fire and blood, is eloquent with the deeds of many patriots, warriors,
and statesmen; but these all fall into relations to one prominent and
commanding figure, towering up above the whole group in unapproachable
majesty, whose exalted character, warm and bright with every public and
private virtue, and vital with the essential spirit of wisdom, has burst
all sectional and national bounds, and made the name of Washington the
property of all mankind.

This illustrious man, at once the world's admiration and enigma, we are
taught by a fine instinct to venerate, and by a wrong opinion to
misjudge. The might of his character has taken strong hold upon the
feelings of great masses of men; but, in translating this universal
sentiment into an intelligent form, the intellectual element of his
wonderful nature is as much depressed as the moral element is exalted,
and consequently we are apt to misunderstand both. Mediocrity has a bad
trick of idealizing itself in eulogizing him, and drags him down to its
own level while assuming to lift him to the skies. How many times have
we been told that he was not a man of genius, but a person of "excellent
common sense," of "admirable judgment," of "rare virtues"! and, by a
constant repetition of this odious cant, we have nearly succeeded in
divorcing comprehension from his sense, insight from his judgment, force
from his virtues, and life from the man. Accordingly, in the panegyric
of cold spirits, Washington disappears in a cloud of commonplaces; in
the rhodomontade of boiling patriots, he expires in the agonies of rant.
Now, the sooner this bundle of mediocre talents and moral qualities,
which its contrivers have the audacity to call George Washington, is
hissed out of existence, the better it will be for the cause of talent
and the cause of morals; contempt of that is the condition of insight.
He had no genius, it seems. O no! genius, we must suppose, is the
peculiar and shining attribute of some orator, whose tongue can spout