Washington

“Caesar was merciful, Scipio was continent, Hannibal was patient; but it was reserved for Washington to blend them all in one, and, like the lovely masterpiece of the Grecian artist, to exhibit in one glow of associated beauty, the pride of every model, and the perfection of every artist.” (From Lyman Beecher’s “The Memory of Our Fathers” in McGuffey’s Rhetorical Guide, or Fifth Reader (1844), p. 291. (As quoted in “Literacy and Orality in Our Times” by Walter J. Ong, S.J.).)