The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-08-09
oARPHLD--RHMAN--suAKRs-
 PBARE.
II. H. Keaaedy. in Literary life.


 If e Mir. Beecher says in one of those almost forgotten star-papts of ISs4. each book in the library of a poor man has secret hissosy of ways and means" and becomes a personal and specific treasure thereby, how much of new value is gained when there has been added some special mark, of such nature as wealth could not buy nor affection consent to sell There lies on the table before me as write volume of small original cost, of unpretentious binding, and to which the printer has added no grace of finish nor of illustration. Yet call it valuable and prize it much, be- cause it vas once taken from my hands by one who now lies in our pantheon of great men in an embalmment of love and honor, and was made the text of certain grave and earnest thoughts that lodged themselves in memory and have never been shaken there6om.
 Garfield had reached the close of that memorable campaign of 1880, and was the chosen president of the nation. He vas on his way to Washington for the first time since the people had recorded their verdict, and for several hours had been engaged with those who had ques- tions and cares of state to discuss with him, and to have decided there and then. were such decisions possible. Wearied with these, he turned toward . group at the other end of the car, and on sitting down took from my hands this small brown volume which had been better company for the hour past than a trio of ev s.s< in themselves, with a minor second in- terest in the country.
 Renan's Aposties," said he. "A work of decided interest in any case. A fine writer. His Life of Christ is a bright book, and read it with close attention. Yet 1t does not convince. shall always remember comment made upon it by Senator Mat Carpenter T read that book. sad he, sure from the first to the last that there was a fallacy within it somewhere, which was unable to make out. So l read it again, and still knew that the logical weakness vas there. The result was that l arose from the second reading fully convinced that Christ vas divine l suppose" con- tinued Garfield earnestly, "that seasons of religious doubt come to every man. But have noticed this in my own in- teznal experience, that the older grow the les do ] care about dogmas and theories, and the more do care for the beauty and force that are a part of the life of Christ. There is no possible means by which any man or any number of men could have created in 6ction a character like his. It is the very highest type of manhood, and the high ideal which any man feels he has . night to initiate, even though he knows he cannot reach it
 The conversation that followed ran through many channels of religion and literature, and in every word Garfield showed that he had welded the brain of scholar to the heart of . man. He fell into discussion oi Shakespeare, that proved the care and love with which he had studied the foremost poet of man. kind" and in illustration of q point said :: Look now at Julius Cesar. It was written sixty years before Hervey dis covered the circulation of the bleod, and yet Shakespeare knew it before him. Hear what Brutus says to Portia in the second act, where he is chiding her for being so distressed that she cannot sleep:
 You are my true and honorable wife,
 AS dear to me as are the ruddy drops
 That visit my sad heaTt!'
 :" In this same Julius Cesar, we have as hne picture of Roman life, with an outward and perfect expression of its in- ner meaning, as has ev.r been drawn. Here was . man who had never seen Rome, and who h the technical sense of the word was not an educated man. Yet he read Hutarch, and possibly othsss oi the old writers, and the result is this masterpiece of Roman thought, and Ro- man mode of expression.