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PLUCK will tell, and grit is bound to make its mark. Look at old John Brown before the Virginian Court, when asked why sentence of death should not be passed upon him? The old man, too feeble to stand without something to hold by for support, shows no blenching in his inner nature, and craves no artificial courage. Calmly and unflinchingly he avows what he meant to do, knowing that such avowal, under the circumstances, is tantamount to death. Are there not heroic traits in the old fellow? Grant that he is a fanatic of the first water; grant that his views are narrow and the reach of his mind very limited; that he reasons on too contracted a basis, and if he knew more, would fight less and wait more patiently; still, it is impossible not to see traits of the grim old Puritans in his character. Algernon Sidney, or Pym, or Hamden, or Cromwell, did not excel him in the straight forwardness of his nature, and his abiding faith that God and Eternity, and Right and Justice, are not mere phrases, metaphysical abstractions, the coinage of human brains, but are words to which there is an answering reality in nature, and that those who fight their battles have substantial backers who will see that their followers do not get worsted in the long run. Old Brown lives his religion; and that is a great deal in these days of infinite professions and infinitesimal performance. His religion is a narrow one, perhaps; but such as it is, he lives it. He was engaged on a foolhardy and crack-brained business; if he had run off a few hundreds of slaves, he would have done no good to anybody, and would really have put back the abolition of slavery instead of forward; but the man was conscientions [conscientious] in his creed, and may proudly say, “I believe with all my heart, what I profess to believe, and am not without the courage that should go with my creed.”