AND SUBOKDINATION. 89 



before our notice. These privileged and favored individuals 

 attract universal attention, and in the excess of our admiration 

 we are apt to imagine a great gulf fixed between them and the 

 rest of their race. But it not unfrequently happens that these 

 great men, so conspicuous and illustrious, have had, from the 

 very first start in life, every advantage of education and 

 elevated social position. If so, properly regarded, they should 

 unite us more closely to the multitude of men; for the light 

 which shines in them, shows clearly powers and capabilities 

 now slumbering in thousands around us, awaiting but the 

 influence of favoring circumstances to become manifest. 



Happily, the work of reformation in this respect is already 

 begun. We are beginning to learn that man in every situation 

 may become great. The noblest spirits not unfrequently rise 

 up in the obscurest spheres. The privileged individual is becom- 

 ing less, and the human race is becoming more. Once we heard 

 of the few, now we hear of the many ; once of the prerogative 

 of a part, now of the rights of all. The people have seized on 

 the great idea of their elevation ; and Nature intends that it 

 should be so. She has not conferred stintedly or by measure 

 those qualities which ennoble and dignify mankind. They 

 are the common property of humanity. They beam in every 

 countenance, and speak in every language. Every country 

 produces its philosophers and philanthropists, and, happily, 

 they can now communicate and sympathize although moun- 

 tains rise and oceans roll between them. Thanks to that benig- 

 nant Providence which assuredly directs the movements of 

 Nature ! 



The starveling shoot only requires sunshine and sap to 

 become a powerful branch; and every poor merchant and 

 tradesman feels the want of capital, and how he could push 

 and extend his business, if he only had the means to do so. 

 How frequently, amongst the trees of a forest, does it happen 

 that a powerful branch, rich in sap and sunlight, with its num- 

 berless branchlets and leaves all at work in the air, is swept 

 away by a storm, and then the current of sap which it mono- 

 polized goes to the starveling shoots ; some of them, under its 

 influence, become branches as powerful and luxuriant as that 

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