but he knew, also, that prayer is not always answered in the way which man would have it.  He went into battle with supreme confidence, not, as has been alleged, that the Lord had delivered the enemy into his hands, but that whatever happened would be the best that could happen.  And he was as free from cant as from self-deception.  It may be said of Jackson, as has been said so eloquently of the men whom, in some respects, he closely resembled, that “his Bible was literally food to his understanding and a guide to his conduct.  He saw the visible finger of God in every incident of life...That which in our day devout men and women feel in their earnest moments of prayer, the devout Puritan felt, as a second nature, in his rising up and in his lying down; in the market-place and in the home; in society and in business; in Parliament, in Council, and on the field of battle.  And feeling this, the Puritan had no shame in uttering the very words of the Bible wherein he had learned so to feel; nay, he would have burned with shame had he faltered in using the words.  It is very hard for us now to grasp what this implies...But there was a generation in which this phraseology was the natural speech of men."* (* Oliver Cromwell by Frederic Harrison page 29.) Of this generation, although later in time, was Stonewall Jackson.  To him such language as he used in his letters to his wife, in conversation with his intimates, and not rarely in his official correspondence, was “the literal assertion of truths which he felt to the roots of his being,” which absorbed his thoughts, which coloured every action of his life, and which, from the abundance of his heart, rose most naturally to his lips.

There is no need for further allusion to his domestic or religious life.  If in general society Jackson was wanting in geniality; if he was so little a man of the world that his example lost much of the influence which, had he stood less aloof from others, it must have exercised, it was the fruit of his early training, his natural reserve, and his extreme humility.  It is impossible, however, that so pure a life should have been altogether without reflex upon others.  If the cadets profited but indirectly, the slaves had cause to bless his practical Christianity; the poor and the widow knew him as a friend, and his neighbours looked up to him as the soul of sincerity, the enemy of all that was false and vile.  And for himself—­what share had those years of quiet study, of self-communing, and of self-discipline, in shaping the triumphs of the Confederate arms?  The story of his military career is the reply.

Men of action have before now deplored the incessant press of business which leaves them no leisure to think out the problems which may confront them in the future.  Experience is of little value without reflection, and leisure has its disadvantages.  “One can comprehend,” says Dabney, referring to Jackson’s peculiar form of mental exercise, “how valuable was the training which his mind received for his work as a soldier.  Command over his attention was formed into a habit which no tempest of confusion could disturb.  His power of abstraction became unrivalled.  His imagination was trained and invigorated until it became capable of grouping the most extensive and complex considerations.  The power of his mind was drilled like the strength of an athlete, and his self-concentration became unsurpassed.”