of excellence
is seen in living orators, and in all the eloquence and learning of
antiquity which time has spared and history has transmitted to us. It is
said that when Aristides wrote the sentence of his own banishment for a
humble and unknown enemy, the only reason given by the peasant was that
he was "tired with hearing him called the Just." And the world sometimes
appears to be restive under the influence of men of talent; but that
influence, whether always agreeable or not, is both permanent and
beneficial.

Not only does each generation respect its own leading minds, but it is
submissive to the learning and intellect of other days. The influence of
ancient Greece still remains. We copy her architecture, borrow from her
philosophy, admire her poetry, and bow with humility before the remnants
of her majestic literature. So the policy of Rome is perceptible in the
civilization of every European country, and it is a potent element in
the laws and jurisprudence of America. The eloquence of Demosthenes has
been impressed upon every succeeding generation of civilized men; the
genius of Hannibal has stimulated the ambition of warriors from his own
time to that of Napoleon; while Shakspeare's power has been the wonder
of all modern authors and readers. It is a great representative fact in
mental philosophy, which we cannot too much contemplate, that
Demosthenes and Cicero not only enchained the thousands of Greece and
Rome in whose presence they stood, but that their eloquence has had a
controlling influence over myriads to whom the language in which they
spoke was unknown. The words that the houseless Homer sung in the
streets of Smyrna have commanded the admiration of all later times; and
even the mud walls around Plato's garden, on which are preserved the
fragments of statuary with which the garden was once adorned, attract
and instruct the wanderers and students about Athens.

But let us not deceive ourselves with the idea that we can illustrate
anew the greatness which has distinguished a few men only in all the
long centuries of the world's existence. Be not imitators nor followers
of other men's glory. There is a path for each one, and his duty lies
therein. Yet the leading men of the world are lights which ought not to
be hid from the young, for they serve to show the extent of the field in
which human powers may be employed. The rule of the successful life is
to neglect no present opportunity of good either to