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[242] sketch, happy in an intimacy derived from immediate contact for four years on the college benches, and confirmed by the mutual attraction of natures, has elsewhere expressed some measure of his respect and love for William Gholson. His morals were pure and his language chaste. Free from vice, he was wont to confront himself daily in the diary which he kept, and in which he recorded his careful criticism of himself, his plans, his hopes, his successes, and his disappointments. And this fact, coupled with his youth, sufficiently indicates his thoughtfulness, as another fact illustrates his unshrinking independence of thought. He came to college an Episcopalian by faith, or at least by training. Diligent reading, before and after graduation, induced him to adopt materialistic views of the universe,—of creation, the nature of man, and the existence of a Deity; and it was his boast that his merit as a soldier was due to these his latest convictions. One cannot but pay cheerful homage to the strength of mind which is able to forsake the idols of tradition and custom to satisfy the longings of the soul for truth. But looking at the lofty aims and fearless self-devotion of him who reasoned thus, we may feel sure that because he died he lives, and is not lost to parents, classmates, country, or the holy cause of the down-trodden, for which he gladly bled. His mind, it is grateful to believe, has aided, and his soul rejoiced, in the overthrow of American slavery.
Sever and Francis, 1866.
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