The weekly Anglo-African. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1859-1861, 1859-10-22
HON HORACE GREELEYs LECTURE

The first of the Anglo-Atrlcan course OF
lectures was given last Wednesday even
ing, by Hon. Horace Greeley, to very
respectable audience. The following is a
brief synopsis of it:
After announcing the subject of his lee
ture, be said that the mere study of human
character in its multiform details of medi-
ocrity, would be at once tedious and unpro-
fitable For this reason it was said that,
of all the books issued from the press, BIZ
ographies most habitually fell dead letter.
Even that much-praised- and-seldom-found
individual, the good boy, could not wade
through such dull octave volumes; and if
he attempted it we should generally find
that, at about the forty seventh page, it
fell from his knees, and was next stored
away upon his topmost bookshelf. Espe-
cially were religious autobiographies I'M
profitable, not because they were religious
far otherwise-but because they usually
abounded with so much sham that was at
utter variance with the true spirit OF reli-
gion, which was retired and self-condemn-
ing, rather than self-lauding, that they
failed in their ostensible purposes. 1t was
not, said the speaker, in the Chronicles
that we were made acquitted with the
character of David, but rather in the Psalms,
in which he had alternately poured out
his soul in unostentatious praise and
thanksgiving, and confessed his own I'M
worthiness. The truly great man was
really a new force added to the planet. Sir
Humphrey Davy, James Watt, the inven-
ter of the mariners compass, and men of
that class, had, with the electric fash of
genius, lent force to the subsequent race
which would 60 on widening to the end of
time But by what were we to distin-
guish the truly greatP The Columbus of
history was not supposed to be the foremost
man of that age when being jOstled and in
suited by this king and the other. So of
John Milton; surrounded with servile
nation, he was not known to fame until
covered with the "clods of the valley"
In taking up the several elements of
true greatness in men, the speaker in
stanced, first, an earnest, profound faith.
That faith might be full of error; but he
who ascribed the universe to chance and
denied the omnipotent hand of Creator,
was buried in error without one ray of
truth. Ignore the belief in God and the
hope of hereafter, and he did notsee how
the path of virtue was necessarily the path
of peace.
The second basis of human greatness
was cheerful willingness to avail our
selves of everything that offered to aid us
in developing truth and right. This look
ing and wishing for what we had not in Or
der to achieve success, was like looking
through the wrong end of telescope. A
sanguine hope to leave the world little
better than we find it laid at the foundation
of all human efficiency. No man was des-
tined to make his mark unless he was in
some degree radical" 1t was a great
help to the human soul to take a decided
stand against some existing human wick
edness; yet whoever set himself up to op-
pose public wrong, he knew, must ex-
pect to run the gauntlet of human censure,
criticism, and even condemnation. Be the
reformer as mild as he may, he would new
ertheless find arrayed in front of him the
whole host of evil If, however, he was of
the nobler mould, he would rise to
an attitude in which he could defy all such
opposition, and, like Frederick of Prussia,
combat effectively his enemies in front,
flank, and rear. The virtue of tenacity
was particularly dwelt upon, and variously
illustrated by glancing at various person.
ages of the past, instancing Bruce, Caesar,
Cromwell, and others. There was nothing