ded against itself cannot stand.
And just because Christ is taken as divine, every word and act of his is
lived up to by some madman as justification for acts like those of
Brown."

In the meantime Abigail had found among her papers the words of Victor
Hugo: "He is not a New Englander," she said, "nor an American idealist.
And he says--I'll translate it for you: 'In killing Brown the Southern
States have committed a crime which will take its place among the
calamities of history. The rupture of the Union will fatally follow the
assassination of Brown. As to Brown, he was an apostle and a hero. The
gibbet has only increased his glory and made him a martyr.'"

Well, was not Douglas a martyr too? Who had done more for his country?
Was Lincoln any more radical than Douglas? Lincoln was defeated to be
sure, but Douglas was penalized for what he had said in these debates.
No sooner had he returned to Washington than he found himself deposed
from the committee on territories. He was beginning to be a man without
a party. He was paying for his ideas.

A book called _Helpers, the Impending Crisis of the South_ had at this
time woven itself into the clouds of the gathering storm. It had
influenced the election of a Speaker in Congress, for although Lincoln
was defeated in Illinois, the Republicans had 25 Senators to 38
Democrats; and the House had 109 Republicans to 128 Democrats. A crisis
was indeed impending, with Douglas, the greatest man in the country,
dishonored and disarmed by the Southern States. What was growing up, and
from what source, which should be the master of the destiny of the
country? What was giving it strength but some form of materialism? The
phrase "the struggle for existence" crept into our conversation, for
Darwin's _The Origin of Species_ had made its appearance this year. We
discussed its principles as far as we could make them out from the
reports of the book. Every one knew that strength survives. But what is
strength? Did the North have strength, or the South? Did moral ideas
have strength, or did war? All the while, where did God come in? Abigail
said: "He comes in in this very struggle, defeat and devouring. For all
the while there is triumph in the realm of the mind, and mind is God. My
friend, you can think of Douglas and slavery and politics, and impending
war; I know of something that overtops them all and can handle all of
them as playthings. That is chemistry."

"Where do you get all thes