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Show 110 W cndcll Phillips. 1 know t1 1e. e t bing~ seem Ycry trite ; they are vny lt·ite. All trllth is triLP. The diiTicul!y i~ not in truth. 'l'n1tlt never l'tirs up any tro11blc-mcre ~peculative truth . . Plato tau~htnobotly car d what he taught; Soc· rat •s nppl1ed truth 111 the r-;t rc ,1~, antl th ry poison ed him. It i" wh •n n. ma.n throws him::< •If' ~\ gainst . oci •ty that society is startled to pcr:·H'<·nto nnu to think. The I>uritan diu not stop to think. lie r crognized Go<l in hi ::; sonl, and acted. If he acted wrong, our gencmtion woul 1l loa<l down hi. grave with curses. Ile took the risk. lie took the cur. cs of the pre ·ent, but the bl essings of the future swept th m away , and God's unlight r . ts upon his grave. Thnt i:;; what every brave man docs. It is an easy thing to say. The old f~tblc i~ of Sysiphus rolling up a stone, and the mom nt l1e g ts it up to the mountain top, it rolls baelc ng;ain. Ro each generation, with mu ·h troubl<·, and '- great energy and disint rrstcdncss, vindi cateR for a f'ew of its sons the right to think; and the moment they hnxc vindir:ttcd the right, the stone rolls back again - nobouy chic must think! The battle mu:;t be fo11ght •very day, bccau:Se the body rebels n gai:~:t the soul. It is the immrreclion of th' . oul against the body - fr<'C thought. Th go<l · piled lEtnn. upon the in -urgent Titans. It is the emblem of the world piling mountains -banks, gohl, cotton, parties, Ev reUs, Cu -hing:=-, C!ow·ierscvery thing dull and hravy - to kc 'P down thnught. And ever again, in each generation, the living soul, like the bur. ting bnrl, throw up the incumb nt soil, and finds it - way to the sun hinc and to God; and i ' the oak of the future, leafing out, spreading its brancheR, and , hcltering the race and time that is to come. I hold in my hand the likcncR · of a child of s vent een summers, taken from the hoLly of a boy, her hu band, who lies buric(l on the banks of the Shenandoah. lie flung himself against a State for an idea; the child of a father who lived for an idea ; who said, " I know that Slavery is wrong ; thou shalt do unto another as thou wouldst have another do to Wend ll Phillips. 1 1 l thre " - nnd flun .~ hirn sdf' ngninst the Inw El!Hl ord1•1• of his t ime. Nob01ly t all di spnte llis pri n(' iple;;. Thne nre men who di ;-; JHlte hi :-; :td ~. lt i:; cxa<"t ly what It · nw:111 t th <·y ~ ~~ollld do. It is the co llis ion of' a<lmi tt<'d prin<" iplPs with <'onduct whi<'h is the teaching of' ethics ; it i.; the Normal Rchool of a g<'IH'ration. Puritani ~ m went up aucl down England ancl f'ulfillc• d it :; mi;-;:;ion. It ren •:tl<·d ck~ po ti~m. Charles the First and .};tm ' f', in ord ' 1' to rulr·, we re oblig<'d to JH'f:·we11 tc. Under the gt1ise of what ~'<'e m vcl g<H'<' I'nllH'Ilt, th ry had bidden ty ranny. Patrioti =-m tore ofi' the mask, and said to til <' r nligltt< •JI (•d ('OII ;;;<'i ' IH'C HlHl slc·<' ping intellc·ct of' E ngland, " Behold! that i, d<'!-l j>oti:-\m !" 1L was til • fir~ t lesson; it was the text of' tlH~ Eu gli ~ h lk volution. l\I eu still slumiH·n•cl in . ubmi: sion to law .. They tore o(J' the s •JnblruH· • of' law; th y rcvc:dc·<l dt':-\})()t I=-' Ill. ,John Bro w11 Ita :-; don <' 1 h • s:mw J(n· us t o-d~1y. The Slav • 1-iY)'i ll'lll has lost its f:u-wination. It had a Ct' rtain picturesque eharm f(H· RO lli<' . It c·all<•d its<' If' "chiv-alr v," and " a st.·tt<·." () lt 1 1 I I J n' as;-;n11 1as >ro ~ ( · Jl I H' <'harm - it is D •spotism ! L ook how harba rou. it is ! Tak(• a Rinrrlo . . c wstanc . A young g1rl tl1ro''" hr rself' upon the bosom of' a Northern boy, who himself' had shown m{' rry, aud endl'avors to save him from tl1c r /ir/st/rrn rilles of' Virginia. Th<•y tore il<'r off, alt(l the pi tile-~~ bullet found itR way to the bnwe young heart. She s tand!-~ upon tl1 • streets of' that V<'ry tow11, and dare 11ot avow the moti vc-glorious, hurnnne 1n: t inet - that led 11Cr to throw h •rselC on thn lJo;-;om of' th <' Jwplcss lwy! She bows to the dt.~. poti sm or a brutal Stat(', and mnk c~ ex 'U RCS for her humnnity ! That i. th e Christian Virginia of' 18.'59. In l G08, an Indinn g irl flung hr rs If b ·fore her n,th r r ':-; tomaktwk on t11e bo.-om of an Engli,'h gentleman, and thr Indian r efrain d from to11ching tlJC trnvell r whom his daucrht >r 's (") a~'cct.io~ ~rotectcd. J>ocnhontns lives to-clny, th id eal beauty of Vu·g tntn, nnd her proudest names strive to trace their lincage to the br:tve Jncli~m girl. TbaL was Pagan Virginia, two centuries and a half ago. What has dragged her down |