Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. IX.—February, 1851.—Vol. II. — John Shaqi
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. IX.—February, 1851.—Vol. II.Various
General
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. IX.—February, 1851.—Vol. II.
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
Words can not depict the profound sensation which the arrival of this
mournful news produced in England. The death-shaft cut the withes which
had kept his reputation down. All at once the nation awoke to a full
consciousness of his colossal fame and his transcendent virtues. Howard
was now--history. Envy and jealousy were past: rivalry had ended on the
brink of the grave. Death alone sets a man on fair terms with society.
The death of a great man is always a calamity; but it is only when a
country loses one of its illustrious children in a distant land, and
under peculiar circumstances, that the full measure of the national
calamity is felt. They who can recollect the wild and deep sensation of
pity and regret which the arrival of the news of Byron's death at
Missolonghi produced in England, can alone conceive of any thing like
the state of the public mind on the first announcement of the close of a
career still more useful and more glorious. Every possible mark of
honor--public and private--was paid to the memory of Howard. All orders
of men vied with each other in heaping honors upon his name. The court,
the press, parliament, the bar, the pulpit, and the stage--each in its
different fashion--paid the well-earned tribute of respect. The
intelligence of his demise was publicly announced in the official
Gazette--a distinction never before accorded to a private individual.
The muses sang his virtues with innumerable voices; the churches echoed
with his praise; the senate and the judgment-seat resounded with the
tribute to his merits; and even at the theatres, his character was
exhibited in imaginary scenes, and a monody on his death was delivered
from the foot lights.
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