BX 9178 .M33 03 1864 
 Maginnis, David. 
 Of great men: with special 
 reference to Garibaldi and 
 
\uv / - la^ 
 
 OF GREAT MEN: 
 
 WITH SPECIAL EEFEEEXCE TO 
 
 GARIBALDI AND SHAKESPEARE: 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 PREACHED IN THE PRESBYTERIAN CHAPEL, STOURBRIDGE, ON SUNDAY 
 MORNING, APRIL 2i, 1864; AND PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 
 BY 
 
 DAYID MAGINNIS. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 WHITFIELD, GREEN AND SON, 178, STRAND. STOURBRIDGE : R. H, NASH. 
 
 1864. 
 
SERMON. 
 
 NOW CONSIDEE HOW GREAT THIS MAN WAS. — Heb. vii. 4. 
 
 Of Melcliisedec — the "great man" here referred to — the Scriptures 
 • — our only source of information on the subject — tell us very little. 
 All that relates to his personal history is contained in a short 
 passage in Genesis which merely states that he was " king of 
 Salem " and " priest of the most high God " ; and that, on a cer- 
 tain occasion, he shewed hospitality and gave his blessing to 
 Abraham, — in return for which kindness the patriarch presented 
 him with a tenth of spoils he had taken from a vanquished enemy. 
 In the Epistle to the Hebrews he is represented as a type of Christ. 
 " After the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest," 
 *'even Jesus, made an high-priest for ever, after the order of 
 Melchisedec." To the Author of the Epistle, the "greatness" of 
 Melchisedec evidently seems to have consisted in the fact of his 
 being a t3^pe of the Saviour, — a distinction which to his view far 
 outshone all priestly and regal honours. And yet, while exhorting 
 his readers to " consider how great this man was," his eulogist con- 
 fesses — though for a purpose of mystical interpretation — that 
 nothing was known of his antecedents, that he was "without father, 
 without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of 
 days, nor end of life." 
 
 Without at all accepting or countenancing a principle of inter- 
 pretation so fanciful as that which finds in Melchisedec an actual 
 type of Christ, we readily accept as a general truth the doctrine 
 implied, if not affirmed, in the author's estimate of the greatness 
 of Melchisedec. We would interpret it as affirming the possibility 
 of a greater "greatness" than the highest official dignities can 
 confer, and as teaching that that greatness is not dependent ou 
 caste, or rank, or pedigree — that it may be attained by men " with- 
 out father, without mother, without descent." 
 
 Of the long line of " great men " who have blessed the world 
 by their services rarely have ever any two borne any other relation 
 to each other than that of being common benefactors. It is possible, 
 we believe, by a wise cultus to secure in successive generations a 
 prevailingly well-balanced character, — to gain and maintain a 
 high standard of physical development, of intellectual culture, and 
 of moral excellence j but it is not possible, by any known cultus, 
 
to produce or perpetuate a race of " great men,"— the character- 
 istics of the greatest being seldom perceptible m any large 
 degree in either their immediate progenitors or then^ immediate 
 
 descendants. . . ,^ • i i • r. 
 
 One of the earliest and most generally-received theories by which 
 the existence of " great men " was attempted to be accounted for 
 was the notion that they were but partly human— that one of their 
 parents was an inhabitant of another world— a god or goddess,— 
 a heathen notion from which even our Christian traditions are 
 not quite free. 
 
 That this theory is an utterly inadeqnate solution ot the problem 
 I need not stay to shew. And yet, to what other source than the 
 will of God can we attribute the phenomenon ? The appearance of 
 " great men " in the world is, surely, not an accident,— unfjreseen, 
 nndesired, unprovided for, by the Creator ! Nor is it unreasonable 
 to expect that an all- wise and gracious Providence, who obviously 
 desires to promote the well-being of mankind, would arrange for 
 the appearance of " great men" as often as necessary,— now to 
 assist an oppressed people to emancipate themselves from the 
 thraldom of a wicked tyranny,— now to teach some new and use- 
 ful art whose apphcation would multiply human comforts,— now 
 to aid mankind to interpret more fully the Divine Will, and to 
 realize the higher purposes and the solemn responsibihties of human 
 life. Why should we doubt the existence of such provision m the 
 Divine economy ? He who beneficently supplies every condition 
 necessary for the well-being of the humblest rank of insect life is 
 sure to provide all things needful to promote the best interests of 
 the human family. . 
 
