Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1837-08-02
MISCELLANEOUS.
DEGREES OF GREATNESS.


The greatness of the warrior is poor
and low compared with the magnanimity
of virtue Ii vanishes before the great
ness of principle. The martyr to human
ity, to freedom, or religion the unshrink-
ing adherent of despised and deserted
truth; who alone, unsupported, and scorn-
ed, with no crowd to infuse into him cour-
age, no variety of objects to draw his
Thoughts from himself, no opportunity of
effort or resistance to rouse and nourish
energy, sill yields himself calmly, reso-
Iutely, with invIncible philanthropy, to
bear prolonged aud exquisite suffering.
which one retracting word might remove;
such a man is as superior to the war
rior, as the tranquil and boundIess heavens
above US to the low earth we tread be-
meath our feet.
Great generals, away from the camp,
are commonly no greater men than the
mechanic taken from his workshop In
conversation they are often dull. Works
Of profound thinking on general and great
topics they cannot comprehend. The
conqueror of Napoleon, the hero of Wa
terloo, undoubtedly possesses great mill
tary talents; but we have never heard Of
his eloquence in the senate, or Of his saga
city in the cabinet; and we venture 10
say, that he will leave the world without
adding one new thought on the great
themes on which the genius of philosophy
and Legislation has meditated for ages
We will not 60 down far for illustration to
such men as Nelson, man great on the
deck, but debased by gross vices, and
who never pretended 10 enlargement of
intellect. To institute comparison IA
point of talent and genius between such
men and Milton, Bacon and Shakespeare,
is almost an insult on these illustrious
names
Who can think of these truly great in
telligences; of the range of their mind
through heaven and earth of their deep
intuition into the soul Of their new and
glowing combinations Of thong ht; of the
energy with which they grasped and sub
jected to their main purpose the infinite
materials of illustration which nature and
life afford-who can think of the forms of
transcendent beauty and grandeur which
they created, or which were rather eman-
atoms of their own minds; Of the calm
wisdom and fervid impetuous imagination
which they conjoined of the dominion
which they have exerted over so many
generations, and which time only extends
and makes sure; Of the voice of power in
which, though dead, they still speak to
nations, and awaken intellect, sensibiIity,
and genius in both hemispheres; who can
. | I'll. -f II I,ol a.
mense inferiority OF the most gifted war
rior, whose elements of thought are phys
ical forces and distractions, and whose
employment is the combinations of the
lowest class of objects on which pow
erful mind can beemployed !-Channing.
The private debts Of the Americans are
now found to far exceed what any man
could possibly have supposed; indeed
they have so far outrun their means OF
: payment. that the whole nation seems to
be in state Of general bankruptcy. Ev-
cry man accustomed to search deeper than
the surface Of things, must have known
that a great deal of American prosperity
was fictitious and insecure, because found
ed on-nothing better than speculation and
credit; yet no man could have supposed
how far this hollow prospesity extended.
or could have imagined that a vast pro.
portion of their apparent wealth was a
; mere inflated bubble; yet facts show that
this was the case.-KingstOa, u C..
Herald X - .>r......
i CAPITAL PUNIsHMENT.-Am motion
10 the English House Of Commons to
J abolish the punishment of death in all
cases but those of murder, was negatived
| by bare majority Of one.