" It
was a fine saying of the same good priest, when reproached with
doing an act of kindness to a poor man, considered beneath the
dignity of his office,--that the thought of such actions "would
prove music to him at midnight." (6) Izaak Walton speaks of a
letter written by George Herbert to Bishop Andrewes, about a holy
life, which the latter "put into his bosom," and after showing it
to his scholars, "did always return it to the place where he first
lodged it, and continued it so, near his heart, till the last day
of his life."
Great is the power of goodness to charm and to command. The man
inspired by it is the true king of men, drawing all hearts after
him. When General Nicholson lay wounded on his deathbed before
Delhi, he dictated this last message to his equally noble and
gallant friend, Sir Herbert Edwardes:- "Tell him," said he, "I
should have been a better man if I had continued to live with him,
and our heavy public duties had not prevented my seeing more of
him privately. I was always the better for a residence with him
and his wife, however short. Give my love to them both!"
There are men in whose presence we feel as if we breathed a
spiritual ozone, refreshing and invigorating, like inhaling
mountain air, or enjoying a bath of sunshine. The power of Sir
Thomas More's gentle nature was so great that it subdued the bad
at the same time that it inspired the good.
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