at those great moments of crisis in the fortunes of his country, when Earth and Heaven seemed actually to meet, and his emotions became too intense for suppression; but his whole being was one continued act of faith in the eternal, intelligent, moral order of the Universe. Integrity was so completely the law of his nature, that a planet would sooner have shot from its sphere, than he have departed from his uprightness, which was so constant, that it often seemed to be almost impersonal.

12. They say of Giotto, that he introduced goodness into the art of painting: Washington carried it with him to the camp and the cabinet, and established a new criterion of human greatness. The purity of his will confirmed his fortitude; and, as he never faltered in his faith in virtue, he stood fast by that which he knew to be just; free from illusions; never dejected by the apprehension of the difficulties and perils that went before him; and drawing the promise of success from the justice of his cause. Hence he was persevering, leaving nothing unfinished; free from all taint of obstinacy in his firmness; seeking and gladly receiving advice, but immovable in his devotedness to right.

13. Of a "retiring modesty and habitual reserve," his ambition was no more than the consciousness of his power, and was subordinate to his sense of duty: he took the foremost place, for he knew, from inborn magnanimity, that it belonged to him, and he dared not withhold the service required of him: so that, with all his humility, he was by necessity the first, though never for himself or for private ends.

14. He loved fame, the approval of coming generations, the good opinion of his fellow-men of his own time; and he desired to make his conduct coincide with their wishes: but not fear of censure, not the prospect of applause, could tempt him to swerve from rectitude; and the praise which he coveted was the sympathy of that moral sentiment which exists in every human breast, and goes forth only to the welcome of virtue.

15. This also is the praise of Washington, that never in the tide of time has any man lived who had in so great a degree the almost divine faculty to command the confidence of his fellow-men, and rule the willing. Wherever he became known, in his family, his neighborhood, his county, his native State, the continent, the camp, civil life, the United States, among the common people, in foreign Courts, throughout the civilized world of the human race, and even among the savages, he, beyond all other men, had the confidence of his kind.

GEORGE BANCROFT.

LXXVI. THE RESULTS OF WORK.

1. Independence and self-respect are essential to happiness; and these are never to be attained without earnest work. It is impossible that a man shall be a drone, and go through life without a purpose which contemplates worthy results, and, at the same time, maintain his self-respect. No idle man, however rich

he may be, can feel the genuine independence of him who earns honestly and manfully his daily bread.

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2. The idle man stands outside of God's plan, side the ordained scheme of things; and the truest selfrespect, the noblest independence, and the most genuine dignity, are not to be found there. The man who does his part in life, who pursues a worthy end, and who takes care of himself, is the happy man. There is a great deal of cant afloat about the dignity of labor, uttered mostly, perhaps, by those who know little about it experimentally; but labor has a dignity which attaches

to little else that is human.

3. To labor rightly and earnestly is to walk in the golden track that leads to God. It is to adopt the regimen of manhood and womanhood. It is to come into sympathy with the great struggle of humanity toward perfection. It is to adopt the fellowship of all the great and good the world has ever known. I suppose that all God's purposes in work are fulfilled in the completion of the discipline of the worker; and the results of work are doubtless laid under tribute for this end.

4. How wonderful a being is man, when viewed in the light of his achievements! It is in the record of these that we find the evidence of his power, and the credentials of his glory. Into the results of work each generation pours its life; and, as the results grow in excellence, with broader forms, and richer tints, and nobler meanings, they become the indexes of the world's progress. We estimate the life of a generation by what

it does; and the results of its work stand out in advance of its successor, to show it what it can do, and to show it what it must do, to reach a finer consummation.

5. Thus Work, in her results, lifts each generation in the world's progress from step to step, shortening the ladder upon which the angels ascend and descend, and climbing by ever brighter and broader gradations toward the ultimate perfection. A new and more glorious gift of power compensates for each worthy expenditure; so that it is by work that man carves his way to that measure of power which will fit him for his destiny, and leave him nearest God.

6. Hammer away, thou sturdy smith, at that bar of iron for thou art bravely forging thy own destiny. Weave on in glad content, industrious worker of the mill! for thou art weaving cloth of gold, though thou seest not its luster. Plow and plant, and rear and reap, ye tillers of the soil! for those brown acres of yours are pregnant with nobler fruitage than that which hung in Eden. Let Commerce fearlessly send out her ships; for there is a haven where they will arrive at last, with freighted wealth below, and flying streamers above, and jubilant crews between. Working well for the minor good and the chief good of life, you shall win your way to the great consummation, and find in your hands the golden key that will open for you the riddle of your history.

DR. J. G. HOLLAND.

1. What the painter wants, in addition to, and as the complement of other elements, is genius and sense; what the doctor needs to crown and give worth and safety to his accomplishments, is sense and genius: in the first case, more of this, than of that; in the second, more of that, than of this.

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2. And what is genius? and what is sense? Genius is a peculiar native aptitude, or tendency, to any one calling or pursuit over all others. A man may genius for governing, for killing, or for curing the greatest number of men, and in the best possible manner: a man may have a genius for the fiddle, or for the tight-rope or the jew's-harp; or it may be a natural turn for seeking, and finding, and teaching truth, and for doing the greatest possible good to mankind; or it may be a turn equally natural for seeking, and finding, and teaching a lie, and doing the maximum of mischief. It was as natural, as inevitable, for Wilkie to develop himself into a painter, and into such a painter as we know him to have been, as it is for an acorn when planted to grow up into an oak.

3. But genius, and nothing else, is not enough, even for a painter; he must likewise have sense; and what is sense? Sense drives, or ought to drive, the coach; sense regulates, combines, restrains, commands, all the rest- even the genius; and sense implies exactness and soundness, power and promptitude of mind.

4. But it may be asked, how are the brains to be