36 PROLEGOMENON. 



which the mystery of creation lies concealed, have been 

 beautifully consummated ? 



In this protracted struggle to achieve a great and bene- 

 ficent end has there been no support of the wise and 

 generous, have there been no receivers of the truths of 

 righteousness, sound men and good, spirits of faith and 

 friendship, hearts of confidence and trust? To say so 

 would be to ignore the majesty of man, the brightest and 

 purest experiences of existence in genuine friendship and 

 sympathy, and to perpetrate a libel upon the wisdom and 

 goodness of the Infinite unpardonable forever. 



And here justice demands that a few statements shall 

 be made, " contrary to all experience, and yet true," but so 

 entirely incredible that some explanation might seem to 

 be required, as all transcendental affirmations at first hear- 

 ing are insane. Unutterably astonishing, then, and pass- 

 ing all understanding, as it may appear, especially to small 

 politicians of the "genus croaker," even a Corporation with 

 a soul has been found, a colossal sea-serpent with human 

 blood in its veins and a human heart beating beneath its 

 scaly ribs. And, what may be equally nay, still more 

 astounding, in the representative man, the very " figure- 

 head" of this "monster monopoly," (favorite phrase in 

 political bugbear-twaddle,) instead of the poison-fangs of 

 the copper-head, the claws of the tiger, or the hide of the 

 rhinoceros, there have been found firm and gentle man- 

 hood, wisdom and rectitude, honor and friendship, philan- 

 thropy, and world-wide, generous, humanitary sympathies. 

 All of which would fix emphatically a new and significant 

 sign of the times, an augury auspicious, carrying hope and 

 inspiration to the humble and humane workers in the 

 vineyard of the Lord, with the assurance that the dollar is 

 not yet entirely under the influence of the devil. This cor- 

 poration, which has been howled against by hungry and 

 disappointed politicians as an immeasurable sponge, into 

 whose interstices the commonwealth was to be suddenly 

 absorbed, but the existence of which the historian and 



