Soon afterwards, at the time of this great
man's death, Whittier wrote to us: "Spring is here to-day, warm,
birdfull.... It seems strange that I am alive to welcome her when so
many have passed away with the winter, and among them that stalwartest
of Englishmen, John Bright, sleeping now in the daisied grounds of
Rochdale, never more to move the world with his surpassing eloquence.
How I regret that I have never seen him! We had much in common in our
religious faith, our hatred of war and oppression. His great genius
seemed to me to be always held firmly in hand by a sense of duty, and
by the practical common sense of a shrewd man of business. He fought
through life like an old knight-errant, but without enthusiasm. He had
no personal ideals. I remember once how he remonstrated with me for my
admiration for General Gordon. He looked upon that wonderful
personality as a wild fighter, a rash adventurer, doing evil that good
might come. He could not see him as I saw him, giving his life for
humanity, alone and unfriended, in that dreadful Soudan. He did not
like the idea of fighting Satan with Satan's weapons. Lord Salisbury
said truly that John Bright was the greatest orator England had
produced, and his eloquence was only called out by what he regarded as
the voice of God in his soul."
When at length Whittier rose to go that winter morning, with the
feeling that he had already taken too large a piece out of the day, we
pressed him to stay longer, since it was already late.
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