INDEX 201

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BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

There comes a time in the career of every man of genius who has
devoted a long life to the instruction and enlightenment of his
fellow-creatures, when he receives before his death all the honours
paid by posterity. Thus when a great essayist or historian lives to
attain a classic and world-wide fame, his own biography becomes as
interesting to the public as those he himself has written, and by
which he achieved his laurels.

This is almost always the case when a man of such cosmopolitan
celebrity outlives the ordinary allotted period of threescore years
and ten; for a younger generation has then sprung up, who only hear
of his great fame, and are ignorant of the long and painful steps
by which it was achieved. These remarks are peculiarly applicable
in regard to the man whose career we are now to dwell on for a short
time: his genius was of slow growth and development, and his fame was
even more tardy in coming; but since the world some forty years ago
fairly recognised him as a great and original thinker and teacher,
few men have left so indelible an impress on the public mind, or
have influenced to so great a degree the most thoughtful of their
contemporaries.