The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1857-10-03
ROBERT HALL.
As DESCRIBED BY BULwER.

For the due understanding OF the follow.
ing passage, it may be needful to explain
that the elder Caxton, after vainly endeav.
oring to console his brother Roland, and
his son, in their great grief, puts the biog-
raphy of Robert Hull into their hands. /,
is the younger Caxton who describes the
scene: a..a.... ...
Said my father, gravely, swhen some one
sorrow, that is yet reparable, gets hold Of
your mind like a monomania; when you think
because Heaven has denied you this or tina,
on which your heart has been set, that all
your life must be blank, oh, then diet
yourself well on the biography Of great and
good men. Roland, you said you would try
my prescription, here it is;;' and my father
took up book and reached it to the cap
tain.
My uncle looked over it. Life of the
Rev. Robert Hall. Brother, he was Dis
senter, and, thank Heaven, am Church
and State man, back and bone.'
'Robert Hall was brave man, and true
soldier under the Great Commander said
my farther, artfully. The Captain me-
chanieally carried his forefnger in military
fashion, to his forehead, and saluted the
book respectfully.
q have another copy for you, Pisistratus,
that is mine, which l have lent Roland
This, which have bought for you to-day
you will keep
'Thank you, sir,' said l, listlessly, not
seeing what good the Life Of Robert Hall
could do me, or why the same medicine
should suit the old weather-beaten uncle
and the nephew yet in his teens.
kI f. Al
er, bowling his broad forehead slightly, 'of
the book Of books, for that is the lignumvi-
ta, the cardinal medicine for all.'
confess it was with some reluctance that
| obeyed. l went back to my own room and
sat resolutcly down to my task. Are there
any of you, my kind readers, who have no,
read the life Of Robert Hall? 1t is the life
of man that it does good to manhood it.
self to contemplate.
had finished the biography, which is
not long, and was musing over it, when
heard the captains cork leg upon the stairs;
Iopened the door for him, and he entered
book in hand, as l, also book in hand, ready
to receive him.
well, sir,' said Roland, seating himself
'has the prescription done you any good:'
Yes, uncle, great --
sAnd me too; that same Hall was fin.
fellow! Tell me how it affected you.'
'Imprimis, then, my dear uncle, fancy
that book like this must do good to al
who live in the world in the ordinary man.
ner, by admitting us into circle of life Of
which suspect we think but little. Here il
q man connecting himself directly with I
heavenly purpose, and cultivating consider
able faculties to that end; seeking to accom-
plish his soul as far as he can, that he ma,
do most good on earth, and take higher
existence up to heaven. A man intent upor
a sublime and spiritual duty-in short, liv'
ing, as it were, in it, and so filed with con
seriousness Of Immortality, and so strong il
the link between God and man, that withou
any affected stoicism, without being insensi
BILE to pain rather, perhaps, from nervous
temperament, acutely feeling it, he yet ha
u happiness very independent Of it. 1t i
impossible not to be thrilled with an admi
ration that eleyates and also at the sam
time, awes you in reading that solemn dedi
cation to the Lord.
This Offering of soul and body, time
health, reputation and talents to the di
vine and invisible Principle of Good, call
us suddenly to contemplate the selfishness o
our own views and hopes, and awakens u
from the egotism that exacts all and resign
nothing.
'But this book has mostly struck upol
the chord in my own heart, in that charac
teristic which my father indicated as belong
ing to all biography. Here is life of re
markable fullness, great study, grea
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