ll in Switzerland, Henri IV. among the French, and
Washington among the Americans; and those who are still living, and upon
whose daily doings a multitude of eyes are fixed.

Those of the first class reign singly; their uncontested sway is over
national character, as well as the affections of individual minds; and
from their character may that of the whole people be, in certain
respects, inferred. Who supposes that the Swiss would have been the same
as they are, if Tell's character and deeds could have been hidden in
oblivion from the moment those deeds were done? What would the Americans
have been now if every impression of Washington could have been effaced
from their minds fifty years ago? This is not the place in which to
enlarge on the power--the greatest power we know of--which man exercises
over men through their affections; but it is a fact which the observer
should keep ever in view. The existence of a great man is one of those
gigantic circumstances,--one of those national influences,--which have
before been mentioned as modifying the conscience--the feelings about
right and wrong--in a whole people. The pursuits of a nation for ever
may be determined by the fact of the great man of five centuries being a
poet, a warrior, a statesman, or a maritime adventurer. The morals of a
nation are influenced to all eternity by the great man's being ambitious
or moderate, passionate or philosophical, licentious or self-governed.
Certain lofty qualities he must have, or he could not have attained
greatness,--energy, perseverance, faith, and consequently earnestness.
These are essential to his immortality; upon the others depends the
quality of his influence; and upon these must the observer of the
present generation reflect.

It is not by dogmas that Christianity has permanently influenced the
mind of Christendom. No creeds are answerable for the moral revolution
by which physical has been made to succumb to moral force; by which
unfortunates are cherished by virtue of their misfortunes; by which the
pursuit of speculative truth has become an object worthy of
self-sacrifice. It is the character of Jesus of Nazareth which has
wrought to these purposes. Notwithstanding all the obscuration and
defilement which that character has sustained from superstition and
other corruption, it has availed to these purposes, and must prevail
more and more now that it is no longer possible to misrepresent his
sayings and conceal his deeds,