CHAPTER XI. GREAT MEN. General Principles of Human Greatness-Copernicus-Sobieski-Kosciusko -Other Great Men of Poland. SECTION I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN GREATNESS. THUS far we have viewed Poland in her sombrous phases; and with pleasure we may now turn to the contemplation of her great men, which affords the most brilliant view in her dark history. Variety is one of the most interesting laws in the universe; and its prevalence is not less extensive in the moral, than in the material world. In every direction we find all creation adorned, enriched, and beautified with the most lovely and thrilling diversity, designed to cheer and encourage us in the pursuit of virtue and happiness, and confirm our hopes and future prospects. The mineral kingdom has scattered its choicest metals and gems in the barren rocks and sands of uncultivated regions; and thereby, not unfrequently rendering the sterile mountains and deserts more valuable for their minerals than the most fertile soils for their productions. The sweetest flowers of the botanical kingdom, beautifully variegate the more common plants of every hill and valley in the globe's circumference; and the feathered songsters relieve the tedium of the world, by the sweetest notes of their musical art, in every lawn, hill, and valley known to man. Nor is this interesting law wanting in the moral world. History knows no age, no clime, no human society entirely destitute of noble specimens of moral excellence. The antediluvians had their Noah; Sodom and Gomorrah their Lot; Egypt had her Joseph; the children of Israel, while in the wilderness, had Moses; the Jews were blessed with the prophets and apostles; and even the midnight gloom of human history in the middle ages, had its sunny spots of moral character. With equal delight we may contemplate the great and good men of Poland, as found in the characters of Nicholas Copernicus, John Sobieski, and Thaddeus Kosciusko, whose names have come down to us, as three of the greatest and best men of their age. To say nothing of numerous other great men of Poland, the world is under lasting obligations to unfortunate Sarmatia, for benefiting and adorning the human family, with these three distinguished men. In order to form a true estimate of great men, and describe them with justice and profit, we must view them at all points, and in all their different phases, as we would the ancient and sublime pyramids of Egypt. They have their dark, bright, distant, and near views; as well as their real and looming points of vision. And as we walk around these towering monuments of human greatness, every step presents to our wondering view new objects of admiration, fresh beauties, and sublimities. The picture of a great man's character, like the immortal paintings of Dubuffe, never ceases to please, never fails to interest; and the more we examine the canvas of this eminent French artist, in his pictures of Adam and Eve, the Princess of Capua, Don Juan, John the Baptist, and the Circassian Slave-which are admitted by all the world to be specimens of the greatest works of the pencil which have ever been produced-the more certain and lasting are our convictions, that they all fail in comparison with the moral picture of a great man's talents, drawn out in living characteristics, by the Great Master of all arts in his providence; where the scintillations of genius, the beautiful tints of moral light and shade, relieve the picture from the canvas, and present the whole moral character in such beautiful and symmetrical form, as will not fail to give us a full view of all the intellectual, moral, and physical powers of the truly great man. In all our estimates of great men, we must take them as we find them-as they really are, and not what they should be. It would be the height of human folly to attempt any alterations in the beauty of the violet, the strength of the oak, the colors of the rainbow, the brilliancy of lightning, or the majesty of thunder. So in describing a great man, we must hold him up to view in his original character, as he has formed it, remembering, "There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Human greatness has four general features: Intellectual greatness, moral greatness, physical greatness, and active greatness. When all these general characteristics are harmoniously and symmetrically united, they form a truly great man in every sense of the word. Washington possessed all these in an eminent degree. Napoleon possessed intellectual, physical, and active greatness; but he was sadly deficient in moral excellence. Bonaparte's intellectual powers, his physical powers, and great ability of endurance, with his unparalleled activity in executing his mighty and far-seeing plans, were never surpassed by a human being; but his morals and religion were a sad compound of corruption and reckless ambition. Washington's great and good mind could plan the operations of a battle-field, or the more weighty affairs of state, with equal success; his physical strength was gigantic-his activity as quick as thought; and amid all this greatness, and all this weight of human responsibility, he could meekly and reverently bow his knees under the shade of a forest tree, while a mark for the Indian's rifle, on the eve of battle, and invoke the blessing of Heaven for the success of his arms, and the freedom of his country. In addition to all this, we find great modesty, simplicity, wisdom, self-control, spotless integrity, frugality, industry, untiring perseverance, pure morality, and saving piety, as in the character of Martin Luther -the invariable and prevailing characteristics of great and good men. The two leading features of all great men, are discovery and demonstration. But few possess them both. It is one thing to discover and another to demonstrate, explain, and reduce to practice. There are other considerations worthy of notice in the history of great men First, the peculiar times in which they live; second, the peculiar duties they have to perform; third, the means they enjoy for the accomplishment of their arduous labors; and, fourth, their comparative success. There always seems to be a providential adaptation of great men to their times and place. There never was a period in the history of religion, when Martin Luther could have done his great work, except his own peculiar life and times. That a modest, retiring, unknown, untitled, poor boy, should rise up, just as the darkness of the middle ages was retiring before the dawning rays of the fifteenth century-that this youthful monk, battling and cutting his way through the opposition of his parents, his friends, his associates and superiors-without weapons, without aid, without any other means than moral excellence, moral truth, and the aid of Heaven; and under all these discouraging embarrassments, should conquer kings, nations, and continents, and finally the whole world, are themes of the moral sublime, seldom found in the annals of literature. Every great man has his time and place. To say why a great man makes his appearance at a certain time and place, possessing powers adapted to his times, which no other person ever had, and how the great works of progression and reform are accomplished by him, are questions beyond our power to answer; yet, such is the fact, and we must take it as we find it. The great man always finds his country in want of him, and his work is ready for his hands. His labors are of two kinds: First, to understand his work; and, second, to perform it. It is necessary, first, to understand the wants of his day, and its real present exigencies, and what society really needs to enable it to subsist and attain its natural development. He understands these wants better than any other person of his time, and knows better than other how to control the powers of society, and direct them successfully towards the accomplishment of his proposed end. Hence, the great man, as soon as he appears, and makes known his superior knowledge and skill, is readily understood, accepted, followed, and honored; and all lend him their aid in accomplishing the great mission for which he is sent. After obtaining the knowledge of his work, he next advances fearlessly and courageously to its accomplishment. any |