The Gavelyte, November 1907

later years realize his childish desirfl '! Diel not .John Milton in his you th clream of writing an epic poem'! fiitting at miclnig-ht in his garret he saw the heavenly vision arise befort-1 him. 'l'his vivicl pidur in hii:; youth b - came the fix d ideal of his !if . l 11 rom his musings, his studies, and from the stormy years of his lif , h wrote that immortal poem in the h roie strains of '.Paradise Lost''. Dying, he still purnu <l his vision, and when his soul was ready to surg up to its heavenly abode the blind poet whispered, '\'till gui<les the heavenly vision". The Western Trade Winds had ca. t the drift wood along the shores of Spain. Columbus, Jl rambulating along the c;oa t vi wing the strange wood, espied a p liule aught in the creviee. But his imagination leapecl from the pebble to a Western Continent of which the stone wa. a part, and from the , tone to a fore, t where the wood gr v.. ,·rn1on of a new world haunted him, knowing no ·ontentment, until its c~iscovery crowned his i<leal. In every age the great by the sight of th invi, ible have been lifted out of a strenuous activity into the realms of tra,nquility. Outwarclly th re may rage the conflict, hut inwardly the . oul abide in peace. Any man may enter in hi· own veiled "Holy of Holies" around which is rear cl a fortress impregnable, guar<led by the Divin presence and h re he may be– hold the ideals of the greate:-;t achievements of life. Here Lincoln saw the yoke of bondage shattered. Her ,John Bunyan endured his prison, and John Brown his scatf Id. ocrates sitting in his prison talking with hi. friends of. death and immortality, and of the beauty he h, ,pes to fin<l be– yond, 1lrinks his cup of death. Luther conduct <l to the Diet chamber, 8UITotmded by an excited t·hrong, under that awful sp 11 calmly declares, "I cannot arid I will not recant, God help me" Here are m n whose - image should be cast in deathless hronze, an<l the statu s placed in every public square an<l hall in' the Janel. But are the pag s of hi. tory decorated with the ide8ils of men for the mere adornment? To~ But min<l quickeneth mind, and heart stirreth heart. Every new epoch in a mr1n's life begins with some new acquainL– ance. Wen.dell Phillips one afternoon while sitting in hfo office, musing over the contentment of being a succ: ssful barrister, was su<ldenly di. - tracted at seeing <;arrison mobbed and dragged through th streets of Host( n. A II that night Ph:llips lay tossing urion his couch, thinking of