is lower world: to such
alone can the epithet of great be applied with its true emphasis.
There is a congruity in their proceedings which one loves to
contemplate: 'he who would write heroic poems, should make his whole
life a heroic poem.'

So thought our Milton; and, what was more difficult, he acted so. To
Milton, the moral king of authors, a heroic multitude, out of many
ages and countries, might be joined; a 'cloud of witnesses,' that
encompass the true literary man throughout his pilgrimage, inspiring
him to lofty emulation, cheering his solitary thoughts with hope,
teaching him to struggle, to endure, to conquer difficulties, or, in
failure and heavy sufferings, to

'arm th' obdured breast
With stubborn patience as with triple steel.'

To this august series, in his own degree, the name of Schiller may be
added.

Schiller lived in more peaceful times than Milton; his history is less
distinguished by obstacles surmounted, or sacrifices made to
principle; yet he had his share of trials to encounter; and the
admirers of his writings need not feel ashamed of the way in which he
bore it. One virtue, the parent of many others, and the most essential
of any, in his circumstances, he possessed in a supreme degree; he was
devoted with entire and unchanging ardour to the cause he had embarked
in. The extent of his natural endowments might have served, with a
less eager character, as an excuse for long periods of indolence,
broken only by fits of casual exertion: with him it was but a new
incitement to improve and develop them. The Ideal Man that lay within
him, the image of himself as he _should_ be, was formed upon a strict
and curious standard; and to reach this constantly approached and
constantly receding emblem of perfection, was the unwearied effort of
his life. This crowning principle of conduct, never ceasing to inspire
his energetic mind, introduced a consistency into his actions, a firm
coherence into his character, which the changeful condition of his
history rendered of peculiar importance. His resources, his place of
residence, his associates, his worldly prospects, might vary as they
pleased; this purpose did not vary; it was ever present with him to
nerve every better faculty of his head and heart, to invest the
chequered vicissitudes of his fortune with a dignity derived from
himself. The zeal of his nature overcame the temptations to that
loitering and indecision, that fl