The greatest consolation of such
persons are the defects of men of character. "If the wise erred
not," says George Herbert, "it would go hard with fools." Yet,
though wise men may learn of fools by avoiding their errors, fools
rarely profit by the example which, wise men set them. A German
writer has said that it is a miserable temper that cares only to
discover the blemishes in the character of great men or great
periods. Let us rather judge them with the charity of
Bolingbroke, who, when reminded of one of the alleged weaknesses
of Marlborough, observed,--"He was so great a man that I forgot
he had that defect."
Admiration of great men, living or dead, naturally evokes
imitation of them in a greater or less degree. While a mere
youth, the mind of Themistocles was fired by the great deeds of
his contemporaries, and he longed to distinguish himself in the
service of his country. When the Battle of Marathon had been
fought, he fell into a state of melancholy; and when asked by his
friends as to the cause, he replied "that the trophies of
Miltiades would not suffer him to sleep." A few years later, we
find him at the head of the Athenian army, defeating the Persian
fleet of Xerxes in the battles of Artemisium and Salamis,--his
country gratefully acknowledging that it had been saved through
his wisdom and valour.
It is related of Thucydides that, when a boy, he burst into tears
on hearing Herodotus read his History, and the impression made
upon his mind was such as to determine the bent of his own genius.
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