Brilliant I will not call him, if the brightness of the rippling
river exceed the solemn glory of old ocean. Brilliant I will
not call him, if darkness must be visible in order to display
the light; for he had none of that rocket-like brilliancy which
flames in instant coruscation across the black brow of night,
and then is not. But if a steady, unflickering flame, slow
rising to its lofty sphere, dispensing far and wide its rays,
revealing all things on which it shines in due proportions and
large relations, making right, duty, and destiny so plain that
in the vision we are scarce conscious of the light--if this be
brilliancy, then the genius of Washington was as full-orbed
and luminous as the god of day in his zenith.--JOHN W.
DANIEL.
(3436)
=Washington’s Humility=--See LIFE, THE SIMPLE.