r an instant suggested a
likeness in him dying to my neighbor living. Others, craven-hearted,
said disparagingly, that "he threw his life away," because he resisted
the government. Which way have they thrown their lives, pray?--such as
would praise a man for attacking singly an ordinary band of thieves or
murderers. I hear another ask, Yankee-like, "What will he gain by it?"
as if he expected to fill his pockets by this enterprise. Such a one
has no idea of gain but in this worldly sense. If it does not lead to a
"surprise" party, if he does not get a new pair of boots, or a vote of
thanks, it must be a failure. "But he won't gain anything by it." Well,
no, I don't suppose he could get four-and-sixpence a day for being hung,
take the year round; but then he stands a chance to save a considerable
part of his soul,--and such a soul!--when you do not. No doubt you can
get more in your market for a quart of milk than for a quart of blood,
but that is not the market that heroes carry their blood to.

Such do not know that like the seed is the fruit, and that, in the moral
world, when good seed is planted, good fruit is inevitable, and does not
depend on our watering and cultivating; that when you plant, or bury, a
hero in his field, a crop of heroes is sure to spring up. This is a seed
of such force and vitality, that it does not ask our leave to germinate.

The momentary charge at Balaclava, in obedience to a blundering command,
proving what a perfect machine the soldier is, has, properly enough,
been celebrated by a poet laureate; but the steady, and for the most
part successful, charge of this man, for some years, against the legions
of Slavery, in obedience to an infinitely higher command, is as much
more memorable than that, as an intelligent and conscientious man is
superior to a machine. Do you think that that will go unsung?

"Served him right,"--"A dangerous man,"--"He is undoubtedly insane."
So they proceed to live their sane, and wise, and altogether admirable
lives, reading their Plutarch a little, but chiefly pausing at that feat
of Putnam, who was let down into a wolf's den; and in this wise they
nourish themselves for brave and patriotic deeds some time or other. The
Tract Society could afford to print that story of Putnam. You might open
the district schools with the reading of it, for there is nothing about
Slavery or the Church in it; unless it occurs to the reader that
some pastors are wolves in sheep's c