generous country! ever enamoured of glory, contemplate in this, the most
perfect of thy illustrious sons; contemplate those virtues, and that
honour, in which thy parental spirit may most happily exult!--What
spectacle can be more flattering to thy native, thy honest pride, than
to behold the proudest potentates of distant nations listening with
pleasure to a private Englishman; and learning, from his researches, how
to relieve the most injured of their subjects! how to abolish the
enormities of perverted Justice! To form a complete account of the good
arising to the world from the life and labours of Howard, would be a
task beyond the limits of any human mind: an exact statement of the
benefits he has conferred upon society, could be rendered only by the
attendant Spirit whom Providence commissioned to watch over him, and who
might discern, by the powers of supernatural vision, what pregnant
sources of public calamity he crushed in the seed, and what future
virtues, in various individuals, he may draw into the service of mankind
by the attraction of his example.
"Of good, more immediately visible, which his exertions produced, there
is abundant evidence in his own country. In the wide circle of his
foreign excursion, what nation, what city, does not bear some
conspicuous traces of his intrepid and indefatigable beneficence! Of the
astonishing length to which his zeal and perseverance extended, we have
the most ingenuous and satisfactory narration in those singularly
meritorious volumes which he has given to the world. In these we behold
the minute detail of labours to which there is nothing similar, or
second, in the history of public virtue; and for which there could be no
adequate reward but in the beatitude of Heaven. An eloquent Enthusiast,
whose genius was nearly allied to frenzy, has expressed a desire to
present himself before the tribunal of the Almighty Judge, with a
volume in his hand, in which he had recorded his own thoughts and
actions: if such an idea could be suitable to the littleness of man, if
it could become any mortal of faculties so limited to make such an
offering to the great Fountain of all intelligence, that mortal must
assuredly be Howard: for where could we find another individual, not
professedly inspired, who might present to his Maker a record of labours
so eminently directed by Piety and Virtue! a book, addressed to mankind,
without insulting their weakness, or flattering their passions! a book,
whose great object was to benefit the world, without seeking from it any
kind of reward! a book, in which the genuine modesty of the Writer is
equal to his unexampled beneficence! The mind of Howard was singularly
and sublimely free from the common and dangerous passion for applause:
that passion which, though taken altogether, it is certainly beneficial
to the interests of mankind, yet frequently communicates inquietude and
unsteadiness to the pursuits of Genius and Virtue. As human praise was
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account