 But " great men " are not needed in the common atfairs ot 
 every-day life ; and they are, therefore, not provided in large 
 nnmbers ;— for Providence is not wasteful. Whole races of" great 
 men " were a mistake. It were not an improvement on the pre- 
 sent arrano-ement of the natural world if every vegetable of the 
 crarden, or herb of the pasture, were made to exhibit the gigantic 
 proportions of the forest-oak, or if every hillock were changed 
 into a mountain. As it is not desirable that there should be whole 
 races of " great men," it is not to be expected that the sons of 
 " great men " shall also be " great." In saying this, we are but 
 statin 0-, in an abstract form, the concrete facts of history. It i3 
 quite exceptional for the child of the " oTcat man " to inherit the 
 distinguishing qualities of his parent. Pteally " great men " have 
 been comparatively few, and they appear at considerable intervals, 
 " without father, without mother, without descent." 
 
 Then, are "great men " the product of supernatural agency f 
 Yes ! No ! In answering "Yes " I mean to assert that the plan of 
 Creation and Providence is adequate, is perfect ; that it anticipates 
 every contingency, provides for every possibility. I answer " No 
 
if it is meant to be asserted that the introduction of ^' great men" 
 is something not provided for in the Divine economy, and requires 
 to be considered as occasion for them arises. In the government 
 of the moral world the provision for the introduction of " great 
 men " seems to me to have been as really a part of the Divine 
 plan, as in the physical world it was the design of Providence that 
 the waters of the earth should flow in rivers to the sea. 
 
 Nor is the phenomenon of a great river an unfitting illustration 
 of the phenomenon of a " great man." The river at its source 
 may be only a little streamlet ; but in its course it receives tribu- 
 taiy after tributary until what was a tiny stream becomes a 
 mighty river, — the larger the area it drains, all other things being 
 equal, the larger its volume, and the greater its uses. And not 
 otherwise is it with the "great man." He is the product of the 
 accumulated forces of his age. In the parish register he is entered 
 with literal accuracy as the son of So and So ; but in regard to 
 his "greatness " — in the aspirations, sympathies and aims of his life 
 - — he is the Son of the Nation with its heart's blood suro-ing 
 in his veins, — of his Age with its spirit, its hopes, its sorrows, its 
 desires seething in his soul. He is a Son of Man, — owing his 
 parentage of greatness to the wants and aspirations of a people 
 struggling for political or social regeneration, or to their agonized 
 efforts to solve the problem of the perplexities and the mysteries 
 of our earthly life, with its hopes and fears and issues. They all 
 bad followed their several lines of thought and action as far as 
 they could. Each one had his own little solution or plan which, 
 though not without its grain of truth or wisdom, every other 
 jDerson saw to be totally inade({uate. Yet each earnest effort was 
 an impulse, an increase of the accumulated forces, that, one day, 
 would be strong enough to produce the desired result. 
 
 At length the stream of influences has reached its height : the 
 crisis has come : and tlte hour brings the man. The fragments 
 of wisdom, the glimmerings of light and truth, the aspirations and 
 aims, that lay scattered in the minds of myriads, are all harmoni- 
 owsly blended in the " great man." In his hand he gathers up 
 and holds firmly the threads of faith and hope which myriads had 
 spun out of their hearts. When he speaks, it is to give expression 
 to sentiments which thousands had vaguely cherished, — had 
 earnestly striven, but utterly failed, to clothe in language. And 
 when he acts, he exhibits a tenderness of feeling, a spirit of hero- 
 ism, or a purity and elevation of motive, which men, in their day- 
 dreams, may have thought not impossible, but which they had 
 little hope of ever seeing realized in actual life. And when such 
 a man appears, all who from any of these causes are in sympathy 
 with him, receive him with one accord as their rightful sovereign. 
 Though he is their own son, born of their ardent aspirations, 
 he is at the same time their king and leader, — beinor the livino: 
 
embodiment of their dearest hopes and highest aims ; and they 
 cannot, even if they would, withhold their allegiance. 
 
