The Life and Times of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. I - Enter His Rest

[9] Tooke, master of the school, was struck with the fact that, though
Wesley was remarkably advanced in his studies, yet he constantly
associated with the inferior classes, and was accustomed to harangue a
number of the smaller boys surrounding him. On one occasion Tooke
broke in upon him in the midst of an oration, and interrupted him, by
desiring him to follow him into a private room. Wesley reluctantly
obeyed, and the master, addressing him, asked how it was that he was so
often found among the boys of the lower forms, and sought not the
company of the bigger boys, who were his equals? To which the young
orator replied, "Better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven."
This story was given by "an old member of society," on what he calls
"the most authentic authority," for the purpose of showing that Wesley,
even as a boy, was ambitious. Be it so. What then? Is ambition always,
and under all circumstances, a thing to be denounced? Ambition is widely
different from vanity, a paltry passion of petty minds; neither is it
necessarily accompanied with the use of improper means to attain its
object. Ambition is common to the human species. There are but few
without it, and who are not desirous of distinguishing themselves in the
circle in which they live. You see the passion in the aristocratic noble
toiling after a distinction which he desires to win; and you equally see it
in the poorest mechanic, who strives to surround himself with poor
admirers, and who delights in the superiority which he enjoys over those
who are, in some respects, beneath him. Besides, as a rule, a man's
ambition is always in correspondence with his other tastes, and faculties,
and powers, Dr. Johnson wisely remarks, that "Providence seldom sends
any into the world with an inclination to attempt great things, who have
not abilities likewise to perform them;" and Addison, an equally
thoughtful student of human nature, observes that "Men of the greatest
abilities are most fired with ambition; and, on the contrary, mean and
narrow minds are the least actuated by it." To account for this may be
difficult, but none will deny its truth. Perhaps the difference may be
occasioned by a man's consciousness of his own capacities making him
despair of attaining positions which others reach; or perhaps, which is
more likely still, Providence, in the very framing of his mind, has freed