Our Heroic Themes'

(READ BEFORE THE PHI BETA KAPPA SOCIETY OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY)

BY GEORGE HENRY BOKER.

Crown we our heroes with a holier wreath
Than man e'er wore upon this side of death;
Mix with their laurels deathless asphodels,
And chime their pæans from the sacred bells!
Nor in your prayers forget the martyred Chief,
Fallen for the gospel of your own belief,
Who, ere he mounted to the people's throne,
Asked for your prayers, and joined in them his own.

I knew the man. I see him, as he stands

With gifts of mercy in his outstretched hands;
A kindly light within his gentle eyes,
Sad as the toil in which his heart grew wise;
His lips half-parted with the constant smile
That kindled truth, but foiled the deepest guile;
His head bent forward, and his willing ear
Divinely patient right and wrong to hear:
Great in his goodness, humble in his state,
Firm in his purpose, yet not passionate,

1 By special permission of J. B. Lippincott Co.
liii

He led his people with a tender hand, And won by love a sway beyond command, Summoned by love to mitigate a time

Frenzied with rage, unscrupulous with crime,
He bore his mission with so meek a heart
That Heaven itself took up his people's part;
And when he faltered, helped him ere he fell,
Eking his efforts out by miracle.

No king this man, by grace of God's intent;
No, something better, freeman, - President!
A nature, modeled on a higher plan,
Lord of himself, an inborn gentleman!

Wood-engraving from a photograph taken in Springfield.

LINCOLN, GENERAL MCCLERNAND AND ALLEN

PINKERTON AT ANTIETAM

From a rare photograph in the Oldroyd Lincoln Memorial
Collection.

46

ATTACK ON FREDERICKSBURG

92

From a rare engraving after the painting by Chappel.

GATEWAY TO GETTYSBURG CEMETERY

From an original photograph taken in 1865.

GETTYSBURG ADDRESS-THIRD VERSION.