 True greatness is often confounded with a mental quality with 
 which it has no necessary connection, viz., Originality, the 
 ability to produce something absolutely new. This conception of 
 greatness is not merely erroneous, it is also practically dangerous. 
 It is erroneous, because it is opposed to fact : the greatest of 
 " great men " have not been original in the sense indicated. And 
 it is dangerous, because it betrays weak men, afflicted with an 
 ambition to be considered great, into miserable and ridiculous affec- 
 tations of originality. They try as mu<3h as they can to be unlike 
 everybody else : whereas real greatness consists rather in the like- 
 ness, if I may so express it, to the largest number, — he being the 
 greatest in whom the largest number can from every stand -point 
 see most of their common, jet diversified, nature in its highest 
 conceivable perfection, — in whom each can see the choicest graces 
 of his own soul in the full bloom of undreamt-of luxuriance, and 
 yielding in their season a corresponding abundance of the rich 
 fruits of wisdom and righteousness. 
 
 In reality, there is no such thing as absolute originality in hu- 
 man thought or action. That which we call originality is but a 
 distincter perception, a more accurate reading, of the less obvious 
 laws of Providence. It has its important uses, however, and we are 
 thankful for it. Yet, it does not constitute our highest idea of 
 human greatness, nor even form any necessary part of it. The 
 Astronomer may, by nice mathematical calculations, determine the 
 position of a still undiscovered planet : when he turns his telescope 
 to the heavens the new world is found in the very place his cal- 
 culations had assigned it. The Chemist, in his laboratory, by 
 patient toil and skilful analysis, discovers that a supposed simple 
 elementary substance is actually a compound, and he separates it 
 into its simpler elements. The Genius, who is nothing more than 
 a genius, soars through realms of unexplored thought, and by a 
 sort of instinct and without effort perceives and comprehends 
 hitherto unknown or imperfectly understood truths. But in none 
 of these cases have we what we mean by a " great man." We have 
 the great Astronomer, the great Chemist, the great Genius. We 
 may admire them, — admire their intellectual gifts and attain- 
 ments : we may be grateful for their discoveries ; but we are not 
 necessarily drawn towards the men themselves. They have no 
 irresistible power over us : they do not constrain our sympathies 
 nor compel our service. Nor is even their individuality of much 
 account to us. If we have the benefit of their discoveries it is of 
 little consequence who the discoverers were. 
 
 Very different is it with the really " great man," — whose great- 
 ness is the embodiment of the highest qualities of humanity,— -a 
 greatness to which every zone and clime and condition of civiliza- 
 
iion contributes its best elements. He is, verily, *' the Desire of 
 nations, " and "unto him shall the gathering of the people be." 
 To him every one feels personally related. We are drawn towards 
 the man himself, and united to him by the irresistible force of 
 common sympathies. His greatness is inseparable from his 
 individuality. Even though dead he still lives. His personality 
 is an imperishable inheritance. He lives for ever in the people's 
 hearts. 
 
 Of " great men " there are two classes which, at the present 
 time, fairly claim special notice. They may be variously described 
 as consisting — the one of men great in action, the other of men of 
 profound thought ; the one of men characterized by heroic deeds, 
 the other of men distihgnished by their prophetic wisdom ; the one 
 of men who embody the aspirations and meet the wants of a par- 
 ticular people or land, the other of men who embody the aspirations 
 and contribute to the instruction of mankind. 
 
