The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-05-31
sr1R1T OF TEE RRnss.
Editorial Opinions Of the Leading Journals
upon Current Topics Compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
GRAMMAR AND VIRTUE.

gives q new beXJ 1Or LnOS0 VINO are always
lamenting about the want of eminent scholar
ship among our public men. Look at Lord
Derby's translation of the "Iliad," they say
look at Gladstone's 'Juventus Mundi'-aud
then oblige us by looking at "Lothair y
What member of Congress has produced a
work so heavy with learning or so light with
fancy as these ?. To be sure, there was Mr..
Baldwin's "Pre- historic Nations, but he left
public life on its publication, and his Con-
eressional career already seems prehistoric
period. Senator Brownlow's work on Method
ism, ''The Iron Wheel Examined and its
False Spokes Extracted, must be tolerably
pungent, if its title is specimen, but can
hardly be classed as high art. But for Mr..
Sumner, indeed, the total literary yield of
both houses of Congress would be unplea-
sanity near to what is called in cricketing "a
round o." 1t is not strange, therefore, if
this new literary exploit of Mr.. Disraeli's
proves exasperating to the patriotic mind.
To be sure, the comparisons commonly
made do more than Justice to the Parliaments
of our English cousins. 1t was member of
Parliament who, according to Horace Wal
pole. beuueathed an estate to Sir Matthew
Decker, supposing him to be the author of
the Gospel according to the Saint of that
name. And certainly the reception in Par
lament of the once famous author, James
Harris Gather of Lord Malmesbury), was by
is that ?" asked Charles Townshend of
his neighbor, as the newcomer took his seat
Zone Hawes, said the other. she has writ
ten a book on grammar and another on
virtue" ''Then what the ID does he come
here for?" said Townshend. ''He will find
neither grammar nor virtue here"
1t must be sadly owned that neither gram
mar nor virtue can be guaranteed in any
Legislative body; nor will even scholarship, as
ha To ha in M
haps it is not desirable that it should, since
the prime need is always of men of affairs,
whether they are or are not students. AS it
is, many of our Representatives in Congress,
and almost ma jority of our Senators, have
received a college diploma, such as it is, and
the charitable editor of the Congressional
Directory attributes to most of the remainder
''an academic education, whatever that may
mean. Let us hope that it grounds men in
the rudimerits of grammar and of virtue. But
it must be owned that most of them represent
the business class rather than the studious
class Most of them, in those Chinese lite
rary examinations of which we hear so much,
would probably have stopped short at the red
silk scarf, which shows that a candidate for
Office has reached only his first degree. The
special literary and scientific culture of this
nation has not merely a slight representation
in Congress- but it can scarcely be said to
have any. This is certainly to be regretted.
Yet that this class should monopolize or even
control Congress would be almost as great an
evil on the other side.
The questions now pressing on the nation
are mainly business questions. To settle the
difficult problems of taxation and banking, q
second-rate business man is ordinarily worth
more than a first-rate professor of chemistry
or the classics. At any rate, what we chiefly
need is to have able and honest men. By what
training they got their honesty or ability is
of no more Importance, after they have once
come to trial, than is the preliminary training
of an athlete. At rowing match we look to
see the stroke; we do not care about the
beeves and loaves on which the young men
have fed. Strength is strength, though it
may have been nurtured contrary to all
the rules of training. In Congress
a man is judged by his ability;
where he got it is his own affair. To have
abolished slavery is more than to have writ
ten 'Lotbair;" the fifteenth amendment is
worth more to this generation than the
twenty-four books of Homer; aud to weather
great civil war without national bankruptcy
is to exhibit new heroic age No learning,
no ''early advantages, can guarantee wisdom
or virtue; and that they can be won without
such advantages we see every day. The ma
ton is very imperfectly governed as it is;
but does any one seriously suppose that a
committee of college presidents would govern
it better?
After all, no man can know everything, and
an intelligent man is never ridiculous except
when he claims to know something which he
does not. Let a Congressman, like shoe
maker, stick to his last. man may be
never so practical, but if he begins to mis-
quote Latin and mispronounce French it is
all over with him. Let him hold to English
grammar and American virtue and he may
be safe. Unhappily, it is malady incident
to all professions for men to wish to appear
strong when they are weak Mr.. Lillyvick,
in nicholas Nickeby," who objects to
the French language as "a very me-
lancholy dialect. SIR" because he had
only heard it spoken by prisoners in Jail,
would have found it more melancholy still
as disguised in the novels of some of our
young ladies. And our worthy Consul at
Bradford, England, Mr.. George M. Towle,
has brought all the English critics about his
ears by misquoting the very first line OF
Virgils "Eneid." The critics are right he
need not have quoted it at all, but, if he
chose to give it, he should have got the line
straight. Even in England statesman is
not now expected to know all Horace's odes
by heart, as Fox did; but if a man will PLAY
at that game, he must come under its laws
The safest way is for a man to keep OIL
ground where it is strong, Nevertheless
General jackson was Jackson, though his
only Latin phrase, according to Jack Down
ing, was ''E pturibuS uRun1, sine qua nOn."
THE ASTONISHING GROWTH AMI
FUTURE OF THE UNITED STATES