nant party and an astounded country, proudly said: "I have been
wrong. I now ask Parliament to repeal the law for which I myself have
stood. Where there was discontent, I see contentment; where there was
turbulence, I see peace, where there was disloyalty, I see loyalty."
Then the fury of party anger burst upon him, and bowing to the storm,
Robert Peel went forth while men hissed after him such words as
"traitor," "coward," "recreant leader." Nor did he foresee that in
losing an office he had gained the love of a country.

What delays also in justice! What recognition does society withhold
from its heroes! What praise speaks above the pulseless corpse that is
denied the living, hungering heart! What gold coin spent for the
marble wreath by those who have no copper for laurel for the living
hero! How do rewards that dazzle in prospect, in possession, burst
like gaudy bubbles! Honors are evanescent; reputation is a vapor;
property takes wings; possessions counted firm as adamant dissolve like
painted clouds; in the hour of depression the hand drops its tool, the
heart its task. In such dark hours and moods, strong men reflect that
he who sows the good seed of liberty or culture or character must have
long patience until the harvest; that as things go up in value they ask
for longer time; that he is the true hero who redeems himself out of
present defeat by the foresight of far-off and future victory; that
that man has a patent of nobility from God himself who can lay out his
life upon the principle that a thousand years are as one day. The
truly great man takes long steps by God's side, has the courage of the
future; working, he can also wait.

For man, fulfilling such a career, no principle hath greater practical
value than this one; as things rise in the scale of value the interval
between seedtime and harvest must lengthen. Happily for us, God hath
capitalized this principle in nature and life. Each gardener knows
that what ripens quickest is of least worth. The mushroom needs only a
night; the moss asks a week for covering the fallen tree; the humble
vegetable asks several weeks and the strawberry a few months; but,
planting his apple tree, the gardener must wait a few years for his
ripened russet, and the woodsman many years for the full-grown oak or
elm. If in thought we go back to the dawn of creation--to that moment
when sun and planet succeeded to clouds of fire, when a red-hot earth,
cooling, put