Gratitude, anyhow, has never been made half
enough of by the moralists; it is indispensable to a complete
character, man's or woman's--the disposition to be appreciative,
thankful. That is the main matter, the element, inclination--what
geologists call the _trend_. Of my own life and writings I estimate
the giving thanks part, with what it infers, as essentially the best
item. I should say the quality of gratitude rounds the whole emotional
nature; I should say love and faith would quite lack vitality without
it. There are people--shall I call them even religious people, as
things go?--who have no such trend to their disposition."
LAST OF THE WAR CASES
_Memorandized at the time, Washington, 1865-'66_
[Of reminiscences of the secession war, after the rest is said, I have
thought it remains to give a few special words--in some respects at
the time the typical words of all, and most definite-of the samples
of the kill'd and wounded in action, and of soldiers who linger'd
afterward, from these wounds, or were laid up by obstinate disease or
prostration. The general statistics have been printed already, but can
bear to be briefly stated again. There were over 3,000,000 men (for
all periods of enlistment, large and small) furnish'd to the Union
army during the war, New York State furnishing over 500,000, which was
the greatest number of any one State. The losses by disease, wounds,
kill'd in action, accidents, &c., were altogether about 600,000, or
approximating to that number.
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