3Intrabuction 



"Example is a globe of precept."' — Bacon 



Example rules the world. The warrior upon 

 his country's battle-field performs prodigies of 

 valour, and whether the cause in which he fights be 

 just or unjust, his individual merits are blazoned 

 upon the historic page. Youths dwell upon the 

 relation of these exploits, and in spirit they are 

 warriors. The statesman in the senate chamber 

 defends successfully an important political prin- 

 ciple; — thousands of his party laud his efforts, and 

 from the hands of the untiring press his opinions 

 are scattered broadcast over the land. Youths are 

 anxious to be statesmen, to gain the world's renown, 

 and the fame which it values is their only governing 

 motive. 



The history of a generation affords thousands of 

 instances in which example stamps the character and 

 seals forever the fate of its deluded victims; and if 

 example be thus potent, how important does it 

 become that the model be of an exalted kind — one in 

 which the higher and the holier aspirations that 

 should govern mortals would appear — one in which 

 would not exist that vain, pitiful, miserable longing 

 for the breath of popular applause, as evanescent as 

 that upon the dimmed surface of a polished mirror, 

 but in which would be found that earnest yearning 



