The true test of a great man (says Lord Brougham),—that at least which
must secure his place among the highest order of great men,—is his
having been in advance of his age. This it is which decides whether or
not he has carried forward the grand plan of human improvement; has
conformed his views and adapted his conduct to the existing
circumstances of society, or changed those so as to better its
condition; has been one of the lights of the world, or only reflected
the borrowed rays of former luminaries, and sat in the same shade with
the rest of his generation at the same twilight or the same dawn.
Nature seldom invests great men with any outward signs, from which their
greatness may be known or foretold; and yet (says Lord Dudley) I own I
share fully in that curiosity of the vulgar, which induces them to
follow after and to gaze eagerly upon the mere bodily presence of
persons that have raised themselves high above the common level.
Almost all great men who have performed, or who are destined to perform,
great things, are sparing of words. Their communing is with themselves
rather than with others. They feed upon their own thoughts, and in these
inward musings brace those intellectual and active energies, the
development of which constitutes the great character. Napoleon became a
babbler only when his fate was accomplished, and his fortune was on the
decline.
Boyle has this pertinent reflection: “There is such a kind of difference
between vertue shaded by a private, and shining forth in a publick life,
as there is betwixt a candle carri’d aloft in the open air, and inclosed
in a lanthorn; in the former place it gives more light, but in the
latter ’tis in less danger to be blown out.”[92]
The real test of greatness is courage and respect for truth, generally
the earliest precept of childhood, yet of comparatively rare observance
through life. “Without courage,” says Sir Walter Scott, “there cannot be
truth; and without truth there can be no other virtue.” And how nobly
did Scott illustrate this in his own life-practice!
Truth was the redeeming virtue of one of the favoured men of our
political history. The qualities which raised Fox high as a party leader
were not merely his eloquence, his wit, his genius, but also his
engaging warmth of heart and kindliness of temper. To these a strong
testimony may be found in the memoirs of a great historian by no means
blind to his faults, and by no means attached to his principles. On
summing up his character, many years afterwards, Gibbon writes of Fox as
follows: “Perhaps no human being was ever more perfectly exempt from the
taint of malevolence, vanity, or falsehood.”
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Footnote 92:
_Occasional Reflections._
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