These considerations occur naturally to the mind in contemplating the
fame of Washington. An attentive examination of the whole subject, and
of all that can contribute to the formation of a sound opinion, results
in the belief that General Washington's _mental_ abilities illustrate
the very highest type of greatness. His _mind_, probably, was one of the
very greatest that was ever given to mortality. Yet it is impossible to
establish that position by a direct analysis of his character, or
conduct, or productions. When we look at the incidents or the results of
that great career--when we contemplate the qualities by which it is
marked, from its beginning to its end--the foresight which never was
surprised, the judgment which nothing could deceive, the wisdom whose
resources were incapable of exhaustion--combined with a spirit as
resolute in its official duties as it was moderate in its private
pretensions, as indomitable in its public temper as it was gentle in its
personal tone--we are left in wonder and reverence. But when we would
enter into the recesses of that mind--when we would discriminate upon
its construction, and reason upon its operations--when we would tell how
it was composed, and why it excelled--we are entirely at fault. The
processes of Washington's understanding are entirely hidden from us.
What came from it, in counsel or in action, was the life and glory of
his country; what went on within it, is shrouded in impenetrable
concealment. Such elevation in degree of wisdom, amounts almost to a
change of kind, in nature, and detaches his intelligence from the
sympathy of ours. We cannot see him as he was, because we are not like
him. The tones of the mighty bell were heard with the certainty of Time
itself, and with a force that vibrates still upon the air of life, and
will vibrate for ever. But the clock-work, by which they were regulated
and given forth, we can neither see nor understand. In fact, his
intellectual abilities did not exist in an analytical and separated
form; but in a combined and concrete state. They "moved altogether when
they moved at all." They were in no degree speculative, but only
practical. They could not act at all in the region of imagination, but
only upon the field of reality. The sympathies of his intelligence dwelt
exclusively in the national being and action. Its interests and energies
were absorbed in them. He was nothing out of that sphere, because he was
every thing there. T