar, Napoleon, Grant, and now -Foch—these six and no more.</p> - -<p>The British Houses of Parliament are -crowded with statues of politicians who gave -the people what they wanted, and some statesmen -who gave the people what they ought to -have. And there, too, are found the busts of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> -kings and queens, Bloody Mary, contemptible -John, those little feeblings and parasites -named the Georges. But low down and bespattered -with mud she has written the name -of her greatest monarch, and the most powerful -ruler that ever sat upon a throne.</p> - -<p>Not until Carlyle came forward did the -cloud of slander begin to lift. When the three -hundredth anniversary of the birth of Cromwell -was celebrated, Great Britain awakened -to the fact that too little recognition had been -given to the great reformer whose career was -one of the marvels of English history. The -measure of a nation's greatness is the kind of -man it admires. To-day, it is of little consequence -what we think of Cromwell, but it is -of the first importance that Cromwell should -approve the leaders of our world-capitals. -Only in the last generation has the tide turned, -and the reaction begun to set in. John Morley, -busied with his biography of Gladstone, -took time to write a history of the man whom -he calls the maker of English history. Professor -Gardiner asserts that England has done -injustice to Cromwell and that the time has -come for her to right a great wrong. All the -world has at last begun to recognise the fact -that the farmer of Huntingdon was an uncrowned -king, ruling of his own natural right.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>The world's ingratitude to Cromwell becomes -the more striking when we remember -what he did for Great Britain, for her people, -to right the wrongs of her poor, to found her -free institutions and to give her a place among -the nations of the earth. Oliver Cromwell -found England almost next to nothing in the -scale of European politics. France pitied poor -little England, and Spain, the one world-wide -force of the time, despised her. He found her -people a group of quarrelling sects, divided, -hostile and full of hate. Her soil was scored -with countless insurrections; her commerce -was dead; her navy was so miserably weak -that pirates sailed up the Thames, dropped -anchor in the night in front of Westminster -Hall, and flung defiance to the frightened -merchants. In a single year, three thousand -Englishmen were impressed by these pirates -and sold in the slave markets of Algiers, -Constantinople and the West Indies. He -found the king a tyrant, who one day made -the boast that he had brought every man who -had opposed his will to the Tower or the -scaffold. He found Parliament saying, "We -have struggled for twenty years, and every -attempt has ended with a halter, and it is -better to endure a present ill than flee to -others that we know not of."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>And in the very darkest hour of England's -history, this farmer flung himself into the -breach and besought his countrymen to unite -in one supreme effort to achieve liberty for -the common people. For forty years he had -been a plain country gentleman, content with -his farm; ten years later he was "the most -famous military captain in Europe, the greatest -man in England, and the wisest ruler -England ever had." He lived to hold the -destinies of his country in his hands, to enthrone -justice and toleration over a great part -of Europe, received overtures for alliances -from many kings, and died in the royal palace -at Whitehall, and was buried amid the lamentations -of many who had been his bitter -enemies.</p> - -<p>Cromwell's greatness stirs our sense of -wonder the more, because he accomplished -what others had sought to achieve and failed. -Balfour or Lloyd George trained for years to -his task, is like one who stands in the midst of -an arsenal, protected by walls and battlements, -and served by cannon and machine guns. To -employ Carlyle's expressive figure, a dwarf -who stands with a match before a cannon can -beat down a stronghold, but he must be a -giant indeed who can capture an armed fortress -with naked fists, as did Oliver Cromwell.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> -He lived in an age of great men. The era -of Shakespeare, of Marlowe, Jonson and -Bacon was closing. It was the era of John -Pym, called "The Old Man Eloquent." It -was the era of Hampden, the patrician, the -orator and hero. It was the time of Sir Harry -Vane, the distinguished gentleman who came -to Boston to be made ruler of that new city, -and whom Wendell Phillips called the noblest -patriot that ever walked the streets of the -new capital. Coke was on the bench, meditating -his decisions, while Lyttleton was perfecting -his interpretations of the Constitution. -John Milton was making his plea for the liberty -of the press. Owen and Sherlock and -Howe were in the pulpits.</p> - -<p>These were among the bravest spirits that -have ever stood upon our earth. All hated -tyranny, and all loved liberty. All sought to -overthrow the rule of the despot and yet, -when all had done their best, England was sold -like a slave in the market-place. It was the -farmer of Huntingdon who, in that critical -hour, came forward and showed himself equal -to the emergency. It was this country gentleman, -without political experience, this general -who became a statesman without the discipline -of statecraft, who became the shepherd -of his people and overthrew that citadel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> -of iniquity called the Divine Right of Kings; -who rid England of her pirates, developed a -great commerce, built up the most powerful -navy that then sailed the sea—a possession -England has never lost—corrected the code, -rectified the Constitution, laid the foundation -for the present Bill of Rights. This is why -John Morley asks us to study carefully the -lineaments of this man whose body England, -to her undying shame, and in the days of her -dishonour, hung in chains at Tyburn.</p> - -<p>If we are to understand Cromwell's character -and career and his place among the -world's leaders, we must recall his age and -time and the England of that far-off day, -when he wrought his work and dipped his -sword in heaven. What of the religious condition -of England in the era of intolerance, -when the prophet of God was anointed with -the ointment of war, black and sulphurous? -It is the year 1630, and Cromwell is still in -his early manhood. One bright morning, with -St. Paul's to his back, Cromwell entered -Ludgate Circus. In the midst of the circus -stood a scaffold and around it was a great -throng, crowding and pressing toward the -place of torture. At the foot of the scaffold -was a venerable scholar, his white hair flowing -upon his shoulders, a man of stainless character<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> -and spotless life, renowned for his devotion, -eloquence and patriotism. When the -executioner led the aged pastor up the steps, -the soldiers tore off his garments. He was -whipped until blood ran in streams down his -back, both nostrils were slit and his ears -cropped off, hot irons were brought and two -letters, "S-S"—sower of sedition—were -burned into his forehead.</p> - -<p>What crime had this pastor committed? -Perhaps he had lifted a firebrand upon the -King's palace; perhaps he had organized some -foul gunpowder plot to overthrow the throne -itself. Perhaps he had been guilty of treason, -or some foul and nameless sin against the -State. Not so. The reading of the decision of -the judge and the decree of the punishment -made clear the truth. It seemed that a fortnight -before, the aged pastor had been commanded -to give up his extempore prayers and -the singing of the Psalms, and had been commanded -to read the written prayers and sing -the hymns prescribed by the state Church. -But the gentle scholar had disregarded the -command, and on the following Sunday -walked in the ways familiar and dear to him -by reason of long association. He had dared -to sing the same old Psalms and lift his heart -to God in extempore prayer, after the manner<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> -of his fathers. And when the executioner -announced that on the following Saturday at -high noon the old scholar would be brought a -second time into Ludgate Circus, and there -scourged before the people, the cloud upon -Oliver Cromwell's brow was black as the -thunder-storm that stands upon the western -sky, black and vociferous with thunder. -Kings, the head of the Church of Jesus -Christ!</p> - -<p>Two hundred years later, Abraham Lincoln, -standing in the market-place of New Orleans, -was to see a coloured child torn from its -mother's arms, held by the auctioneer upon the -block and sold to the highest bidder. With a -lump in his throat, Abraham Lincoln turned -to his brother and said: "If the time ever -comes when I can strike, I will hit slavery as -hard a blow as I can." And when Cromwell -turned away from that scene in Ludgate Circus -he went home to dream about the era of -toleration and liberty and charity, and registered -a vow to strike, when the time came, -the hardest blow he could against the citadel -of intolerance and bigotry on the part of the -Church.</p> - -<p>But political England was as dark and -troublesome as the religious world of that day. -One of the noblest men of the time was Sir<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> -John Eliot. He was the child of wealth and -opportunity. The university had lent him culture, -travel had lent breadth, and leisure had -given him the opportunity to grow wise and -ripe. His nature was singularly lofty and -devout, his temper ardent and chivalric. His -one ambition was to serve his mother country. -A vice-admiral, he was given power to defend -the commerce of the country and overthrow -the pirates. After many attempts, by a clever -but dangerous maneuver he entrapped the -king of the pirates, Nutt, who had taken one -hundred and twenty English ships and sold -the sailors in the slave market of Algiers and -Tripoli. But King Charles freed the pirate, -and punished the vice-admiral by four months' -imprisonment, for he had taken bribes against -his own sailors.</p> - -<p>When Sir John Eliot had been released, he -charged the King with complicity in a crime. -For reply the King levied an illegal fine. Sir -John Eliot was rich, and he might have -bought immunity. In his home dwelt a -beautiful wife and little children, and with -flight he might have escaped his prison. His -wealth would have enabled him to live abroad -in ease, but he preferred to stay at home and -die in London Tower for principle. And no -martyr, going to his stake, no hero, falling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> -at the head of a battle line, ever did a nobler -thing than Sir John Eliot, when he refused -to pay his fine and preferred death to enjoying -the pleasures of expediency for a season. -For three years the hero bore his imprisonment -and endured the tortures of confinement. -The rigours of the Tower could not break his -dauntless spirit. One day he found blood -upon his handkerchief. Fearing that death -was near, he sent a request to the royal palace. -"A little more air, your majesty, that I may -gain strength to die in!" But John Eliot had -thwarted the King's policy, and Charles carried -his vindictiveness even to death. "Not -humble enough," was the King's reply. Blows -cannot break the will, waters cannot drown -the will, flames cannot consume the will, and -in the hour of Eliot's death, Charles knew -that his opponent had conquered. One day -John Eliot's son petitioned the King that he -might carry his father's remains to Cornwall -to lie with those of his ancestors. Charles -wrote on the petition: "Let Sir John Eliot's -body be buried in the parish where he died, -and his ashes lie unmarked in the Chapel of -the Tower."</p> - -<p>But the social England of the era of Cromwell -is a darker picture still. If our age is -the era of the rise and reign of the common<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> -people, that was an age when the middle-class -was as yet almost unknown. Feudalism still -survived. There were the plebeians on the one -hand, and the patrician class on the other. -Theoretically the King owned the land, and -the lords and gentlemen were agents under -him. Kenilworth Castle and its lord stand for -the social England of that day. My lord dwelt -in a castle—the people dwelt in mud huts. -He wore purple and fine linen—his people -wore coats of sheepskin, slept on beds of -straw, ate black bread, knew sorrow by day -and misery by night. Did a farmer sow a -field and reap the harvest? Every third -shock belonged to the lord of the castle. Did -the husbandman drive his flocks afield? In -the autumn, every third sheep and bullock -belonged to my lord. Was the grain ripe in -the field? If the peasant owed twenty days' -labour without return at the time of sowing to -my lord, he had to give ten days more to the -lord of the castle in the time of the harvest. -Again without recompense. And so it generally -came about that for want of proper time -to plough and plant and for opportunity of -reaping in the hour when his grain was ripe, -the serf fronted the winter with an empty -granary, and the cry of his children was exceeding -bitter.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>There were few bridges across the streams, -there was no glass in the farmer's window, not -one in a thousand owned a book, sanitation -was almost unknown, every other babe died in -infancy; if the upper classes came out of the -Black Death almost unscathed, about a third -of the peasant class was swept off by that -scourge, which the physicians now know was -caused by insufficient food and decayed grain. -It was an era of ignorance and brutality -among the poor, an era of snobs and of -criminals. Cromwell found a hundred laws -upon the English statute books that involve -hanging for petty infringements against the -rights of the King. He found woman a chattel -and one day saw a man sell his wife in the -market-place and beheld the purchaser lead -the girl off in a halter. When the traveller -rode up to London, he passed between a line of -gibbets, where corpses hung rotting in chains. -Highwaymen rode even into London, at nightfall, -and tied their horses in Hyde Park, -robbed people in the streets, broke into stores -and rode away unmolested. One advertisement -read thus: "For sale, a negro boy, aged -eleven years. Inquire at the Coffee House, -Threadneedle Street, behind the Royal Exchange."</p> - -<p>Drunkenness and gambling were all but universal.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> -One Secretary of State was notorious -as the greatest drunkard and the most unlucky -gambler of his era. A Prime Minister -was allowed to appear at the opera house with -his mistress, and was esteemed the finest public -man of his century. We are face to face -with corruption in politics, incompetence in -council and paganism in religion. To-day a -member of the Cabinet who would use his -private information for purposes of gambling -in Wall Street would be instantly ruined. -But in that era, the King and his courtiers -filled their coffers by such methods without -any criticism.</p> - -<p>In such an era, Cromwell saw that there was -no hope for England until there was a middle -class. He determined to destroy the castles -that offered shelter to the princes who had -spoiled and robbed and outraged the poor, -who had no defense to which they could flee -when they had outraged the law. It has often -been said that he was an iconoclast; in razing -the castles of England to the ground and -overthrowing the strongholds he was the -greatest criminal of his age; but if he loved -the castles and architecture less, it was because -he loved the poor more. He levelled -stones down that he might have a foundation -upon which the poor could climb up, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> -thereby he destroyed the strongholds of feudalism -and laid the foundations of the Bill of -Rights of 1832, and was the forerunner of our -own Washington and Lincoln.</p> - -<p>Who is this King Charles who stands for the -old order, and who is the great representative -of the doctrine of the divine right of kings? -He was a grandson of Mary, Queen of Scots, -who, in fleeing from Scotland, seized the hand -of Lord Lindsay, her foe, and holding it aloft -in her grasp swore by it, "I will have your -head for this, so I assure you." His father -was James the First of England and Sixth of -Scotland, who had some gifts and also virtues, -but who after all was simply an animated -stomach, carried far by a handful of intellectual -faculties. That Charles the First had -qualities denied to his father all must confess. -He was gifted with a certain taste for pictures, -he had some imagination, and loved good literature. -During his imprisonment he read -Tasso, Spenser's <i>Faerie Queen</i>, and, above all, -Shakespeare. He was methodical and decorous, -but his favourite essay was Bacon's -"Essay on Simulation and Dissimulation." -As a diplomat he believed that Machiavelli's -<i>Prince</i> was the ideal to be followed, in that -truth is so precious a quantity that it ought -not to be wasted on the common people. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> -was not renowned for chivalry or a sense of -gratitude. Witness his foul desertion of -Strafford in the hour when Strafford exclaimed: -"Put not your trust in princes!"</p> - -<p>Again and again, through his selfishness, he -spoiled his people. To obtain money he sold -to one of his favourites the exclusive right to -use sedan chairs in London, and put chains -across the streets and made it a criminal -offense for a gentleman to drive his coach into -the limits of the city. He taxed the shoes the -people wore, the salt they ate, the beds on -which they slept, and the very windows -through which the light came. He hired spies -to make out a list of merchants who had an -income of more than £2,000 a year and by -indirect blackmail obtained money therefrom. -When the Black Death broke out, and the -streets of London were piled with corpses, and -the committee of relief asked for public subscriptions, -Charles the First fled to Hampton -Court and made no subscription, large or -small, to the relief fund.</p> - -<p>And how did he amuse himself during those -days when every house in London was left -desolate? In his far-off palace, surrounded -by guards, beyond whom no messenger could -pass, Charles the First sat, surrounded by his -court. He sent to Amsterdam for jewellers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> -and paid £10,400 for a necklace. He paid -£8,000 for a gold collar for himself, and £10,000 -for a diamond ring for the Queen. On -the ground that Parliament had not imposed -taxes sufficient for his expenses, he made a -tax proclamation for himself. Then Parliament, -led by Pym and Hampden and Eliot, -brought in a bill of remonstrance. They assumed -that the King ruled under preëxisting -laws. They declared that if Charles refused -to call a Parliament and arrogated its power -to himself, twelve peers might call a Parliament, -and if this failed, the citizens might -come together through a committee and elect -their representatives.</p> - -<p>But the King was consumed with egotism -and vanity. He sent orders to Parliament to -deliver to him the five leaders who stood for -the liberties of the people, and with a mob of -soldiers he entered the House of Commons to -seize Hampden and Pym. But the House -refused to give up its members, and helped -them to escape through one of the windows, -and the next day it brought them back in a -triumphal procession. Returning to his palace, -the King found the streets crowded with -people, silent, sullen, dark with anger. He -heard threats and growls from every side. -One prophet of righteousness called out, "To<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> -your tents, O Israel!" Suddenly Charles the -First realized that his people, driven to bay, -had at last bestirred themselves, and, fearing -he might be driven into a corner, his cheek -went white as marble. That night, conscious -of his danger, he fled to Hampton Court, while -the whole city applauded the five leaders who -had escaped the snare. He had furnished the -dynamite to blow up his throne. The people, -represented by Parliament, stood over against -the peers, represented by the King, as enemies. -It was "either your neck, or my neck," and -when a few weeks passed, there began the era -of civil war, with blazing towns and castles -and strongholds. "Whom the gods would -destroy, they first make mad."</p> - -<p>But who is the man who shall do for England -what Savonarola did for Florence, and -Luther for Germany, and William Tell for -Switzerland, and Washington and Lincoln for -our own country? Oliver Cromwell was of -Celtic stock and noble family. It is a singular -coincidence that he was a ninth cousin of that -Charles whose death warrant he was to sign; -that seventeen of his relatives were in Parliament -to sign the Great Remonstrance, and that -ten of his blood-relatives joined with him in -signing the death warrant of the King. Cromwell -was sixteen years of age, and enrolled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> -himself as a student at Cambridge on the very -day that great Shakespeare died in Stratford. -The greatest thing England ever did in literature -ended on the day when perhaps the -greatest thing she did in action began. John -Milton said that Cromwell nursed his great -soul in silence and solitude. He was but a -child when the news of the Gunpowder Plot -filled his father's house with excitement. He -was but a child when a dispatch was laid in -his father's hands announcing the death of -Henry of Navarre, the founder of Protestantism -in France. From boyhood he loved the -story of the brave and gallant Sir Walter -Raleigh, and the announcement that he was to -be executed to please the King of Spain filled -him with tumultuous indignation.</p> - -<p>In appearance he was above medium stature, -built like Daniel Webster and Brougham -and Beecher, with great, beautiful head, -bronzed face, heavy, projecting eyebrows, -large forehead, two eyes burning like flames -of fire beneath the overhanging cliffs. He was -of sandy complexion, like Alexander and -Napoleon. But if he were thick set, he was -of finely compacted fiber, and this man, who -was to deal a crushing blow at Marston Moor, -and sign the King's death warrant and "grasp -the scepter of a throne" and raze to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> -ground the citadels of iniquity, the old strong -castles of feudalism, was also strong enough -to lift little England with her six millions to -a level with the thirty millions of mighty -Spain. Not until he was forty years of age -did this farmer enter Parliament. One day, -in the House of Commons, Sir Philip Warwick, -while listening to a sharp voice, said to John -Hampden, whose seat was near him: "Mr. -Hampden, who is that sloven who spoke just -now, for I see he is on our side, by his speaking -so warmly?" "That sloven," replied -Hampden, "whom you see before you—that -sloven, I say—if we ever come to a breach with -the King—God forbid—that sloven, I say, -would, in that case, be the greatest man in -England." But Hampden knew him also as -gentle and lovable, tender toward his friends, -loved by his rustic neighbours, though this -vehement man, with sword stuck close to his -side, had stern and uncompromising work, and -the most difficult task ever set before an -Englishman. "A larger soul, I think," writes -Carlyle, "had seldom dwelt in a house of -clay than was his."</p> - -<p>Much of the criticism of Cromwell that has -been so bitter, so rabid and so persistent would -at once disappear if it were understood that -the central element in Cromwell's life was religion.