Elias Nason, The Life and Times of Charles Sumner: His Boyhood, Education and Public Career.

“ [235] the responsibilities of honor.” His encomium on Massachusetts was remarkable for its truth and beauty. “My filial love does not claim too much,” said he, “when it exhibits her as approaching the pattern of a Christian commonwealth, which, according to the great English republican, John Milton, ‘ought to be but as one huge Christian personage, one mighty growth and stature of an honest man, as big and compact in virtue as in body.’ Not through any worldly triumphs, not through the vaults of State Street, the spindles of Lowell, or even the learned endowments of Cambridge, is Massachusetts thus; but because, seeking to extend everywhere within the sphere of her influence the benign civilization which she cultivates at home, she stands forth the faithful, unseduced supporter of human nature.”

“Terrestrial place,” he beautifully said in closing, “is determined by celestial observation. Only by watching the stars can the mariner safely pursue his course; and it is only by obeying these lofty principles which are above men and human passion, that we can make our way safely through the duties of life. In such obedience I hope to live, while, as a servant of Massachusetts, I avoid no labor, shrink from no exposure, and complain of no hardship.”

Mr. Sumner was then escorted to his home in Hancock Street, which was surrounded by a dense crowd