New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-09-23
THE CADUCIrY OF PAME.


there is no more transitory possession than
Fsne-if, indeed. possession that may be
c,led wfich man does not fairly get hold Of until
he lie dead. Fal.tsff was more than half right In
his resolution to have none Of that grionng honor
which does not fall IN until its owner is past praying
for. Whist book more melancholy than Biogra.
ptic,l Dictionary Open it. acd there passes IN
review before you column after column OF men
WI thou ght no small beer IF themselves. many OF
whom were held to be great ones b. their
contemporaries, and yet hox few have any substan-
tive existence 10 mems minds Substantive or sd'
ective, either. Utterly passed away out of human
thought, with only brief epitaph in that crowded
graveyard of crumbLpg names and moldering
memories It's common instance, bat not with
out its corrective virtue when applied to the
fever in the mind generated by ambitious thoughts
The memory Of man is not sufficient for these
things 1t can hold bat limited quantity Of other
peoples doing ard hvings Lord BJrcn, We Thick.
estimates the number Of persons whom We remem-
Der at one or two hundred. Not verJ large pro
portion Of the nnumerable host tina. have already
passed through Jordan or are marching toward the
ford on the hlther side. Not even of the general
officers, the wise counselors, the immortal bafds
tie updypg histori ans who were as highly reputed
in their day and generation as any Of the great
men we thiok to be dear sons Of memory and great
heirs of fame This caducity Of fame, though true
Of all time and place, is most especially 50 OF this
country. If it be true as Milton says it is, that
Fone is no plant that grows on mortal soil, the
soil of the new world Is NJ exception to the gen.
era rule E1otcs thrive better in it tn An plants of
native growth, though they take no very firm root
theren-as any one may learn by asking s'ew
questions Of On historical tnee of his average
neighbors But of American celebrities, few, In
deed are there that survive beyond the memory Of
the generation that actually looked upon them IN
the flesh.
They set up q statue to Daniel Webster, the
other day, in the Capitol grounds at Boston; or,
rather, they inaugurated il with lacky words from
sundry orators of whom the chefst ~as, OF course.
Mr.. Everett. Much criticism has been bestowed
on the statue as a work of art, and the Boston
public seem determined, for this once, not 10 take
Mir Evere,ts word for it thst il is verS fine thing
But be this as it may, like or unlike, tragic or
comic serious or burlesque, there it stands, GER
td0 MASS Vi UIuuLc, UchiluS tuc IL
not the image of the deceased gentleman. Tbs re-
semblance is not material TO the object Of the mon
unent, if il be permitted to stand-for it seems
there is an organized movement on the part OF
NE malconent spirits to sgita'e Tor its removal
tor the object is to hsve ply steal substance called
by bis name, before the eyes Of the solid men Of
Bo.ton, and their more tenuous visitors, to recall
the fact that such man once lived. And, strange
as may sound in the ears of the Boston of to day.
it lie not an unnecessary precsution on the part of
hi, admirers. Even so great reputation as bis is
and enduring as bis admirers take it for granted
th,t it must be, is constantly wearing away out Of
mems minds BY the continual attrition Of the
stream of time
Ask the ne1t person you meet, under thirty years
Of age, question implying a knowledge of some
man famous throughout the land, who died before
be wa. born, and see how much he knows about
him. Say, John Randolph of Roanoke, or William
II. Crawford, or George Clinton. TIE odds are
that you will find their notous of these once famous
n en- seriously obfuscated, if they ever 20 much as
hesr1 Of them. A case in point occurs TO US as we
write, and the more in point IS it touched on
Massachusetts, man to the full as famous in his day,
throughout the nstion as SIR. Webster in bis. We
were talkir with well-educated your person, well
educated according TO the routine Of the beet Aneri
can education, and incidentally mentioned Fisher
Ames. Not meeting with the responsive sympathy We
expected, We drex from our colocutor an acknowl.
ecgment Of never having heard Of tuch man
Then there was Samuel Dexter Of Massactuse rs,
man whom bis contemporaries, many Of them,
held TO be fully the equal Of Mr Webster in grasp
of mind and force Of thought, IS be was certainly
hssuperor in legal learning aid general kno Wedge.
and who had sat, too, like him, 10 both houses of
Congress, and in the Cabinet at Washington. How
few men, under forty years of age. have any vivid
idea Of him, if they have any idea at al Aud a
greater man yet, Theophilus Parsons, whose i'm
mense mental power could play with masses of le-
gal, CLASSICAL and scientific lore, such Is would
have incumbere1 and oyerlsid any other msn-who
had all the classical and various knowledge SIR.
Webster pretended to-he had been almost washed
away out of mems memories when bis son OF the
same name, the other day, threw him, BY Way OF
pabk, lively memoir. which may keep him afo.t
while longer.
We do no. think that the Speeches Of Mr.
Web.ter would answer the purpose Of this monu.
ment Of broize. Paper and print, il is true, make
monuments more perdursble than brass. Bat if
Fisher Amess works have not kept bis memory
fresh in mems minds for fifty years, We think tha.
Mr. Webs.er's fame can hardly afford to depend 90
bis for perpetuiIy. In fact men don, read speeches
linz "