Boswell" flaunted at
public shows with printed ribbons round his hat; but the great old
Samuel stayed at home. The world-wide soul wrapt up in its thoughts, in
its sorrows;--what could paradings, and ribbons in the hat, do for it?

Ah yes, I will say again: The great _silent_ men! Looking round on the
noisy inanity of the world, words with little meaning, actions with
little worth, one loves to reflect on the great Empire of _Silence_.
The noble silent men, scattered here and there, each in his department;
silently thinking, silently working; whom no Morning Newspaper makes
mention of! They are the salt of the Earth. A country that has none or
few of these is in a bad way. Like a forest which had no _roots_; which
had all turned into leaves and boughs;--which must soon wither and be no
forest. Woe for us if we had nothing but what we can _show_, or speak.
Silence, the great Empire of Silence: higher than the stars; deeper than
the Kingdoms of Death! It alone is great; all else is small.--I hope
we English will long maintain our _grand talent pour le silence_. Let
others that cannot do without standing on barrel-heads, to spout, and
be seen of all the market-place, cultivate speech exclusively,--become a
most green forest without roots! Solomon says, There is a time to speak;
but also a time to keep silence. Of some great silent Samuel, not urged
to writing, as old Samuel Johnson says he was, by _want of money_, and
nothing other, one might ask, "Why do not you too get up and speak;
promulgate your system, found your sect?" "Truly," he will answer, "I am
_continent_ of my thought hitherto; happily I have yet had the ability
to keep it in me, no compulsion strong enough to speak it. My 'system'
is not for promulgation first of all; it is for serving myself to live
by. That is the great purpose of it to me. And then the 'honor'? Alas,
yes;--but as Cato said of the statue: So many statues in that Forum of
yours, may it not be better if they ask, Where is Cato's statue?"--

But now, by way of counterpoise to this of Silence, let me say that
there are two kinds of ambition; one wholly blamable, the other laudable
and inevitable. Nature has provided that the great silent Samuel shall
not be silent too long. The selfish wish to shine over others, let it
be accounted altogether poor and miserable. "Seekest thou great
things, seek them not:" this is most true. And yet, I say, there is an
irrepressible tendency in every man to de