Page:Lectures on Great Men.djvu/22

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

2 MARTIN LUTHER. others shall see them too to attempt things heretofore im- possible to others, and so to realize them as that henceforth others shall do them too either of these things is the token of a Great Man. The Greatest Men have been able both to See and to Do: they have combined in their characters equally insight and energy elevation of mind and decision of will. But generally speaking, Great Men may be divided into two classes ; Men of Thought and Men of Action. Of the first class are, Poets and Philosophers, Men of Science and of Art, Discoverers and Inventors. Of the second class are, Statesmen and Warriors, Refor- mers of Society and Missionaries of Truth. The Poet is a great man ; for he is one who sees the Beautiful and the Influential, the Permanent and the Spiri- tual, in all around him in Nature equally as in Man and can utter his thoughts of them so clearly and so musically as that all they who have sound hearts shall echo them. Such was Shakespere such was Milton. The Painter is a great man; for he is one who has within him a Type of Form which has no Archetype on earth, and yet can so clothe his Idea that all they who have keen eyes shall acknowledge its reality. Such was Raffaelle such was Leonardo da Vinci. The Philosopher and Man of Science are great men : for they are those who have skill to read the generally illegible handwriting of Deity which is inscribed upon His works to interpret appearances, to discover causes, to discern and to reveal the hidden springs of things, their Laws and Life; and knowing these, to conjecture something more than others of man's true position in the visible universe, and probable destiny beyond it. Such was Bacon, such was Newton. But men of this first class are not so interesting to us, or, perhaps, so instructive to us, as men of the latter ; because they are not so imitable by us. Mental endowments are most conspicuous in them, and the limit of these in ourselves