nd battles has at last fallen before the shaft of the
common destroyer, and upon his well-battered shield loving hands have
tenderly borne that stalwart form to its last, long resting place. Earth
to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes!

This country will never again see another Douglass; this world will
never again see another Douglass, for in all probability there will
never again exist that peculiar combination of circumstances to produce
exactly such a type of manhood. Man is, in a measure, the product of
environment. Yet it would be injustice to Frederick Douglass to say that
he was great simply because of environment. He was great in spite of
environment. Born a slave, subjected in his youth and early manhood to
all the degrading, stultifying, demoralizing influences of slavery, he
has left behind him, after a public life long and varied and stormy, a
name as clean and spotless as driven snow. Take notice of this, young
men, you who have ambitions, you who are aspiring to public place,
position, and power. Take notice that a public life need not be
separated from unsullied honor.

I said Frederick Douglass was great in spite of environment. Had there
been no slavery to fight, no freedom to win, he would still have been a
great man. Greatness was inherent in his being, and circumstances simply
evoked it. He was one of those choice spirits whom the Almighty sends
into this world with the stamp of a great mission on their very form and
features. Said Sam Johnson with reference to Edmund Burke: "Burke, sir,
is such a man that if you met him for the first time in the street,
where you were stopped by a drove of oxen, and you and he stepped aside
to take shelter but for five minutes, he'd talk to you in such a manner
that when you parted you would say, 'This is an extraordinary man.'"

The same could doubtless have been said of Douglass; but it was not
necessary to hear him talk, to discover his unusual ability and
surpassing intelligence. There was in his very presence something that
instantly indicated these. An eminent divine said some years ago that
Douglass's escape from slavery was a very fortunate thing for the South,
as in any uprising of slaves he must have proved a very formidable
leader. "He had," said he, "the mind to plan, the heart to dare, and the
hand to execute," and added, "If you were to see him sitting in Exeter
Hall in the midst of a sea of faces, you would instantly recognize in
him a man of extr