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“...178
DANIEL DE LEONAN ORATION.
ment, which were common to all his kind he fose far enough
aboTC the level of his time, that future ages will be interested
in his work and hold his name and services in remembrance.
De Leon was no demi-god from whom it is natural to ex-
pect marvelous things. Even Alexander the Great could not
survive the fatal cup of Hercules. The very disadvantages
under which a great man carries on his work, his foibles and
weaknesses, serve to accentuate his superiority and confirm
his genius. It is a plain, a true, and an unvarnished story of
his life that throws his greatness into bolder relief. We can
not rear a monument to his memory that will outlast the blasts
of time except on the foundation he has built and with the
material he has supplied.
De Leon was no writer of Bibles, and he founded no
sect. He lacked the dreaminess of the idealist and the pa-
tient meekness of the proselyter. He drew none to him by
his magnetic personality, he bound none to his side by the...”
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