EVIDENCE AND EXAMPLES. 69 



merely popular man (popular for good or evil) impresses 

 the multitude. His impress is not deep, not on leaders 

 and not enduring. Mr. Spurgeon has unusual gifts but 

 he was not great, although, in this century, no one in any 

 province of human effort has come near to him in the mere 

 number of listeners and readers. He was an extreme 

 example in character, and in skeleton, of the active and 

 less emotional nature. He had many of the mental and 

 moral qualities which are found in the active self- 

 confidence, a spice of acrimony, untiring activity, and 

 a lack of deep feeling. He was even petulantly con- 

 servative of accepted ideas. These he put forward and 

 defended with effectiveness ; he helped none into day- 

 light and relegated none to twilight. But there are 

 no sharp lines in nature, for between greatness and 

 popularity there are links of continuity and combina- 

 tion. Bunyan and Wesley in their different ways were 

 immensely popular, and both came near to if they did 

 not achieve enduring greatness. Brain weight (and 

 construction), more than temperament, determines the 

 depth of a man's impress, and while in Spurgeon this 

 was not inconsiderable and still greater in Bunyan, it 

 was most remarkable of all in Newman. 



The depth, the quality, the enduringness of a man's 

 impress is of extreme interest and significance, but 

 may not now be further discussed. It is here intended 

 to show that, notwithstanding variety of character and 

 degree of greatness, Bunyan, Newman, Wesley, and 

 Spurgeon the list might be greatly extended were 

 all men of the distinctly active and of the less 

 deeply emotional class. In all of them the material 

 framework was markedly indicative of the fundamental 

 type of character to which they belonged. Not one of 

 them had r,he spinal pose of Robert Burns. 



