But, after all, they
had a high motive, something eternal in their desire and life; and, if
it was not the only thing worth thinking of, it was really something
worth living and dying for, to free a great nation from such a blot,
such a plague. God strengthen them, and make them wise to achieve
their purpose!
I please myself, too, with remembering some ardent souls among the
American youth, who, I trust, will yet expand and help to give soul to
the huge, over-fed, too-hastily-grown-up body. May they be constant!
"Were man but constant, he were perfect." It is to the youth that Hope
addresses itself. But I dare not expect too much of them. I am not
very old; yet of those who, in life's morning, I saw touched by
the light of a high hope, many have seceded. Some have become
voluptuaries; some mere family men, who think it is quite life enough
to win bread for half a dozen people, and treat them decently; others
are lost through indolence and vacillation. Yet some remain constant.
"I have witnessed many a shipwreck, yet still beat noble hearts."
* * * * *
_Rome, January, 1848_.--As one becomes domesticated here, ancient and
modern Rome, at first so jumbled together, begin to separate.
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