Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 41.djvu/23

 Rh shepherd transformed into the scepter of the sovereign. In Lexington Lee lifted a lowly work to the altitude of his own greatness, and in the lives of the sons of his soldiers strove to kindle the noble ideals that had illumined his own soul.

His hands did not disdain the needed toil that made an honest living, and the work to which he turned was not where wealth was quickest gleaned, but where good could best be done. With saddened heart he saw the ruin all around him and the bloated creatures who drank his people's life blood, yet too great to make an outcry he suffered on in silence, and he gave his fullest effort to build again waste places and labored like a miner in the darkest pit of duty. He could wait amid the shadows with a faith that dawn was coming, and he wrote on hearts around him noblest lessons for a life time. For him the path of service was the path of highest honor. He taught and showed the people that duty was the grandest word in the English language, and by his daily practice he lightened up the truth that human courage ought always to rise to the level of human calamity. We hail thee, thou best loved citizen of the South, who showed the world how the highest honors could be worn with humility and the lowliest services done with dignity.

Greater than any deed he wrought, higher than any office he filled, brighter than his stainless sword, was the pure white soul of Lee., If his personality enchanted strangers it was because of the majesty of his manhood. Every station was transparent, every honor crystal, and through them shone his noble character. There was nothing in his lineage that one would want to hide. An ancestry as full of honor and of service as it was ancient and distinguished made him noble at his birth, but it did not make him proud. With a grace that had no cunning he was at ease among the lowly, and he did not have to stoop. His very presence was an uplift, under his eye self-respect grew greater. The sight of his noble form filled his men with martial ardor, and drew little children to his side.

He exemplified the truth that has made the Anglo-Saxon great-manhood more than money and character outweighs talent. The confiscation by the nation of the property of his