One or two
duplicates I have kept. Tell Mr. Hawthorne that I shall make a dozen
people rich and happy by his autograph, and tell Dr. Holmes I could
not find it in my heart to part with the "Mary" stanza. Never was a
writer who possessed more perfectly the art of doing great things
greatly and small things gracefully. Love to Mr. Hawthorne and to
him.
Poor Daniel Webster! or rather poor America! Rich as she is, she
cannot afford the loss, the greatest the world has known since our
Sir Robert. But what a death-bed, and what a funeral! How noble an
end of that noble life! I feel it the more, hearing and reading so
much about the Duke's funeral, which by dint of the delay will not
cause the slightest real feeling, but will be attended just like
every show, and yet as a show will be gloomy and poor. How much
better to have laid him simply here at Strathfieldsaye, and left it
as a place of pilgrimage,--as Strathfield will be,--although between
the two men, in my mind, there was no comparison; the one was a
genius, the other mere soldier,--pure physical force measured with
intellect the richest and the proudest. I have twenty letters
speaking of him as one of the greatest among the statesmen of the
age.
Pages:
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493