The Gavelyte, November 1908
1-l<i THE (;AVELY'fE, Whirh olrl Dt>kalb and ~umter drank? Burning li11(•s from a burning soul" Whittier was no trifler with life. In everything hi<i earnPstnPss wmi intPnse. His grPat loving old heart throbbed with kindness that reaches away anrl aw;:iy till i~ E:>nters the cotton fields and the cornbrakes of the cruel south. , His moral sense analyzed instantly the hellish iniquity of a Gorlless institution He :nw opulen,::e and luxury maintained by a traffic in human flesh and bloorl . He saw the maicien borne aw:-iy to a slavery worse than death. He heard the crack of the slave whip and he felt its stunning blows, be saw families torn asunder never to he reunited and he felt the mother's anguish where siie pres:;ed her c.hild to her b•)som for the last time. His Puritan conclcience fully awakened he saw what others did not see, the impending wrath of a just and awful (;od and like Jeremiah his terriblP denunciations poured forth only to be checked when rising in· its majesty a nation put upon the system of slave~y the seal of doom. His service in the Anti-slavery cause was· second only to that of the Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The geniuE that lifts up the fallen, that stretches out a hand · to the unfortunate. Oh! the Christlike genius of Whittier; but sublime as are his ''Songs of Freedom" his service to humanity does not end here. The great needs of humanity were his constant study, filling that need his own aim in life. His lines \yent straight to the heart of humanity. A Jove, a veneration i given to Whittier which is accorded no other American poet. Longfellow you may admire but do you reverence him as you do Whittier; Bryant, beautiful, chastl:', almost the soul of poetry, but does his smooth dreary elegance touch the chords which Whittier's practical sublimity touches? Lowe.II, Holmes each f:1-trong in many points but in holy courage, in strength of µurpose, head ·and shoulders above them all like 8au I among the Prophets stands the form of Whittier. Perhaps it is to soon to fix definitely the value of Whitt.ier. In the cold clear night of history his service may be Jes::; highly valued But we know that to his genen1tion he was an irspiration. A blessing sent from nod and there !Pt the grPat ~ilrnce fall.
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