od sense which is freed from the passion of
imagination, has himself declared this important truth relating to the
literary character:--"I have always thought that one man of tolerable
abilities may work great changes and accomplish great affairs among
mankind, if he first forms a good plan; and cutting off all amusements, or
other employments that would divert his attention, makes the execution of
that same plan his sole study and business." Fontenelle was of the same
opinion, for he remarks that "a single great man is sufficient to
accomplish a change in the taste of his age." The life of GRANVILLE SHARP
is a striking illustration of the solitary force of individual character.

It cannot be doubted that the great author, in the solitude of his
study, has often created an epoch in the annals of mankind. A single
man of genius arose in a barbarous period in Italy, who gave birth not
only to Italian, but to European literature. Poet, orator, philosopher,
geographer, historian, and antiquary, PETRARCH kindled a line of
light through his native land, while a crowd of followers hailed their
father-genius, who had stamped his character on the age. DESCARTES, it has
been observed, accomplished a change in the taste of his age by the
perspicacity and method for which he was indebted to his mathematical
researches; and "models of metaphysical analysis and logical discussions"
in the works of HUME and SMITH have had the same influence in the writings
of our own time.

Even genius not of the same colossal size may aspire to add to the
progressive mass of human improvement by its own single effort. When an
author writes on a national subject, he awakens all the knowledge which
slumbers in a nation, and calls around him, as it were, every man of
talent; and though his own fame may be eclipsed by his successors, yet
the emanation, the morning light, broke from his solitary study. Our
naturalist, RAY, though no man was more modest in his claims, delighted to
tell a friend that "Since the publication of his catalogue of Cambridge
plants, many were prompted to botanical studies, and to herbalise in their
walks in the fields." Johnson has observed that "An emulation of study was
raised by CHEKE and SMITH, to which even the present age perhaps owes many
advantages, without remembering or knowing its benefactors. ROLLIN is only
a compiler of history, and to the antiquary he is nothing! But races yet
unborn will be enchanted by that excell