ey set to the world, he dilates upon their failings
without the least regard to the general moral atmosphere of their age,
or the proportion of their defects to the entirety of their natures.
Mr. Smith, the greengrocer, whose horizon is limited to his shop and his
chapel, may lead a very exemplary life, according to orthodox standards;
but his virtues, as well as his vices, are rather of a negative
character, and the world at large is not much the better for his having
lived in it. On the other hand a man like Mirabeau may be shockingly
incontinent, but if in the crisis of a nation's history he places his
genius, his eloquence, and his heroic courage at the service of liberty,
and helps to mark a new epoch of progress, humanity can afford to pardon
his sexual looseness in consideration of his splendid service to the
race. Judgment, in short, must be pronounced on the sum-total of a man's
life, and not on a selected aspect. Further, the faults that might be
overwhelming in the character of Mr. Smith, the Methodist greengrocer,
may sink into comparative insignificance in the character of a great
man, whose intellect and emotions are on a mightier scale. This truth is
admirably expressed in Carlyle's _Essay on Burns_.

"Not the few inches of deflection from the mathematical orbit, which
are so easily measured, but the _ratio_ of these to the whole diameter,
constitutes the real aberration. This orbit may be a planet's,
its diameter the breadth of the solar system; or it may be a city
hippodrome; nay the circle of a ginhorse, its diameter a score of feet
or paces. But the inches of deflection only are measured: and it is
assumed that the diameter of the ginhorse, and that of the planet, will
yield the same ratio when compared with them! Here lies the root of
many a blind, cruel condemnation of Burnses, Swifts, Rousseaus, which
one never listens to with approval. Granted, the ship comes into harbor
with shrouds and tackle damaged; the pilot is blameworthy; he has not
been all-wise and all-powerful: but to know _how_ blameworthy, tell us
first whether his voyage has been round the Globe, or only to Ramsgate
and the Isle of Dogs."

We commend this fine passage to Mr. Watkinson's attention. It may make
him a little more modest when he next applies his orthodox tape and
callipers to the character of his betters.

Goethe is Mr. Watkinson's first infidel hero, and we are glad to see
that he makes this great poet a present to Fre