in
the terrific struggles for supremacy, for recognition, for mere fair
play itself. What must the conflict be then for those who, with slight
purses and few allies, find themselves pitted against the powerful of
the earth? Discouragement, in weak natures, soon turns to envy, and the
spectacle of human unkindness has driven many a reflective, delicate
soul to say that the companionship of his fellow-men is unlovely, not to
be admired, and difficult, at times, not to hate. In disgust of the
world--where one has been wounded, or where one has wounded
others--(wounded vanity and remorse are alike bitter in their fruits),
numbers, with a sort of despairing fatalism, retire from the campaign,
cut themselves adrift from their people and their country, and, having
failed in life, court death under strange skies in far-off lands.
Robert, who looked rather for the triumph of ideas than the glory of
individuals, was not easily dismayed. So long as the right was by some
means accomplished, and good seeds brought forth a good harvest,--the
burden and heat of the day, the changes of weather, the scantiness of
the wage, the ingratitude and treachery of agents, the hardships, the
toil--mattered little enough. Devoured by ambition in his early youth,
he had never permitted himself the least doubtful means of attaining any
object. He was not obliged, therefore, to affect an indifference to
success in order to divert attention from his methods of arriving at it.
No man, once bent upon a project, could be more resolute than Orange.
None were more stern in self-repression and self-discipline. But in
controlling, or subduing altogether, the softer possibilities in a
character, there is always the danger lest uncharitableness, hardness of
heart, or blind severity of judgment should take their place. Young
people with strong natures can seldom find the middle course between
extremes, and this one, in curbing a desire for power, will fairly crush
his whole vigour, while that one, in revolt against the tyranny of
love, will become the slave of pessimism. There were days, no doubt,
and weeks when Orange found every counsel, a mockery, and every law, a
paradox. The strife between the flesh and the spirit went on in his life
as it does in all lives, but he was one who held, that, whatever the
issue of it all might be, a man must be a man while he may--losing
himself neither in the whirl of passion nor in the enervating worlds of
reverie, but accept