Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1861-04-20
Cardinal Richelieu.

following extract, from lecture on
cardinal Richelieu," by G. B. Nc
Dodald:
Let us observe tire great Cardinal
when the doors of the Invisible arc set
aiar. The veriest coward may in life
deceive the world with show of un-
tried valor, but it requires substantial
courage to stand unquailing when the
mysteries of Eternity are about to be
unveiled. Having triumphcd over his
malignant enemies, brought conspira-
ton to the block or dungeon, and re-
duced the naughty Mobiles to insignifi-
canoe, Richelieu began to near the equal
Republic of the Dead, physically, a
weak old man, but in soul, still indom-
table, unfearing. Unlike Cardinal
Wolsey, he did not weep and cringe
and lose his manhood when about to
be deprived of his power; but he stood
like a strong, stubborn oak bending
before the assaulting storm, the while
gathering his vast energies for trc-
mcndous recoil. Neither did his check
blanch nor his tongue faltcr with fear
when the wall of the vicwless waves
came down the shores of Eternity; but
he died as he had lived, without fear
and without rcmorse. Feeling the chill
atmosphere of the grave gathering
about him, the dying statesman babe
his friends draw near, resi- gncd the Min
istry, pronounced q last benediction on
his beloved France, and like Il fearless
eagle, plumed for infinite heights, the
great soul mounted among the immor-
tai ones who stand like tall archangels
ranged along the parapcts of Fame.
1t is sublime spectacle to see brave
old man fcarlessly yield up his spirit to
his Maker. To the warrior on the
battle field, amid the clangor of silver
and steel, Death comes without his ter
rors; to the sinlcss child, breathing out
life on his mothers breast, he comes
like an angel of light to vale of shad-
ows; but to the aged and dying states
man, whose country has been his idol,
whose name has been deeply craven
on the solid masonry of the age, whose
Con has been JEHOVAH, whose shrine
has been the Cross, whose faith Immor-
tality, the grim sorccrcr comes in the
chariot of the translated prophet, to
bear the emancipatcd soul through ra-
liant avenues Of stars whose first light
has been falling toward the earth since
the birth of ages. The old tree, Leaf
less in the forest, wakes the loutest
echoes by its fall the old tower, reel
ing from its foundation, uproots the
clasping evergreen, and in its destruc-
ton proclaims the instability of all
earthly things, aud the old man who
for three score and ten years has bravcd
the battle and the breeze, whitc-locked
and tottcring in very WEAKNESS Of life,
but still strong and indomitable in soul,
proclaims in tho last, faltcring speech
of physical death that there is glori-
GUS immortality of the mind, measure
less in the arithmetic of Intinity and
bcwillcring to tho imagination of arch
angels who bchcld the projection of the
spheres and watched new created worlds
going to explore their eternal orbits.
Just posterity has awarded to Richie
lieu, the greatness too often denied the
hero and statesman by cnvious cotcm-
porarics. From the time of Charles
the Great, France had not II ruler so
illustrious. He extended her territory,
improved the Army, created her Fleet,
destroyed the oppressive tyranny OF the
Mobiles, and fixed tho language by
founding the French academy. lie
abased the King that the monarchy
might be illustrious. established a des-
potism that anarchy might cease, deci'
mated the nobility, that commerce,
learning and order might come to the
people, and Intrigued and imprisoned,
banisled and bchcadcd, lived, died and
was immortal for the glory and exalta-
ton of France. His sins were many
and dark, but they were only spots OH
wide disc of solar light; his fierce
passions, like the trade-winds, often
strewed the beach with wrecks, but
they also brought to the harbor stately
ships freighted with the rarcst treas
urics of Ind. In the cabinet he was
the Argus with an hundred eyes, IN
the field Briareus with an hundred
arms. In camp, in court, in cabinet,
he was the day-star of Frances national
glory, rising from the twilight of the
middle ages, n beacon for all after states
men, cleaning forever on the horizon,
like the eternal compass Of the Pole.
With all his transcendant mind, Rich
elicu was superstitious-it was that he
was too successful not to be supersti'
tious. He believed in the prophecies
of the stars. and translated from the