Possessed of that fearful authority, his first object is to rule, and it becomes a secondary object to rule well.
"Tyranny has, indeed, no outlet!" The few, whom in modern times we have seen endowed with a similar spirit of self-control, have attracted our admiration by their honesty rather than their intellect; and the skeptic in human virtue has ascribed the purity of Washington as much to the mediocrity of his genius as to the sincerity of his patriotism:--the coarseness of vulgar ambition can sympathize but little with those who refuse a throne.

But in Solon there is no disparity between the mental and the moral, nor can we account for the moderation of his views by affecting doubt of the extent of his powers.

His natural genius was versatile and luxuriant.

As an orator, he was the first, according to Cicero, who originated the logical and brilliant rhetoric which afterward distinguished the Athenians.

As a poet, we have the assurance of Plato that, could he have devoted himself solely to the art, even Homer would not have excelled him.