142 THE KNIGHT—THE HERMIT—THE MAN.

 

and his broad lands once more—not as a
knight, but as a man—not to glory once
more in his proud elevation, but to use the
gifts with which God had endowed hin,
in making wiser, better, and happier his
fellow-men.

He had work to do, and he was faithful
in its performance. He was no longer a
knight-errant, seeking for adventure wher-
ever brute courage promised to give him
renown ; he was no longer an idle hermit,
shrinking from his work in the great har-
vest-fields of life; but he was a man, doing
valiantly, among his fellow-men, truly noble
deeds—not deeds of blood, but deeds: of
moral daring, in an age when the real uses
of life were despised by the titled few.

There was the bold Knight, the pious
Hermit, and the Man; but the Man was
best and greatest of all.