GOLDWIN SMITH.

* * * * *

The life of our Washington cannot suffer by a comparison with those of other countries who have been most celebrated and exalted by fame.  The attributes and decorations of royalty could have only served to eclipse the majesty of those virtues which made him, from being a modest citizen, a more resplendent luminary.

Malice could never blast his honor, and envy made him a single exception to her universal rule.  For himself he had lived enough to life and to glory.  For his fellow-citizens, if their prayers could have been answered, he would have been immortal.  His example is complete, and it will teach wisdom and virtue to magistrates, citizens, and men, not only in the present age, but in future generations, as long as our history shall be read.

JOHN ADAMS.

* * * * *

His character, though regular and uniform, possessed none of the littleness which may sometimes belong to these descriptions of men.  It formed a majestic pile, the effect of which was not inspired, but improved, by order and symmetry.  There was nothing in it to dazzle by wildness, and surprise by eccentricity.  It was of a higher species of moral beauty.  It contained everything great and elevated, but it had no false or trivial ornament.  It was not the model cried up by fashion and circumstance:  its excellence was adapted to the true and just moral taste, incapable of change from the varying accidents of manners, of opinions, and times.  General Washington is not the idol of a day, but the hero of ages.

ANONYMOUS.

* * * * *

Washington stands alone and unapproachable like a snow peak rising above its fellows into the clear air of morning, with a dignity, constancy, and purity which have made him the ideal type of civic virtue to succeeding generations.

JAMES BRYCE.

* * * * *

  Pale is the February sky,
    And brief the midday’s sunny hours;
  The wind-swept forest seems to sigh
    For the sweet time of leaves and flowers.

Yet has no month a prouder day,
Not even when the Summer broods
O’er meadows in their fresh array,
Or Autumn tints the glowing woods.

For this chill season now again
Brings, in its annual round, the morn
When, greatest of the sons of men,
Our glorious Washington was born!

* * * * *

Amid the wreck of thrones shall live
Unmarred, undimmed, our hero’s fame,
And years succeeding years shall give
Increase of honors to his name.

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

* * * * *

Washington, the warrior and legislator!  In war contending, by the wager of battle, for the independence of his country, and for the freedom of the human race; ever manifesting amidst its horrors, by precept and example, his reverence for the laws of peace and the tenderest sympathies of humanity:  in peace soothing the ferocious spirit of discord among his countrymen into harmony and union; and giving to that very sword, now presented to his country, a charm more potent than that attributed in ancient times to the lyre of Orpheus.