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> -He was first of all a Puritan, essentially -a religious reformer and incidentally a -politician. This is the clue to the maze, this -is the key to the problem, and the solution to -this historical enigma. He was by nature a -poet and a prophet, haunted by sublime vision, -dreaming of heaven and hell, as did -Dante and Bunyan. "Verily," said he, "I -think the Lord is with me. I undertake -strange things, yet do I go through them to -great profit and gladness and furtherance of -the Lord's great work. I do feel myself lifted -on by a strange force. I cannot tell why. By -night and by day I am urged forward in the -great work."</p> - -<p>Had he lived in the days of Jeremiah, he -would have dreamed dreams and seen visions -and foretold retribution upon the wrongdoers. -Had he lived in the days of Socrates, -he would have made much of the voice of God. -Had he lived in the time of Bernard the Monk, -or Francis of Assisi, he would have dwelt -apart from men and fed his soul in solitude. -Like John Bunyan, he was a melancholy, -brooding, lonely figure, who sometimes fought -with Apollyon in the Valley of Humiliation, -and sometimes was lifted to the heights of the -Delectable Mountains. He was a man of -singular sincerity, who confessed like Paul:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> -"Oft have I been in hell, and sometimes have -I been caught up into the seventh heaven and -heard things not lawful to utter." Blackness -of darkness on one day, blinding radiance -of light on another—both experiences were -his. "I think I am the poorest wretch that -lives, but I love God, or rather I am beloved -of God." There speaks the religious leader, -and not the ambitious politician.</p> - -<p>"In the whole history of Europe," writes -Frederic Harrison, "Oliver Cromwell is the -one ruler into whose presence no vicious man -could ever come, into whose service no vicious -man might ever enter." What an army was -that which he collected! When one of his -officers was guilty of profanity and vulgarity -in his presence, he was immediately dismissed. -Cromwell sought out men like John Milton to -be associated with him in diplomatic work. -"If I were to choose," he writes, "any servant—the -meanest officers of the army of the Commonwealth—I -would choose a godly man that -hath principle, especially where a trust is to -be committed, because I know where to find -a man that hath principle." He believed, -also, and practiced prayer, for more things are -wrought by prayer than are dreamed of in -man's philosophy. With Tennyson, he held -that "with prayer men are bound as with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> -chains of gold about the feet of God." One -day, overpressed with work, he went into the -country to spend the night with an old friend. -After the Lord Protector had retired, the host -heard words, as of one speaking. Standing -by the door of Cromwell's room, in which he -feared that some enemy might have found entrance, -he heard Cromwell pouring out his -heart to God, telling Him that this was not a -work that he had taken up for himself; that -it was God's work; that the people were God's -children, and the world God's world. Little -wonder that the modern politician cannot -understand Oliver Cromwell, and finds his life -full of contradictory elements.</p> - -<p>Not all present-day politicians could stand -the prayer test. Cromwell was a God-intoxicated -man. He believed that the Sermon on -the Mount and the law of Sinai were the basis -of all political creeds. "We think," writes -the historian, "that religion is a part of life; -the Puritan thought it was the whole of life." -That which was morally right could not be -politically wrong, that which was politically -right could not be morally wrong. The principles -of justice and honesty that made the -individual life worthy were one with the -principles that made national life worthy. -Between man and man you expected truth.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> -Was it a matter of indifference for the King -to lie to his ministers, his people, and his -Parliament? Is a king to be excused who -broke all pledges, and laid dishonest taxes on -his people? These questions were incidentally -political questions, but primarily moral -problems. And they thrust Cromwell, the -religious recluse, into the whirl and turmoil -of politics, and made him a soldier and a -statesman.</p> - -<p>What a study in contrasts is the story of -this farmer of Huntingdon! One day Parliament -makes remonstrance; it sends the King -word that he must call Parliament at regular -intervals; that taxes must be voted by Parliament; -that in the event of the King's refusing -to call a Parliament for the correction of injustice, -the peers may issue the call; that if -the peers refuse, the judges may issue it, and -if the judges play false, the people may come -together for election. Hampden, Pym and -Cromwell indict the King for wrong and -tyranny. Charles gives orders that the five -leaders of Parliament shall be delivered to the -Keeper of the Tower. The King flees to -Hampton Court, and sends the gold plate and -the crown jewels to Paris, hires foreign troops, -lands them upon English shores and England -is plunged into civil war.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>For the time being, Parliament is stunned, -and the leaders seem paralyzed. But one -man is equal to the emergency. This farmer, -in rural England, assembles the gentlemen -who live in his neighbourhood. They crowd -under the trees in his orchard, he reads a -psalm, kneels down and prays with them, then -tells them that on the morrow a representative -of the King is to be in Cambridge to call -for troops. Cromwell announces that to-morrow -he proposes to hang the King's representative -at the crossroads, and to seize the -gold plate of the university to hire troops. -"I want no tapsters, or gamesters or cowards, -but only gentlemen who fear God and keep -His commandments." A few weeks later, -Prince Rupert and Charles meet Lord Essex -and the Parliamentary forces at Marston -Moor, and at first are overwhelmingly successful. -When the Puritans are defeated, Lord -Essex orders Cromwell to bring up his regiment, -and the stroke of Cromwell's Ironsides -is the stroke of an earthquake. The farmer -turns defeat into victory.</p> - -<p>Then comes the overthrow of Charles at -Naseby, and "God's crowning mercy" at -Worcester. When Scotland tries to force the -Presbytery upon England, Cromwell leads his -troops north to Edinburgh. When the Irish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> -rise up at Drogheda, he marches into Ireland. -When Charles breaks all his pledges, and his -private correspondence is discovered, exhibiting -him in the light of traitor to the liberties -of England, Oliver Cromwell becomes -executioner, for he has to decide between the -head of the King, or the neck of the Parliament. -Offered the throne, with the right of -descent passing over to his son, he refuses the -crown, for he wishes to be the protector, to -guard the precious seeds of liberty until such -time as a worthy successor for the throne shall -appear. If for a time he rules as military -dictator, it grows out of the necessities of the -times, for Parliament is weak, divided into -hostile camps, refusing to correct the laws, -investigate the abuses of judges, revise the -principles of taxation, do anything for the -navy, lighten the burdens of the common -people. Divided into little cliques, Parliament -wastes weeks and months, and at last -Oliver Cromwell enters the House of Commons -and dissolves Parliament, charging them with -having thrown away a great opportunity. -"May God choose between you and me!" -exclaims the one man who understands the -emergency. He is the true king who can do -the thing that needs to be done!</p> - -<p>What were the qualities that made Cromwell<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> -the great hero that he was? Lord Morley -tells us that Cromwell was first of all a -practical man, tactful, straightforward, and -going straight to his object. With the instincts -of the true general, for soldiers he -selected sturdy farmers, country gentlemen, -men of iron nerve, who did not drink nor -gamble, but with whom war meant business. -He gave to each of his soldiers a pocket-Bible, -and when he hurled his regiments against the -jaunty and dapper youths who made up the -army of Prince Rupert, his troops swept -through the royalist army "as a cannon ball -goes through a heap of egg-shells." "Pray, -but keep your powder dry," was his motto. -He had also the genius of hard work, and the -love of detail. He could toil terribly. Nothing -escaped his vigilance.</p> - -<p>One day he was asked whether he knew that -Charles II, then living in Paris, had a representative -in England? "Certainly," he replied. -"He has one representative who sleeps -in such a house, and another who sleeps near -the palace. The correspondence of the first -is in a trunk under his bed. The letters of the -second are in a certain inn."</p> - -<p>When he came at length to live in a palace, -Oliver Cromwell was simple in his tastes, pure -in his morals, tireless in his pursuit of duty.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> -It is said that he was a Philistine, and the -enemy of culture. But he loved music and -encouraged the opera. He loved literature, -and his warmest friend was John Milton, the -greatest poet and author of the age. If he -levelled the castles of England to the ground, -that feudalism might have no stronghold to -which it could flee, it cannot be said that he -hated art, for Cromwell bought the cartoons -of Raphael for England, and preserved the art -treasures of Charles the First. It stirs our -sense of wonder that men should think that -Cromwell represents opposition to culture, -and that Charles the Second stands for the -refinements of life. Charles the Second, the -royalist, was a king who endeavoured to sell -the cartoons of Raphael that Cromwell had -preserved, to the King of France, to obtain -money for his court. He encouraged bull-baiting -and cock-fighting and pleasures -steeped in animalism and vulgarity. No one -claims that Cromwell himself was a piece of -granite, unhewn and unpolished. The fact -is, neither the Puritan nor the royalist stood -for full culture and refinement. But of the -two men, a thousand times preferable is the -Cromwell who maintained friendship with -John Milton, who represented genius united -to the noblest character.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>But great as was Cromwell, the ruler, he -was greater still as father, citizen and Christian. -Alone, amid conspiracies and plots, the -weary Titan staggered on. At last the burden -broke his heart. He held the realm in order -by his will, gave law to Europe, and defended -the weak, crushed the bigot, so that far away -in Rome the Pope trembled at his name, and -the sons of the martyrs blessed him. Suddenly -he realized that his great work was -done. On his death-bed he lay with one hand -upon the breast of Christ, and the other -stretched out toward Washington and Lincoln. -For hours he lay, speaking great and noble -words. The storm that passed over London -that day and uprooted the trees in Hyde Park -was the fitting dirge for the passing of this -noble soul. "God is good," he murmured. -Urged to take a potion and find sleep, he answered: -"It is not my design to drink and -sleep, but my wish is to make what haste I can -to be gone." An hour later he lay calm and -speechless. His work was done. He had -shattered that citadel of iniquity, the Divine -Right of Kings, and secured for the people of -England the rights of conscience and religion. -When the King returned, he returned to reign -in accordance with the people's will. When -the Church was restored, it was restored upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> -the basis of the Act of Toleration, and the concession -that no church can coerce the conscience -of the people. Cromwell had compacted -Scotland and England. He had outlined -the movement of the reform bill of 1832. -He had brought in an epoch when, for the -first and only time in Europe, morality and -religion were qualifications insisted upon in a -court. Much of that which is best in the life -and thought of America and England, the -republic and the great monarchy alike owe to -that stern workman of God, Oliver Cromwell.</p> - - -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> -<h2>V<br /> -JOHN MILTON<br /> -(1608–1674)</h2> -<h3><i>The Scholar in Politics</i></h3> - -<p>By common consent, critics acclaim John -Milton the greatest Latin scholar, the -foremost man of letters and one of the two -first literary artists England has produced. -Historians have united to give him a place -among the ten great names in English history. -Take out of our institutions Milton's plea for -the liberty of the printing press, his views on -education, and all modern society would be -changed. Tennyson called Milton "the God-gifted -organ-voice of England, the mighty-mouthed -inventor of harmonies; an angel -skilled to sing of time and of eternity; a seer -who spent his days and nights listening to the -sevenfold <i>Hallelujah Chorus</i> of Almighty -God." Voltaire was not an Englishman, but -Voltaire characterized Milton's poems as -"the noblest product of the human imagination." -Many American statesmen believe -that the principles of the Compact signed in -the cabin of the <i>Mayflower</i> and the final<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> -Constitution, are none other than the reproduction -in political terms of the dreams of -freedom that haunted the soul of John Milton -all his life long. But it remained for Wordsworth -to pay the supreme tribute to this immortal -singer:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">"Thy soul was like a star and dwelt apart;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Thou hadst a voice that sounded like the sea;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Pure as the native heavens, majestic, free.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">We must be free or die that speak the tongue<br /></span> -<span class="i0">That Shakespeare spoke; the faith and morals hold<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Which Milton held."<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p>Poet, statesman, philosopher, champion and -martyr of English literature, John Milton -was born at one of the critical moments in -the history of mankind. His era, says Macaulay, -"was one of the memorable eras—the -very crisis of the great conflict between liberty -and despotism, reason and prejudice. The -battle was fought for no single generation, for -no single land. The destinies of the human -race were staked on the same cast with the -freedom of the English people. Then were -first proclaimed those mighty principles which -have since worked their way into the depth -of the American forests . . . and from -one end of Europe to the other have kindled -an unquenchable fire in the hearts of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> -oppressed. Of those principles, then struggling -for their existence, Milton was the most -devoted and eloquent champion."</p> - -<p>If it be true, as Macaulay would have us -believe, that as civilization advances, poetry -necessarily declines, and that in an enlightened -and literary society the poet's difficulties -are "in proportion to his proficiency" as a -scholar, then it may truly be said that few -poets have triumphed over greater difficulties -than John Milton. He was born at the end of -the heroic age in English literature, and he -enjoyed all the benefits and advantages that -travel and culture could bestow upon him. -If, however, as others of us believe, great literature -is like a spring of clear water, bubbling -out of the soil, and no man can say -what mysterious elements give it its crystal -purity, then it behooves us to examine somewhat -into the nature of Milton's parentage, -the character of his environment and the significance -of the training he received as a -young man.</p> - -<p>The great poet was born in London, eight -years before the death of Shakespeare. The -first sixteen years of his life were the last sixteen -of the reign of James I. In Cheapside, -within a block of his father's house, stood the -old "Mermaid" tavern of Marlow, Ben Jonson,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> -Dekker and Philip Massinger. His father -was a scrivener, who drew deeds, made wills, -invested money for his clients, and, in general, -fulfilled for many families the tasks that -now devolve upon the modern trust company. -The father's skill and probity won for him an -increasing number of clients, and with money -came leisure for study and travel. He was a -musician, a man of culture, a composer of -considerable note; and he made his home an -all-round center for young artists and authors. -From the beginning, he recognized the unique -genius of his son, and made the development -of that genius to be the chief object of his life. -He never tired of telling the boy that his first -duty was to make the most possible out of himself. -He held to those ideals that were outlined -in Plato's and Aristotle's books on education. -Whatever development could come -through music, art, lectures, books, teachers, -travel, was given the young poet. Just as -misers pursue the accumulation of gold, just -as ambitious statesmen pursue office and -honour, so this father, by day and by night, -toiled upon the education of his son; first -teaching the child in his own library; then -calling to his aid wise and experienced tutors; -then sending the boy to a great London grammar -school and thence to Cambridge University.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> -The boy showed promise from the -first. His exercises, "in English or other -tongue, prosing or versing, but chiefly the -latter," early attracted attention. He studied -hard, at school and at home; often studying -till twelve at night. He loved books, "and -he loved better to be foremost." He was only -fifteen years of age when he wrote:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">"Let us blaze his name abroad,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">For of gods, he is the God,<br /></span> -<span class="i0"> <br /></span> -<span class="i0">Who by wisdom did create<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Th' painted heavens so full of state,<br /></span> -<span class="i0"> <br /></span> -<span class="i0">He the golden tressèd sun<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Caused all day his course to run,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Th' hornèd moon to hang by night<br /></span> -<span class="i0">'Mid her spangled sisters bright;<br /></span> -<span class="i0"> <br /></span> -<span class="i0">For his mercies aye endure,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Ever faithful, ever sure."<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p>Throughout his youth, Milton's enthusiasm -for reading and learning burned like a fire, by -day and by night. He was one of the few -students outside of Italy who could think in -Latin, debate in Latin, and write verse in -Latin quite as readily as in English. "He was -a profound and elegant classical scholar; he -had studied all the mysteries of Rabbinical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> -literature; he was intimately acquainted with -every language of modern Europe from which -either pleasure or information was then to be -derived." He fulfilled his own definition of -education:—"I call a complete and generous -education that which fits a man to perform -justly, skillfully and magnanimously all the -offices, both private and public, of peace and -war." And he believed that culture and -character should have an aggressive note. -"I take it to be my portion in this life, by -labour and intense study, to leave something -so written to after time, that they should -not willingly let it die." Faithfully did he -seek to live up to these high ideals. He -sowed no wild oats, cut no bloody gashes in -his conscience and memory, dwelt apart from -vice and sensualism, and, at last, left the -university with the approbation of the good -and with no stain upon his soul.</p> - -<p>Upon entering Cambridge it had been his -intention to become a clergyman, but that intention -he soon abandoned. The reasons he -gives us are "the tyranny that had invaded -the church," and the fact that, finding he -could not honestly subscribe to the oaths and -obligations required, he "thought it better to -preserve a blameless silence before the sacred -office of speaking, begun with servitude and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> -forswearing." His father, meantime, had retired -from business, and taken a country -house in a small village near Windsor, about -twenty miles from London. Few fathers have -ever been as generous in meeting and encouraging -a son's desire to devote himself to literature. -For the next five years and eight -months, in that country quietude, within sight -of the towers of Windsor, Milton describes -himself as "wholly intent, through a period -of absolute leisure, on a steady perusal of the -Greek and Latin writers." His father, of -course, had provided the funds. His biographer -Masson says: "Not until Milton was -thirty-two years of age, if even then, did he -earn a penny for himself." Such a life would -have ruined ninety-nine out of every hundred -talented young men; but it is the genius of -Milton that he put those years to good use. -Believing himself to be one dedicated to a high -purpose, he not only completed his studies in -classical literature but produced, at the same -time, those early immortal classics known as -his "minor" poems. There he wrote the -"Lycidas," one of the world's great elegies; -there the "Comus," which alone of all the -masques of that time and preceding time, "has -gone in its entirety into the body of living -English literature." And there he wrote<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> -those two exquisite, airy fancies known to -every schoolboy under the titles of "L'Allegro," -and "Il Penseroso."</p> - -<p>It was in 1638, at the age of thirty, that -Milton determined to broaden his views by -study in foreign lands. Once more his father -generously made possible the fulfillment of -his ambition. The young scholar naturally -turned his steps toward Italy, then the home -of painting, letters and the newer learning. -His biographer pictures him for us—"a slight, -patrician figure, distinguished alike in mind -and physique. . . . He carries letters from -Sir Henry Wotton; he sees the great Hugo -Grotius at Paris; sees the sunny country of -olives in Provence; sees the superb front of -Genoa piling up from the blue waters of the -Mediterranean; sees Galileo at Florence—the -old philosopher too blind to study the face of -the studious young Englishman that has come -so far to greet him. He sees, too, what is best -and bravest at Rome; among the rest St. -Peter's, just then brought to completion, and -in the first freshness of its great tufa masonry. -He is fêted by studious young Italians; has -the freedom of the Accademia della Crusca; -blazes out in love-sonnets to some dark-eyed -signorina of Bologna; returns by Venice and -by Geneva where he hobnobs with the Diodati,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> -friends of his old school-fellow, Charles -Diodati." In Rome again, we find him writing -Latin poems, some of which, seen by -learned Italians, stir these writers to amazement -at the thought that a Briton could be so -excellent a Latin poet. It was their praise, -Milton says in one of his letters, that led to -his renewed resolve to devote his life to literature. -Then and there he determined to do for -England what Homer had done for Greece, -what Virgil had done for Rome, what Dante -had done for Italy. Lingering in the Sistine -Chapel and in the various galleries of the -Vatican, he saw the religious dramas of -Michael Angelo, and the paintings of Raphael, -with the story of the temptation of Adam and -Eve, culminating in the Last Judgment. And -in those hours of leisure and contemplation he -stored his memory with the glorious images -that he was to use in later years for unfolding -and unveiling the fall of man's soul in his -<i>Paradise Lost</i> and <i>Paradise Regained</i>.