incomparable delineation of bones
and muscles was but a means to an end; it was the human heart, the
throes of human passion, that his master-hand laid bare. Raphael
congratulated himself, and thanked God that he had given him life in
the same age with that painter; and Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his last
address to the Academy, "reflected, not without vanity, that his
Discourses bore testimony to his admiration of that truly divine man,
and desired that the last words he pronounced in that academy, and
from that chair, might be the name of Michael Angelo."[1]

The fame of these illustrious men has long been placed beyond the
reach of cavil. Criticism cannot reach, envy cannot detract from,
emulation cannot equal them. Great present celebrity, indeed, is no
guarantee for future and enduring fame; in many cases, it is the
reverse, but there is a wide difference between the judgment of the
present and that of future ages. The favour of the great, the passions
of the multitude, the efforts of reviewers, the interest of
booksellers, a clique of authors, a coterie of ladies, accidental
events, degrading propensities, often enter largely into the
composition of present reputation. But opinion is freed from all these
disturbing influences by the lapse of time. The grave is the greatest
of all purifiers. Literary jealousy, interested partiality, vulgar
applause, exclusive favour, alike disappear before the hand of death.
We never can be sufficiently distrustful of present opinion, so
largely is it directed by passion or interest. But we may rely with
confidence on the judgment of successive generations on departed
eminence; for it is detached from the chief cause of present
aberration. So various are the prejudices, so contradictory the
partialities and predilections of men, in different countries and ages
of the world, that they never can concur through a course of centuries
in one opinion, if it is not founded in truth and justice. The _vox
populi_ is often little more than the _vox diaboli_; but the voice of
ages is the voice of God.

It is of more moment to consider in what the greatness of these
illustrious men really consists--to what it has probably been
owing--and in what particulars they bear an analogy to each other.

They are all three distinguished by one peculiarity, which doubtless
entered largely into their transcendent merit--they wrote in the
infancy of civilization. Homer, as all the world knows, is the oldes