Not Much to Look At.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 3025, 6 January 1899, Page 3

Not Much to Look At.

The majority of great men have not been striking in personal appearance. Shakspeare would not attract the attention of passers-by in the streets of London. Milton, Wordsworth, and Tennyson displayed in the eye and brow the thoughtfulness of the student, but nothing more. Oliver Cromwell might have passed as a respectable farmer, Walpole and Fox as bluff squires, and the younger Pitt as a private gentleman.: The hawknose and piercing eyes of the elder Pitt did, indeed, indicate exceptional powers. Marlbor.ough had a kandsome, courtierlike face; Nelson would not have looked out of place in a surplice, and Wellington in a frock-coat might have passed for * country gentleman. Bismarck has a strong, determined countenance, but there are hundreds of German faces of the same class. Tbe appearance of Napoleon Bonaparte was certainly remarkable, but some of the younger Bonapartes have displayed bis lineaments -without his genius. >•;-?•. The portraits of Columbus, Galileo^ William the SilentrDante, and a host of other leaders of men do not usually con* vey the expression of extraordinary genius; and the same remark will apply to the representations that have come .down to us of Alexander, Caesar, Socrates, and other ancients.-- 1 ' L«ondo»