Eulogiums on the dead are often attempts, sometimes sufficiently clumsy, to conceal one-half of the truth and fill the eye with the other. In the case of Livingstone there is really nothing to conceal. In tracing his life in these pages we have found no need for the brilliant colors of the rhetorician, the ingenuity of the partisan, or the enthusiasm of the hero-worshiper. We have felt, from first to last, that a plain, honest statement of the truth regarding him would be a higher panegyric than any ideal picture that could be drawn. The best tributes paid to his memory by distinguished countrymen were the most literal--we might almost say the most prosaic. It is but a few leaves we can reproduce of the many wreaths that were laid on his tomb.
Sir Bartle Frere, as President of the Royal Geographical Society, after a copious notice of his life, summed it up in these words: "As a whole, the work of his life will surely be held up in ages to come as one of singular nobleness of design, and of unflinching energy and self-sacrifice in execution. It will be long ere any one man will be able to open so large an extent of unknown land to civilized mankind. Yet longer, perhaps, ere we find a brighter example of a life of such continued and useful self-devotion to a noble cause."
In a recent letter to Dr. Livingstone's eldest daughter, Sir Bartle Frere (after saying that he was first introduced to Dr. Livingstone by Mr. Phillip, the painter, as "one of the noblest men he had ever met," and rehearsing the history of his early acquaintance) remarks:
"I could hardly venture to describe my estimate of his character as a Christian further than by saying that I never met a man who fulfilled more completely my idea of a perfect Christian gentleman,--actuated in what he thought and said and did by the highest and most chivalrous spirit, modeled on the precepts of his great Master and Exemplar.
"As a man of science, I am less competent to judge, for my knowledge of his work is to a great extent second-hand; but derived, as it is, from observers like Sir Thomas Maclear, and geographers like Arrowsmith, I believe him to be quite unequaled as a scientific traveler, in the care and accuracy with which he observed. In other branches of science I had more opportunities of satisfying myself, and of knowing how keen and accurate was his observation, and how extensive his knowledge of everything connected with natural science; but every page of his journals, to the last week of his life, testified to his wonderful natural powers and accurate observation. Thirdly, as a missionary and explorer I have always put him in the very first rank. He seemed to me to possess in the most wonderful degree that union of opposite qualities which were required for such a work as opening out heathen Africa to Christianity and civilization. No man had a keener sympathy with even the most barbarous and unenlightened; none had a more ardent desire to benefit and improve the most abject. In his aims, no man attempted, on a grander or more thorough scale, to benefit and improve those of his race who most needed improvement and light. In the execution of what he undertook, I never met his equal for energy and sagacity, and I feel sure that future ages will place him among the very first of those missionaries, who, following the apostles, have continued to carry the light of the gospel to the darkest regions of the world, throughout the last 1800 years. As regards the value of the work he accomplished, it might be premature to speak,--not that I think it possible I can over-estimate it, but because I feel sure that every year will add fresh evidence to show how well-considered were the plans he took in hand, and how vast have been the results of the movements he set in motion."
The generous and hearty appreciation of Livingstone by the medical profession was well expressed in the words of the Lancet: "Few men have disappeared from our ranks more universally deplored, as few have served in them with a higher purpose, or shed upon them the lustre of a purer devotion."
Lord Polwarth, in acknowledging a letter from Dr. Livingstone's daughter, thanking him for some words on her father, wrote thus: "I have long cherished the memory of his example, and feel that the truest beauty was his essentially Christian spirit. Many admire in him the great explorer and the noble-hearted philanthropist; but I like to think of him, not only thus, but as a man who was a servant of God, loved his Word intensely, and while he spoke to men of God, spoke more to God of men,
"His memory will never perish, though the first freshness, and the impulse it gives just now, may fade; but his prayers will be had in everlasting remembrance, and unspeakable blessings will yet flow to that vast continent he opened up at the expense of his life. God called and qualified him for a noble work, which, by grace, he nobly fulfilled, and we can love the honored servant, and adore the gracious Master."
Lastly, we give the beautiful wreath of Florence Nightingale, also in the form of a letter to Dr. Livingstone's daughter:
"LONDON, Feb. 18th,1874.
"DEAR MISS LIVINGSTONE,--I am only one of all England which is feeling with you and for you at this moment.
"But Sir Bartle Frere encourages me to write to you.
"We cannot help still yearning to hear of some hope that your great father may be still alive.
"God knows; and in knowing that He knows who is all wisdom, goodness, and power, we must find our rest.
"He has taken away, if at last it be as we fear, the greatest man of his generation, for Dr. Livingstone stood alone.
"There are few enough, but a few statesmen. There are few enough, but a few great in medicine, or in art, or in poetry. There are a few great travelers. But Dr. Livingstone stood alone as the great Missionary Traveler, the bringer-in of civilization; or rather the pioneer of civilization--he that cometh before--to races lying in darkness.
"I always think of him as what John the Baptist, had he been living in the nineteenth century, would have been.
"Dr. Livingstone's fame was so world-wide that there were other nations who understood him even better than we did.
"Learned philologists from Germany, not at all orthodox in their opinions, have yet told me that Dr. Livingstone was the only man who understood races, and how to deal with them for good; that he was the one true missionary. We cannot console ourselves for our loss. He is irreplaceable.
"It is not sad that he should have died out there. Perhaps it was the thing, much as he yearned for home, that was the fitting end for him. He may have felt it so himself.
"But would that he could have completed that which he offered his life to God to do!
"If God took him, however, it was that his life was completed in God's sight; his work finished, the most glorious work of our generation.
"He has opened those countries for God to enter in. He struck the first blow to abolish a hideous slave-trade.
"He, like Stephen, was the first martyr."'He climbed the steep ascent of heaven,
Through peril, toil, and pain;
O God! to us may grace be given
To follow in his train!'
"To us it is very dreary, not to have seen him again, that he should have had none of us by him at the last; no last word or message.
"I feel this with regard to my dear father and one who was more than mother to me, Mrs. Bracebridge, who went with me to the Crimean war, both of whom were taken from me last month.
"How much more must we feel it, with regard to out great discoverer and hero, dying so far off!
"But does he regret it? How much he must know now! how much he must have enjoyed!
"Though how much we would give to know his thoughts, alone with God, during the latter days of his life.
"May we not say, with old Baxter (something altered from that verse)?"'My knowledge of that life is small,
The eye of faith is dim;
But 'tis enough that Christ knows all,
And he will be with Him.'
"Let us think only of him and of his present happiness, his eternal happiness, and may God say to us: 'Let not your heart be troubled,' Let us exchange a 'God bless you,' and fetch a real blessing from God in saying so.
"Florence Nightingale"