mething to live for!

One writer says that Brown's peculiar monomania made him to be "dreaded
by the Missourians as a supernatural being." Sure enough, a hero in
the midst of us cowards is always so dreaded. He is just that thing. He
shows himself superior to nature. He has a spark of divinity in him.

"Unless above himself he can
Erect himself, how poor a thing is man!"

Newspaper editors argue also that it is a proof of his insanity that he
thought he was appointed to do this work which he did,--that he did not
suspect himself for a moment! They talk as if it were impossible that a
man could be "divinely appointed" in these days to do any work whatever;
as if vows and religion were out of date as connected with any man's
daily work; as if the agent to abolish slavery could only be somebody
appointed by the President, or by some political party. They talk as if
a man's death were a failure, and his continued life, be it of whatever
character, were a success.

When I reflect to what a cause this man devoted himself, and how
religiously, and then reflect to what cause his judges and all who
condemn him so angrily and fluently devote themselves, I see that they
are as far apart as the heavens and earth are asunder.

The amount of it is, our "leading men" are a harmless kind of folk, and
they know well enough that they were not divinely appointed, but elected
by the votes of their party.

Who is it whose safety requires that Captain Brown be hung? Is it
indispensable to any Northern man? Is there no resource but to cast
this man also to the Minotaur? If you do not wish it, say so distinctly.
While these things are being done, beauty stands veiled and music is a
screeching lie. Think of him,--of his rare qualities!--such a man as
it takes ages to make, and ages to understand; no mock hero, nor the
representative of any party. A man such as the sun may not rise upon
again in this benighted land. To whose making went the costliest
material, the finest adamant; sent to be the redeemer of those in
captivity; and the only use to which you can put him is to hang him
at the end of a rope! You who pretend to care for Christ crucified,
consider what you are about to do to him who offered himself to be the
savior of four millions of men.

Any man knows when he is justified, and all the wits in the world cannot
enlighten him on that point. The murderer always knows that he is justly
punished; but when a gov