(10)
The patriot who lays down his life for his cause, may thereby
hasten its triumph; and those who seem to throw their lives away
in the van of a great movement, often open a way for those who
follow them, and pass over their dead bodies to victory. The
triumph of a just cause may come late; but when it does come, it
is due as much to those who failed in their first efforts, as to
those who succeeded in their last.
The example of a great death may be an inspiration to others, as
well as the example of a good life. A great act does not perish
with the life of him who performs it, but lives and grows up into
like acts in those who survive the doer thereof and cherish his
memory. Of some great men, it might almost be said that they have
not begun to live until they have died.
The names of the men who have suffered in the cause of religion,
of science, and of truth, are the men of all others whose memories
are held in the greatest esteem and reverence by mankind. They
perished, but their truth survived. They seemed to fail, and yet
they eventually succeeded. (11) Prisons may have held them, but
their thoughts were not to be confined by prison-walls. They have
burst through, and defied the power of their persecutors. It was
Lovelace, a prisoner, who wrote:
"Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for a hermitage.
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