The occasion was one that will not easily pass from my memory. There was no service whatever save the funeral oration which has found its way into all languages. I stood by the side of Colonel Ingersoll near the casket during its delivery, and vividly recall his deep emotion, and the faltering tones in which the wondrous sentences were uttered. It is probable that this oration has no counterpart in literature. It seemed in very truth the knell of hope, the expression of a grief that could know no surcease, the agony of a parting that could know no morrow. In such an hour how cheerless and comfortless these words: "Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud, and the only answer is the echo of our wailing cry. "Every life, no matter if its every hour is rich with love, and every moment jewelled with a joy, will at its close become a tragedy as sad and deep and dark as can be woven of the warp and woof of mystery and death." And yet in those other words, "But in the night of death, hope sees a star, and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing," and, "while on his forehead fell the golden dawning of a grander day," there is a yearning for "the touch of a vanished hand," and a hope that no philosophy could dispel of a reunion sometime and somewhere with the loved and lost. Two decades later, again "the veiled shadow stole upon the scene," and the sublime mystery of life and death was revealed. The awful question, "If a man die shall he live again?" was answered, and to the great agnostic _all was known._ XVII A CAMP-MEETING ORATOR PETER CARTWRIGHT, METHODIST PREACHER--HIS FEARLESSNESS AND ENERGY-- HIS OLD-FASHIONED ORTHODOXY--HOW HE CONVERTED A PROFANE SWEARER --HIS ATTENDANCE AT A BALL--OLD-TIME CAMP-MEETINGS--CARTWRIGHT'S AVERSION TO OTHER SECTS--CONVERSION OF A DESPERADO INTO A PENITENT --CARTWRIGHT MR. LINCOLN'S COMPETITOR FOR REPRESENTATIVE--HIS SPEECH AT A DEMOCRATIC STATE CONVENTION.