T is not great talents alone, nor favoring circumstances, which make men distinguished, but usually a combination of both. Many great minds pass through life in obscurity; much inestimable worth is known only to a few. "Full many a flower is born to blush unseen There are vast amounts of unknown talent and unappreciated worth in all human society. In the dull mediocrity of common life there is much human gold, and not a few jewels of rarest water. Most men are under-valued. Most men under-value themselves. If men everywhere knew what they could be and do, and would put forth their best efforts constantly, we should live in the society of the noble and great. Nothing is so much against us as our disheartening estimate of ourselves. The common saying that circumstances make men is only half true. Men can be great, in truth, with circumstances against them; and men can be distinguished by the favor of fortunate circumstances when they are not great. The subject of this sketch must be classed among those who have become distinguished above their real merits by the |