in
declining office as others did in winning it. The offices he did accept
were thrust upon him. He was born great and above office and unwillingly
descended to it.' Whittier is very conservative in his choice of heroes.
Those whom he commemorates in verse are not only great men, but good
ones. And Silas Wright is among them. 'Man of the millions,' he says, in
the lines that he penned on hearing of Mr. Wright's death:

Man of the millions, thou art lost too soon!
Portents at which the bravest stand aghast--
The birththroes of a Future, strange and vast,
Alarm the land; yet thou, so wise, and strong,
Suddenly summoned to the burial bed,
Lapped in its slumbers deep and ever long,
Hear'st not the tumult surging overhead.
Who now shall rally Freedom's scattered host?
Who wear the mantle of the leader lost?

The splendid personality of Silas Wright has been best revealed to us in
Irving Bacheller's _The Light in the Clearing_. The book is partly
history and partly commentary and partly fiction. Silas Wright, says
Irving Bacheller, carried the candle of the Lord; and all the world
rejoiced in its radiance.

II

Barton Baynes, the hero of the book--for whose actuality and historicity
the author vouches--is an orphan brought up on a farm by his Uncle
Peabody and Aunt Deel. Getting into all sorts of scrapes, he makes up
his mind that he is too heavy a burden on the affectionate and
good-natured couple; and one night he runs away. Out in the darkness,
however, he meets with strange adventures, loses his way, and at length
finds himself in the hands of Silas Wright, the Comptroller. The Senator
first falls in love with the bright-faced, open-hearted, intelligent
boy, and then takes him back to his uncle's farm. From that moment the
friendship between the two--the great man and the obscure country
boy--grows apace. After a while the Senator visits the district to
deliver an address, and he spends the night at the farmhouse. It is a
great occasion for Bart; and after supper an incident occurs that colors
all his life and strikes the keynote of the book. As Barton approaches
Mr. Wright to say Good-night, the Senator says:

'I shall be gone when you are up in the morning. It may be a long time
before I see you; I shall leave something for you in a sealed envelope
with your name on it. You are not to open the envelope until you go away
to school. I know how you will feel that first day. When night falls,
yo