 These two classes of "great men, "as might be expected, meet with 
 a very different reception from the mass of their contemporaries. 
 Men of heroic deeds are at once recognized, appreciated and hon- 
 oured. Some persons may have thought that John Howard was 
 a little too much of an enthusiast in the benevolent work to which 
 he devoted his life, but there was not a second opinion as to his 
 self-sacrificing heroism. So also of Florence Nightingale and all 
 other pure-minded and large-hearted benefactors of the suffering, 
 the wretched, and the wronged. Our common heart instantly, as 
 it were instinctively, recognizes the Heroes of outraged or oppressed 
 humanity, and pours out upon them the benediction of its sympa- 
 thy and love. To be fairly judged, "great men" of this class do not 
 need to appeal from their own to a futurp generation. Though 
 posterity, no doubt, will treasure their memory, their contem- 
 poraries do not fail to comprehend and appreciate their worth. 
 
 Very different from this is the fate of the other class of " great 
 men,"-— the prophets, the teachers of mankind. They are not 
 appreciated, — they are not understood even — in then* own age. 
 Standing at the base of a mountain you can form no correct idea 
 of its dimensions : it is only when you view it from a distance you 
 can form any intelligent notion of its size. Socrates, and Christ, 
 and Paul, rejected by their respective ages, are only now begin- 
 ning to be understood. Among their contemporaries^ no doubt, 
 they had sympathizing admirers and zealous disciples, and have 
 been honoured and loved in every succeeding age ; still, it is ho 
 less the fact that those great prophets are better understood in the 
 present day than they were in any preceding age ; and genera- 
 tions yet unborn will comprehend them still more fully than we do. 
 Thus is it ever with all great prophets. They are not thoroughly 
 comprehended nor properly appreciated" till long after they have 
 passed away. The treasures of wisdom they have stored up, and, 
 
dying, "beqiieafhed mankincl, it takes the united efforts of ages to 
 •estimate and distribute for the world's enrichment. 
 
 The two classes of " great men " thus indicated find striking 
 illustration in two names that are certain to suggest themselves 
 to all here assembled, — two names that are now sharing between 
 them the thoughts, the reverence, and the affection of the British 
 Nation — Garibaldi, the Hero of Italian Liberty, and Shakespeaee, 
 England's — nay, the English- speaking World's — greatest Teacher 
 of Wisdom. 
 
 GAEIBALDI. 
 
 It is impossible for anyone who is not himself at heart a despot 
 not to admire and love the great and good Garibaldi — that pui e, 
 and noble, and generous patriot. That Italy is the land for whose 
 emancipation and regeneration he lives and labours constitutes 
 of itself a claim on our gratitude, — that Italy to which, especially 
 under its former civilization, we are so largely indelDted. But 
 when we see the spirit in which he labours, — its unselfishness, its 
 loveliness — we cannot but love him. 
 
 Cincinnatus, the hero of ancient Rome, who was summoned 
 from the plough to serve his country in the hour of her need, and 
 who, when he had achieved her deliverance, returned to his farm, 
 refusing the honours and dignities a grateful people wished to 
 confer, — is surpassed in patriotic spirit and disinterested service by 
 the modern hero of Italian liberty; for he needed not to be summon- 
 ed to the service of his country, but himself planned, undertook and 
 accomplished her deliverance. I say accomjdisJiecl, — for, though 
 the emancipation of Italy is not completed, the despotism that 
 still remains cannot possibly long withstand the influences Gari- 
 baldi has set to work for the establishment of freedom throughout 
 the entire land. And then, after his great achievements, which 
 are the admiration of the entire liberty-loving world, see the noble 
 unselfishness and moral grandeur with which the deliverer of his 
 beloved country, a king-maker, retires, — unenriched and untitled, 
 yet more royal than a king, — to his humble island-home to culti- 
 vate his garden and tend his goats. 
 
