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But when we meet a solar man, of ample nature–soul, body, and spirit; when we find him from his earliest years moving among his fellows like a king, moving them whether they will or not–this feeling of mystery is deepened; and though we would not, like some men (who should know better), worship the creature and convert a hero into a god, we do feel more than in other cases the truth, that it is the inspiration of the Almighty which has given to that man understanding, and that all power, all energy, all light, come to him, from the First and the Last–the Living One. God comes to be regarded by us, in this instance, as he ought always to be, “the final centre of repose”–the source of all being, of all life–the Terminus ad quem and the Terminus a quo. And assuredly, as in the firmament that simple law of gravitation reigns supreme–making it indeed a kosmos–majestic, orderly, comely in its going–ruling, and binding not the less the fiery and nomadic comets, than the gentle, punctual moons–so certainly, and to us moral creatures to a degree transcendantly more important, does the whole intelligent universe move around and move towards and in the Father of Lights.

It would be well if the world would, among the many other uses they make of its great men, make more of this,–that they are manifestors of God–revealers of His will–vessels of His omnipotence–and are among the very chiefest of His ways and works.

As we have before said, there is a perpetual wonder in this power of one man over his fellows, especially when we meet with it in a great man. You see its operations constantly in history, and through it the Great Ruler has worked out many of His greatest and strangest acts. But however we may understand the accessory conditions by which the one man rules the many, and controls, and fashions them to his purposes, and transforms them into his likeness–multiplying as it were himself–there remains at the bottom of it all a mystery–a reaction between body and soul that we cannot explain. Generally, however, we find accompanying its manifestation, a capacious understanding–a strong will–an emotional nature quick, powerful, urgent, undeniable, in perpetual communication with the energetic will and the large resolute intellect–and a strong, hearty, capable body; a countenance and person expressive of this combination–the mind finding its way at once and in full force to the face, to the gesture, to every act of the body. He must have what is called a “presence;” not that he must be great in size, beautiful, or strong; but he must be expressive and impressive–his outward man must communicate to the beholder at once and without fail, something of indwelling power, and he must be and act as one. You may in your mind analyze him into his several parts; but practically he acts in everything with his whole soul and his whole self; whatsoever his hand finds to do, he does it with his might. Luther, Moses, David, Mahomet, Cromwell–all verified these conditions.

And so did Dr. Chalmers. There was something about his whole air and manner, that disposed you at the very first to make way where he went–he held you before you were aware. That this depended fully as much upon the activity and the quantity–if we may so express ourselves–of his affections, upon that combined action of mind and body which we call temperament, and upon a straightforward, urgent will, as upon what is called the pure intellect, will be generally allowed; but with all this, he could not have been and done, what he was and did, had he not had an understanding, in vigor and in capacity, worthy of its great and ardent companions. It was large, and free, mobile, and intense, rather than penetrative, judicial, clear, or fine,–so that in one sense he was more a man to make others act than think; but his own actings had always their origin in some fixed, central, inevitable proposition, as he would call it, and he began his onset with stating plainly, and with lucid calmness, what he held to be a great seminal truth; from this he passed at once, not into exposition, but into illustration and enforcement–into, if we may make a word, overwhelming insistance. Something was to be done, rather than explained.