And, to effect the purpose we have in view, we must select the best of our species, that have appeared on the stage of the world,—those that have come nearest to the true constitution of a man, nearest to a true image of God. The best, indeed, that history describes, are very defective, and do not by any means show all that man might be and was made to be; for history describes man only in his fallen state. Of what he was, in his original excellence, we have little information, and perhaps, even if portrayed to us, we should now have little conception—so far departed are we, at this day, from the true model of man, the real likeness of God. Nevertheless, looking at men who have actually lived in the world, and whom history describes, and who by their writings or their deeds have left an impression of themselves not to be mistaken,—we shall find enough of goodness, wisdom, and power, to give us some idea of Him who implauted those qualities: in these human works, we shall see strikingly manifested the character of the Great Workman.
It will be necessary, indeed, to select and summon before us several individuals, to serve as examples, respectively, of different excellences, such as are found united only in the Creator Himself: it is seldom that men have been seen endowed in an eminent degree with more than one, or than a few, of those highest gifts. Looking, then, over the records of time, let us call up, as instances of intellectual power—Newton and Shakspeare. In the former, Sir Isaac Newton, we behold a profound and penetrating intellect, ranging one particular field of thought, and foremost in that field. It was not, indeed, the highest class of topics on which
