Mr. C. It is natural they should stand foremost on the list of great men, because the sphere in which they act is an extensive one, and what they do has a powerful influence over numbers of mankind. Yet those that invent useful arts, or discover important truths, which may promote the comfort and happiness of unborn generations in the most distant parts of the world, act a still more important part; and their claim to merit is. generally more undoubted than that of the former, because what they do is more certainly their

own.

In order to estimate the real share a man in a high station has had in the great events which have been attributed to him, strip him in your imagination of the external advantages of rank and power, and see what a figure he would have made without them-or fancy a common man put in his place, and judge whether affairs would have gone on in the same track. Augustus Cæsar, and Louis the XIV of France, have both been called great princes; but deprive them of their crown, and they will both dwindle into obscure and trivial characters. But no change of circumstances could reduce Alfred the Great to the level of a common man. The two former could sink into their graves, and yield their power to a successor, and scarcely be missed ; but Alfred's death changed the fate of his kingdom. Thus with Epaminondas fell all the glory and greatness of the Theban state. He first raised it to consequence, and it could not survive him.

A. Was not czar Peter a great man?

Mr. C. I am not sure that he deserves that

title. Being a despotic prince at the head of a vast empire, he could put in execution whatever plans he was led to adopt, and these plans in general were grand and beneficial to his country. But the means he used were such as the master of the lives and fortunes of millions could easily employ, and there was more of brutal force than of skill and judgment in the manner in which he pursued his designs. Still, he was an extraordinary man; and the resolution of leaving his throne, in order to acquire in foreign countries the knowledge necessary to rescue his own from barbarism, was a feature of greatness. A truly great prince, however, would have employed himself better than in learning to build ships at Sardam.

A. What was Alexander the Great?

Mr. C. A great conqueror, but not a great man. It was easy for him, with the well-disciplined army of Greeks which he received from his father Philip, to overrun the unwarlike kingdoms of Asia, and defeat the Great King as the king of Persia was called; but though he showed some marks of an elevated mind, he seems to have possessed few qualities which could have raised him to distinction had he been born in an humble station. Compare his fugitive grandeur, supported by able ministers and generals, to the power which his tutor, the great Aristotle, merely through the force of his own genius, exercised over men's minds throughout the most civilized part of the world for two thousand years after his death. Compare also the part which has been acted in the world by the Spanish monarchs, the masters of immense possessions in Europe and

America, to that by Christopher Columbus, the Genoese navigator, who could have it inscribed on his tomb-stone, that he gave a new world to the kingdoms of Castile and Arragon. These comparisons will teach you to distinguish between greatness of character and greatness of station, which are too often confounded. He who governs a great country may in one sense be called a great king; but this is no more than an appellation belonging to rank, like that of the Great Mogul or the Grand Seignior, and infers no more personal grandeur than the title of Mr. Such-an-one, the Great Grocer or Brewer.

A. Must not great men be good men, too?

Mr. C. If that man is great who does great things, it will not follow that goodness must necessarily be one of his qualities, since that chiefly refers to the end and intention of actions. Julius Cæsar, and Cromwell, for example, were men capable of the greatest exploits; but directing them not to the public good, but to the purposes of their own ambition, in pursuit of which they violated all the duties of morality, they have obtained the title of great bad men. A person, however, cannot be great at all without possessing many virtues. He must be firm, steady, and diligent, superior to difficulties and dangers, and equally superior to the allurements of ease and pleasure. For want of these moral qualities, many persons of exalted minds and great talents have failed to deserve the title of great men. is in vain that the French poets and historians have decorated Henry the Fourth with the name of Great; his facility of disposition and uncontrollable love of pleasure have caused him to for

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feit his claim to it in the estimation of impartial judges. As power is essential to greatness, a man cannot be great without great power himself, which is the highest kind of power.

A. After all, is it not better to be a good man than a great one?

Mr. C. There is more merit in being a good man, because it is what we make ourselves, whereas the talents that produce greatness are the gift of nature; though they may be improved by our own efforts, they cannot be acquired. But if goodness is the proper object of our love and esteem, greatness deserves our high admiration and respect. This Mr. Brindley before us is by all accounts a worthy man, but it is not for that reason I have brought you to see him. I wish you to look upon him as one of those sublime and uncommon objects of nature which fill the mind with a certain awe and astonishment. Next to being great oneself, it is desirable to have a true relish for greatness.

Juliet was a clever well-disposed girl, but apt to be heedless. She could do her lessons very well, but commonly as much time was taken up in getting her things together, as in doing what she was set about. If she was to work, there was generally the housewife to seek in one place, and the thread-papers in another. The scissars were left in her pockets up stairs, and the thimble was rolling about the floor. In writing, the copybook was generally missing, the ink dried up, and the pens, new and old, all tumbled about the capboard. The slate and slate-pencil were never found together. In making her exercises, the English dictionary always came to hand instead of the French grammar; and when she was to