essay.


GREATNESS.

You cannot substitute any epithet for great, when you are talking of
great men. Greatness is not general dexterity carried to any
extent; nor proficiency in any one subject of human endeavour.
There are great astronomers, great scholars, great painters, even
great poets who are very far from great men. Greatness can do
without success and with it. William is greater in his retreats
than Marlborough in his victories. On the other hand, the
uniformity of Caesar's success does not dull his greatness.
Greatness is not in the circumstances, but in the man.

What does this greatness then consist in? Not in a nice balance of
qualities, purposes, and powers. That will make a man happy, a
successful man, a man always in his right depth. Nor does it
consist in absence of errors. We need only glance back at any list
that can be made of great men, to be convinced of that. Neither
does greatness consist in energy, though often accompanied by it.
Indeed, it is rather the breadth of the waters than the force of the
current that we look to, to fulfil our idea of greatness. There is
no doubt that energy acting upon a nature endowed with the qualities
that we sum up in the word cleverness, and directed to a few clear
purposes, produces a great effect, and may sometimes be mistaken for
greatness. If a man is mainly bent upon his own advancement, it
cuts many a difficult knot of policy for him, and gives a force and
distinctness to his mode of going on which looks grand. The same
happens if he has one pre-eminent idea of any kind, even though it