</p> - -<p>It was while he was in the midst of his -studies in the libraries of Rome and Florence, -that the news reached him of the civil war -threatening at home. Charles the First had -reaffirmed the doctrine of the divine right of -kings—that iniquitous theory which long -afterward was to be revived by Kaiser Wilhelm<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> -as an excuse for the Great War. Over -against Charles stood the Parliament, representing -the people, and led by John Eliot and -John Pym, John Hampden and Oliver Cromwell. -Milton, with instant decision, turned his -steps toward England. "I thought it dishonourable," -he tells us, "that I should be -travelling at ease for amusement when my -fellow-countrymen at home were fighting for -liberty." Back in London, he found the country -rocking on a red wave—the Scotch marching -over the border—the Long Parliament -portending—Strafford and Laud on the verge -of impeachment—city pitted against city; -brother against brother. His own father, -drawing near to the end of his life, was a -strong Royalist. The storm had broken, and -in that sea of trouble the King and the old -leaders were to go down. It is the glory of -Milton that in that hour he chose to ally himself -with a great cause and abandoning, for the -time, his dream of an immortal epic, threw -himself into the struggle for intellectual and -moral liberty.</p> - -<p>For the next twenty years, he was engulfed -in a maelstrom of politics, tossed on a feverish -tide of political hatred. With his own father -and brother on the side of the King, he could -no longer live under their roof; and unwilling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> -to surrender his convictions of freedom and -self-government, he struck out for himself in -London. He took lodgings, and for years -earned a slender livelihood by preparing -pupils for the university. He gave his mornings -to his students, and spent his evenings in -writing pleas, attacking the autocracy of the -King, and supporting the Puritan Leaders -who wished to found the new commonwealth. -It was not only Milton's life that was so -affected. The lives of almost all his English -contemporaries suffered similarly. Through -the twenty years, from 1640 to 1660, there was -an eclipse of pure literature in England. -When he wrote he wrote necessarily, in prose. -"I have the use," he explains, "as I may -account it, of my <i>left hand</i>." But never once -did he lose sight of his ideal—poetry. -"Neither do I think it shame," he explains in -one of his pamphlets, "to covenant with any -knowing reader, that for some few years yet I -may go on trust with him toward the payment -of what I am now indebted,"—meaning the -composition of some poem which "the world -would not willingly let die." He kept his -promise—in the fullness of time. But in the -interval, he played his part in the great drama -of the Civil War.</p> - -<p>At the very outset he was forced to endure<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> -and triumph over a personal misfortune. Like -Shakespeare and Goethe, and many other -poets, John Milton was most unfortunate in -his marital life. At thirty-five, after a month's -rest in the country, he returned to London, -bringing with him a wife. She was young -and of a family virtually committed to the -Royalist cause; she had a shallow mind, and -no sympathy either for Milton's artistic aims -or his political convictions. The Civil War -was on, Milton was giving himself with intense -application to important public topics, was -away from home in consultation with public -men the long day through, and often returned -late at night. The poor girl was in despair. -A stranger in a great city, with no gift for -friendship, she slowly became conscious of the -fact that she never could be interested in John -Milton's life. Urging the necessity of a brief -visit to her country home, she went away and -later positively refused to return. Milton was -first hurt, then angered and finally disillusioned; -and after great mental distress and -careful study of the whole question of marriage -and divorce, he published his views, -which have exerted a profound and lasting -influence upon society.</p> - -<p>John Milton held that divorce should be as -easy as marriage, and that when two people,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> -beginning their contract in good faith, discover -after honest endeavour, that there can -be no happiness in the home, and both decide -that it is best and honourable to separate, then -there should be no legal obstacle to prevent -this, providing always that proper provision -be made for the support and education of -children, whose character and disposition -could not fail to be injured by the daily -spectacle of unhappiness. Years afterward, -when his wife's family had been rendered -homeless, he took them all back into his own -house. When his wife died, he married again, -and within a year he was left a widower. Six -years later he married his third wife, but his -home was embittered by endless warfare between -his daughters and his third wife. One -of his letters says plainly that his wife was -kind to him in his blind, old age when his -daughters were undutiful and inhuman.</p> - -<p>The Civil War was scarcely begun before -he issued the first of those thunderbolts of -indignation and exhortation known as his -pamphlets on church discipline, education, and -the liberty of unlicensed printing. The years -that followed were years of incessant labour. -He began and completed during this period -his <i>History of England</i>, written from the viewpoint -of the common people and tracing the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> -ills, the poverty, and rebellion of Britain to -misgovernment and tyranny. When Parliament -tried the King upon charges of treason, -and executed Charles, it was John Milton who -came forward to defend Parliament, in a -treatise which bore this title upon the title -page:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">The Tenure of Kings and Magistrate<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Proving that it is Lawful<br /></span> -<span class="i0">To call to account a tyrant or wicked King<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And, after due conviction, to depose and put him to death.<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p class="center"> -By<br /> -JOHN MILTON.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Milton was not only the greatest pamphleteer -of his generation—"head and shoulders -above the rest"—but there is no life of that -time, not even Cromwell's, in which the history -of the revolution, so far as the deep -underlying ideas were concerned, may be better -studied. He was the first Englishman of -note outside of Parliament to attach himself -thus openly to the new Commonwealth. And -every one of his prose works had this great -quality, that it struck a blow for liberty.</p> - -<p>In beginning any study of Milton it must -be remembered that his intellect was essentially -athletic. If he was the great poet of his -era, he was not a dreamer of the closet, but a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> -man who plunged into the thick of the fight, -and made his writing and his doing a vital and -indestructible part of his time. In analyzing -the scholar's influence, De Quincey speaks of -"the literature of knowledge" and "the literature -of power." The function of the first is -to teach men, the function of the second is to -move and persuade men to action. De Quincey -wishes us to understand that Milton's writings -entered almost immediately into the thinking -and the doing of the British people, just as -bread enters into the blood of the physical -system. Milton cared nothing for learning for -its own sake. Knowledge was important only -to the degree in which it was vitally creative, -inspiring men, correcting their blunders, rebuking -their selfishness, enlightening their -darkness, and lifting them into the realm of -silence, peace, and mystery. After defining -the true scholar and Christian, as a knight -going forth to war against every form of -ignorance and tyranny, he exclaims, "I cannot -praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue unexercised -and unbreathed, that never sallies -out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of -the race, where that immortal garland is to -be run for, not without dust and heat." -Learning, with Milton, was a means of enlarging -his being and doing. Mark Pattison<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> -has well said, "He cultivated not letters, but -himself, and sought to enter into possession of -his own mental kingdom. Not that he might -reign there, but that he might royally use its -resources in building up a work which should -bring honour to his country and his native -tongue."</p> - -<p>The glory of the battle which he fought for -freedom—the freedom of the human mind—is -all his own. "Thousands and tens of thousands -among his contemporaries raised their -voices against ship-money and the Star -Chamber; but there were few indeed who discerned -the more fearful evils of moral and -intellectual slavery, and the benefits which -would result from the liberty of the press and -the unfettered exercise of private judgment." -Milton was determined that the people should -think for themselves, as well as tax themselves. -And that he might shake the very foundations -of the corruptions which he saw debasing the -state, he selected for himself the most arduous -and dangerous literary service. "At the beginning -he wrote with incomparable energy -and eloquence against the bishops. But, when -his opinion seemed likely to prevail, he passed -on to other subjects, and abandoned prelacy -to the crowd of writers who now hastened to -insult a falling party." He pressed always<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> -into the forlorn hope. The very men who -most disapproved of his opinions were forced -to respect the hardihood with which he maintained -them.</p> - -<p>Milton's prose pamphlets deserve the close -study of every writer who wishes to know -the full power of the English language. They -sparkle with fine passages; they ring with -eloquence; they have the fire and the fervour -of a great mind at white heat. For quotable -sentences, they are "a perfect field of cloth -of gold." And the fineness and stiffness of -their texture is by no means their greatest -splendour. Every one of these controversial -pamphlets answers to its author's definition of -a good book in that it contains "the precious -life-blood of a master spirit."</p> - -<p>By far the most popular, and probably the -most eloquent of all his prose writings is the -famous <i>Areopagitica</i>, his argument for the -liberty of unlicensed printing. It appeared -on the 25th of November 1664, deliberately -unlicensed and unregistered, and was a remonstrance -addressed to Parliament in the -form and style of an oration to be delivered -in the assembly. Nobly eulogistic of Parliament -in other respects, it denounced their -printing ordinance as utterly unworthy of -them, and of the new era of English liberties.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> -Admired to-day because its main doctrine has -become axiomatic—at one blow it accomplished -the repeal of the licensing system and -established forever the freedom of the English -press—it contains passages which for power -and beauty of prose make the finest declamations -of Edmund Burke sink into insignificance.</p> - -<p>It was not, however, the <i>Areopagitica</i>, but -his vindication of the execution of Charles the -First that procured for Milton the office of -Latin Secretary under Cromwell's government. -His boundless admiration for Cromwell -had shown itself already in his immortal -sonnet on the great soldier. He considered -Cromwell the greatest and the best man of his -generation, or of many generations; and he -regarded Cromwell's assumption of the supreme -power, as well as his retention of that -power with a sovereign title, "as no real suppression -of the republic, but as necessary for -the preservation of the republic." Cromwell, -in turn, saw in Milton a most powerful defender -of the new commonwealth. By 1651 -it was generally conceded that "the reputation -of the Commonwealth abroad had been -established by two agencies, and only two:—the -victories of Cromwell, and the prose -pamphlets of John Milton." In the nature of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> -the case, their friendship and mutual respect -of the two men was inevitable.</p> - -<p>After the death of Charles, new treaties had -to be drawn between England and Spain, -England and France and Italy and Holland. -These state papers were all written in Latin, -and the Secretary of Latin and of Foreign -Relations was a great person in the cabinet -of every country. Milton's knowledge of -Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, as -well as Latin and Greek, made him an important -figure in the deliberations of Cromwell's -Council of State. His special duty was the -drafting in Latin of letters of state, but from -the first, he was employed in every conceivable -kind of work. The council looked to him for -everything in the nature of literary vigilance -in the interests of the struggling Commonwealth. -He was employed in personal conferences, -in the examination of suspected -papers, in interviews with their authors and -printers, agents of foreign towns, envoys, -ambassadors. It was a period of intense and -feverish activity, with cabinet meetings, conferences -between the leaders of the government, -necessarily held at night. In that era -of candle-light and flickering torches, with oil -and electricity both still unknown, Milton, -with despatches to be translated, notes to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> -made at all hours, was soon imperilling his -eyesight. He was forty years of age when he -took the post; at forty-six, as a result of his -continuous and indomitable activities, he had -ruined his eyes and was totally blind.</p> - -<p>Wonderful the fortitude with which he -faced this affliction! Hear the lines he composed -in the first of those dark days:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">"When I consider how my light is spent<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And that one talent, which is death to hide,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent<br /></span> -<span class="i0">To serve therewith my Maker, and present<br /></span> -<span class="i0">My true account, lest he, returning, chide;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">'Dost God exact day-labour, light denied?'<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I fondly ask: But Patience, to prevent<br /></span> -<span class="i0">That murmur, soon replies—'God doth not heed<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Either man's work, or his own gifts; who best<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best; his state<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And post o'er land and ocean without rest;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">They also serve, who only stand and wait.'"<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p>And hard upon this catastrophe came a -new turn in the wheel of fortune. Cromwell -died; the Commonwealth came to an end; all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> -London threw its cap in the air at the Restoration. -The leaders of the Commonwealth had -to flee for their lives. Some fled to America -for safety and some were caught and executed. -Cromwell's body was taken from its grave in -Westminster Abbey, suspended from the -gallows, and left to dangle there. Past Milton's -house, near Red Lion Square, the howling -mob went by, dragging the body of his -old leader. Milton himself, blind and in hiding, -narrowly escaped execution. His head -was forfeit, his pamphlets burned by public -order. Only chance, and the exertion of influential -friends, saved him from discovery -and death. His escape from the scaffold is a -mystery now, as it was a mystery at the -time.</p> - -<p>In the evil days that followed—the days of -the Restoration, with its revenges and reactions, -its return to high Episcopacy and suppression -of every form of dissent and sectarianism, -its new and shameless royal court—Milton, -blind and forgotten by the public, -turned to his long-cherished dream of a great -poem. For twenty years, through all the -storm and stress of political agitation, it had -never been banished wholly from his thoughts. -In the library of Cambridge University there -may be seen to-day a list of over one hundred<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> -possible subjects, written in his own hand during -some leisure-hour when he was pondering -the great project of his heart. Living in retirement, -visited only by a few close friends, -he now proceeded to compose the masterpiece -planned as a young man. Unable to see a -book, forced to beg every friend who visited -him to read aloud to him, dependent upon the -assistance of three rebellious daughters, none -of whom understood the many languages he -knew so well, he nevertheless drove forward, -determined to finish his task. <i>Paradise Lost</i>, -begun and brought to completion in the face -of every sort of discouragement, was finished -in 1665 and published in 1667.</p> - -<p>This amazing poem—the glory of English -literature—is one of the few monumental -works of the world. The English language -possesses no other epic poem, nor a poem of -any other kind, which approaches it in sustained -sublimity. Nothing in modern epic -literature is comparable to it save only the -<i>Divine Comedy</i> of Dante. It is impossible, in -a single page or chapter, to call the roll of the -beauties of Milton's poetic style. Much has -been written of the organ-music of his verse, -its magical, mysterious influence. Speaking -generally, the terms mean little; but applied -to Milton, both have significance. For his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> -melody, his verse-structure, the very names he -employs act like an incantation, with an -almost occult power.</p> - -<p>James Russell Lowell emphasizes this -quality: "It is wonderful how, from the most -withered and juiceless hint gathered in his -reading, his grand images rise like an exhalation; -how from the most battered old lamp, -caught in that huge drag-net with which he -swept the waters of learning, he could conjure -up a tall genii to build his palaces." -His words, says Macaulay, in another brilliant -summary, "are words of enchantment. No -sooner are they pronounced, than the past -is present and the distant near. New forms -of beauty start at once into existence, and all -the burial places of the memory give up their -dead. Change the structure of the sentence; -substitute one synonym for another, and the -whole effect is destroyed. There is large -learning in the poem—weighty and recondite; -but this spoils no music; great cumbrous -names catch sonorous vibrations under his -modulating touch, and colossal shields and -spheres clash together like symbols. The -whole burden of his knowledges—Pagan, -Christian, or Hebraic, lift up and sink away -upon the undulations of his sublime verse, as -heavy-laden ships rise and fall upon some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> -great ground swell making in from outer -seas."</p> - -<p>Fully to comprehend the peculiar sublimity -of <i>Paradise Lost</i>, one must understand the -peculiar character of the age in which Milton -was living. It was a theological era, as the -next century was a political era. In their -reaction from the absolutism of Rome, the -Puritans hated everything that reminded -them of the Roman excesses, and that revulsion -extended not only to the ecclesiastical -autocracy of Rome, but to the lesser things, -the clouds of incense, stained glass and the -rich dresses of the clergy, the ecclesiastical -holidays. These Puritans are called by Macaulay -the most remarkable body of men that -the world has ever produced. They had a -contempt for all terrestrial distinctions. Confident -of the favour of God, they despised the -dignities of this world. "Unacquainted with -the works of philosophers and poets they were -deeply read in the oracles of God. If their -names were not found in the registers of -heralds, they were recorded in the Book of -Life. If their steps were not accompanied by -a splendid train of menials, legions of ministering -angels had charge over them. Their -palaces were houses not made with hands; -their diadems crowns of glory which shall<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> -never fade away. On the rich and the eloquent, -on nobles and priests they looked down -with contempt; for they esteemed themselves -rich in a more precious treasure, and eloquent -in a more sublime language, nobles by right -of an earlier creation and priests by the imposition -of a mightier hand. Thus the Puritan -was made up of two different men—the -one all self-abasement, penitence, gratitude, -passion; the other proud, calm, inflexible, -sagacious. He prostrated himself in the dust -before his Maker; but he set his foot on the -neck of his King."</p> - -<p>It is only to be expected that the literature -of such an age—both prose and poetry—should -be to a large degree theological. Milton's -<i>Paradise Lost</i> is an epic of war between -good and evil. Not that, strictly speaking, -Milton belonged to the class just described. -He was not a Puritan, any more than he was -a Freethinker, or a Royalist. In his character -the noblest qualities of all three groups were -combined. "From the Parliament and from -the Court, from the conventicle and from the -Gothic cloister, from the gloomy circles of the -Roundheads and the Christmas revels of the -Cavalier, his nature selected and drew to itself -whatever was great and good." But the -peculiar religious note that is in his great epic,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> -the serious note, the note of dignity, is the -distillation of an atmosphere charged and -aquiver with the most intense theological convictions.</p> - -<p>Numerous accounts have come down to us -of Milton's personal appearance and habits -toward the end of his life. By nature a -patrician, reserved, clothed with a gentle dignity, -he was not without a certain haughty, -defiant self-assertion such as Lowell ascribes -to Dante and Michael Angelo. He came to be -a familiar figure in the neighbourhood of his -residence, "a slender figure, of middle stature -or a little less, generally dressed in a grey -cloak or overcoat, and wearing sometimes a -small silver-hilted sword, evidently in feeble -health, but still looking younger than he was, -with his lightish hair, and his fair, rather -than aged or pale, complexion."</p> - -<p>He was a very early riser, and regular in -the distribution of his day, "spending the first -part, to his midday dinner, always in his own -room, amid his books, with an amanuensis to -read for him and write to his dictation. -Usually there was singing in the late afternoon, -when there was a voice to sing for him; -and instrumental music, when his, or a -friendly hand touched the old organ." He -loved the out-of-door life, walked much in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> -fields, loved his garden and his flowers, made -his library to be the world of the open air.