338 HENRY HILL GOODELL 



ways be felt the same as though he were of my blood. To 

 the Regiment, his loss was a great blow. As a Mason, he 

 tried to live up to the principles of the Fraternity, and was 

 held in high esteem by all with whom he came in contact. 

 In writing as I have, the desire has been to impress you with 

 the fact that Captain Dickinson was one of a few officers 

 who, with no lack of manly or social qualifications, spent 

 very few hours otherwise than in doing his whole duty and 

 trying not only to improve himself, but also his fellow com- 

 rades. I know he loved to help the college boys." 



Precious testimony from one so soon, alas, to follow 

 him! Death loves a shining mark, and our hearts go out 

 in sympathy to the officers of the Seventeenth, thrice so 

 severely smitten. 



In our blundering short-sightedness we call this death a 

 needless sacrifice. A sacrifice of what? Can anything good 

 ever perish? It lives forever with a vitality and persistence 

 no power can check, and with an influence widening as the 

 years roll on. "Baseness is dissolution, nobility is resur- 

 rection." The seed must rot, to grow; every dying body is 

 such a seed. Can anything then be a needless sacrifice in 

 the great providences of God? 



There are no errors in the great eternal plan, 



And all things work together for the final good of man. 



What is man that he should try to solve the purposes 

 of the Infinite! His ways are not as our ways, and what 

 now seems wrapped in darkness and impenetrable mystery, 

 shines in the after-light of a more perfect knowledge with 

 a glory unsurpassed and with a meaning none foresaw. The 

 Roman sentinel found standing on guard in the place as- 



