The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-08-17
Miscellany.
The Coming Man.

Mr.. James Parton, writing in the Atlantic
Monthly, propounds Question relative to
the habits of 1.-THE coming man." viii he
drink wine? asks Mr.. Parton, and then,
having demonstrated to his own entire salts
faction, that wine assists digestion, and does
not assist digestion, keeps alive the consump-
tive, and kills everybody who drinks it, Mr,
Parton concludes that "the coming man.
will be a teetotaler. The deduction is doubt
less as sound as the logic; but without de
string to discuss the liquor point, we also ven +.
ture to PROFOUND question relative to sthe
coming man" which briefly is, "Who cares
whether 'the coming man drinks wine or
notP What, in other words is ''the coming
man" to us that we should care rap about
him? He did not give US the elories of
Greece and of Rome. He had nothing to do
with Magma Cbarta He did not participate
with Luther in the Reformation. Shak-
spea1e was able to get along without him, in
creating a splendid body of everlasting liter
ature. Beethoven could dispense with him,
in doing with music what Shakespeare did
with poetry. He did not stand by Washing
ton at Valley Forge. He did lot invent the
locomotive engine, the steamboat, the mag
netlc tele9l aph, or the sewing machine. He
did not provide the system of cheap postage.
He did not lay the Atlantic Cable He was
not in DR.. Kane's company in the Polar seas.
2 There is no special reason to suppose that he
presided over the last Democratic Conven-
ton.
In short "the coming man" has done moth
ing whatever for mankind that ever the oc-
cult MIR. James Parton can lay a finger on
and therefore we ask again, Who cares? He
may drink or he may yegetate: it is all one
10 us. He Will find all the conveniences
ready to bis hand, whichever may be his
chOlce and no thanks to him, neither The
land has been pretty well cleared. The cities
have been built. The mines have been work
ed. The newspaper has been established
The champagne cocktail" has been invented
Charles Dickens has written his novels The
Boulevards and Broadway have been built
Inc Pacific Roiroad will be complete. All
manner of costly and bloody experiments
q have been made, with view to determine
upon rational form of political organization.
AND by all this "the coming man" will bene-
ht-that is, unless he turns out to be as foo
lsh in his time as most of his predecessors
have been in theirs (which we have no doubt
Will be the case, so far as the multitude is
concerned.) f
Little OF nothing, at any rate, will be lett
Tor him to do, in the way of material devel-
opment. 1t is profoundly to be hoped that
he will build bridge to heaven, but we are
not sanguine enough to xoect it. One
thing we may be sure of. Whether he drinks
or not, it is certain that, as he walks among
our crumbling monuments, he will dimly re-
call us as lot of musty old fogies. Let us
be even with him in advance, and sensibly re.
gard him as contingent humbug. There is
no delusion more signal or more melancholy
than confidence in the regard OF posterity.
We have no business to leave him a burden
oil taxation-but, aside from that he is no
more to us than Hecuba was to the Player
King.-New York Weekly Rerieu.