, she thought of the marsh
and the will-o'-the-wisp. She could not but be loyal to the old, trodden
ways. She had married Lewis Rand, not his party or its principles. But
to-night, as she listened, the light seemed to grow until it was dawn in
the forest, and the air to blow so cold, strong, and pure that she
thought of mountain peaks and of the ocean which she had never seen.
She was no longer afraid of the country in which she found herself.

Rand, standing in the red torchlight above the attentive crowd, preached
a high doctrine, preached it austerely, boldly, and well. He did not
speak to-night of the hundred party words, the flaunting banners,
systems, expedients, and policies fit for this turn of the spiral, born
to be disavowed, discarded, and thrown down by a higher, freer whorl;
but he gave his voice for the larger Republicanism, for the undying
battle-cry, and the ever-streaming battle-flag. He had no less a text
than the Liberty and Happiness of the human race, and he made no
straying from the subject.

Freedom! Happiness! What is freedom? What is happiness? Freedom is the
maximum of self-government finally becoming automatic, and the minimum
of government from without finally reduced to the vanishing-point.
Happiness is the ultimate bourne, the Olympian goal, the intense and
burning star towards which we travel. Does not its light even now fall
upon us? even now we are palely happy. And how shall we know the road?
and what if, in the night-time, we turn irremediably aside? How are they
to be attained, true Liberty and true Happiness? Learn! Light the lamp,
and the shadows will flee.--Self-government. Teach thyself temperance,
foresight, and wise memory of the past. Thou thyself, in thine own body,
art a community. See, then, that thy communal life is clean, that thy
will is in right operation, and thy minds divide thee not to disaster.
Thy very ego, is it not but thy president, the voice of all thy members,
representative of all that thy race has made thee to be, effect of ten
million causes, and cause of effects thou canst not see? Let thy ego
strengthen itself, deal justly, rule wisely, that thy state fall not
behind in this world-progress and be lost out of time and out of mind,
in a night without a dawn. There have been such things: over against
immortal gain there lies immortal loss. Work, then, while it is day, for
if thou work not, the night will make no tarrying. Know thyself, and,
knowing, rule tha