ugham, in a series of analytical
biographies of the renowned men of the last and present century, which
indicate a deep study and philosophical estimate of human greatness,
closes his sketch of Washington by the emphatic assertion that the test
of the progress of mankind will be their appreciation of his
character."[151]

At his installation as chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, in the
spring of 1860, Lord Brougham, in his address, after speaking of
Napoleon and Wellington, said: "But in Washington we may contemplate
every excellence, military and civil, applied to the service of his
country and of mankind--a triumphant warrior, unshaken in confidence
when the most sanguine had a right to despair; a successful ruler in all
the difficulties of a course wholly untried--directing the formation of
a new government for a great people, the first time so vast an
experiment had ever been tried by man; voluntarily and unostentatiously
retiring from supreme power with the veneration of all parties, of all
nations, of all mankind, that the rights of men may be conserved, and
that his example might never be appealed to by vulgar tyrants. It will
be the duty of the historian and the sage, in all ages, to omit no
occasion of commemorating this illustrious man; and until time shall be
no more, will a test of the progress which our race has made in wisdom
and in virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name
of WASHINGTON."

One of the most beautiful of the many eulogies of the Great Patriot was
written, soon after his death, by an unknown hand (supposed to be that
of an English gentleman), on the back of a cabinet profile likeness of
Washington, executed in crayon, by Sharpless. It is in the form of a
monumental inscription. The following is a copy of it:--

WASHINGTON,
The DEFENDER OF HIS COUNTRY,
The FOUNDER OF LIBERTY,
The FRIEND OF MAN.
HISTORY and TRADITION are explored in vain
For a Parallel to his Character.
In the Annals of MODERN GREATNESS
He stands alone,
And the noblest Names of Antiquity
Lose their Lustre in his Presence.

Born the _Benefactor of Mankind_,
He was signally Endowed with all the Qualities
Appropriate to his _Illustrious Career_.
_Nature_ made him _Great_,
And, Heaven-directed,
He made _himself Virtuous_.