Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/506

 490 BENJAMIN T. GUSHING. [1850-GO. rupted the regular practice of his profession. He devoted several seasons to their removal, returning, after brief intervals of medical treatment, to his literary and legal studies. The former began more fully to interest his attention, and challenge his energies. Though many qualities of his mind conspired to make him more uniformly a good prose writer, the field wherein his hopes were garnered was that of verse. Here, however, the rapidity of his education had left his discipline imperfect, and he felt that he wrote too copiously for that perfection of style which he made his aim. Thus, when emotion was wanting, his hurried verses became artistic only, or merely common-place. But when the heart was touched, he wrote with taste and power. In the midst of self-examination and discipline, the cherished idea of his sacred poem gained new favor, and he regretted more and more that he had not selected the sacred ministry as his profession — that thus he might have been brought more intimately near the subject of his epic. During the fall of 1849, Mr. Cushing's bronchial difl&culties returned, and in the January following, he visited Wilmington, North Carolina, to seek, in a change of climate, their relief. Hitherto, he had been cheerful under all trials, but the im- pression that he must die young, at length broke with crushing weight upon his spirits, and for a few days he failed rapidly. The " Lay of the Improvisatrice," a poem of rare excellence, pathos and beauty, then written, tells plainly the feeling that op- pressed him. " The Christiad " — the title which he had given his sacred poem — now engrossed his attention. Shapes and scenes startled into being by the influence of Milton, Dante, Homer, and Swedenborg, and to which he had given whole nights of earnest contemplation — imagery and sentiment, gathered from observation and reflection, now rose before his mind like realities. The Bible, long studied in its relations to his theme, became his constant companion. The prophecies were examined, and their harmony with the Saviour's character brought into requisition to enrich the sentiment " made perfect through suffering." Urgent appeals to dismiss care and consult health only, were answered cheerfully, but in the spirit of his labors. At length, finding the Atlantic breezes only prejudicial, he tried the hydropathic treatment, at Brattleboro, Vermont, but without benefit. Pulmonary disease had already fastened upon his vitals. But the mind was still active — too active. The night itself was made his servant, and, as before leaving home, so at Brattleboro, he would suddenly start from bed to record the more fantastic and less studied fancies that played through the mind while the body courted repose. He spent a month with friends at Wallingford, Con- necticut, and though too ill to pursue methodically his " Christiad," still indulged in random verses. He left Wallingford early in September, and, after a long journey, reached his native home, still full of hope and mental vigor, though sinking rapidly to the grave. Such is the faint outline of a life devoted to a single purpose, and one demanding for its fruition the enei'gy of a mature life. Its greatness was appreciated, and for its greatness he followed it, confident that he might at least realize a high cultivation and noble acquirements in its pursuit. In the community where he lived, he was regarded