</p> - -<p>From time to time learned and noble visitors, -native and foreign, made their way to his -modest home. They read in the lines of his -noble countenance the proud and mournful -history of his glory and his affliction. They -listened to his slightest words, they kneeled to -kiss his hand and weep upon it, for the -neglect of an age that was unworthy of his -talents and his virtues. They contested with -his daughters the privilege of reading Homer -to him, or of taking down the immortal accents -which flowed from his lips. But, for -the most part, his last days were days of retirement. -The grand loneliness of his latter -years makes him the most impressive figure -in our literary history. Yet it is idle to talk -of the loneliness of one, the habitual companions -of whose mind were the Past and -Future. "I always seem to see him, leaning -in his blindness, one hand on the shoulder of -each, sure that the Future will guard the -song which the Past had inspired."</p> - -<p>Few characters have stood the test of time -and history so well. And no other man has -so fully incarnated himself in literature. -Therefore the tribute of James Russell Lowell: -"We say of Shakespeare that he had the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> -power of transforming himself into everything, -but of Milton that he had the power -of transforming everything into himself." -Dante is individual, rather than self-conscious, -and he, the cast-iron man, grows -pliable as a field of grain at the breath of -Beatrice, and flows away in waves of sunshine. -But Milton never let himself go for a -moment. As other poets are possessed by -their theme, so is he self-possessed, his great -theme being John Milton, and his great duty -that of interpreter between him and the -world. Puritanism has left an abiding mark -in politics and religion, but its true monuments -are the prose of Bunyan and the verse -of Milton. For the epitaph written by his -friend was scrupulously accurate: "Whatsoever -things are true, whatsoever things are -pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever -things are honest, whatsoever things are -of good report, Milton thought upon these -things."</p> - - -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p> -<h2>VI<br /> -JOHN WESLEY<br /> -(1703–1791)</h2> -<h3><i>And the Moral Awakening of the Common<br /> -People</i></h3> - -<p>Now that long time has passed, the two -bright names of the eighteenth century -are seen to be the names of Washington -and Wesley. The statement will come with a -note of shock to many readers, but beyond -most critical estimates, it is one that will -stand examination. Time has a way of reversing -judgments, and not the least of the -changes in men's thought has been the gradual -transformation in the attitude of the historian -toward Wesley, carried to his grave by six -poor men in 1791. Now that one hundred -and twenty years have passed, Wesley has -thirty millions of followers, who believe in his -method and are carrying forward his work. -The time has come when there is not a city -in Great Britain, or on the North American -continent, or in India—and few indeed, of any -size in China or Japan—where there are not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> -some disciples of this teacher, spreading his -message, according to his plan. During these -hundred and twenty years, dynasties have -fallen, empires have perished, cities and states -have changed, but the ideas and the influence -of Wesley, stamped upon the memories of his -followers, have spread like leaven, working -often in silence and secrecy, but slowly transforming -the world.</p> - -<p>The praise of his critics is enough to lend -John Wesley enduring fame. Leslie Stephen -called him "the greatest captain of men of -his century." Macaulay ridiculed the historians -of his day who failed to see that "the -greatest event of the era was the work of -Wesley." To Macaulay's statement that -Wesley had a genius for government, equal -to that of Richelieu, Matthew Arnold added, -"He had a genius for godliness." Buckle -called him the first of ecclesiastical statesmen, -while Lecky said, "Wesley's sermons were of -greater historic importance to England than -all the victories by land and sea under Pitt."</p> - -<p>"No other man," writes Augustine Birrell, -"did such a life-work for England. He -helped to save England from the horrors of -the French Revolution." This is not a careless -pronouncement, nor an instance of biographical -exaggeration. Born in 1703, belonging<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> -to the era just preceding the French -Revolution, John Wesley, with his fifty years -among the working people of Great Britain, -changed the thinking of his time. The eighteenth -century was a coarse age; Carlyle summarized -it in a single biting phrase: "soul -extinct; stomach well alive." The pictures of -Hogarth, the journals of Wesley, and the -<i>History of Great Criminals</i> prove that there -was at least a basis for Carlyle's bitterness. -Dr. Johnson, in his <i>Dictionary</i>, defines a pension -as "pay given to a street hireling for -treason to his country." Burke describes the -British Secretary of State as "the greatest -drunkard and most unlucky gambler of his -age." Walpole portrays cabinet ministers -and statesmen reeling into the ferry-boat of -Charon at forty-five, worn out with drunkenness -and gout. In his pictures of Beer Street -and Gin Lane, Hogarth sketches the drunkenness -and filth of the London that he calls "the -city of gallows," with a street that was a lane -of gibbets, where the corpses of felons hung. -Hume and Walpole both prophesied an inevitable -revolution, with corpses that would be -piled up as barricades "in front of human -beasts who fought with the ferocity of -tigers." But at the very moment when -France was seething with revolt, across in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> -England, in Newcastle and Moorfields, thousands -of grimy miners were assembled, now -weeping in penitence, now singing hymns of -praise to God. When the spirit of destruction -swept over Europe, Wesley's revival had -done its work, and its influence held the -people of England back from the horrors of -the guillotine in Paris. It is for this reason -that historians rank John Wesley in terms of -abiding influence, above Pitt, Wellington and -Nelson.</p> - -<p>In <i>Adam Bede</i>, George Eliot, the great -novelist, describes with the minuteness of -an eye-witness an open-air revival meeting -among the early Methodists of England. Her -heroine, Dinah Morris, relates the incident in -the following words: "It was on just such a -sort of evening as this, when I was a little -girl, and my aunt took me to hear a good man -preach out-of-doors, just as we are here. I -remember his face well; he was a very old -man, and had very long, white hair, his voice -was very soft and beautiful, not like any voice -I had ever heard before. I was a little girl, -and scarcely knew anything, and this old man -seemed to me such a different sort of man -from anybody I had ever seen before, that I -thought that he had perhaps come down from -the skies to preach to us, and I said, 'Aunt,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> -will he go back into the sky to-night, like the -picture in the Bible?'" . . . That man of -God was John Wesley, who had spent a lifetime -going up and down the land, doing good. -He had preached from fifteen to twenty times -a week for fifty years—in all, over forty -thousand times. In this, his sixty-second year, -he was to preach eight hundred times. He -had ridden nearly two hundred and fifty -thousand miles; and in his long preaching -tours through Ireland he had crossed the -Channel forty times. The poor had lost their -heart to him. The ignorant, the outcast, the -collier and clerk alike, all pressed and -thronged about this saintly figure, with his -beautiful face, his clear eyes, his musical voice, -who never tired of telling people, "God is -love; Christ is love; and religion is life, as it -is the happiest, so it is the cheerfullest thing -in the world."</p> - -<p>It is written of Moses that his hands were -held up by two friends, Aaron and Hur. Not -otherwise John Wesley was supported on -either side by two great comrades,—Whitefield, -the evangelist, and his own brother, -Charles Wesley. If any man ever had the -gift of eloquence and oratory, it was George -Whitefield. At twenty-one years of age -Whitefield received orders, and within a single<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> -year he was England's first preacher in point -of hearers. His warmest friends may have -overpraised this evangelist, but his harshest -critics concede that he had the most musical, -carrying voice that ever issued from a speaker's -throat. During his career he wrote some -sixty sermons, but he preached them over and -over again, eighteen thousand times. Within -a single week he spoke on an average of forty -hours. There is nothing in his sermons, as -they have come down to us, to explain their -marvellous transforming influence, but Whitefield -had the vision of the seer, saw heaven and -hell as clearly as he saw the world around him, -and could make men see and feel what he -himself experienced. Benjamin Franklin -heard Whitefield preach in Philadelphia, and -was carried away by the personality of the -preacher, whose luminous eyes, matchless -voice, and transfigured face stirred the men -of the Quaker City as if he were the angel -Gabriel.</p> - -<p>Charles Wesley, like George Whitefield, was -an evangelist who preached constantly in the -open air, to multitudes of fifteen to twenty -thousand people. He was without the iron -strength of Whitefield, but for fifteen years he -did preach once a day, and sometimes two and -three times. He lacked Whitefield's organ<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> -voice, and the strange mystic, magical charm -of his brother John, but his sentences were -short, with the swiftness of bullets, and he was -a most persuasive orator. The fact was, -Charles Wesley's emotions were often beyond -his powers of control. He pled with men with -tears running down his cheeks; his voice shook -and quavered; he melted men until their -hearts were like water. Often, in the midst of -his sermon, he broke into song. In theory he -was a high-churchman, but in practice he was -a nonconformist, who ordained laymen to the -ministry. He was a little man, short-sighted, -quick to resent a wrong, loyal in friendship, -most lovable, full of faults, and full of sorrow -by reason of his faults, an inspired singer of -hymns; but he lacked the order, the organizing -gift, the iron purpose and the unyielding will -of his brother John.</p> - -<p>Far greater than either Whitefield or -Charles Wesley was the brother, preacher, -statesman, theologian, scholar, and evangelist. -John Wesley outlived Whitefield by thirty, -and his brother Charles, by four years. If -Whitefield preached eighteen thousand times, -this amazing man preached forty-two thousand, -four hundred times and within fifty-one -years. His comrades broke down, his -friends passed away, bitter opposition developed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> -the doors of the churches were closed -against him but Wesley's zeal "burned -long, burned undimmed, burned when even -the fire of life turned to ashes." For fifty -years he not only preached, but published -seven volumes a year. He did an enormous -work as author and publisher. In the interests -of the poor he was the first man to -publish cheap literature, and he brought many -wise books within the reach of colliers and -peasants. He wrote a volume on household -medicine; simple books on grammar, style, -good health and history. He translated the -writings of other authors, and abridged works -that were beyond the poor man's purse. The -germ of the modern lecture system, social -settlement work, night-schools, and the shelter-houses -of General Booth, are all in Wesley's -work. He accomplished an incredible amount -as author, publisher, educator, and organizer -of social and political reforms. His <i>Journal</i>, -covering a period of fifty-four years, and -existing to-day in the shape of twenty-one -beautifully written volumes, has been called -"the most amazing record of human exertion -ever penned."</p> - -<p>This personal <i>Journal</i> of John Wesley deserves -a place among the few great journals -of the world. There are only two other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> -eighteen century volumes worthy to be spoken -of in the same breath:—Walpole's <i>Letters</i> -and Boswell's <i>Johnson</i>. Horace Walpole -was the rich idler, the male butterfly, who -lived for pleasure and position, and in his -gossiping letters embalmed for later generations -"all the lords and ladies, the rakes and -flirts, the fools and spendthrifts, the gossip -and scandal of a rich man's career." Dr. -Johnson stands for manliness, independence, -courage, robust common sense. His chief interests -in life were literature and politics, and -Boswell says that he divided society into two -classes, Whigs who were to be cudgelled and -scourged, and Tories who were to be admired -and praised. But Wesley's <i>Journal</i> is upon a -far higher level. His spirit is not that of -curiosity, as was Walpole's, nor of vehement -resentment and personal preferences, as was -Johnson's. It is that of a passionate and divine -pity. He possessed an overpowering sense -of the value of men apart from their position, -their politics, their knowledge or ignorance, -their poverty or wealth; he saw them as God -sees them. And the result is a work far -sweeter and finer than either of the two -famous volumes just considered.</p> - -<p>Wonderful the picture of serenity and -strength given us in these intimate, vivid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> -pages. The story of a single day is the story -of the whole fifty years. Wesley rose at four -o'clock, read his devotional books until five, -preached in the open air to the colliers who -had to go to their tasks at half-past six. -After breakfast at seven, he mounted his -horse; drew rein for a few minutes from -time to time to read a page in some book that -he was analyzing; after twenty or thirty -miles' ride, preached in a public square or -some churchyard at noon; dismissed his hearers -at one o'clock that they might return to -their work; rode rapidly, often twenty miles, -to his next appointment, where he preached -at five; after supper, when the evening twilight -fell, preached again, holding a service -that often lasted until nine or even ten -o'clock.</p> - -<p>During the half century, Wesley worked -along the lines of a triangle, westward -from London to Bristol, north by Liverpool -and Carlisle to Newcastle; then back to -London through the towns of the east coast -of England. His preaching tours followed -the lines of England's industrial centers. He -worked where the population was thickest. -He loved the mining districts, where two or -three thousand men would assemble for him -at almost any hour of the day. The falling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> -rain never disturbed him, the rough roads -seemed to bring no tire. He loved crowds, -and noise and excitement did not seem to -wear upon his strength. Apparently there -was not a tired or sore nerve in his wonderful -little body. An entry in his journal speaks -of having travelled that day ninety miles, and -not being in the least tired, although he seems -to have preached three times. "Many a -rough journey have I had before," says the -<i>Journal</i>, "but one like this I never had, between -wind and rain, ice and snow, and driving -sleet and piercing cold. But it is past; -those days will return no more, and are therefore -as though they had never been." His -appointments were often made a fortnight in -advance. His journals are filled with pictures -of deep snow, dripping skies, bitter northwest -winds.</p> - -<p>What is the secret of Wesley's greatness, -and how did he ever endure such labour? The -hidings of his power are in his wonderful -ancestry. Long after Samuel Wesley's death, -the son found in the garret of the old rectory -a manuscript of his father's, with a scheme of -world-wide evangelization which became a -chart for the son, who said, "the world is my -parish." The mother, Susannah, was possessed -of so many gifts that her son felt that to have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> -fallen heir to her mental and moral treasures -was, in itself, a gift of God. Gibbon described -his tutor in Oxford as a "man who remembered -that he had a salary to receive and forgot -that he had a duty to perform."</p> - -<p>John Wesley had the opposite theory of -life. At seventeen, going to Oxford he won -distinction as a scholar of the finest classical -taste, of the most liberal and manly sentiments, -and one of the finest men of his time. -Elected a Fellow of Lincoln College when -thirty-two years of age, appointed lecturer in -Greek, carrying on his own studies in Arabic -and Hebrew, in poetry and oratory, young -Wesley wrote in his <i>Journal</i> a sentence that -describes the next sixty years of his life: -"Leisure and I have taken leave of each -other." It was true of him in middle life, -and it was to be true of him to the day of -his death.</p> - -<p>During the critical years when Wesley was -educating himself, his favourite books were the -<i>Imitation of Christ</i>, by Thomas à Kempis, -Jeremy Taylor's <i>Purity of Intention</i>, and -William Law's masterpiece, <i>Serious Call</i>. It -was while he was in Oxford that he formed -the habit of reading for one hour before he -outlined the duties of the day. Then came -the two years' visit to the United States, his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> -brief ministry in Georgia, his friendship with -the Moravians, and that golden hour on May -24, 1738, when he went with Peter Böehler -and passed through an experience like that of -Paul on the road to Damascus, that has been -described by the critical historian Lecky,—"It -is scarcely an exaggeration to say that -the scene which took place at that humble -meeting in Aldersgate Street forms an epoch -in English history." But it is a striking fact -that Wesley's real work did not begin until -he had reached full middle life. It was under -the influence of George Whitefield, the greatest -pulpit orator England has produced, that -Wesley went to Bristol and under pressure by -Whitefield, consented to speak in the open air -to some three thousand people, gathered -about a little eminence. Few careers offer -greater encouragement and inspiration to the -man who at middle-age has yet to find himself.</p> - -<p>And what was the secret of his incredible -strength? The secret is very simple. During -each day he kept two or three little islands -of silence and solitude for himself, betwixt -the sermons and crowds. He learned how to -read books on horseback. He never hurried, -and never worried. He preached with physical -restraint, so that public speech became a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> -form of physical exercise, a life-giving kind of -gymnastics. He learned how to breathe, so -that speaking three, or four and five hours a -day did not injure his vocal cords. Morley, in -his <i>Life of Gladstone</i>, says that at Gravesend, -Gladstone spoke for two hours to an audience -of twenty thousand, and his biographer declares -that physically and intellectually, that -speech was the greatest of Mr. Gladstone's -career. Gladstone was sixty-two years old -when he performed that feat, which is unique -in his career. Wesley's journal is filled with -records like this:—</p> - -<p> </p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p>Sunday, August 10, 1786. Preached in the -churchyard to large congregations.</p> - -<p>Preached at one <span class="smcap">p. m.</span> to twenty thousand.</p> - -<p>At five o'clock to another such congregation.</p> - -<p>All at the utmost stretch of my voice.</p> - -<p>But my strength was as my day.</p> -</div> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Seven years later, August 23, 1773, his -journal holds this <a name="record" id="record"></a>record:</p> - -<p> </p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p>Preached at Gwennap Pit to above 32,000, -perhaps the first time that a man of seventy -had been heard by 30,000 persons.</p> -</div> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Fitchett says that Wesley's voice must have -far outranged Gladstone's. The people all -stood closely packed together. At Bristol,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> -after the audience had gone, one man measured -the ground from Wesley's stand to the -outskirts of the audience and found it to -be 420 feet. For this reason his biographers -say that Wesley preached more sermons, rode -more miles, worked more hours, printed more -books, and influenced more lives than any -Englishman of his age, or <i>any</i> age. In 1773 -he writes, "I am seventy-three years old, and -far abler to preach than I was at twenty-three." -Ten years later, the old man writes, -"I have entered into the eighty-third year of -my age. I am never tired, either with preaching, -writing or travelling." And yet his -emotions had tremendous intensity. He held -thousands of miners in breathless silence for -an hour and a half at a time. When he was -ill, he exclaimed that if he could only go into -the pulpit for two hours, and have a good -sweat he thought he might recover. His -secret of health was "a little more work." -That was the tonic that cured worry and -dissipated all clouds.</p> - -<p>The moral courage of John Wesley is one of -the wonderful spectacles of history. He lived -in a brutal, cruel century. The crowds did -not stop with jeers, oaths, vulgar epithets. -It was a time when disputes were marked by -all the savagery of a Spanish bull-fight.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> -Wesley gives the details of these persecutions -and without complaint. The period between -June 1743, and February 1744, was particularly -trying. An organized movement was -carried on to intimidate the people from following -Wesley. In several cities the Methodists -were beaten and plundered by a rabble -that broke into their houses, destroyed their -victuals and goods, threatened their lives, and -abused their women. During that winter -Wesley received many blows, occasionally lost -part of his clothing and was often covered -with dirt. Meanwhile, enemies went on in -advance to sow the towns with wild scandals, -and stir up strife and storm, but Wesley went -on building churches, developing schools, -training lay preachers, organizing his people -to take care of the class during his absence.</p> - -<p>Wesley was a scholar, and prepared his sermons -with the greatest care. He was also a -flaming evangelist, and therefore was freed -from what Robertson of Brighton describes as -"the treadmill necessity of being always ready -twice a week with earnest thoughts on solemn -themes." Like Beecher, Wesley was not -afraid of repeating his sermons. Like Wendell -Phillips, he thought a lecturer was never in -shape until he had one hundred nights of -delivery back of him. Having heard a good<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> -man say, "Once in seven years I burn all my -sermons," Wesley answered, "I cannot write -a better sermon on the Good Steward than I -did seven years ago; I cannot write a better -on the Great Assize than I did twenty years -ago; I cannot write a better on the use of -money than I did thirty years ago."</p> - -<p>As an orator, Wesley had many wonderful -gifts. Not a large man, he was compact and -strong, with nerves of silk and sinews of steel. -In moments of impassioned speech he seemed -to tower and take on the dimensions of a -giant. His portraits show him to have been -a man of fine figure, and beautiful face, with -firm lips, mobile and sensitive, eyes bright and -kindly. His complexion was very beautiful, -fair, clear and somewhat ruddy. His forehead -was broad, and beautifully curved. His -voice was called the finest instrument of its -kind in England, always saving that of Whitefield. -During his college days he made a -reputation as an accurate scholar, and a keen -and skillful logician. All his life long he retained -his analytic method, and was always -working upon his sermons. He was a master -of keen, arrowy sentences. His sermons -abound in short paragraphs. His illustrations -are simple, but so perfectly related to -his thought, that they become a part of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> -argument itself. The chief characteristic of -his style is its clearness. He excelled in the -searching force of the application, and tested -the result of each address by the number of -hearers whom he had persuaded to change -their lives at a given moment.