Among those gifted spirits who have toiled tirelessly to carry the
individual life up to unity, symmetry and beauty, let us hasten to mention
the name of Channing. The child of genius, he was gifted with a literary
style that lent strange fascination to all his speech. But great as he was
in intellect, his character shone with such splendor as to eclipse his
genius. He was of goodness all compact.
Early the winds of adversity beat against his little bark. Invalidism and
misfortune, too, threatened to destroy his career. But bearing up amid all
misfortune, he slowly wrought out his ideal of life as a fine art.
Patiently he perfected his dreams. Daily he practiced frugality, honor,
justice, faith, love and prayer. He met storm with calm; he met provocation
with patience; he met organized iniquity with faith in God's eternal truth;
he met ingratitude and enmity with forgiveness and love.
At last he completed his symphony of an ideal life, that he hoped would
help the youth and maiden to make each day as inspiring as a song, each
deed as holy as a prayer, each character as perfect as a picture. For he
felt that the life of child and youth, of patriot and parent should have a
loveliness beyond that of any flower or landscape, and a majesty not found
in any cataract or mountain, being clothed also with a beauty that does not
inhere in Canova's marble and a permanency that is not possessed by Von
Riles' cathedral, a structure builded of thoughts and hopes and
aspirations, of tears and prayers, and purposes, whose foundation is
eternal truth.