ain passages
in it will always be in my mind associated with the deep sound of the
lake, as heard in the night. I used to read a short time at night, and
then open the blind to look out. The moon would be full upon the lake,
and the calm breath, pure light, and the deep voice harmonized well
with the thought of the Flemish hero. When will this country have such
a man? It is what she needs; no thin Idealist, no coarse Realist, but
a man whose eye reads the heavens, while his feet step firmly on the
ground, and his hands are strong and dexterous for the use of human
implements. A man religious, virtuous, and--sagacious; a man of
universal sympathies, but self-possessed; a man who knows the region
of emotion, though he is not its slave; a man to whom this world is
no mere spectacle, or fleeting shadow, not a great, solemn game, to be
played with, good heed, for its stakes are of eternal value, yet who,
if his own play be true, heeds not what he loses by the falsehood of
others;--a man who hives from the past, yet knows that its honey can
but moderately avail him; whose comprehensive eye scans the present,
neither infatuated by its golden lures, nor chilled by its many
ventures; who possesses prescience, as the wise man must, but not
so far as to be driven mad to-day by the gift which discerns
to-morrow;--when there is such a man for America, the thought which
urges her on will be expressed.

* * * * *

Now that I am about to leave Illinois, feelings of regret and
admiration come over me, as in parting with a friend whom, we have
not had the good sense to prize and study, while hours of association,
never perhaps to return, were granted. I have fixed my attention
almost exclusively on the picturesque beauty of this region; it was
so new, so inspiring. But I ought to have been more interested in the
housekeeping of this magnificent State, in the education she is giving
her children, in their prospects.

Illinois is, at present, a by-word of reproach among the nations,
for the careless, prodigal course by which, in early youth, she has
endangered her honor. But you cannot look about you there, without
seeing that there are resources abundant to retrieve, and soon to
retrieve, far greater errors, if they are only directed with wisdom.

Would that the simple maxim, that honesty is the best policy, might be
laid to heart; that a sense of the true aim of life might elevate
the tone of politics