Thy Troy is fallen, thy dear land
Is marred beneath the spoiler's heel,
I cannot trust my trembling hand
To write the things I feel.
Ah; realm of tombs, but let her bear
This blazon to the last of times;
No nation rose so white and fair,
Or fell so free of crimes.
The widow's moan, the orphan's wail
Come round thee, yet in truth be strong;
Eternal right, tho' all else fail,
Can never be made wrong.
An angel's heart, an angel's mouth,
Not Homer's, could alone for me
Hymn well the great Confederate South,
Virginia first, and Lee."
The crowning virtue in General Lee's character was wonderful gentleness. His letters to his friends and family show this, as well as many of his general orders and his reports of engagements. The students looking for an example; the young man or woman seeking to improve their characters, and bearing in mind that "Gentle minds by gentle deeds are known, and man by nothing is so well betrayed as by his manners," will find in the life of Lee an inspiration to noble living and high endeavor such as is nowhere else found in profane history.
The poet had in his mind's eye just such a character when he sung:
"His life was gentle, and the elements
So mixed in him that nature
Might stand up and say to all the world,
This was a man."
A man whose strength was the might of gentleness and self-command. We cannot have too many biographies of him. We cannot raise too many monuments to him. We cannot see his gentle face too often. Every time we look on his form in bronze or marble we exclaim with the poet:
