The Oxford intelligencer., 1860-06-20
Napoleon HI.


possible phrase, key to the often paradoxi-
cal picture of human distinctions or success
which the world exhibits. The greatness in
tended in the remark is not that native or
intrinsic greatness which inheres in its sub
iect: for in this sense, doubtless, many are
born great whom the dramatist by no means
designed to include Such greatness, if it
never manifest itself, is as if it were not /;
while, if, by its vigorous displays, it force the
world to recognize its superiority, it attains,
through its concc lei eminence, greatness
of position, which, though consequence of
the other, is by no means the same thing
Gray, meditating among le Aombs of the
forgotten and obscure, gives us an idea of this
supposable but unknown and unconscious
greatness, in the suggestion that,
"some village Hampden who, with dauntless breast,
The little tyrant of his fields withstoOd,-
Some mute, inglorious Milton, here may rest
Some Cromwell, guitless of his country's blood"
The greatness, however, which Shakespeare
had in mind, and with which we have to do
at present, is that which depends on circum-
stances external to the person who is fortu-
nate enough to enjoy it; circumstances
which usually embrace pre-cmincnce of po-
sition, political or social, and power mate
rial or moral to affect or control the current
of human affairs, and to stamp an impress
upon the worlds contemporary history. This
is greatness to which one may easily be
born, without possessing the slightest trace
ofthat inner and nobler superiority, by means
of which, land, under ordinary circumstances,
by means of which only,) the originally hum
bic sometimes rise to exalted station. 1t is
greatness to which one may be born with
out being equal to it; and which, as in the
instance of Charles the Simple, or Lewis the
Stammcrer or Ethclred the Unready, may
serve only to perpetuate the memory of his
weaknesses or his defects.
Such greatness, too, in the often anoma-
lous course of human events, may sometimes
be thrust upon one for whom nature had not
designed it. The son of the great Protector
of England, though not entitled, by the cir
cumstancc of his parentage, to bear the rod
of empire which death had wrcsted from his
fathers hand, happened nevertheless to be in
the way when successor was needed, and
was made the reluctant recipient of that un-
welcome greatness, which he shortly after so
gladly resigned. The poet Lamartinc, amid
the political commissions under which France
was rccling, just after the downfall Of the cit
izen king, happened also to be among the
most conspicuous objects floating upon the
surface of agitated society, and became charg-
cd, almost before he knew it, with burthcn
of greatness which presently crushed him
back into the political obscurity from which
he rose.
But the unsought greatness which is thus
occasionally thrust upon an uncxpcctng in
dividual, is not always ofncccssity misplaced.
When, by the spontaneous confidence of his
fcllow-ctizcns, Cincinnatus was summoned |
from the plough, to avert the danger which |
menaced the independence of his country,
the skill aud energy which enabled him, in a
single fortnight, to drive back, like flock of
sheep, the presumptuous enemies of Rome to
their own cities, proved that the unqualified |
supremacy with which he had been invested,
had been worthily bestowed. A similar re-
mark may be made of our own Washington,
and Of his appointment TO the command in
chief of our unorganized and ill-provided |
revolutionary army for there can be no ques-
ton that this was distinction as little look
cd for by him as il was desirable TO any one;
Il distinction Of which the advantages were
more than doubtful, while of the dangers
there could be no doubt at all. And, more
over, the uncertainty how far such an appoint
ment carried with it an actual and not shad-
owy or visionary greatness, was one which it
depended on the character of the man in a
great degree to determine; so that it was
chiefly barren responsibility which was
thrust upon Washington: and the greatness
which grew out of it was of his own crea-
ton.
1t may seem absurd to intimate that there
can be any point of resemblance between
men so widely different, in nearly every i'm
portant characteristics, as Washington and
the remarkable individual whose name we
have placed at the head of this article. But
it is certainly equally true of both, that while
they have been the architects of their own
greatness, they owed to the times in which
they lived, and to current of events which
they did not originate and could not control,
the opportunity to demonstrate to mankind
of what they were capable. Both of them
had arrived at mature years, before their
greatness began: both of them were lifted to
an eminence as difficult as it was seemingly
insecure and dangerous, by the wave of rev
oiution. and both of them have stamped the
impress Of their personal characters upon the
history of their respective countries. Had
Washington been governed by impulses such
a.. I,o,-o ,-,lo1 Al 4b;-J NoDoloon f.o,,, liz