e without a
world. Put Napoleon in an island prison, let his faculties find no men
to act on, no Alps to climb, no stake to play for, and he would beat
the air, and appear stupid. Transport him to large countries, dense
population, complex interests and antagonist power, and you shall see
that the man Napoleon, bounded that is by such a profile and outline, is
not the virtual Napoleon. This is but Talbot's shadow;--

"His substance is not here.
For what you see is but the smallest part
And least proportion of humanity;
But were the whole frame here,
It is of such a spacious, lofty pitch,
Your roof were not sufficient to contain it."
--Henry VI.

Columbus needs a planet to shape his course upon. Newton and Laplace
need myriads of age and thick-strewn celestial areas. One may say a
gravitating solar system is already prophesied in the nature of Newton's
mind. Not less does the brain of Davy or of Gay-Lussac, from childhood
exploring the affinities and repulsions of particles, anticipate the
laws of organization. Does not the eye of the human embryo predict the
light? the ear of Handel predict the witchcraft of harmonic sound? Do
not the constructive fingers of Watt, Fulton, Whittemore, Arkwright,
predict the fusible, hard, and temperable texture of metals, the
properties of stone, water, and wood? Do not the lovely attributes
of the maiden child predict the refinements and decorations of civil
society? Here also we are reminded of the action of man on man. A mind
might ponder its thought for ages and not gain so much self-knowledge as
the passion of love shall teach it in a day. Who knows himself before
he has been thrilled with indignation at an outrage, or has heard an
eloquent tongue, or has shared the throb of thousands in a national
exultation or alarm? No man can antedate his experience, or guess what
faculty or feeling a new object shall unlock, any more than he can draw
to-day the face of a person whom he shall see to-morrow for the first
time.

I will not now go behind the general statement to explore the reason
of this correspondency. Let it suffice that in the light of these two
facts, namely, that the mind is One, and that nature is its correlative,
history is to be read and written.

Thus in all ways does the soul concentrate and reproduce its treasures
for each pupil. He too shall pass through the whole cycle of experience.
He shall collect into a focus the rays of n