3.
No purer thought
Dwelt in a seraph's breast than thine,
I must beg the reader's pardon for making Tamerlane, a Tartar of the fourteenth century, speak in the same language as a Boston gentleman of the nineteenth: but of the Tartar mythology we have little information.
4.
Which blazes upon, Edis' shrine.
A deity presiding over virtuous love, upon whose imaginary altar a sacred fire was continually blazing.
5.
—who hardly will conceive
That any should become 'great,' born
In their own sphere—
Although Tamerlane speaks this, it is not the less true. It is a matter of the greatest difficulty to make the generality of man-kind believe that one with whom they are upon terms of intimacy shall be called, in the world, a "great man." The reason is evident. There are few great men. Their actions are consequently viewed by the mass of the people through the medium of distance. The prominent parts of their character are alone noted; and those properties, which are minute and common to every one, not being observed, seem to have no connexion with a great character.
Who ever read the private memorials, correspondence, &c., which have become so common in our time, without wondering that "great men" should act and think "so abominably?"
