to the most intelligent, give the same plea|sure as a noble and magnificent building. They may discover as much both of taste and genius in the one as in the other. But their effects are still vastly different, and the amusement derived from the first, ne|ver approaches to the wonder and admi|ration which are sometimes excited by the second. We may believe of many men, that their talents are superior to those of Caesar and Alexander; and that in the same situations they would perform still greater actions. In the mean time, however, we do not behold them with that astonish|ment and admiration with which those two heroes have been regarded in all ages and na|tions. The calm judgments of the mind may approve of them more, but they want the splendor of great actions to dazzle and trans|port it. The superiority of virtues and talents have not, even upon those who acknowledge that superiority, the same effect with the superiority of atchievements.
As the merit of an unsuccessful attempt to do good seems thus, in the eyes of un|grateful mankind, to be diminished by the miscarriage, so does likewise the demerit of an unsuccessful attempt to do evil. The
