There is no subject, apparently, upon which we differ so much from the opinions expressed by authors and editors in general, as to what constitutes “ a great ipan.” When mighty statesmen and triumphant warriors belonging to any nation fall before the scythe of death, the whole land puts on sackcloth, and goes into mourning. We have seen two recent instances of this kind in different parts of the world; we allude to the death of Webster among ourselves, and that of Wellington in England. . Intellects cannot be measured by rule and square, nor can greatness be measured by public requiems and monuments. We can only form an opinion as to the greatness of men by what they have done, “ their works ye shall know them.” We hear men frequently boast of the genius of Hannibal, 'Cresar, Napoleon, and Wellington; of the intellect of Burke, Pitt, Hamilton and Webster; but neither warriors nor orators stand in the front rank of intellect, they must take a lower place than many men of science, whose greatness we seldom hear a word about. What intellect among warriors and statesmen can take rank with that of Galileo, Kepler, Leibnitz, Bacon, Newton, Euler, Wollaston, La Place, Black, Lavoisier, Davy, Watt, Boyle, Franklin, &c. We might mention others, but these are enough for our purpose. The works which these men have accomplished, affect all men ; they meet us on the right hand and on the left every day and every night, and they will do so to others through all coming ages. The victories of Hannibal were all shattered and blasted by the single defeat of Zama, and the whole of Napoleon's conquests sunk for ever on the single field of Waterloo. It is true that the speeches and writings of statesmen and orators do not perish so suddenly ; they go down and are read by succeeding generations, but at the same time new circumstances arise, which lead men who were considered wise in one generation to be looked upon by another as doubtful preceptors, or as false lights for a new age. It is different with those profound thinkers and discoverers in the scientific world; they are the intellectual Titans.— When we hear people speak of a great man, we ask what he has done, and we try his works to see if they are the genuine coin. The rolling stars by night continually remind us of Galileo, Kepler, Herschel, and La Place. There is not an apple falls to the ground but reminds us of the great Newton. The lightning fleeting from cloud to cloud, reminds us of our own Franklin, who brought it down from the skies as the hunter brings down the eagle in his flight. The lives of hundreds are saved every year by Davy's Safety Lamp. The invention of Watt has multiplied the power of man over inanimate matter more than a million fold; and the genius of Fulton has made a turnpike of the Atlantic. We would not perhaps have written upon this subject at present, but recently we have seen so much in our daily papers about great men and great intellects, and so much has been said about them by orators and others ; and comparisons between this one and that one having been made, and seeing nothing at all said about men of science and inventors, whose reasonings often took sublimer flights than the imagination of Shakespeare, we have said this much and could say a great deal more to tortify our position, that warriors and statesmen must take a lower rank for genius and intellect than those men whose names we have mentioned. There are also others, of whom we have not room to speak, but assuredly our men of science, discoverers, and inventors,are the great ones (speaking of intellect,) of the earth. Time would fail us to tell how Kepler discovered the laws which govern the planets in their orbits; how Newton arranged the whole universe before his mind, and discovered the force which guides a planet in its course, a sparrow in its flight, and the great tides of the sea which refresh and fructify our shores; ot Wollaston making metal threads finer than out of stones by galvanism; of Stephenson driving nis iron horse over mountain and moor; of Daguerre using the sun-beam tor a pencil; and of Morse the lightning for his pen. Ignorant and circumscribed/in intellect, must that man be, who, in speaking of great men, fails to perceive and mention the claims of philosophers and men of science.
This article was originally published with the title "Influence of Great Men"