 And what a great /ac^ is that hearty and enthusiastic welcome 
 with which he has been received in England ! — a welcome more 
 hearty and enthusiastic than greeted the sovereign of the greatest 
 empire that ever visited our shores. As the first king of Israel 
 was taller " from the shoulders and upward " than other men, so 
 stands, in the afiections of the English people, the patriot-hero, 
 higher " from the shoulders and upward " than the crowned and 
 sceptred monarch of imperial France or of all the Russias. "With- 
 out father, without mother, without descent," and yet honoured 
 above kings : a true man, whose brave spirit adversity could not 
 crush, and whose majestic simplicity the adulation of the greatest 
 nation in the world could not spoil. 
 
Would that the lesson of this great clemonslration of English 
 loyalty to the spirit of freedom and uncrowned royalty in the per- 
 son of Garibaldi were read and comprehended by every despotism 
 in the world ; and that tyrants would learn that there is a diviner 
 right to rule than that conferred by hereditary descent or by the 
 formalities of a coronation. He who gains for an oppressed people 
 their freedom, and establishes them in the love of truth and right- * 
 eousness, is anointed of Heaven a king above kings, and finds a 
 throne in every heart. 
 
 May Garibaldi long live to proclaim and exemplify this divine 
 royalty ! May he be long spared to assert and vindicate the rights 
 of humanity, to be a terror to tyrants, and to be admired, loved 
 and revered by the friends of true liberty all the world over ! 
 
 SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Shakespeare stands alone — unrivalled and unapproached — 
 among English Teachers of Wisdom. Though not unappreciated 
 durino- his life-time, the two -and-a-half centuries of progressing 
 enho-htenment that have elapsed since his death have but aiforded 
 constantly increasing evidence of his great prophetic power, and 
 have raised him to the foremost place among the world's modern 
 teachers. His influence has been something marvellous ; — and 
 that not in one but in many directions. He has done more than 
 any other man to give shape and fixity to our language. He has, 
 one mio"ht say, created a literature ; and that not only in lands 
 that speak the language in which he wrote but also in a foreign 
 country with a foreign tongue, which has since more than repaid 
 us for all we lent it by the rich productiveness of its literary soil, 
 — I mean, of course, Germany. But his " greatest " influence has 
 been moral rather than literary, — and addresses itself to the in- 
 dividual rather than to the nation. 
 
 The Tercentenary Celebration of the Anniversary of the Birth 
 of Shakespeare is no unmeaning ceremony, — no national pageant. 
 It is the spontaneous and grateful testimony of a people conscious 
 of great and increasing obligations. It is not even a mere act 
 of hero-worship, but a service of devout gratitude ; — for, who is 
 there to whom Shakespeare has not been a personal friend and 
 benefactor ; — an agreeable companion, an experienced instructor, a 
 kindly counsellor, a teacher of profound wisdom ? His writings, 
 more than any other book in our language, excepting only the Eng- 
 lish version of the Bible, have influenced the thought and feeling 
 and life of the civilized world. The gold of wisdom gathered from 
 every mine acquired new beauty and worth as it passed through 
 the mint of his mind : stamped with his mint-mark it became a 
 coin current in ever}'- land. His apothegms are household words, 
 — appreciated alike in the palace and in the cottage : and eminently 
 fitted are they for the purposes of general use, — being so brief, 
 
10 
 
 striking, beautiful, and so wise, — often the wisdom of a whole age 
 condensed into a line, — which, once heard, no one could willingly 
 forget. 
 
 Shakespeare was not original in the common acceptation of that 
 word. In his writings there is, perhaps, not one important 
 thought that had not found previous expression. Had he been 
 what people call an original thinker there would be no great cele- 
 bration in commemoration of his three hundredth birthday. Not 
 only did he find many of the great characters he chose as his 
 heroes already delineated on the page of history, but to no incon- 
 siderable extent also are portions of his works a mere recasting of 
 materials he found ready to his hand ; and, in some instances, the 
 trained e^'^e can detect whole passages that he appropriated. 
 