</p> - -<p>Little by little he developed a kingly -authority. He carried the atmosphere of -gentle supremacy. "How did you know -that Theseus was a god?" The answer was: -"I recognized Apollo by his speech; Mars by -his thunderbolts; Minerva by her wisdom, but -I knew that Theseus was a god, because whatsoever -he did, whether he sat, or whether he -walked or whatsoever he did, he conquered." -John Wesley was a natural king, ruling men -by the divine right of moral supremacy. -One day a mob threatened to tear him in -pieces. "I called," Wesley writes, "for a -chair. Suddenly the winds were hushed, and -all was calm and still; my heart was filled -with love; my eyes with tears; my mouth with -arguments. The leaders were amazed; they -were ashamed; they were melted down; they -devoured every word." At the end of the -sermon the leader, who held a stone in his -hand, with which to strike Wesley, seemed -transformed. He turned to his followers and -shouted, "If any man dares to lift a hand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> -against Mr. Wesley he will have to reckon -with me first!" Those who came to curse -remained to pray.</p> - -<p>Wesley has had scores of biographers, and -every one of them seems to have emphasized -the happiness and the serene cheerfulness of -his daily life. If there ever lived a man who -dwelt in constant sunshine, and maintained -unbroken tranquillity and peace amidst endless -storm and tumult, that man was John -Wesley. He cared nothing about a great -house, servants, equipage, money. It is said -that the profits of his various publications -were about $150,000, but he gave this money -away as fast as it came in. He discovered -the simple life long before Pastor Wagner. -He ate sparingly, cared nothing for rich foods -or costly raiment. He loved the temperate -zone, far removed alike from luxury and -poverty. He never wrote a creed. In welcoming -a member into his company he asked -two questions, "Is thine heart right? If it -be, give me thine hand. Dost thou love and -serve God? It is enough. I give thee the right -hand of fellowship." In that spirit, when -members of other churches came to him he -bade them keep their own creed if only "they -did love and serve God, and desired to save -souls."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>And so his work spread into every land. -Asbury, the great pioneer, rode his horse to -and fro over the Alleghany Mountains, -preaching in hundreds of settlements between -the Atlantic Coast and the Mississippi River. -Simpson, with his unrivalled eloquence, -travelled from state to state for forty years, -founding churches, charging class leaders, -consecrating lay preachers, placing the torch -in the hand of some gifted youth, and sending -him out to light a thousand other tapers. -Taylor made his way across India with its -three hundred millions, and in every cannibal -island in the South Seas and along the path -through the jungles of Africa, went the followers -of Wesley. It is a wonderful story. -For the man who counted himself the friend -of all the churches and the enemy of none -"has liberalized, broadened and sweetened -every Christian faith."</p> - -<p>The year 1741 brought the beginning of -Wesley's plan of world evangelization. He -saw that the millions of the human race would -never be reached by a handful of preachers. -He tells us that it was as if a veil had fallen -from his eyes, after which he saw clearly that -Jesus used lay disciples, both men and women, -for the spread of His life and teaching. -Holding a candle in his hand, Wesley lighted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> -another candle, and watched the flame leap -from taper to taper. He organized each -group of one hundred converts into a class -and pledged them to come together in a meeting, -when each disciple was to tell the story -of what the living Christ had done for him. -He saw that merchants advertised their cotton -and their woollen goods; that manufacturers -went everywhither telling other men the -advantages of the new loom, or locomotive; -and instead of having one minister to confess -Christ before five hundred dumb hearers, -Wesley conceived the idea of dedicating each -of the five hundred hearers, not to dumbness -but to full speech, and to send them forth, -from house to house, and mine to mine, and -school to school.</p> - -<p>Scientists tell us that the Gulf Stream, made -up of individual drops of water, each of which -has been warmed by the tropic sun, bathes -England and turns a land that is as far north -as Labrador into a land of fruit and flowers. -And from that hour, if other churches had -one minister, to five hundred disciples, Wesley -dedicated laymen and laywomen to the task -of going forth into all the world to tell the -story of the love of God to sinful men.</p> - -<p>The movement he started is still advancing -in the world. It was Wesley who gave the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> -impulse to Wilberforce, the emancipator, to -Howard, the prison reformer, to Livingstone, -the missionary, to the Booths with their work -for the submerged classes. Above any other -man in modern times he made it plain to the -miner, the peasant, and the criminal, that -they must achieve eminence through penitence -and obedience, love and self-sacrificing service. -Having turned multitudes to righteousness, -his name now shines like the brightness of the -firmament, and will continue to shine like the -stars for ever and ever.</p> - -<p>John Wesley mastered another secret—he -knew how to die gloriously. In his last hours, -Moody, the evangelist, turned with smiles to -a friend, and whispered, "They were all -wrong. There is no valley, and no shadow." -Wesley died with that memorable word upon -his lips, "The best of all is, God is with us." -He preached his last sermon on February 23, -1791. His last letter was addressed to Wilberforce, -and was a protest against the horrors -of slavery. A few weeks before, he had given -the first five days of the new year to the task -of walking through the streets of London, -soliciting alms for the relief of the poor. In -those days his appearance in the street was -the signal for all passers-by to uncover. Men -revered him as a noble saint. He died singing,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> -in the spirit of serene happiness and outbreaking -joy:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">"<i>I'll praise my Maker while I've breath</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>And when my voice is lost in death,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>Praise shall employ my nobler powers.</i>"<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p>Great was the power of the soldier, Napoleon; -wonderful the genius of his opponent Wellington, -the victor; marvellous the influence of -Pitt, with his vision of the expansion of England -as a world power; but more wonderful, -a thousand times, the influence of John Wesley, -carried to his grave by six very poor men, -but whose work is memorable, whose influence -is immortal, and whose spirit is inshrined in -the hearts of millions of his grateful followers.</p> - - -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p> -<h2>VII<br /> -GARIBALDI<br /> -(1807–1882)</h2> -<h3><i>The Idol of the New Italy</i></h3> - -<p>Among the builders of the New Italy, -history has made a large place for -Mazzini, the agitator and author, and for -Cavour, the statesman, but the common -people have kept the first place in their -heart for Garibaldi, the soldier, and hero. -Mazzini was the John the Baptist of the -movement, who descended upon the political -ills and wrongs of his time, carrying a torch -in one hand and a sword in the other. Cavour -was the statesman of the movement, a most -skillful diplomat, who organized political and -moral forces against the foul wrongs found -in the prisons of Naples and the palaces of -Rome. But it was Garibaldi who captured -the imagination of the Italian people, who -turned mobs into regiments, overthrew the -citadels of iniquity, and made possible the -realization of the visions of Mazzini and the -reforms of Cavour.</p> - -<p>Unlike the other great men whose stories<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> -fill the pages of this little book, Garibaldi was -not a man of universal genius; he wrote no -enduring history nor philosophy, he created -no body of laws. In terms of intellect his -gifts were modest. No pamphlet, no great -speech survives his death. He was one of the -common people. But he was born with the -gift of surrender, and he knew how to dedicate -himself to a great cause. Early in his career -Garibaldi allied himself with an unpopular -movement, in the interests of the poor and the -oppressed, and thereby opened the doors of -hope to all men of modest gifts, who are -ambitious to serve their fellows.</p> - -<p>The career of this soldier, Garibaldi, forms -one of the most dramatic and fascinating tales -in history. It is a story so unique and unexplainable -that many Italians speak of the -miraculous note in it, the note of mystery. -Garibaldi's mother was a remarkable woman, -who believed that her son had a call from -God to do a great piece of work, and she filled -the soul of the child with the firm belief that -he could not be killed by any sword or bullet -or cannon-ball. This supreme conviction explains, -in part, deliverances that his biographers -tell us were "miraculous." With words -of matchless simplicity, the apostle Paul tells -us the number of times he was stoned and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> -mobbed, flogged and imprisoned; but the -perils of Garibaldi in the wilderness, in the -city and the sea were scarcely less dramatic. -In his boyhood his father was the captain of -a sailing vessel, who owned and commanded -his own ship and made the ports between -Nice and Constantinople. At fifteen years of -age the boy went to sea; learned to build a -sailing-vessel, to rig the masts, to sail the boat -against opposing winds, and to fight the -pirates who were still occasionally found upon -the seas. And he was barely twenty when, -under the influence of Mazzini, he surrendered -his soul to the spirit of Washington and -Hamilton and dreamed the dream of a second -republic. From that moment, when, heart -and soul, he threw himself into the cause of -liberty, his life was one long chapter of thrilling -adventures and miraculous escapes.</p> - -<p>His biography teems with striking incidents. -Once, after enlisting on the side of the revolutionists, -he was on a small vessel going up the -La Plata River. Rounding a bend in the -stream, Garibaldi's little boat was attacked -by two large vessels, that opened fire, cut down -the masts, carried away the sails, and covered -the decks with killed and wounded. As captain -of the boat, Garibaldi wore his red shirt, -and so became the target of the gunners.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> -When several of his men tried to drag him -below, he answered, "I can't be killed!" A -few minutes later a shot struck his neck and -cut a part of the jugular vein. Now, many -surgeons say that if the jugular vein be severed -it cannot be healed, because it is always throbbing -and throbbing with each pulse beat, just -as it is said that a shot through the heart is -fatal. A little later the boat struck a sandbar, -and the battle swept to another part of -the river. The physician told Garibaldi that -his wound was fatal, and asked what word he -wished to send home. Garibaldi answered, -"Tell my mother I shall live to be seventy-six."</p> - -<p>On another occasion, his place of hiding was -surrounded by a company of soldiers, who -opened fire upon the house. Garibaldi awakened, -flung open the door, took his sword in -one hand and his dagger in the other—his -ammunition was exhausted—and rushed forth -against the enemy. From their ambush these -enemies saw his red shirt. They had heard -that no bullet could kill him, and armed as -they were, they fled in every direction, across -fields and into the woods.</p> - -<p>At the very outset of his career, Garibaldi's -life was threatened by the State and a price -put upon his head. Under the influence of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> -Mazzini, he had joined a secret society and -been made acquainted with the plans for a -revolution in Italy. The plot was betrayed -by a spy, and in the disguise of a peasant -trying to buy sheep, Garibaldi was forced to -flee across the line into France. Once on -French territory, he abandoned caution and -entered a village inn. "I must have something -to eat," he told the landlord, "I am -starving." His host was suspicious and asked -Garibaldi if he was not a fugitive, to which -the youth replied with open truthfulness, -"Yes, I am an Italian! I fled from soldiers -who would have shot or hung me, had they -been quick enough." . . . "What have -you done?" asked the landlord. Garibaldi -answered: "I met Mazzini. He told me about -the republic in the United States. He said -that the American colonists threw off the yoke -of a tyrant and made a constitution for themselves, -and asked whether the people of Italy -could not break their own fetters. I answered -that Italy should become a republic."</p> - -<p>After that bold statement, the landlord -signalled to one of his men, who put his hand -upon Garibaldi's shoulder, saying, "I am an -officer of the French government. Under the -treaty with Italy I am sworn to arrest all -those accused of treason who flee across the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> -frontier." . . . "Very well," said Garibaldi. -"And now that is settled, give me -something to eat!"</p> - -<p>When the servant asked Garibaldi whether -he had money for his dinner, the youth pulled -out his purse. "Since I am going to be either -hung or shot, I may as well have one good -meal before I die!" He then asked two or -three strangers who were in the inn to join -him in his last dinner, and extended that invitation -until there were fifteen or twenty -about the table, singing, telling stories, and -relating incidents of adventure. When -Garibaldi saw that the time had come for his -arrest, since a group of soldiers had appeared -at the door, he arose, and looking out upon -his new friends, said, "Well, the landlord, -who is an officer of the government, has sent -for these soldiers to arrest me. It seems I -have committed treason. I wanted to have a -republic in Italy. So I joined Mazzini's society." -One by one the inmates of the inn -rose. One looked toward the landlord and -said, "Is this true? Are you going to imprison -and shoot this man? Why, this Garibaldi -is a great man, and a good man; I never -saw him before to-night, but before you arrest -him you will have to arrest me." Another -shouted, "Before you shoot Garibaldi, you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> -will have to shoot me!" A moment later, the -whole company had joined to form a bodyguard -around the brave young stranger. They -lifted Garibaldi to their shoulders. They -dared the officers to arrest him. They carried -him out to the stable behind the inn, filled his -pockets with copper and silver, and paid the -driver to set him twenty miles beyond the -frontier. Four of them rode with him as a -guard to protect him. . . .</p> - -<p>Condemned to death, he escaped to South -America, where he plunged at once into the -struggle for liberty there. The story of the -happiness and prosperity of the people of the -United States under a free government had -spread all over the Southern continent. Unfortunately -there were still many men who -believed in autocracy and in the absolutism of -an hereditary despot. Garibaldi at once took -sides. He fought on the sea. He began as a -private sailor, but soon became commander of -the fleet. He fought on the land. He began -as a private soldier, but he ended as a general. -Once he was captured and beaten within an -inch of his life. Once he was taken from a -prison and hung by his hands from a beam. -During those two hours, he tells us, he suffered -the anguish of a hundred deaths.</p> - -<p>Then came the dramatic meeting with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> -Anita. One of his soldiers told Garibaldi -about the beauty, bravery and self-sacrifice of -a daughter of a certain rich man. Hearing -that this girl, Anita, had gone to visit a friend -in the village, Garibaldi, with several of his -men, rode to the little store. Drawing rein -before the door of the shop, he sent one of his -men into the store to buy some trifle. In the -upper window stood Anita. Garibaldi turned -his horse and rode close to the door. Looking -up, he met the eyes of Anita, and for a full -minute, without saying a word, the two looked -each into the soul of the other. Suddenly -Garibaldi said, "Señorita! I have never seen -you before. I do not know your name, but -you belong to me! Sooner or later you -will come to me." Anita arose. She -leaned out of the window. In a low voice -she said, "Shall I come now?" And Garibaldi -answered, "I will ride up the street -and return within a moment. Be ready at -this spot." There was just time for -Anita to grasp a cloak and a few articles -of clothing. A moment later, down -the street on a gallop came Garibaldi, followed -by his soldiers. Anita was standing on the -stone step. As Garibaldi dashed by, he put -out his right arm, swept her against his horse -and up to the front of the saddle and dashed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> -away for a ten mile gallop to a little church -whose frightened priest refused to perform -the marriage ceremony without publishing the -banns for the next two Sundays. Anita's -father was of the other political party and the -soldier knew that the consent would never be -given. Garibaldi laid two revolvers upon the -altar and said quietly, "Father, the service -will proceed immediately."</p> - -<p>So they were married. Anita was well -educated as well as brave and very beautiful. -In a fit of anger and hate, her father organized -a group of conspirators who were to receive -a rich reward for killing Garibaldi. It -was Anita who discovered the plot and fired -the pistol that led the conspirators to believe -that they had been discovered. Later, a -drunken mob discovered that she was alone in -a little house. The leader of the despot organized -a group at midnight, all of them -crazed with liquor. They set fire to the house -and then rushed in, only to find that Garibaldi -had not yet returned home. And when -these drunken brigands had beaten Anita -down and knocked her into unconsciousness -Garibaldi returned unarmed save for his -dagger. One by one he took these eight men -who were standing about the unconscious girl, -and one by one they went down before him.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>His life in South America, extending over -a period of fourteen years, was one long -struggle against tyranny and oppression. -Fighting first in the revolt against Brazil, then -joining the patriots of Uruguay, he formed -the Italian Legion, and in the spring of 1846 -won the battles of Cerro and Sant'Antonio, -assuring the freedom of Uruguay. Refusing -all honours and recompense he returned to -Italy, having heard of the incipient struggle -for liberty at home. He landed at Nice in -1848 and, forming a volunteer army of 3,000, -plunged at once into the struggle against the -French. His troops were largely students, -mere lads, many of them never before under -fire, and the troops of the enemy included the -legions of France, Austria and Spain. The -climax of the struggle came with his wonderful -retreat through central Italy toward -Venice, pursued by four armies. Only his -consummate generalship and the matchless -loyalty of his men saved them all from -annihilation. During this retreat, Garibaldi -was accompanied by his wife, Anita, who had -cut off her hair and mounted a horse, and who -wore men's clothing to avoid observation. -Realizing at length that the struggle was hopeless, -Garibaldi issued an order, releasing his -soldiers, and bidding them return to their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> -homes. And leaving Anita hidden at the -house of a friend, he himself took refuge in a -cave in the hills, after the fashion of David -the Fugitive and Robert Bruce—a hiding-place -from which he continued to send forth -his military orders.</p> - -<p>Among the many wonder tales of this -period, many of which are traditional and -perhaps untrustworthy, there is one that bears -the stamp of reality. One night Garibaldi -was asleep in the cave. A faithful soldier was -on guard. Suddenly the soldier saw a torch -waving in the blackness of the valley below. -The torch was spelling a signal, but the guard -was ignorant of its significance. He hurried -into the cave and wakened his leader. Garibaldi -knew the signal—it told of the approaching -death of Anita. With instant decision, -he started down the mountainside; made his -way to the house of a peasant, and, despatching -a man in advance, found and mounted a -horse for the long ride to the village where -Anita lay dying. Ahead of him, the galloping -rider warned the countryside, shouting -that Garibaldi was coming and commanding -every man to go into his house and close the -door, that no man might see the face of the -fugitive, for whose person a reward had long -been offered. The hurrying hero changed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> -horses, and when the day was nearly done, -rode into the village to the house where his -beloved wife lay dying. In the night, wrestling -with the death angel, Garibaldi was defeated, -and left desolate. When the morning -came, he wrapped Anita's body in the flag of -the new republic, and buried her in the corner -of the garden. That night he rode back to -his handful of fugitives, hidden in a defile of -the mountains.</p> - -<p>It was about the year 1850 that, once more -a fugitive, Garibaldi sailed for America, and -coming to New York, settled as a chandler on -Staten Island. He had a brother living in -New York, and the brother had never tired -of writing letters about the wonderful opportunities -in the United States. It was an era -of candles. Kerosene oil was but little used, -while gas and electricity were unknown. As -a cattle drover in the Argentine Republic, -Garibaldi had seen the great herds on the -ranches, the tanneries filled with hides, the -great stores of tallow in the warehouses. He -entered into an agreement with a friend in -South America to keep him supplied with -tallow, and over at St. George he started his -little candle factory. Later, he became a -trading skipper and in 1854 was able to return -to Italy with funds sufficient to purchase the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> -tiny island of Caprera, and build the house -which thenceforth was to be his home.</p> - -<p>Throughout the four years in America and -on the sea, he had never once ceased to dream -his dream of liberty and a republic to be set -up in Italy. In 1851, while he was living -here, Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, -had landed in New York and received an ovation. -While here, Kossuth had perfected the -constitution for the republic he proposed to -set up in Hungary, and had announced his -plans for the overthrow of the royal family, -and the enthronement of a president. Garibaldi -kept in touch with every such new movement. -He read the daily papers of New -York; met the political leaders of the city -and everywhere heard discussions as to Washington -and Franklin, Hamilton and Webster. -The fire burned ever more fiercely in his -heart. He wrote a friend saying: "Whenever -they are ready, the people of Italy can -shake off the old tyranny that has come down -from the middle ages, just as a peasant in the -forest shakes the fallen leaves from his coat."