“My Dear Friend: You will allow me in dedicating this work to you, to offer it at the same time as a poor yet not altogether unmeaning tribute of my reverence for your brave and illustrious uncle, General Lee. He is the hero, like Hector of the Iliad, of the most glorious cause for which men fight, and some of the grandest passages in the poem come to me with yet more affecting power when I remember his lofty character and undeserved misfortunes. The great names that your country has bequeathed from its four lurid years of national life as examples to mankind can never be forgotten, and among these none will be more honoured, while history endures, by all true hears, than that of your noble relative. I need not say more, for I know you must be aware how much I feel the honour of associating my work, however indirectly, with one whose goodness and genius are alike so admirable. Accept this token of my deepest sympathy and regard, and believe me,
“Ever most sincerely yours,
“P. S. Worsley.”
On the fly-leaf of the volume he sent my father was written the following beautiful inscription:
“To General Lee,
The most stainless of living commanders
and, except in fortune, the greatest,
this volume is presented
with the writer’s earnest sympathy
and respectful admiration
‘... oios yap epveto Idiov Ektwp.’
Iliad VI—403.”
and just beneath, by the same hand, the following beautiful verses:
“The grand old bard that never dies,
Receive him in our English tongue!
I send thee, but with weeping eyes,
The story that he sung.
“Thy Troy is fallen,—thy dear land
Is marred beneath the spoiler’s heel—
I cannot trust my trembling hand
To write the things I feel.
“Ah, realm of tears!—but let her bear
This blazon to the end of time:
No nation rose so white and fair,
None fell so pure of crime.
“The widow’s moan, the orphan’s wail,
Come round thee; but in truth be strong!
Eternal Right, though all else fail,
Can never be made Wrong.
“An Angel’s heart, an angel’s mouth,
Not Homer’s, could alone for me
Hymn well the great Confederate South—
Virginia first, and LEE.
“P. S. W.”
His letter of thanks, and the one which he wrote later, when he heard of the ill health of Mr. Worsley—both of which I give here—show very plainly how much he was pleased:
“Lexington, Virginia, February 10, 1866.
“Mr. P. S. Worsley.