 But, then, even the Lord's Prayer is not an original composition. 
 It is a compilation, — one sentence taken from this source, another 
 from that. The Book of Common Prayer owes its chief excellence 
 to the fact that it is 'not an original work, but an anthology culled 
 from the devotional literature of all Christendom. Christopher 
 Wren did not create the materials employed in the erection of 
 St. Paul's, nor Michael Angelo those in St. Peter's. 
 
 Shakespeare gathered, up the Vv'isdom and experience of the Ages, 
 — the richest gems the world had produced, — and with a mas- 
 ter's skill worked them up for the instruction and enrichment of 
 succeeding generations. His writings, consequently, are a treasury 
 of moral Vv^ealth. But the chief source of their influence is their 
 thorough Truthfulness. They are photographs of nature and hu- 
 man life. Possessing strong and well-trained powers of observa- 
 tion and that love of truth which is the very soul of true 
 philosophy, Shakespeare saw clearly and reported faithfully. No 
 foregone conclusions distorted his vision : nor did he write in the 
 interests of a party or the dialect of a sect. From his writings it 
 is impossible to say to what denomination he belonged. In spirit 
 he was catholic, devout, humane, and truth-loving. With mar- 
 vellous power and skill he has given these qualities objective 
 reality in his works ; and hence their augmented value. Besides 
 being a repository of the wisdom of all preceding ages, they are 
 a portraiture of human life, a picture-gallery illustrating the secret 
 workings of the human heart and conscience. The diversified 
 motives and mysteries of human conduct are made palpable as in 
 an object lesson. Not a mere catalogue of the varying accidents 
 and drapery of human conduct, but a faithful revealing of its hid- 
 den springs, the writings of Shakespeare are as true a representation 
 of the life of to-day as of that of two hundred and fifty years ago, 
 and will continue to be so in all coming time. As long as this 
 many-sided life of ours lasts, with its ambitions and disappoint- 
 ments, its virtues and vices, its joys and' sorrows, its cares and 
 struggles, its friendships and loves, its hopes and fears, — as long as 
 
11 
 
 civilized man exists, we may safely affirm that the writings of 
 Shakespeare will continue to hold their present high place, — of 
 existing books second only to the Bible, as a revelation of the 
 human heart, a teacher of wisdom, and sanctifier of life. 
 
 Three hundred years ago this " great man," destined inheritor 
 of the wisdom of all past ages and teacher of future ages, was born 
 in a comparatively humble home in a small English village ; and 
 though much patient research has been employed to learn the 
 leading facts of his personal history, neither the date of his birth 
 nor the occupation of his earlier years (though it is known he had 
 to toil for his bread,) can be ascertained with certainty. The 
 obscure villager (some authorities affirm of no more dignified 
 callino' in youth than that of a butcher's boy,) has become the 
 greatest prophet of modern times, — whose fame increases, and will 
 continue to increase, as civilization advances. " Without father, 
 without mother, without descent," this priest of nature will live 
 for ever as a teacher of wisdom. 
 
 With the Bishop of St. Andrews' we thank the Giver of all 
 good for the writings of the Bard of Avon ; and with a former 
 Archbishop of York hope that our children " may grow up readers 
 and lovers of Shakespeare." 
 
 But while devoutly thankful for the rich treasure of wisdom 
 Shakespeare has left us in his works, that truthfulness which 
 characterizes hisownwritingscomjDels us to remember and acknow- 
 ledge that that treasure was contained in an " earthen vessel." 
 But even the sweetest rose has its root in clay. And the divinely- 
 singing Bard had his weaker side. His life was not always as 
 grand as his philosoph3\ 
 
 To find the perfection of moral " greatness " we must look for 
 one who lived the precepts which he taught. And to God Most 
 High be our devoutest praise that on the page of Sacred Writ wo 
 do find that One — Jesus of ISTazareth — who, also, " without father, 
 without mother, without descent," the son of an humble carpen- 
 ter, dwelling in the obscure and despised Nazareth of Galilee, 
 became the highest High-priest of the overliving God and the 
 greatest of the great benefactors of the race of Man. 
 
 STOURBRIDGE : rRINTKD BY R. H. NASH.