his character as an excellent surveyor; a matter of considerable consequence, as there were then few in the district, and the emoluments were temptingly high. He therefore procured a commission, which gave authority to his operations, and entitled him to have their results entered in the provincial registers. By activity and diligence his occupation was rendered very lucrative; and on attaining the age of nineteen he had achieved so enviable a place in public esteem, that a most honorable military appointment was bestowed upon him by the Government on the approach of danger. His taste for martial affairs had, indeed, been adhered to with resolution, and cultivated with assiduity. Since acting as a surveyor, he had resided chiefly with his brother, whose house was more conveniently situated for his exertions than was the home of his infancy; and he had, from this cause, been brought more into contact, than he would otherwise have been, with men versed in military matters. Under their instruction he had industriously practiced himself in sword exercise, and become not inexpert. Besides, he had eagerly studied books treating of the art of war. The early aspirations of great men are generally met with ridicule. “_Obsta principiis_” is too often the motto of jealous dunces. When the author of “Marmion” proposed in youth to compose his “War-Song of the Edinburgh Light Dragoons,” the idea of his attempting such a thing raised coarse laughter, and was regarded as a piece of absurdity; and, in like manner, it is not difficult to imagine the brisk tittering excited by the efforts of the young colonial surveyor to initiate himself into handling the weapons and understanding the theory of war. But however that may have been, it came to pass that, in 1751, when there appeared a prospect of encroachment on the part of the French, and it was deemed prudent to embody the militia to defend and protect the frontiers, Washington received a commission as Adjutant-General of one of the districts into which Virginia was divided. This entitled him to rank as major; and his duty was to assemble and exercise the local troops, inspect their arms, and maintain fitting discipline; no unworthy training for that military genius which subsequently accomplished so much for the land of his nativity. Then, as afterward, candor, sincerity, and straightforwardness were the characteristics of his noble mind. He had been eminently endowed by Nature with the qualities which form a ruler of men; and perhaps the training which he now underwent was, in reality, more favorable than any of a more regular and systematic kind would have been to the working out of his peculiar destiny.