ans, but he did not repel the end, and, without directly encouraging,
he protected its authors. His ambition was ennobled by the greatness and
justice of the cause to which it was attached--the cause of religious
liberty and of the balance of power in Europe. Never did man make a vast
political design more exclusively the thought and purpose of his life
than William did. The work which he accomplished on the field or in the
cabinet was his passion; his own aggrandizement was but the means to
that end. Whatever were his views on the crown of England, he never
attempted to realize them by violence and disorder. His mind was too
well regulated not to know the incurable vice of such means, and too
lofty to accept the yoke they impose. But when the career was opened to
him by England herself, he did not suffer himself to be deterred from
entering on it by the scruples of a private man; he wished his cause to
triumph, and he wished to reap the honor of the triumph. Rare and
glorious mixture of worldly ability and Christian faith, of personal
ambition and devotion to public ends!

Washington had no ambition; his country wanted him to serve her, and he
became great rather from a sense of duty than from taste; sometimes even
with a painful effort. The trials of his public life were bitter to him;
he preferred independence and repose to the exercise of power. But he
accepted, without hesitation, the task which his country imposed on him,
and in fulfilling it did nothing to diminish its burden. Born to govern,
though he had no delight in governing, he told the American people what
he believed to be true, and persisted in doing what he thought wise,
with a firmness as unshaken as it was simple, and a sacrifice of
popularity the more meritorious as it was not compensated by the
pleasures of domination. The servant of an infant republic, in which the
democratic spirit prevailed, he won the confidence of the people by
maintaining its interests in opposition to its inclinations. While
founding a new government, he practiced that policy, at once modest and
severe, measured and independent, which seems to belong only to the head
of an aristocratic senate ruling over an ancient state. His success does
equal honor to Washington and to his country.

Whether we consider the general destiny of nations, or the lives of the
great men whom they have produced; whether we are treating of a monarchy
or a republic, an aristocratic or a democratic so