[Pamphlets. American history]

12
raised them to fame or crushed them to powder. So men believed and
trusted in Washington, not merely because he was a wise and prudent man,
but because they knew him to be as utterly incapable of selfish aims and
motives as the Liberty whose cause he served.
I have spoken of a sort of mythical, superhuman grandeur, in which
Washington has been enshrined in much of our popular speech and literature.' I think that, on the other hand, there has been in some quarters a
disposition to underrate him. For this there is ample reason, yet no ground.
He seems the less, because he was so great. A perfect sphere looks smaller
than one of the same dimensions with a diversified surface. We measure
eminences by depressions, the height of mountains by the chasms that yawn
beneath them. Littlenesses of character give prominence to what there is
in it of greatness. The one virtue looms up with a fascinating grandeur
from a life full of faults. The patriot who will not pay his debts or govern
his passions often attracts more homage than if he led a sober and honest
life. The single traits of erratic genius not infrequently gain in splendor
from their relief against a background of weaknesses and follies.
We might enumerate in Washington various traits of mind and character,
either of which in equal measure would suffice for the fame of a man who
had little else that challenged approval. But what distinguishes Washington preeminently is that it is impossible to point out faults or deficiencies
that marred his work, detracted fiom his reputation, dishonored his life.
The most observed and best known man in the country for the eight years
of the war and for the other eight of his presidency, even jealousy and
partisan rancor could find no pretence for the impeachment of his discretion
or his virtue. His biographers have seemed to revel in the narrative of
some two or three occasions on which he was intensely angry, as if, like the
vulnerable heel of Achilles, they were needed to show that their hero was
still human.
But let it not be forgotten that this roundness of moral proportions, this
utter lack of picturesque diversity in his characterl, must llave been the outcome of strenuous self-discipline. His almost unruffled calmness and serenity
were the result, not of apathy, but of self-conquest. It was the fierce warfare and decisive victory within that made him the cynosure for all eyes,
and won for him the homage of all hearts that loved their country. We
know but little of the details of his private life for the first forty years or
more; but even the reverence of posterity has not succeeded in wholly
veiling from view the undoubted fiact that he was by nature vehement, impulsive, headstrong, impatient, passionate,-a man in whose blood the fiery
coursers might easily have run riot, and strewed their way with havoc.
By far the greater honor is due to him who so held them under bit, rein and
curb that masterly self-control under intensest provocation became his fore