PROLEGOMENON. 83 



Alleghany Mountain was to become a Golgotha or place oi 

 skulls, to be wandered sadly through, instead of " a pleasant 

 walk across the fields of barley;" why, the torments of 

 death were given as a reward for pursuing benevolent 

 aspirations ; why gall and wormwood were added in such 

 profusion, and "mene tekel" was written over so much 

 of human nature that appeared divine, so much that 

 SEEMED AMBROSIAL AND ETERNAL; and why, with the threat- 

 ened down-rushing of material interests, the spiritual 

 should fail, and friendship, love, even common sym- 

 pathy, should totter and pale, should fade away and 

 perish, and despair would come to be the only comforter, 

 must ever remain somewhat inexplicable to the purblind 

 sinner charitably supposed to be still in the gall of bitter- 

 ness and the bonds of iniquity. 



Have any of your friends, when you intimated the need 

 of a favor, turned a cold shoulder to you and said, "No; it 

 serves you right : you ought never to have tasted whisky" 

 perhaps emphasizing some other peccadillo having exist- 

 ence only in their imaginations, -justifying their brutal 

 heartlessness by an agile dodge, the reference to your 

 supposed infirmities being made with an evident chuckle 

 of self-gratulation ? These, you will find, are of the orna- 

 mental form of the genus amicus or friend; elegant fellows 

 for sunshiny days, harvest-homes, and good times : they 

 grow on every bough. The tough old human blood-and-soul 

 form, sound through weal and woe, through good and bad 

 report, to the bitter end loving and blessing, is not so 

 abundant, but still extant, a rare bird, alas ! but on 

 hand occasionally for the " tug and the tussle," thanks to 

 the great God of the gods. "Is it in mere death that men 

 die most?" Does it not come as bitterest mockery that 

 " The beautiful seems right 



By force of beauty ; and the feeble wrong 



By cause of weakness," 



and that 

 " Power is justified, 



Though arm'd against St. Michael" ? 

 3 



