James Lane Allen

“ But this reference to the times led us to speak slowly and solemnly of
what all men now are speaking—war that must come between the North and
the South. We agreed that it would come from each side as a blazing
torch to Kentucky, which lies between the two and is divided between
the two in love and hate—to Kentucky, where the ideal of a soldier's
life is always the ideal of a man's duty and utmost glory.
At last I felt that my time had come.
"Georgiana," I said, "there is one secret I have never shared with you. ”

“ Only,
you must add this: that when those times of peace have come on, and it
is no longer possible for such a people to realize its ideal of courage
in arms, it is nevertheless driven to express the ideal in other
ways—by monuments, arches, inscriptions, statues, literature,
pictures, all in honor of those of their countrymen who lived the ideal
before the world and left it more lustrous in their dying. ”

“ That is the
full reason why we know how brave a people the Greeks were—by their
peaceful ways of honoring valor in times of peace. And that in part is
why no nation in the world doubts the courage of the English, because
when the English are not fighting they are forever doing something to
honor those who have fought well. So that they never have a peace but
they turn it into preparation for the next war. ”

“ As for the men
that I associate with every day, they weigh their words out to one
another as the apothecary weighs his poisons, or the grocer his
gunpowder."
"You forget," said Georgiana, "that we are living in a very
extraordinary time, when everybody is sensitive and excited."
"It is so always and everywhere," I replied. "You may never study life
as you study nature. With men you must take your choice: liberty for
your mind and a prison for your body; liberty for your body and a
prison for your mind. Nearly all people choose the latter; we know
what becomes of the few who do not." ”

“ Wherever the Kentuckians have fought as soldiers, many or few, on
whatever battle-field, in whatsoever cause, there you may see whether
they know what it is to be men, and whether they have an ideal of
courage that is worth the name. ”

“ The sunsets
are not colored with hypocrisy. The lightning is not revenge.
Everything stands forth in the sincerity of its being, and nature
invites me to exercise the absolute liberty of my mind upon all life. ”

“ It is the only fear I have ever felt regarding our future. But, if
there should be a war—you'd better know it now—leave you or not leave
you, I am going to join the army."
She grew white and faint with the thought of a day to come. But at
last she said:
"Yes; you must go."
"I know one thing," I added, after a long silence; "if I could do my
whole duty as a Kentuckian—as an American citizen—as a human being—I
should have to fight on both sides."
I have thus set down in a poor way a part of the only talk I ever had
with Georgiana on these subjects during the year 1851. ”