The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-09-14


shed glory on our landf Gone Alasl the
whole host has fed. Col. Benton and Gen. Cass
stands alone, the sole survivors Of that famous
phalanx of intellects which raised America to .
par with the oldest nations, and first taught the
foreigner to regard us with respect. All gone
but they The burning words which were wont
to thrill to mems hearts, the noble aspirations
that stamped god-like supremacy on him who
conceived them, the patriotic deeds to which
we owe no small share Of our present great
ness-all are now mere food for the historian
We who have stood by and listened when they
spoke, can trust to memory to revive the pic
ture, but those who are fast springing up
around us will need to consult the chronicler g
page to know that they lived. Looking around
among their successors. and contrasting the
dead past with the living present, they will
naturally exclaim There were giants in those
days"
Nor does America stand alone in this respect.
Where are England's heroes! Where the men
who raised the French name to such . pinnacle
of glory? Can Hardinge console the soldier
for the loss Of Wellington? Is Russell any
compensation for Peel There, as here, names
fondly cherished in the public mind for a large
segment of century are fast passing into obi
Won. Death has swept off the highest heads
and if his scythe has not reached Brsugham
and q Macaulay, 80 sad Is the spectacle of en-
teebled intellect and shattered energies that ii
were perhaps mercy to lay them by the side
of their youthful competitors. Where are they
who shall grasp the mantle that is falling from
their shoulders Where, in France, shall we tnd
men who can claim the heritage Of Tally
rand, Ney, Napoleon? Contemporaries Of
theirs still live and WELD power in other coun-
tries Nesselrode and Metternich hold still the
pen Of State with which they signed treaties
and compacts to which these illustrious dead
were parties. They nave disappeared and not
only they, but whole generation Of statesmen
who followed them have been swept from the
field Dead are Chateaubriand, Lafitte and La
fayette and if Theirs and Guizot survive, the
one is giving parties, the other writing dramatic
criticisms. One must look long and closely
at France before single great man can be
discovered. The Galerie des Contemporaries
Hlustres, published some eight or ten years ago
at most, hardly contains living name. All or
nearly all the illustrious men have paid the
debt of nature.
Must we then. with sorrow and despon-
dency, infer that the degeneration of the hui
man intellect. about which old people say SO
much is an established fact? Must we write
ourselves down as the interiors of our fore
fathers, and look forward to posterity more
ignorant. more helpless still?
Not to our thinking. We are, on the con-
trary, clear in our vain assumption of supe
riority. We think ourselves vast way in
advance of our fathers. We have all they had
and besides we see around us telegraphs and
steamers, and railroads and printing presses.
and worlds of machinery, which they had not
We see new discoveries in botany wherefrom
medicine is simplifed, in chemistry whereby
labor is economical, the earth fertilized and
the corporal man embellshed-in other
branches of physics, whereby onr leasehold of
this earth is rendered more comfortable aud
more pleasant. We see liberation established
where bigotry used to reign. We practice
humanity where our ancestors scarcely ven
tured to preach it. We have fewer poor in
proportion to our population, and for those we
do more than they ever attempted Among
liz there are more writers than there were
readers among our forefathers. We have more
preachers than they had listeners--more poll
ticians Of eminence than they had voters.
To conclude in the teeth of these facts that
n 4 10 IN mind IN Hvyi n
the face of experience. Nor does the apparent
lack Of great men " falsify the proposition.
There was but one Homer when the Had was
written but one Pericles when Athens was at
the apogee Of greatness but one Caesar when
Gaul was conquered and the republic over
thrown. by the side of these heroes there
was herd of ignorant, sci fish, uncvilized
Doors, by contrast with whom those whose names
have taken rank in history acquired new efful-
gence. They owed their greatness in large
measure to the insignifcance of their fellows.
So too perchance, though in less degree, Cal
houn, Webster and Clay, stood cut in bold
contrast to the crowd Of mediocrities who sur
rounded them. Now on the contrary, every
man possesses both intelligence and acquired
knowledge. You will seek in vain among the
American public Of the day ignorant billiards
such as those who served as foils to Pericles in
Athens to Cicero in Rome to Ppm and Hall
fax in England, to Clay and Webster among
US. Every storekeeper knows something Of
politics and the world has read and thought,
and from his own knowledge and experience
has formed opinions on which he can rely. The
distance between him and the leaders Of the
worlds mind is less. Hence. as tower seems
less elevated when surrounded by lofty build
ings, our great men of to-day appear to occupy
less majestic supremacy than those whose
towering might was set off by the grovelling
inferiority Of their fellows. Greater they may
not be but we doubt much that they are less.
Time alone can tell which generation has done
the most for the worlds advancement