History is replete with examples of the vulgar great who have obtained
high consideration in the world, by their lucky association with
moving incidents, and who, without any intrinsic impulse, have tamely
lent {109} themselves to the current of swelling events; nor are the
instances rare, although rarely appreciated, of great virtue and
capacity struggling in the tide of adversity, and sinking, not from
any defect of their own resources, but by the depression of their
fortune, and who have thus forfeited the world's applause, which
awaits rather the prosperous than the deserving. But such is not the
estimate of men and events which history owes to posterity; and in
transmitting worth to fame, she should pay no adulation to fortune. In
her discriminating page the character of John Smith will stand
conspicuous, unclouded by the obscurity of the times, and the
adversity of the events in which he acted and suffered--conspicuous
for a constellation of high and shining attributes, such as at once
inspire their possessor with the conception of great designs, and
qualify him for their consummation. And his claims to reputation will
not be tested merely by his achievements, when it is considered that
his destinies confined him to a range of action too narrow for his
capacity. How unjust to circumscribe his fame to the limits of a
colony, whose faculties were capable to remove and extend the confines
of empires! His glory dilates itself beyond the sphere to which it had
been assigned by circumstances, and lays claim to the merit of any
achievement possible to the greatest virtue.