</p> - -<p>And during his trading days, while on a -voyage to Hong Kong, he dreamed another -dream, of a different kind. Half-way across -the ocean, he dreamed that he saw his mother -kneeling at the foot of a white cross. He fell<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> -upon his knees beside it and heard her say: -"Fight only for liberty, my son! Fight -only for liberty!" It was his birthday, the -fifth of May. Months later, he discovered -that on that very night his mother had passed -away in the little house in Nice. From that -hour he dedicated the remainder of his life -to the liberation of his native land.</p> - -<p>One day, while he was following the plow -on his little island farm near the coast of -Sardinia, a messenger brought word that an -Austrian regiment had landed on the shore of -Sardinia and seized the island for Austria. -Once more, Garibaldi plunged into the -struggle. For a year he fought at the head -of Italian volunteers under Victor Emmanuel, -against the Austrians, liberating the Alpine -territory as far as the frontier of Tyrol. -Then, in retirement at Genoa, came another -summons—a letter telling the story of the -sufferings of the liberal leaders in Naples. -King Francis, the tyrant of Naples, had been -arresting by wholesale men suspected of -sympathy with free institutions. The despot -filled the dungeons, crowded the upper cells, -packed the corridors between the rows of cells, -until there was not room for men even to lie -down upon the floor. Without any warning -whatsoever, the soldiers would appear at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> -home of some citizen. Without any hearing, -much less a trial, men were sent to the royal -prison and jammed into corridors already -filled to suffocation with murderers, brigands, -thieves, forgers. The under-cells dripped -with filth. There was no sanitation. Vermin, -rats, every form of vice and uncleanliness -were there. In the stifling heat some smothered -to death.</p> - -<p>Gladstone was at this time in Italy. One -day he reached Naples, en route for Pompeii -and Herculaneum. Calling upon the British -Consul, he was told about these prisons, that -were death-traps. He hurried back to London. -He used his official position as a statesman -under Queen Victoria to address a letter to -the civilized peoples of the world. A wave -of indignation and horror swept over the -capitals of Europe. The hour had struck for -Italy. Garibaldi headed a tiny army and -started south to the attack. Naples was besieged. -After weeks of fighting, and oft -wounded, one day with clothes covered with -blood he addressed a handful of citizens: -"Soldiers, what I have to offer you is this—hunger, -thirst, cold, heat, no pay, no barracks, -no rations, frequent alarms, forced -marches, charges at the point of the bayonet. -Whoever loves honour and fatherland, follow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> -me!" Ah, Garibaldi knew that there is a -latent instinct of heroism in every human -heart. Why are there few boys going into -the ministry to-day? Because the task has -become too easy. Here are the young fisherman, -John; the young physician, Luke; the -young rabbi, Paul;—offer them stones, scourges, -blows, fagot-fires, martyrdom, and they -will leap into the breach. After that appeal -of Garibaldi four thousand men followed their -leader to battle. Soon the bloody tyrant of -Naples was driven from his city.</p> - -<p>Then came the long campaigns in the south, -with Garibaldi's entrance into the city of -Palermo; the struggle in Sicily, the siege of -the fortress at Massina, the triumphal march -through Calabria, his victory at Naples, culminating -with that great day, September 7th, -1860, when he handed over a fleet and an -army to Victor Emmanuel. Having endured -every form of peril, hunger, and cold, with -loss of blood through many wounds, the -citizens of Naples, after the expulsion of their -recreant King, turned with one heart and -offered him the throne for his leverage, and -the palace for his home. But Garibaldi refused -the throne, because he believed in the -republic, and no bribe nor blandishment could -swerve him a hair's breadth from his conviction<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> -that the fairest, stablest form of government -was self-government.</p> - -<p>On the day of his entrance, the people went -out and carried him into the city upon their -shoulders. All along the central street he was -welcomed with the words, "Secundo Washington"—"Second -Washington." For what -Lincoln did for the three million slaves, and -what Washington did for the three million -colonists, Garibaldi had wrought for three -million downtrodden Italian peasants. But -having freed the people from cruel oppression, -he sent for Victor Emmanuel, the ruler who -had insulted him, and said, looking toward -his army and the captains of his navy, "I -have not been trained for civil government! -I therefore abdicate my position as commander-in-chief -of the army and navy, and I -turn these instruments of defense and offense -over to you." History holds the story of no -sublimer act of disinterested patriotism. -That deed insured a united Italy, the chief aim -of Garibaldi's life.</p> - -<p>From that hour his fame, his place in the -history of Italy were fully established. During -the next few years many honours and -offices were offered Garibaldi, all of which -he consistently declined. He was the last -hero of the heroic age of the new Italy, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> -most popular, the most legendary, in the sense -that he resembled a hero of old romance. A -faithful soldier, who might have been a king; -a hero always a hero, even to his own servants -and amid sordid circumstances; unspoiled by -the admiration of the world and the adulation -of his friends; a warrior with hands unstained -by plunder, cruelty or the useless shedding of -blood, he remained to the end one of the few -characters for whom neither wealth nor rank -ever offered temptation. Michelet, the French -historian, wrote of him, "There is one hero in -all Europe—one! I do not know a second. -All his life is a romance; and since he had the -greatest reasons for hatred to France, who -had stolen his Nice, caused him to be fired -upon at Aspromonte, fought against him at -Mentana, you guess that it was this man who -flew (during the Franco-German War) to -immolate himself for France. And how -modestly, withal! Nothing mattered it to -him that he was placed in obscure posts quite -unworthy of him. Grand man, my Garibaldi! -My single hero! Always loftier than fortune! -How sublimely does his memory rise and swell -toward the future!"</p> - -<p>In retrospect, strategists tell us that Garibaldi -knew little and cared less about the usual -military tactics, or the plans of organization<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> -and transport taught in military schools. His -wonderful career, with its many and brilliant -victories, is explained by the supreme influence -which his person exercised. Knowing neither -danger nor fear, rushing into the most perilous -spots, his very daring fascinated and inspired -his followers. "He had all the instincts -of the lion; not merely the headlong courage, -but the far nobler qualities of magnanimity, -placability, self-denial. His impulses were all -generous, his motives invariably upright, his -conscience unerring." The most loving among -great leaders, the least hating among great -soldiers, he was devoid of all personal ambition, -as he was devoid of all rancour and -malice. He was one of the most picturesque -leaders, one of the most dramatic figures in all -history. "None could fail to admire or be -inspired by the sight of him on the field of -battle, as with clear, ringing silver voice, his -lion-like face, his plain red shirt and grey -trousers, he sat his horse with perfect ease -and calm, guiding his soldiers by plunging -into the thick of the enemy and trusting his -troops to follow."</p> - -<p>Garibaldi's moral courage was always the -equal of his physical bravery. During the -siege of Rome, when he was defending the -city against the forces of Austria and of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> -France, the enemy located the house from -which he was directing the defense. Cannonball, -smashing through the roof, carried away -his flag; bullets aimed with unerring accuracy -entered the windows, and buried themselves -in the walls. While the others ran to the -cellar, Garibaldi walked out the front door, -stood on the steps, and calmly supervised the -carrying to a place of safety of all the important -military papers. That night the Roman -leaders sent messengers to Garibaldi, and insisted -upon surrender. At last Garibaldi exclaimed, -"Is it not enough that I must fight -our enemies? Has it come to this, that with -equal strength I must oppose my friends?" -And then, he lifted his broken sword, and exclaimed: -"On my monument write these -words, 'A man who never surrendered to the -enemies of human freedom!'"</p> - -<p>Where were the hidings of this man's -power? History tells of no leader who was -so idolized. For Garibaldi men braved martyrdom. -For him, women endured starvation. -Priests risked the anathema of their masters. -Boys, wearing the red shirt, flung themselves -upon the bayonets of Austria and France. -Captured, they were tortured by the enemy, -but died smiling rather than betray Garibaldi. -There is a tradition not mentioned by his best<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> -biographer, that many Italians claim is absolutely -true. Once when he was in hiding, he -appeared at midnight in the public square of -Naples. The city was completely controlled -by the King, who had set a price upon Garibaldi's -head. But many of the people were -secret followers of Garibaldi, who wished to -confer with one of his friends in the prison. -Recognizing a policeman who was his friend, -Garibaldi put his fingers upon his lips and -drew his cloak the closer about his face. -After a whispered word the soldier led Garibaldi -to the entrance of the prison. Another -whispered word and the great iron gate swung -open. A second whispered conversation and -the inner gate opened. Within, another -guard stooped while Garibaldi whispered in -his ear. A little later, out of a cell, came that -captured friend of Garibaldi. The hero asked -and obtained the information he desired. -Putting his two fingers upon his lips, Garibaldi -saluted, and was led to the inner gate. -Having passed through he put those two -fingers upon his lips, saluted, and was led to -the outer gate. Putting his fingers upon his -lips he saluted again, and with an officer who -had become his guide, walked hurriedly to an -alley, where he stepped into his carriage, -where he saluted and disappeared in the darkness—whether<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> -cellar or attic no man knows -unto this day. The following morning Garibaldi -led his troops into battle. Now tell me, -where is there in history of human heroism a -chapter more thrilling than this story of -Garibaldi?</p> - -<p>The truism that men without fault are -generally men without force, is well illustrated -in the life of Garibaldi. It is the strongest, -most adventurous, romantic and troublous -career in history. There are many blots upon -his scutcheon, just as there are many yellow -spots upon the front columns of the Parthenon, -and nothing is gained by calling the roll of -faults rehearsed by his critics and enemies. -"The evil that men do lives after them; -the good is oft interred with their bones." -Remember the story of the farmer in Sardinia -who came home at night, sick because -he had lost a favourite lamb, and -how the next morning Garibaldi returned -with the little dumb creature wrapped in -his blanket and lying upon his bosom. -Remember, how at Palermo, Garibaldi came -out of the battlefield unshaken, but at -sight of the little orphans in the asylum -crying for food the great soldier burst into -tears. Even when they led him to the palace -and called him "Your Excellency," he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> -frowned and moved to the lighthouse, where, -the idol of his people, he lived in a tiny room -with no furniture but a couch and a stool. -Once he was offered great riches if he would -go out to China and lead a regiment and ship -slaves to South America, but he answered -that "Not all the wealth of the Indies could -induce him to buy and sell human flesh." -After his long campaigns and victories for the -people of Uruguay the new government sent -him a title deed to an enormous tract of land -and thousands of heads of cattle, but he tore -up the deeds because he had fought for liberty. -In time of plague he became a nurse, in time -of shipwreck he risked his life to save his -comrades.</p> - -<p>It is true that for some years, under the influence -of two friends who were foreigners, -he passed under the influence of their own -materialism and doubt, and he tells us that -from that hour it seemed as if the spirit of his -mother and of Anita had both deserted him. -During the last years of his life he became -almost a hermit and seemed to be confused -by the problems of the world in which he -lived. But he had been starved, imprisoned, -tortured, betrayed and shot down. The real -Garibaldi speaks in this message that he -addressed to the people of Italy:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>"I am a Christian and I speak to Christians.</p> - -<p>"I love and venerate the religion of Christ.</p> - -<p>"Christ came into the world to deliver -humanity from slavery.</p> - -<p>"You who are here have the duty to educate -the people.</p> - -<p>"Educate them to be Christians.</p> - -<p>"Education gives liberty.</p> - -<p>"On a strong and wholesome education for -the people depend the liberty and greatness -of Italy!</p> - -<p>"Viva Victor Emmanuel!</p> - -<p>"Viva Italia!</p> - -<p>"Viva Christianity!"</p> - - -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p> -<h2>VIII<br /> -JOHN RUSKIN<br /> -(1819–1900)</h2> -<h3><i>And the Diffusion of the Beautiful</i></h3> - -<p>The genius of John Ruskin's message is -in a single sentence: "Life without industry -is guilt, and industry without art and -education is brutality." He held that all the -doing that makes commerce is born of the -thinking that makes scholars, and that all the -flying of looms and the whirling of spindles -begins with the quiet thought of some scholar, -hidden in a closet, or sequestered in a cloister. -He never made the mistake of supposing that -education would change a ten-cent boy into a -thousand-dollar-a-year man, but he <i>did</i> know -that there is some power in Nature that will -transform a seed into a sheaf, an acorn into -an oak, and that the truth will change a child -into a sage, a statesman, a seer, a man with -a message for his century.</p> - -<p>Ruskin wrote many volumes to prove that -wealth is not in raw material;—not in iron, -not in wood, not in stone, not in cotton, not in -wool. Wealth is largely in the intelligence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> -put into the raw material. Pig-iron is worth -twenty dollars a ton, but intelligence turns that -ton of iron into a ton of tempered hair-springs, -and it is worth perhaps ten thousand dollars -a ton. The clay in Rodin's <i>Thinker</i> represents -a value of a few francs, but the idea in -the <i>Thinker</i> brought 150,000 francs. On the -sixtieth anniversary of the coronation of -Queen Victoria, an editor offered Rudyard -Kipling $1,000 for a Commemoration poem. -The paper, ink and the pen stand for a few -pennies; all the rest of the $1,000 was for a -trained intellect. The average income of a -family in the United States to-day is not far -from $2,000. That income could be carried -up to $4,000 if our workers would only double -the intelligence, efficiency and loyalty put -into the raw material they handle!</p> - -<p>The career of Edison illustrates the industrial -value of one informed intellect to the -nation. In 1910, business men in the United -States had invested in the expired patents of -Thomas Edison six billion seven hundred -millions of dollars. These factories brought -in an annual income of a billion and seventy -millions of dollars. To-day, half-a-dozen Edisons, -the one showing us how to burn the coal -in the ground, the other taking nitrogen out -of the air, another showing us how to transmute<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> -metals, another attacking the enemies of -the cotton, the fruits and the grains, with a -teacher who would show the parents of the -country how successfully to assault intellectual -and moral illiteracy, would easily double our -annual income. What our country—what -every country—needs is an invasion of knowledge -and sound sense. Therefore Ruskin's -message, "the first business of the nation is -the manufacture of souls of a good quality."</p> - -<p>During his lifetime John Ruskin wrote -some forty volumes. Between the ages of -twenty and thirty he wrote <i>Modern Painters</i>, -dealing with the claims of cloud, sun, shower, -wave, shrub and flower, land, sea, and sky -upon man's intellectual and moral life. He -held that the open-air world is man's best college -and the forces of the winter and the summer -his best teachers. From thirty to forty -he wrote the <i>Lectures on Architecture</i>, and -<i>Stones of Venice</i>, with many studies of the -galleries, towers, and cathedrals of Florence -and Rome. In these books his thought is that -the soul of the people within determines the -painting, architecture and civilization of the -state without. From forty to fifty he wrote -many books on the claim of the beautiful upon -man's spiritual life, and insisted that those -claims were binding not less upon the working<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> -people and the peasants in factory and -field, than upon the scholar in his library and -the artist in his studio.</p> - -<p>From fifty to sixty he wrote his <i>Fors Clavigera</i>, -his <i>Time and Tide</i>, <i>Munera Pulveris</i>, -and <i>Unto This Last</i>, studies of the problems -of wealth and poverty, of labour and capital. -He tells us that men, to-day, are charmed with -the glitter of gold and silver as young birds -are charmed with the glitter of snakes' eyes; -that the business man is divinely called to -serve through property; that there is, however, -such a thing as a despotism of wealth; -that the property of some millionaires represents -the breaking of the strength and the will -of competitors and the paralysis of the forces -of the people, so that what seems to be wealth, -in verity is only "the gilded index of far-reaching -ruin, a wreckers' handful of coin, -gleaned from the beach to which he has beguiled -an argosy; the camp follower's bundle -of rags, unwrapped from the breasts of goodly -soldiers dead, the purchase pieces of potter's -fields, wherein shall be buried together the -citizen and the stranger."</p> - -<p>And then Ruskin bent himself to what he -believed to be the real task of his life, the -writing of a series of books on the problems of -labour and capital, in the hope that he might<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> -save the State from trampled cornfields and -from bloody streets. But just at the supreme -moment in his career his health gave way, -and he never completed his studies of the -<i>Robber King</i>, the <i>Rust Kings</i>, the <i>Moth King</i> -and the <i>Hero Kings</i>. John Ruskin died believing -himself to be an unfulfilled prophecy, -in that he was unable to complete these books -for which he believed all his life had been -one long preparation. But in reality he was -a prophet who gave forth a message that is -slowly transforming the institutions of mankind.</p> - -<p>A full understanding of Ruskin's life-work -begins with an outlook upon his contribution -to modern social reform. Biographers often -identify a great reform with one man's name, -as if this man, single handed, had wrought -the social transformation. Thus they speak -of Howard as the reformer of prisons; of -Shaftesbury as the author of the Poor Acts; of -Cobden as the author of the Corn Laws; -of Lincoln, as the emancipator of slaves; of -Booth as the founder of the City Colony, the -Home Colony, the Farm Colony. But strictly -speaking, thousands of leaders of the movement -for the abolition of slavery stood behind -the forces of Wilberforce in England, and -Lincoln in the United States. Not otherwise<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> -many biographers have claimed too much for -the influence of Ruskin, certainly more than -the master would have claimed for himself.</p> - -<p>At the beginning of his career Ruskin -started a movement to diffuse the beautiful in -the life of the people. For centuries the -beautiful had been concentrated in the temples -of Athens, the palaces and galleries of Italy, -the museums of Paris and London, in the -manor houses of the landed gentry. Meanwhile -the poor people of Athens, Venice and -Florence lived in huts, wore leather garments, -ate crusts, dwelt amid ugliness, squalor and -filth. Ruskin dreamed a dream of the beautiful -put into the life of the common people. -He found that Sheffield, with its smoking -chimneys and grimy streets, had been spoken -of as the ugliest factory town in England. -Therefore Ruskin went to Sheffield, hired a -building, installed therein his paintings, etchings, -and illuminated missals, and hired a few -instructors to help him diffuse the beautiful -in the daily life of the people. He brought in -men who made the implements of the dining-room, -and showed them how to make the knife, -the fork, the spoon, the table linen, minister to -the sentiment of taste and refinement. He -brought in men who made wall-papers for the -poor man's house, and showed the craftsmen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> -how to make the colours soft and warm, delicate -and beautiful. He interested himself in -beautiful furniture. He wrought with William -Morris for a more beautiful type of illustrations -in books and magazines. He denounced -the ugliness of the houses and clothing -and bridges and railways. He insisted -that women should have beautiful garments, -the youth read beautiful books, the men ride -in beautiful cars, the families live in beautiful -little houses, the children play upon beautiful -carpets and look upon walls that had one or -two beautiful pictures. John Ruskin laboured, -and others wrought with him, and now at last -we have entered into the fruit of their labours. -To-day the beautiful, once concentrated in -temples, palaces, and cathedrals, is diffused -in the life of the common people.</p> - -<p>In the same fashion Ruskin started a movement -among the working men for a diffusion -of sound learning. The St. George Guild -represents the first University Extension -Course and the first Chautauqua system our -world ever knew. More than fifty years -ago he worked out his plan to carry the knowledge -given to rich men's sons in their lecture -halls and libraries to the working people, who -were to carry on their studies in the evening -after the day's labour was over. He laid out a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> -course of studies for these working men, -planned the organization of lecture centers, -gave us the outline of the University Extension -Course of lectures, induced many men in -England to go from one working man's guild -and club to another, and after Ruskin's health -broke down, the men in the faculty of Oxford -University took Ruskin's mother-idea, and -developed it into the University Extension -Course of lectures. Brought to our country -that idea has spread through these lecture -courses carried on in great halls in the winter, -in tents and open-air assemblies in the summer.