Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-10-29

| OF times proud temple. Is one upon WHICH
our whole country has looked. with "batcd
breath" and tear-dimmed eyes Then, afar
over the ocean waves ''saiied the Corsair.
| Death. "-and gathered in that dread night
! picture. there il the Armada of the Storm
king-the wrathful sky above and the black
| goal of death "a hundred fathOms down.
! But notwithstanding all their terrific grandeur
how comparatively small the need or atten-
ton given to those dread details. Columbla's
eagle eve is upon her noble son.-the brave
communicable gallant seaman and the
! humb' Christian, the immortal Herndon. III
1 Is as though that great picture contained but
one solitary human figure-one sole object OF
| interest whereon the soul may ceutre its In-
tensest gaze. We sec him as with that heroic
devotion To woman which was one of his first
characteristics he provides for their safety
! until every woman and child has left his
/ shattered vessrl-we see him don his uniform.
/ the garb in which he has 80 long served his
! country, and take his last stand at the wheel
/ house-we see him uncover to the King of
/ TerrOrs as the ship fetches her last lurch-
| with straning gaze we see him hail an APP
| preaching boat and order to keep of. and be
Sayed as he himself went down, to the last for
/ getful of self. and mindful of others-the
| soul of the warrior and the heart of woman!
| Beautiful, heroic, and self-sacrifcing are such
scenes. bu: there is another still more beau
| tifu and sublime-it is thus related.
"As one of the last boats was about to
| leave the ship. her commander gave his watch
TO passenger, with the request that it might
/ be delivered to his wife. He wished to charge
| him with message for her also, but his utter
| ance was choked. ''Tell her -" I'm
| able to proceed he bent down his head, and
buried his face in his hands for moment,
| if in prayer for he was devout man. and
| true Christian.
In that moment brief as it was, he endured
tha 10
| crowding thoughts no doubt. had been Of
| friends and hOme its desolation; beloved
| wife, and lovely daughter dependent alone
| for support upon him. God and his country
would care for them now. Honor and duty
| required him to stick to his ship, and he saw
| that she must go down.
| It'll her-" he began. but the thousand
waves of an OverhOwing heart. came rushing
over him, like ''high, fierce tides tramping in
| upon her low lee -shores'' and the last cry of
| his great soul was drowned amid the tumult.
Then, and there he had tasted of the bitter
ness of DEATH and il was past. As | look
upon him now, pause in actual awe before
the image in my mind. '7sHher -" said
he, but human language had no words to bo-
dy forth the love. the aspiration, the anguish,
of that great soul, in this its hour of terrible
trial. And so the strong man bowed his head
upon his hands. and bent like a reed before
the tempest. feeling only how. in such an
hour heart-thrObs scOrn the mOckery of words.
Undaunted by the storm undismaycd when
all hearts were failing. standing unblenching
in the very face of danger, ready TO take
death by the hand and disarm him of terrors |
he bowed down, unnamed and overwhelm- |
I'd by simple memory of her. And now |
what remains TO be said ? what could be said |
which in power aud in pathOS would not fall |
far. far below the simple reality of that bro |
KEN and forecer unfinished sentence, TEL her |
-P'
Tell her," ,cLat2 All! in vain we |
speculate. In vain we strive through binding |
tears to read his heart, and say for him what |
he could not say for himself And it is best |
it is. Let us leave il so, nor dare to des'
crate with our poor snrmiscs the broken col
umn which the master artist was unable to
complete. But do we say foreUer unfinished
Will he neuer "trll her?' Far away in some
sunny isle OF Balm" brighter and more
beautiful than the Amazonon forests through
which he once wandered. will not the Ian
guage of the immortal give him power to
utter all that which the Mortal had essayed |
in vain? Or in that b ,tter Land will there |
he '.fulIness of joy'' so complete that no
remembrance of n troubled past. or unfinished |
mission, shall ever dare intrude? Who of us
can tell?
Sud his wife, upon the first tidings of the |
shipwrcck. Il know he has persisted. for he |
others at the sacrifice of himself" A noble
trust, and right nobly redeemed. She knew
he could not be amOng the saved, and still be |
'himselc" And what must be her feelings |
now. as she gaZes upon that parting mementO, |
as she thinks of the last time he held in his |
hand, and the two solitary syllabes which |
constitute his diving words! To her now il is |
silent as the loved lips of him who sent it |
from the scene of death.--and justly so, for |
"a ts, L.,
ity began with his who was the life of herlife, |
and the soul of her soul? We leave her with |
her trrasures--a broken sentence, and silent |
krepsake,-the first sounding ever through |
her heart like the murmnr in the ocean-shell |
Cast npon a lonely shore,--whle che slender |
hands of the last having ceased TO mark the |
hours Of Time, are Tointing her away into |
the opening age of Eternity.
Aud have we vet no word to say for him /
The 'heart grows full to weeping" as we lin |
ger above his honored mcmory--but nations |
acclaim is his proudest eulogium, and woman's |
tears his most beitting epitaph. As NELSON |
fell, he exclaimed Thank God, have done
nv duty!''-as WEBSTER passed the dread gate
into the Valley of Shadows, he murmurcd
IL still live;'-as NAPOLEON gathered up lifes
failing forces to battle with the last enemy,
he shouted feeblv ''Tete d armee!'-but what
said the heroic lIERNDON of hiDaself?- Nothing
He neither encourages himself with the
know edge of duties well performed. but leaves
his deeds to speak for him nor sOlaces him
self with the idea that he will hereafter live
lin the hearts of his countrymen,N he leaves
that for them TO say; nor does he proudly as
sumo his province of command and go forth
TO meet Death as king meets king in battle,
hut he uncovers TO the conqueror acknowl-
edging in him the vicegercnt of God. aud
with brave heart and firm faith goes down
with him silently, but grandly, into the dark
abyss of ocean, and the darker abyss of an
unknown eternity
Silent, silent all And if we say TO the
great sea. and the wild winds, and the over
looking skies, "where is he now?'' they are
silent Perhaps like drifting seaweed cast
upon some distant strand, his bones bleach
under the fiery sun of The tropics;-perhaps
laid softly down by gently bearing waves,
where
g. coral reefs lie bare,
Aud the cold sea-gnaids sit TO sun their streaming
hair
perhaps carried away to regions where might
and Death have built thesr thrones" where
the icebcrgs laundering down the deep, the
Euroclvdon rolls out its stern triumphant
psalms aud beneath the shattered mast. AID
Wondering sail. sleep the old Vikings of the !
Northern Seal In our cemeteries "stone
spells to stone IL weary tale" but who dares
follow him TO the grave, who went down 10
death amid The battle OF the elements. whose |
funeral train was long lines of marching bill
lows and whose burial psalm was the volleyed
thunder. aud the sounding storm! We may
eater the splendid mausoleum. and read en-
craven on brass and marble the virtues of the |
dead, or we may sit down by some lowly |
grave whose only monument is n cluster Of
white lilies and the morning dew-drows the I
only epltaph but who shall venture down, |
even in thought To the dark unfithomed
5h..E D.
which bore up bravely against terror, and
danger, and death, but broke in the struggle
to utter one sentence In loving guiss--and so
left IL forever unsgid! The winds and waves |
will bring no answer To the questioning voice, |
swhere j. be now?' but We may lay our hands |