10
TALKS FOR THE TIMES.
proportions, a life so singularly grand in its achieve¬
ments, passes not away unnoticed. The great mad
world in its giddy rush after material gains has paused
to take note that a great man has fallen in our Israel;
and humanity, enriched and blessed by his long and
faithful services, lingers in tearful gratitude about his
new-made grave. It were well for us to pause. It
were well for us, turning aside from the hum-drum
duties of the day, to lay upon his bier the tribute of
gratitude and affection. It wrere well for us to con¬
template, even though briefly, that remarkable life,
and discover, if we may, what were the elements that,
entering into it, made it so strong, so symmetrical, so
sublime.
This country will never again see another Douglass;
this world will never again see another Douglass, for
in all probability there will never again exist that
peculiar combination of circumstances to produce ex¬
actly such a type of manhood. Man is, in a measure,
the product of environment. Yet it would be in¬
justice to Frederick Douglass to say that he was great
simply because of environment. He was great in
spite of environment. Born a slave, subjected in his
youth and early manhood to all the degrading, stulti-
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