A Peaceful Life
(LINCOLN)
A peaceful life;—just toil and rest—
All his desire;—
To read the books he liked the best
Beside the cabin fire.
God's word and man's;—to peer sometimes
Above the page, in smoldering gleams,
And catch, like far heroic rhymes,
The onmarch of his dreams.
A peaceful life;—to hear the low
Of pastured herds,
Or woodman's axe that, blow on blow,
Fell sweet as rhythmic words.
And yet there stirred within his breast
A faithful pulse, that, like a roll
Of drums, made high above his rest
A tumult in his soul.
A peaceful life!—They hailed him even
As One was hailed
Whose open palms were nailed toward Heaven
When prayers nor aught availed.
And lo, he paid the selfsame price
To lull a nation's awful strife
And will us, through the sacrifice
Of self, his peaceful life.
William Wilberforce Newton, born in Alleghany, Pennsylvania, March, 1836. Was graduated at Franklin and Marshall College in 1853. Studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1867. He served as Captain and Assistant Adjutant General of U. S. Volunteers in 1861-5; was Editor of the Philadelphia Press and President of the "Press" Publishing Co., from 1867 till 1878. He is the author of Vignettes of Travel and has been largely engaged in railway building in Mexico.