</p> - -<p>We say much of our Social Settlement -Work, and trace these thousands of settlements -in the tenement-house region of great -cities back to Arnold Toynbee's work, and -that of Canon Barnett, in the East End of -London. But we must remember that when -Ruskin was lecturing in Oxford to some of the -richest boys in Great Britain he told them -that every boy who consumed more than he -produced was a pauper and that the more the -youth received from his ancestors and the -State, the larger his debt to those who were -less fortunate. He believed that every gifted -boy should keep in touch, not only with his -own class, but with all classes, and that every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> -youth would do well to do some physical work -every day. Ruskin and his students built a -road outside of Oxford, and the foreman of -the gang of students was young Arnold Toynbee. -Toynbee admired and loved Ruskin, as a -young pupil and disciple loves a noble teacher -and a great master.</p> - -<p>After his health broke down, Ruskin gave -up his work in Whitechapel Road and urged -Arnold Toynbee to give himself to the problems -of the poor, and when Ruskin's health -gave way completely, it was Toynbee who rewrote -his lectures on labour and capital and -gave them a new form in his <i>Industrial Revolution -in Great Britain</i>. The time came when -Arnold Toynbee broke down with overwork -and brain fever, as his master had broken before -him, and his friend Canon Barnett raised -the money to make Toynbee Hall a permanent -institution. But the seed of the Social Settlement -movement was John Ruskin's brief -career in the tenement region of the East End, -and the first full fruit was in his disciple's -Toynbee Hall and in Canon Barnett's noble -work at St. Jude's. Little by little the Social -Settlement Idea spread, until in the tenement -regions of Manchester, Birmingham, New -York, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, -gifted men and women of wealth, leisure and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> -patrician position, began to give their lives to -the neglected poor.</p> - -<p>Not less striking, the influence of Ruskin -upon the plans of General Booth. Long before -the book called <i>In Darkest England and -the Way Out</i> was published, Ruskin founded -his coöperative printing press in a little colony -outside of London. One of his biographers -has told the story of Ruskin's plan to make the -men and women in the poorhouses self-supporting, -happy and useful. This biographer -has never fully established the connection between -that first coöperative colony of Ruskin, -and Booth's plans for the City Colony, the -Farm Colony and the Foreign Colony. But -one thing is certain:—Ruskin had a pioneer -mind. Instead of his chief interest being in -mountains and clouds, in wave and flower, -cathedrals, pictures, marbles, illuminated -missals, the overmastering enthusiasm of his -life was people, and his real message was a -message of social reform. When long time -has passed, Ruskin's fame will rest upon his -work as a social reformer, a man who loved -the poor and weak.</p> - -<p>Not less significant, his views of education, -that have leavened all modern schools whatsoever. -Matthew Arnold defined culture as -"a familiarity with the best that has ever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> -been done in literature." Ruskin insisted -that there were thousands of scholars living -in their libraries, surrounded by books, who -were perfectly familiar with the best that has -ever been thought or done, but whose knowledge -was all but worthless, because it was -selfish. He looked upon the informed man as -a sower, going forth to sow the seed of truth -over the wide land. All selfish culture is like -salt in a barrel; the salt has no power to save -unless it is scattered. Selfish culture is like -seed corn in the granary, important for a -harvest. Under Ruskin's influence many of -his friends gave an evening or two a week to -lectures before his working men's clubs, his -art groups, and his classes for the improvement -of the handicrafts.</p> - -<p>No modern author has made so much of -vision, or tried so hard to teach people how -to see. Many teachers think that education -is stuffing the pocket of memory with a mass -of facts. When the mind is filled so that it -cannot hold another truth, the youth receives -a diploma. Ruskin held that education was -teaching the child how to see everything true -and beautiful in land and sea and sky. "For -a thousand great speakers, there is only one -great thinker; for a thousand great thinkers, -there is only one great see-er; we cut out one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> -'e' and leave it seer, but the true poet and -sage is simply the see-er." The millions are -blind to the signals hanged out from the -battlements of cloud. Isaac Newton was a -see-er,—he saw an apple falling from the -tree; saw a moon falling through space, and -gave us the law of gravity. Columbus was -a see-er. In a crevice in a bit of driftwood, -tossed upon the shore of Spain, he saw a -strange pebble, and his imagination leaped -from the driftwood to the unknown forest -from whence it came, from that bright piece -of stone to the mountain range of which it was -a part. Columbus had the seeing eye, and -discovered the continent hidden behind the -clouds.</p> - -<p>Not otherwise the geologist sees the handwriting -of God upon the rock-pages; the astronomer -sees His writing upon the pages of -the sky; the physiologist reads His writing on -the pages of the human body; the moralist -deciphers the writing on the tablets of the -mind and the heart. The beginning of Wordsworth's -fame was the hour when his eyes -were opened, and he saw man appearing upon -the horizon, and like a bright spirit trailing -clouds of glory, coming from God who is -man's home. It was the inner sight of Wordsworth's -soul that was "the bliss of solitude."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> -It was his power of vision that enabled him -to look out upon the field, yellow as gold, a -vision that lingered long in his memory when -he said, "and then my heart with rapture -thrills, and dances with the daffodils."</p> - -<p>It is useless for people who are colour-blind -to look at Rembrandt's portrait. It is folly -for people who cannot follow a tune to buy -a ticket for a symphony concert. Men who -by neglect atrophy the spiritual faculty, or by -sin cut gashes in the nerve of conscience, will -soon exclaim, in the spirit of the fool, "There -is no God," just as the blind man is certain -that there is no sun. The old black ex-slave, -Sojourner Truth, once illustrated this principle. -In those days excitement ran high. -Northern merchants, fearful of losing their -trade with Southern cities, frowned upon any -one who dared criticize "the peculiar institution" -of the South. One day, in New York, -Sojourner Truth, just escaped from slavery, -went to an Abolition Meeting, hoping for an -opportunity of making a plea for the emancipation -of her race. When the black woman, -with her gnarled hands, and face seamed -with pain and sorrow, arose to speak, a young -newspaper reporter slammed his book upon -the table, and stamped his way down the aisle -toward the door. Just before he reached the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> -door, Sojourner Truth stretched out her long -black finger and said, "Wait a minute, honey! -You goin' 'way 'cause of me? Listen, honey—I -would give you some ideas to take home with -you to your newspaper, but I see you ain't got -nothing to carry 'em in!" . . . Homely -but forceful illustration of an old truth. The -angel of truth and the angel of beauty, leaning -from the battlements of heaven, oft -whispers, "Oh, my children! I would fain -give you a new tool, a new painting, a new -science, but you have no eyes to see the vision, -and no ears to hear the sweetest music that -ever fell from heaven's battlements." It is -the man of vision who founds the new school -of painting, or the new reform or the new -liberty. The visions of the idealist to-day become -the laws and institutions of to-morrow.</p> - -<p>In this power of the open eye, Ruskin found -the secret of daily happiness, and mental -growth. No one knew better than John -Ruskin that the millions of working men and -women would never be able to make their way -to the galleries of Paris and Madrid, of Florence -and Venice, to St. Peter's or the Parthenon, -much less have time, leisure and money -for travel unto the far-off ends of the earth. -Therefore he taught the people how to see the -wonders of God, in every fluted blade of grass,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> -in every bush that blazed with beauty, and -blazing, was not consumed. He proved that -he who knows how to see will find the common -clod to be a casket filled with gems, and that -the sky that looks down upon all workers, -spreads out scenes of such loveliness and -beauty as to make travel to distant lands -unnecessary!</p> - -<p>And yet, for the most part, men turn their -eyes toward the sky only in moments of utter -idleness and insipidity. "One says it has -been wet, and another, it has been windy, and -another, it has been warm. But who, among -the whole chattering crowd, can tell me of the -forms and precipices of the chain of tall white -mountains that girded the horizon at noon -yesterday? Who saw the narrow sunbeam -that came out of the south, and smote -upon their summits, until they melted and -mouldered away in a dust of blue rain? Who -saw the dance of the dead clouds, when the -sunlight left them last night, and the west -wind blew them before it like withered leaves? -All has passed, unregretted, and unseen. Not -in the clash of the hail nor the drift of the -whirlwind, are the highest characters developed. -God is not in the earthquake, nor in -the fire, but in the still small voice. Blunt -and low those faculties of our nature, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> -can only be addressed through lamp-black -and lightning."</p> - -<p>The whole world owes Ruskin an immeasurable -debt for this: that he taught us how to -see the beauty in the great imperial palace in -which man hath his home.</p> - -<p>In his defense of Turner, the world's -greatest landscape painter, Ruskin advanced -his theory of first seeing accurately, and then, -through the creative imagination, carrying up -to ideal perfection flowers, faces and landscapes -often marred by the storms and upheavals -of life. It is altogether probable that -John Ruskin saw as accurately the scene of -loveliness as Turner himself. It seems quite -certain that Ruskin was altogether unique in -his capacity for enjoyment. It was not -simply that his eyes saw accurately, and his -intellect registered his impressions without -flaw, but that his imagination and his emotions -were sensitive to the last degree, as sensitive -as the silken threads of an Æolian harp that -responds to the lightest wind that blows. -Many people know the intense flavour of a -strawberry, but Ruskin's soul was pierced -with an intense and tumultuous pleasure at -the sight of the clouds piled up upon the -mountains. He loved Nature with all the -passion with which Dante loved Beatrice.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> -In Ruskin's forty odd volumes the scholar -can find registered a hundred experiences -in the presence of the mountain glory and -the mountain gloom, in which this delight -and happiness sent his whole body shivering -with the piercing intensity that shook the soul -of Romeo during his passionate interview with -Juliet. Coarse natures, gluttonous, avaricious, -full of hate, can no more understand -the happiness of Ruskin's life than a deaf man -can understand Mozart's rapture, when he -listened to the music in the cathedral. Not -even a tornado can make a crowbar vibrate, -but the flutter of a lark's wing can set a silken -thread vibrating and singing.</p> - -<p>Ruskin has spread out, like a rich map, the -story of the people who educated him. The -overmastering influence in his life was that -of his mother. He tells us that he received -from his home in childhood the priceless gift -of peace, in that he had never seen a -"moment's trouble or disorder in any household -matter, or anything whatever done in a -hurry or undone in due time." To this gift -was added the gift of obedience. "I obeyed -word, or lifted finger, of father or mother, -simply as a ship her helm; not only without -idea of resistance but as necessary to me in -every moral action as the law of gravity in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> -leaping. To the gifts of peace and obedience -my parents added the gift of Faith, in that -nothing was ever promised me that was not -given; nothing ever threatened me that was -not inflicted, and nothing ever told me that -was not true." And to these was added the -habit of fixed attention with both eyes and -mind—this being the main practical faculty of -his life, causing Mazzini to say of Ruskin that -he had "the most analytic mind in Europe."</p> - -<p>The books from which Ruskin had his style -in childhood were Walter Scott's novels, -Pope's translation of the <i>Iliad</i>, Defoe's <i>Robinson -Crusoe</i>, Bunyan's <i>Pilgrim's Progress</i>, and -above all, the Bible. "My mother forced me, -by steady and daily toil, to learn long chapters -of the Bible by heart; as well as to read it -every syllable through aloud, hard names and -all, from Genesis to the Apocalypse, about -once a year; and to that discipline, patient, -accurate, and resolute, I owe much of my -general power of taking pains, and the best -part of my taste in literature." The great -chapters of the Bible from which Ruskin says -he had his style included the fifteenth and -twentieth of Exodus; the twenty-third Psalm, -and also the thirty-second, ninetieth, ninety-first, -one hundred and third, one hundred and -twelfth, one hundred and nineteenth, one hundred<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> -and thirty-ninth, the Sermon on the -Mount, the conversion of Paul, his vision on -the road to Damascus, Paul's Ode to Love and -Immortality. "These chapters of the Bible," -Ruskin says, "were the most precious, and, on -the whole, the one essential part of my education."</p> - -<p>Ruskin's message upon education is of vital -importance to the people of our republic. -Strictly speaking, education should teach each -citizen to think aright upon every subject of -importance, and to live a life that is worthy, -making the most out of the gifts received from -God and one's ancestors. Ruskin traced the -national faults and miseries of England, to -illiteracy and the lack of education in the art -of living. The inevitable result of this illiteracy -was that England "despises literature, -despises compassion, and concentrates the soul -on silver." From this illiteracy came physical -ugliness, envy, cowardice, and selfishness, -instead of physical beauty, courage and affection. -To the dry facts taught, therefore, he -proposed to add inspiration, and the art of -seeing.</p> - -<p>Above all, he feared the results of uniformity -and the manufacture of men by machinery, -until all youths coming out of the -same school, having studied the same facts,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> -in the same way, became as uniform as crackers, -and also as dry. The important man, he -thinks, is the occasional boy, who has received -a gift and can open up new realms for the -rest. "Genius? You can't manufacture a -great man, any more than you can manufacture -gold. You find gold, and mint it. -You uncover diamonds, but do not produce -them. You find genius, but you cannot -create it." Getting on, therefore, does not -mean "more horses, more footmen, more -fortune, more public honour,—it means more -personal soul. He only is advancing in life -whose heart is getting softer, whose blood -warmer, whose brain quicker, whose spirit is -entering into living peace." Education is a -preparation for complete living; therefore -Ruskin adopts Milton's definition of the complete -and generous education as, "that which -fits a man to perform justly, skillfully, and -magnanimously, all the duties of all the offices -of life."</p> - -<p>Frederic Harrison gives Ruskin's <i>Unto This -Last</i> first place as the most original book in -modern English literature. He ranks it as a -masterpiece of pure, incisive, brilliant, imaginative -writing, "a book glowing with wit and -fire and passion." The heart of the message -is that every man is born with a gift appointed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> -by his fathers, and that happiness begins with -grasping the handle of one's own being. The -greatest and most enduring work is done for -love, and not for wage. The soldier's task -is to keep the state in liberty, and when the -second or third battle of Gettysburg or Ypres -comes, he does not go on a strike, but puts -death and duty in front of him and keeps his -face to the front; in like manner the physician -is appointed to keep the state in health and -in time of yellow fever or the Black Death he -works as hard for nothing as for a large fee, -even as a father, in time of famine, shipwreck -or battle, will sacrifice himself for his son.</p> - -<p>Ruskin held that the commercial text, "Buy -in the cheapest market and sell in the -dearest," was part truth, and part falsehood. -"Buy in the cheapest market? Yes; but -what made your market cheap? Charcoal -may be cheap among the roof timbers after a -fire, and bricks may be cheap in your streets -after an earthquake, but fire and earthquake -may not be, therefore, national benefits. Sell -in the dearest market? Yes; but what made -your market dear? Was it to a dying man -who gave his last coin rather than starve, or -to a soldier on his way to pillage the bank, -that you put your fortune? The final -consummation of wealth is in full-breathed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> -bright-eyed and happy-hearted human creatures." -Therefore, said Ruskin, "I can -imagine that England may cast all thoughts -of possessive wealth back to the barbaric nations -among whom they first arose; and that, -while the sand of the Indias and adamant of -Golconda may yet stiffen the housings of the -charger, and flash from the turban of the -slave, she at last may be able to lead forth -her sons, saying, 'These are my jewels!'"</p> - -<p>Whether, therefore, property shall be a -curse or a blessing depends upon man's administrative -intelligence. "For centuries -great districts of the world, rich in soil, and -favoured in climate, have lain desert, under -the rage of their own rivers, not only desert, -but plague-struck. The stream which, -rightly directed, would have flowed in soft -irrigation from field to field,—would have -purified the air, given food to man and beast, -and carried their burdens for them on its -bosom—now overwhelms the plain, and -poisons the wind, its breath pestilence, and its -work famine. In like manner, wealth may -become water of life, the riches of the hand -and wisdom, or wealth may be the last and -deadliest of national plagues, water of Marah, -the water of which feeds the roots of all evil." -Man's body alone is related to factory and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> -mine. No amount of ingenuity will ever make -iron and steel digestible. Neither the avarice -nor the rage of men will ever feed them. And -however the apple of Sodom and the grape of -Gomorrah may spread the table with dainties -of ashes and nectar of asps,—so long as men -live by bread, the far-away valleys laugh only -as they are covered with the gold of God, and -echo the shouts of His happy multitudes.</p> - -<p>During the closing and most fruitful period -of his career, Ruskin's supreme thought had -to do with the manufacture of souls of good -quality. Quite beyond the influence of some -hero or statesman was the influence, hidden, -constant, but immeasurable, of the spirit of -the invisible God. "If you ask me for the -sum of my life-work, the answer is this,—whatever -Jesus saith unto you, do that." -Daniel Webster himself never made a more -powerful plea for the Christian Church and -preacher than Ruskin's statement on the -importance of the hour on Sunday, after the -people have been exposed for six days to the -full weight of the world's temptation. That -hour when men and women come in, breathless -and weary with the week's labour and "a -man sent with a message, which is a matter of -life or death, has but thirty minutes to get at -the separate hearts of a thousand men, to convince<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> -them of all their weaknesses, to shame -them for all their sins, to warn them of all -their dangers, to try by this way and that to -stir the hard fastenings of those doors, where -the Master Himself has stood and knocked, yet -none opened, and to call at the openings of -those dark streets, where Wisdom herself has -stretched forth her hands and no man hath -regarded,—thirty minutes to raise the dead in!—let -us but once understand and feel this, and -the pulpit shall become a throne like unto a -marble rock in the desert, about which the -people gather to slake their thirst."</p> - -<p>And in the very fullness of his power, when -his bow was in full strength, and every sentence -and arrow tipped with fire, Ruskin -gathered his strength for a final study of the -obligations of wealth to poverty, of wisdom to -ignorance,—the opportunity of rich men to -serve their generation, and make the world -once more an Eden garden of happiness and -delight. Just as men sweep together an acre -of red roses, and condense the blossoms into -a little vial filled with the precious attar, we -may condense several volumes of Ruskin into -a single parable. Why has one man ten-talent -power? Why have ninety-nine men -only one-talent power? Why is one boy ten -years of age and strong, while in the same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> -orphan asylum are ninety-nine little boys one -year old? And what if some kind hand hath -spread the table with orange, date, and plum, -with every sweet fruit and nutritious grain? -Has the ten-year-old boy, answering to the -ten-talent man, a right to dash up to the -table, and with one hand sweep together all -the fruits, and with the other hand, all the -cereals, milk and cream, while he shouts to the -ninety-nine little one-year-old children, -"Every fellow for himself! Get all you can! -Keep all you can! The devil take the hindmost!" -This, says Ruskin, is the fashion of -certain rust-kings, and moth-kings. Why is -that one boy ten years of age? Is his strength -not for the sole purpose of carrying these -foods to the little one-year-old children, -scarcely able to provide for themselves? It -is said of the Master and Lord of us all, that -"being rich, for our sakes He made Himself -poor." And the kings in the realm of art, -or song, of industry or finance, have been -ordained by God, not to loot the world of its -blossoms, not to squeeze men, like so many -purple clusters, into their own cups. In the -vegetable world the expert pinches off ninety-nine -roses, and forces the rich and vital currents -into one great rose at the end of the -stock. But what if a ten-talent man should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> -pinch out ninety-nine lesser men as competitors, -and force the vital elements of all their -separate factories and stores, that were intended -to be distributed among many men, of -lesser gifts, into his one treasure house?