r on
which a great part of that change has been wrought, and Washington
himself a principal agent by which it has been accomplished. His age and
his country are equally full of wonders, and of both he is the chief.

It is the spirit of human freedom, the new elevation of individual man,
in his moral, social, and political character, leading the whole long
train of other improvements, which has most remarkably distinguished the
era. Society has assumed a new character; it has raised itself from
beneath governments to a participation in governments; it has mixed
moral and political objects with the daily pursuits of individual men,
and, with a freedom and strength before altogether unknown, it has
applied to these objects the whole power of the human understanding. It
has been the era, in short, when the social principle has triumphed over
the feudal principle; when society has maintained its rights against
military power, and established on foundations never hereafter to be
shaken its competency to govern itself.

VII

WASHINGTON'S PLACE IN HISTORY

THE HIGHEST PEDESTAL

BY WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE

When I first read in detail the life of Washington, I was profoundly
impressed with the moral elevation and greatness of his character, and I
found myself at a loss to name among the statesmen of any age or country
many, or possibly any, who could be his rival. In saying this I mean no
disparagement to the class of politicians, the men of my own craft and
cloth, whom in my own land, and my own experience, I have found no less
worthy than other men of love and admiration. I could name among them
those who seem to me to come near even to him. But I will shut out the
last half century from the comparison. I will then say that if, among
all the pedestals supplied by history for public characters of
extraordinary nobility and purity, I saw one higher than all the rest,
and if I were required at a moment's notice to name the fittest occupant
for it, I think my choice at any time during the last forty-five years
would have lighted, as it would now light, upon Washington.

* * * * *

WASHINGTON IN HISTORY

BY CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW

No man ever stood for so much to his country and to mankind as George
Washington. Hamilton, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, and Jay each
represented some of the elements which formed the Union. Washington
embodied them all.

The superiority of Washington's character