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Smiles, Samuel, 1812-1904

"Character"

' Unhappily, it was
not granted to these heathen philosophers in any true sense to
know what Christianity was. They thought that it was an attempt
to imitate the results of philosophy, without having passed
through the necessary discipline. They viewed it with suspicion,
they treated it with injustice. And yet in Christianity, and in
Christianity alone, they would have found an ideal which would
have surpassed their loftiest anticipations."
(4) Sparks' 'Life of Washington,' pp. 141-2.
(5) Wellington, like Washington, had to pay the penalty of his
adherence to the cause he thought right, in his loss of
"popularity." He was mobbed in the streets of London, and had his
windows smashed by the mob, while his wife lay dead in the house.
Sir Walter Scott also was hooted and pelted at Hawick by "the
people," amidst cries of "Burke Sir Walter!"
(6) Robertson's 'Life and Letters,' ii. 157.
(7) We select the following passages from this remarkable report of
Baron Stoffel, as being of more than merely temporary interest:-
Who that has lived here (Berlin) will deny that the Prussians are
energetic, patriotic, and teeming with youthful vigour; that they
are not corrupted by sensual pleasures, but are manly, have
earnest convictions, do not think it beneath them to reverence
sincerely what is noble and lofty? What a melancholy contrast
does France offer in all this? Having sneered at everything, she
has lost the faculty of respecting anything.


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