</p> - -<p>Ruskin not only pointed the moral but -fashioned his own life after it. He was one of -the few men who have lived what they taught. -He fell heir to what his generation thought -was a very large fortune. He made another -fortune by sheer force of genius. But he held -his treasure as a trust fund in the interest of -God's poor. And so-called practical men -turned upon him, with the bitterness and hate -of wolves that try to pull down some noble -stag. His articles were shut out of the <i>Cornhill -Magazine</i>. Through the influence of selfish -men who feared the influence of his -teachings upon the people, he was for a time -bitterly assaulted. Scoffed at and maligned, -he overworked and passed from one attack -of brain fever to another. When it was too -late, the angry voices died out of the air, and -his sun cleared itself of clouds. When at last -a wreath of honour was offered Ruskin, it was -as if an old man had taken the blossoms and -the laurel leaf, and carried them out to God's -acre, to be placed in the snow upon his -mother's grave. But ours is a world that first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> -slays the prophet and then builds his sepulchre. -It is indeed, as the wise man said, a -world that crucifies the Saviour.</p> - -<p>And we can say of Ruskin what James -Martineau said of the world's injustice, that -"in almost every age which has stoned the -prophets, and loaded its philosophers with -chains, the ringleaders of the anarchy have -been, not the lawless and infamous of their -day, but the archons and chief priests, who -could protect their false idols with a grand -and stiff air, and do their wrongs in the halls -of justice, and commit their murders as a -savoury sacrifice; so that it has been by no -rude violence, but by clean and holy hands -that the guides, the saints, the redeemers of -men have been poisoned in Athens, tortured -in Rome, burned in Florence, crucified in -Jerusalem." And we ought not to be surprised -that a world that threatened Milton, -starved Swammerdam, imprisoned Bunyan, -and assassinated Lincoln, should break the -health and the heart of John Ruskin, who -poured out his very life-blood to redeem the -people from ignorance, and sloth, and wrong.</p> - - -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p> -<h2>Index</h2> - -<ul class="index"> -<li><span class="smcap">Abelard</span> and Héloise, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li> -<li>Achilles, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li> -<li>Act of Toleration, The, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></li> -<li><i>Adam Bede</i>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li> -<li>Æneas, The wanderings of, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li> -<li>Alexander the Great, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li> -<li>Alexander the Sixth, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li> -<li>Alva, Duke of, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li> -<li>Angelo, Michael, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li> -<li><i>Areopagitica</i>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li> -<li>Aristotle, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> -<li>Arnold, Matthew, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></li> -<li>Asbury, Francis, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li> -<li>Asia Minor, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li> -<li>Athens, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a></li> -<li>Augustus Cæsar, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li> -<li> </li> -<li><span class="smcap">Bacon, Francis</span>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li> -<li>Balfour, Lord, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> -<li>Barnett, Canon, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li> -<li>Barrett, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li> -<li>Beatrice, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li> -<li>Bedford Jail, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li> -<li>Beecher, Henry Ward, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li> -<li>"Beggars," The fleet of, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li> -<li>Bernard the Monk, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li> -<li>Birrell, Augustine, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></li> -<li>Black Death, The, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li> -<li>"Bloody Council," The, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li> -<li>Booth, William, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></li> -<li>Boswell's <i>Life of Johnson</i>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></li> -<li>Bradford, William, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li> -<li>Brescia, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li> -<li>Brougham, Henry, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li> -<li>Browning, Robert, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li> -<li>Bunyan, John, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li> -<li>Burke, Edmund, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li> -<li> </li> -<li><span class="smcap">Calvin, John</span>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li> -<li>Carlyle, Thomas, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li> -<li>Cateau-Cambresis, Treaty of, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li> -<li>Cavour, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li> -<li>Cecilia, St., <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li> -<li>Cervantes, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li> -<li>Charles I of England, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li> -<li>Charles II of England, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li> -<li>Charles V, Emperor of Germany, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li> -<li>Charles VIII of France, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li> -<li>Charles IX of France, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></li> -<li>Childe Harold, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li> -<li>Church, The, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> -<li>Columbus, Christopher, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li> -<li>Common people in the Dark Ages, The, <a href="#Page_14">14</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></li> -<li><i>Comus</i>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li> -<li>Constantinople, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></li> -<li>Copernicus, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li> -<li>Cromwell, Oliver, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li> -<li>"Crowning Mercy of Worcester, The," <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li> -<li>Curtis, George William, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li> -<li> </li> -<li><span class="smcap">Dante, Alighieri</span>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li> -<li>Dark Ages, The, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li> -<li>Dekker, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> -<li>De Quincey, Thomas, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li> -<li><i>Divine Comedy, The</i>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li> -<li>Divine Right of Kings, The, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> -<li> </li> -<li><span class="smcap">Easter Day</span>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> -<li>Eclipse in English literature, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li> -<li>Edison, Thomas, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li> -<li>Eliot, George, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li> -<li>Eliot, Sir John, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li> -<li>England's darkest hour, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> -<li>England in the days of Charles I, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> -<li>Erasmus, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li> -<li>Este, Duke of, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> -<li> </li> -<li><span class="smcap">Farmer of Huntingdon</span>, The, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a></li> -<li>Ferrara, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li> -<li>Feudalism, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> -<li>Ficino, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li> -<li>Florence, 14, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li> -<li>Foch, Marshal, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li> -<li>Francis of Assisi, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li> -<li>Franklin, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></li> -<li>French Revolution, The, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></li> -<li> </li> -<li><span class="smcap">Garibaldi</span>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">in the United States, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li> -<li>Garibaldi's aim—a united Italy, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">Anita, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">charmed life, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">power over his troops, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">life in South America, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">reckless courage, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">refusal of throne, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">return to Italy, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">loyalty to Victor Emmanuel, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">victories, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></li> -<li>Geography, The science of, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> -<li>George, David Lloyd, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> -<li>Geryon, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> -<li>Gioberti, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> -<li>Giotto, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> -<li>Gladstone, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></li> -<li>Goethe, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li> -<li>Grant, General, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li> -<li>Great Remonstrance, The, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li> -<li>Gulf Stream, Influence of the, <a href="#Page_163">163</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></li> -<li> </li> -<li><span class="smcap">Hallam</span> the historian, <a href="#Page_10">10</a></li> -<li>Hamilton, Alexander, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></li> -<li>Hamlet, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> -<li>Hampden, John, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> -<li>Harrison, Frederic, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></li> -<li>Helen of Troy, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li> -<li>Henry of Navarre, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li> -<li>History, The scope of,<a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> -<li>Hogarth, William, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li> -<li>Holland, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li> -<li>Homer, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> -<li>Horace, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li> -<li>House of Lords, The, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li> -<li>Hume, David, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li> -<li> </li> -<li><i>Idylls of the King</i>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li> -<li><i>Imitation of Christ</i>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></li> -<li><i>In Darkest England</i>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></li> -<li><i>Inferno, The</i>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li> -<li>Inquisition, The, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></li> -<li>Italian language, The, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li> -<li>Italian literature, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> -<li> </li> -<li><span class="smcap">James I of England</span>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> -<li>Jonson, Ben, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> -<li>Julius Cæsar, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li> -<li> </li> -<li><span class="smcap">Keats, John</span>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li> -<li>Kenilworth Castle, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li> -<li>King Alfred's Bible, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li> -<li>Kipling, Rudyard, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li> -<li>Kossuth, Louis, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></li> -<li> </li> -<li><i>Last Judgment, The</i>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li> -<li>Law's <i>Serious Call</i>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></li> -<li>Latin tongue, The, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li> -<li>Lecky the historian, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li> -<li>Leonardo, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li> -<li>Leyden, Siege of, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li> -<li>Lincoln, Abraham, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></li> -<li>Lorenzo the Magnificent, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li> -<li>Lowell, James Russell, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li> -<li>Lucifer, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> -<li>Luther, Martin, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li> -<li><i>Lycidas</i>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li> -<li> </li> -<li><span class="smcap">Macaulay, Lord</span>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a> <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></li> -<li><i>Macbeth</i>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> -<li>Marlow, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> -<li>Marston Moor, Battle of, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li> -<li>Martineau, James, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li> -<li>Mary Queen of Scots, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> -<li>Massacre of St. Bartholomew, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></li> -<li>Massinger, Philip, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> -<li>"Mayflower, The," <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li> -<li>Mazzini, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></li> -<li>Mæcenas, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li> -<li>Medici, The, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li> -<li>"Mermaid" Tavern, The, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li> -<li>Methodists, The early, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li> -<li>Methodism, world-wide sphere of, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li> -<li>Michelet, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li> -<li>Middle Ages, The, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li> -<li>Mill, John Stuart, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> -<li>Milton, John, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>,<a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">and his studies, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></li> -<li class="m2">at Cambridge, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">made Secretary of State, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li> -<li>Milton's belief in himself, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">fight for relationships, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">pamphlets, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">views on divorce, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li> -<li>Mirandola, Picadella, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li> -<li>Modern world, The dawn of, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> -<li>Monte Rosa, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> -<li>Moravians, The, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li> -<li>Morley, John, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li> -<li>Morley's <i>Life of Gladstone</i>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li> -<li>Morris, William, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li> -<li> </li> -<li><span class="smcap">Napoleon</span>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li> -<li>Naseby, Battle of, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li> -<li>Nelson, Lord, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li> -<li>Newton, Sir Isaac, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li> -<li> </li> -<li><i>Othello</i>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> -<li> </li> -<li><span class="smcap">Paradise</span>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li> -<li><i>Paradise Lost</i>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li> -<li><i>Paradise Regained</i>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> -<li>Pattison, Mark, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li> -<li>Paul II, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> -<li>Penelope, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li> -<li>Pericles, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li> -<li>Peter the Hermit, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li> -<li>Petrarch, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li> -<li>Philip II of Spain, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></li> -<li>Phillips, Wendell, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li> -<li>Pius II, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> -<li><i>Pilgrim's Progress, The</i>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li> -<li>Pitt, William, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li> -<li>Plato, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li> -<li>Pope, Alexander, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> -<li>Prince Djem, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li> -<li>Prince Rupert, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li> -<li>Priors of Florence, The, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> -<li>Purgatory, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li> -<li>Puritanism, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></li> -<li>Puritans, The, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li> -<li>Pym, John, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> -<li> </li> -<li><span class="smcap">Queen Victoria</span>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li> -<li> </li> -<li><span class="smcap">Raleigh, Sir Walter</span>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li> -<li>Raphael, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> -<li>Ravenna, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li> -<li>"Renaissance, The Morning Star of," <a href="#Page_10">10</a></li> -<li>Renaissance, The, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li> -<li>Restoration, The, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li> -<li>Revival of learning, The, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li> -<li>Richelieu, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></li> -<li><i>Ring and the Book, The</i>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li> -<li>Rodin's <i>Thinker</i>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li> -<li>Rome, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li> -<li><i>Romola</i>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li> -<li>Ruskin, John, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">and social reform, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">books of his childhood, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">world's debt to, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li> -<li> </li> -<li><span class="smcap">Savonarola</span>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li> -<li>Shakespeare, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></li> -<li>Shelley, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li> -<li>Socrates, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li> -<li>St. Peter's Cathedral, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> -<li><i>Story of the Dutch Republic</i>, Motley's, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li> -<li>Swammerdam, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li> -<li> </li> -<li><span class="smcap">Tasso</span>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> -<li>Taylor's <i>Purity of Intention</i>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></li> -<li>Tennyson, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li> -<li>Torquemada, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li> -<li>Toynbee, Arnold, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></li> -<li>Truth, Sojourner, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li> -<li>Turner, J. W., <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li> -<li>Tyndale, William, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li> -<li> </li> -<li><span class="smcap">Ulysses</span>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li> -<li> </li> -<li><span class="smcap">Venice</span>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li> -<li>Verona, Bishop of, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li> -<li>Virgil, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li> -<li><i>Vita Nuova</i>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li> -<li>Voltaire, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li> -<li> </li> -<li><span class="smcap">Walpole, Horace</span>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></li> -<li>Washington, George, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li> -<li>Webster, Daniel, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li> -<li>Wellington, Duke of, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li> -<li>Wesley, Charles, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li> -<li>Wesley, John, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">at Oxford, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">growth of followers, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;</li> -<li class="m2"><i>Journal</i> of, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">labours of, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">last words of, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">liberality of, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">moral courage of, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">persecution of, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">personal traits, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</li> -<li class="m2">plan for world evangelization, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li> -<li>Wesley, Samuel, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></li> -<li>Wesley, Susannah, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></li> -<li>Whitefield, George, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li> -<li>Wilberforce, William, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></li> -<li>William the Silent, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> -<li>Wordsworth, William, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li> -</ul> - -<hr class="hr2" /> -<p class="center"><i>Printed in the United States of America</i></p> - - - -<hr /> -<div class="tn"> -<h4>Transcriber's Note</h4> -<ul class="corrections"> -<li>Hyphenation inconsistencies left as in the original</li> - -<li>Obvious punctuation and spelling errors repaired</li> - -<li>Pg <a href="#path">84</a>: "...the path the heroes' trod." to "...the path the heroes trod."</li> - -<li>Pg <a href="#record">156</a>: Removed extraneous blank line from August 23, 1733 journal entry</li> -</ul> -</div> - - - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Great Men as Prophets of a New Era, by -Newell Dwight Hillis - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT MEN AS PROPHETS OF A NEW ERA *** - -***** This file should be named 60038-h.htm or 60038-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/0/3/60038/ - -Produced by David T. 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