iformly retained
the confidence of them all. His friendships have been solid and
unshaken. His conduct cool and intrepid. The littleness of jealousy
never discoloured a conception of his heart. In office he was more
constant and indefatigable, than lord Bolingbroke himself. All his
lesser pursuits seemed annihilated, and he was swallowed up in the
direction of public affairs.

He has been accused of ambition. Ambition is a very ambiguous term. In
its lowest sense, it sinks the meanest, and degrades the dirtiest of our
race. In its highest, I cannot agree with those who stile it the defect
of noble minds. I esteem it worthy of the loudest commendation, and the
most assiduous culture. Mr. Fox's is certainly not an ambition of
emolument. Nobody dreams it. It is not an ambition, that can be
gratified by the distribution of places and pensions. This is a passion,
that can only dwell in the weakest and most imbecil minds. Its necessary
concomitants, are official inattention and oscitancy. No. The ambition
of this hero is a generous thirst of fame, and a desire of possessing
the opportunity of conferring the most lasting benefits upon his
country. It is an instinct, that carries a man forward into the field of
fitness, and of God.

The vulgar, incapable of comprehending these exalted passions, are apt
upon the slightest occasions to suspect, that this heroical language is
only held out to them for a lure, and that the most illustrious
characters among us are really governed by passions, equally incident to
the meanest of mankind. Let such examine the features and the manners
of Mr. Fox. Was that man made for a Jesuit? Is he capable of the dirty,
laborious, insidious tricks of a hypocrite? Is there not a certain
manliness about him, that disdains to mislead? Are not candour and
sincerity, bluntness of manner, and an unstudied air, conspicuous in all
he does?--I know not how far the argument may go with others, with me, I
confess, it has much weight. I believe a man of sterling genius,
incapable of the littlenesses and meannesses, incident to the vulgar
courtier. What are the principal characteristics of genius? Are they not
large views, infinite conceptions, a certain manliness and intrepidity
of thinking? But all real and serious vice originates in selfish views,
narrow conceptions, and intellectual cowardice. A man of genius may
possibly be thoughtless, dissipated and unstudied; but he cannot avoid
being constant, generou