The Greek philosopher, Plato, has left an instructive and beautiful poetic picture of the judgment of souls, when they had been collected from the regions of temporary bliss and pain, and suffered once more to return to the duties and pleasures of earthly life.  The spirits advanced by lot, to make their choice of the condition and form under which they should re-enter the world.  The dazzling and showy fortunes, the lives of kings and warriors and statesmen were soon exhausted; and the spirit of Ulysses, who had been the wisest prince among all the Greeks, came last to choose.  He advanced with sorrow, fearing that his favorite condition had been selected by some more fortunate soul who had gone before him.  But, to his surprise and pleasure, Ulysses found that the only life which had not been chosen was the lot of an obscure and private man, with its humble cares and quiet joys; the lot which he, the wisest, would have selected, had his turn come first; the life for which he had longed, since he had felt the folly and meanness of station, wealth, and power....

CHAPTER III.

GENERAL AND POLITE LITERATURE.

=_William Wirt, 1772-1834._= (Manual, pp. 487, 490.)

From the “Life of Patrick Henry.”

=_175._= HENRY’S EXAMPLE NO ARGUMENT FOR INDOLENCE.

I cannot learn that he gave in his youth any evidence of that precocity which sometimes distinguishes uncommon genius.  His companions recollect no instance of premature wit, no striking sentiment, no flash of fancy, no remarkable beauty or strength of expression, and no indication however slight, either of that impassioned love of liberty, or of that adventurous daring and intrepidity, which marked so strongly his future character.  So far was he indeed from exhibiting any one prognostic of this greatness, that every omen foretold a life at best, of mediocrity, if not of insignificance.  His person is represented as having been coarse, his manners uncommonly awkward, his dress slovenly, his conversation very plain, his aversion to study invincible, and his faculties almost entirely benumbed by indolence.  No persuasion could bring him either to read or to work.  On the contrary, he ran wild in the forest like one of the Aborigines of the country, and divided his life between the dissipation and uproar of the chase, and the languor of inaction.

His propensity to observe and comment upon the human character, was, so far as I can learn, the only circumstance which distinguished him advantageously from his youthful companions.  This propensity seems to have been born with him, and to have exerted itself instinctively, the moment that a new subject was presented to his view.  Its action was incessant, and it became at length almost the only intellectual exercise in which he seemed to take delight.  To this cause, may be traced that consummate knowledge of the human heart which he finally attained, and which enabled him when he came upon the public stage, to touch the springs of passion with a master hand, and to control the resolutions and decisions of his hearers with a power almost more than mortal.