John Seely Hart

“ Surely, they who can silently understand, if they cannot audibly interpret, this unfathomable speech,—who have been led with wonder and admiration to gaze into Infinity, will look on Handel as on a hero, and rank his genius side by side with that of Shakspeare and Milton. But whatever the opinion of others may be, we have always found his company profitable. ”

“ We cannot look, however imperfectly, upon a great man, without gaining something from him. He is the living light-fountain which it is so good and pleasant to be near.” Carlyle was thinking of his heroes,—Odin, Mahommed, Dante, Shakspeare, Cromwell,—when he said this. Whether he would place Handel among his worshipped great men, matters not ”