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from the intolerable state of perspiration which this accident had caused, I wiped my face, without considering what I did. with that ill-fated handkerchief, which was still wet from the consequences of the fall of Xenophon, and covered all my features with streaks of ink in every direction. The baronet himself could not support this shock, but joined his lady in the general laugh; while I sprung from the table in despair, rushed out of the house, and ran home in an agony of confusion and disgrace, which the most poignant sense of guilt could not have excited.

50. King Richard's Resignation.

Scroop. MORE health and happiness betide my liege, Than can my care-tuned tongue deliver him!

King Richard. My ear is open, and my heart prepared;

The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold.

Say, is my kingdom lost? Why, 'twas my care;
And what loss is it to be rid of care?

Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we?
Greater he shall not be! If he serve God,
We'll serve him too, and be his fellow so.
Revolt our subjects? That we cannot mend;
They break their faith to God, as well as us.
Scroop. Glad am I that your highness is so armed
To bear the tidings of calamity.

Like an unseasonable, stormy day,

Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores,

As if the world were all dissolved to tears,

So high above his limits swells the rage

Of Bolingbroke, covering your fearful land.

With hard, bright steel, and hearts more hard than steel
White beards have armed their thin and hairless scalps
Against thy majesty; boys, with women's voices,

Strive to speak big, and clasp their feeble joints
In stiff, unwieldy arms, against thy crown.
The very beadsmen learn to bend their bows,
Of double fatal yew, against thy state,

And distaff women manage rusty bills.

K. Rich. Too well, too well thou tell'st a tale so ill. Where is the Earl of Wiltshire? Where is Bagot? What is become of Bushy? Where is Green?

- No matter where; of comfort no man speak. Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs; Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth.

-

And yet not so for what can we bequeath,
Save our deposéd bodies to the ground?

Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke's;
And nothing can we call our own but death,
And that small model of the barren earth,
Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.
For Heaven's sake, let us sit upon the ground,
And tell sad stories of the death of kings -
How some have been deposed; some slain in war;
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;
Some poisoned by their wives; some sleeping killed
All murdered. For within the hollow crown,
That rounds the mortal temples of a king,
Keeps Death his court; and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state, and grinning at his pomp ;
Allowing him a breath, a little scene

To monarchize, be feared, and kill with looks;
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
As if this flesh, which walls about our life,
Were brass impregnable; and humored thus,
Comes at the last, and with a little pin

Bores through his castle walls; and, farewell, king!
Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and biood
With solemn reverence; throw away respect,

Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty,

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For you have but mistook me all this while.

I live on bread, like you; feel want, like you;

Taste grief, need friends.

Subjected thus,
How can you say to me I am a king?"

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SHAKSPEARE.

51. Every Man is great.

It is only our A man is great The grandeur of

EVERY man, in every condition, is great. own diseased sight which makes him little. as a man, be he where or what he may. his nature turns to insignificance all outward distinctions. His powers of intellect, of conscience, of love, of knowing God, of perceiving the beautiful, of acting on his own mind, on outward nature, and on his fellow-creatures, these are glorious prerogatives.

Through the vulgar error of undervaluing what is common, we are apt, indeed, to pass these by as of little worth. But, as in the outward creation, so in the soul, the common is the most precious. Science and art may invent splendid modes of illuminating the apartments of the opulent; but these are all poor and worthless, compared with the common light which the sun sends into all our windows, which he pours freely, impartially, over hill and valley, which kindles daily the eastern and western sky; and so the common lights of reason, and conscience, and love, are of more worth and dignity than the rare endowments which give celebrity to a few.

Let us not disparage that nature which is common to all men; for no thought can measure its grandeur. It is the image of God, the image even of his infinity; for no limits can be set to its unfolding. He who possesses the divine powers of the soul is a great being, be his place what it may You may clothe him with rags, may immure him in a dun

geon, may chain him to slavish tasks; but he is still great. You may shut him out of your houses; but God opens to him heavenly mansions.

He makes no show, indeed, in the streets of a splendid city; but a clear thought, a pure affection, a resolute act of a virtuous will, have a dignity of quite another kind, and far higher, than accumulations of brick, and granite, and plaster, and stucco, however cunningly put together, or though stretching far beyond our sight. Nor is this all. If we pass over this grandeur of our common nature, and turn out thoughts to that comparative greatness which draws chief attention, and which consists in the decided superiority of the individual to the general standard of power and character, we shall find this as free and frequent a growth among the obscure and unnoticed as in more conspicuous walks of life.

The truly great are to be found every where; nor is it easy to say in what condition they spring up most plentifully. Real greatness has nothing to do with a man's sphere. It does not lie in the magnitude of his outward agency, in the extent of the effects which he produces. The greatest men may do comparatively little abroad. Perhaps the greatest in our city at this moment are buried in obscurity.

Grandeur of character lies wholly in force of soul, that is, in force of thought, moral principle, and love; and this may be found in the humblest condition of life. A man brought up to an obscure trade, and hemmed in by the wants of a growing family, may, in his narrow sphere, perceive more. clearly, discriminate more keenly, weigh evidence more wisely, seize on the right means more decisively, and have more presence of mind in difficulty, than another who has accumulated vast stores of knowledge by laborious study; and he has more of intellectual greatness. Many a man, who has gone but a few miles from home, understands human nature better, detects motives and weighs characters more sagaciously, than another who has travelled over the known world, and made a name by his reports of different countries. It is force of thought which measures intellectual, and

so it is force of principle which measures moral greatness, that highest of human endowments, that brightest manifestation of the Divinity.

52. The Same, continued.

THE greatest man is he who chooses the right with invincible resolution, who resists the sorest temptations from within and without, who bears the heaviest burdens' cheerfully, who is calmest in storms and most fearless under menace and frowns, whose reliance on truth, on virtue, on God, is most unfaltering; and is this a greatness which is apt to make a show, or which is most likely to abound in conspicuous station?

The solemn conflict of reason with passion; the victories of moral and religious principle over urgent and almost irresistible solicitations to self-indulgence; the hardest sacrifices of duty, those of deep-seated affection, and of the heart's fondest hopes; the consolations, hopes, joys, and peace of disappointed, persecuted, scorned, deserted virtue, these are, of course, unseen; so that the true greatness of human life is almost wholly out of sight.

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Perhaps in our presence the most heroic deed on earth is done in some silent spirit, the loftiest purpose cherished, the most generous sacrifice made, and we do not suspect it. I believe this greatness to be most common among the multitude whose names are never heard. Among common people will be found more of hardship borne manfully, more of unvarnished truth, more of religious trust, more of that generosity which gives what the giver needs himself, and more of a wise estimate of life and death, than among the more prosperous.

And even in regard to influence over other beings, which is thought the peculiar prerogative of distinguished station, I

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