Men are ennobled by morals and by intellect; but those two elements know
each other and always beckon to each other, until at last they meet in
the man, if he is to be truly great. The man who sells you a lamp shows
you that the flame of oil, which contented you before, casts a strong
shade in the path of the petroleum which he lights behind it; and this
again casts a shadow in the path of the electric light. So does
intellect when brought into the presence of character; character puts
out that light. Goethe, in his correspondence with his Grand Duke of
Weimar, does not shine. We can see that the Prince had the advantage of
the Olympian genius. It is more plainly seen in the correspondence
between Voltaire and Frederick of Prussia. Voltaire is brilliant,
nimble, and various, but Frederick has the superior tone. But it is
curious that Byron _writes down_ to Scott; Scott writes up to him. The
Greeks surpass all men till they face the Romans, when Roman character
prevails over Greek genius. Whilst degrees of intellect interest only
classes of men who pursue the same studies, as chemists or astronomers,
mathematicians or linguists, and have no attraction for the crowd, there
are always men who have a more catholic genius, are really great as men,
and inspire universal enthusiasm. A great style of hero draws equally
all classes, all the extremes of society, till we say the very dogs
believe in him. We have had such examples in this country, in Daniel
Webster, Henry Clay, and the seamen's preacher, Father Taylor; in
England, Charles James Fox; in Scotland, Robert Burns; and in France,
though it is less intelligible to us, Voltaire. Abraham Lincoln is
perhaps the most remarkable example of this class that we have seen,--a
man who was at home and welcome with the humblest, and with a spirit and
a practical vein in the times of terror that commanded the admiration of
the wisest. His heart was as great as the world, but there was no room
in it to hold the memory of a wrong.
These may serve as local examples to indicate a magnetism which is
probably known better and finer to each scholar in the little Olympus of
his own favorites, and which makes him require geniality and humanity in
his heroes. What are these but the promise and the preparation of a day
when the air of the world shall be purified by nobler society; when the
measure of greatness shall be usefulness in the highest
sense,--greatness consisting in truth, reverence, and good-will?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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