New-York tribune., 1870-01-31
e" FUNER1L MARCHES"


4 public benefactor, bearing his dust rcvcr-
entity to her borders with sincere and stately
pageantry. Tomorrow the little village where
he was born-the village that he loved and
honored and blessed-takes back his mortality,
to pay it, in his name, the dearest respect. In
few days it will he laid to rest on a hillside
where only the winds murmur and the lapse
of the river sighs near tho shut ears that in
their life were filed with the battle Of busi-
ness and turmoil OF affairs. In a few days
more the name of George Peabody will be less
often on mems lips. and fade a little from
mems memories, and, as the hard necessity and
great mercy of this eager, hurrying world de-
mands, in yet q few days more he will have
been forgotten by the many and remembered
only in those hearts which he has frightened.
1t is because those hearts are so many that
the lesson of his life has any significance.
This funeral spectacle is most unusual one.
This dead man was in no sense q great man.
lie was singularly devoid of enthusiasts.
He was of an isolated and unrespOnsive nature.
There was no quality in him which Iindles devo-
ton. He seems not to have had even the
sentiment of charity. He was sharp and clever
financier-very rich very liberal, very exact
about money Mindful of the wants of poverty,
he gave large sums for the help of the London
Poor, chiefly expended in the admirable Model
Lodging Houses. Mindful of the civilizing in
huences of education, he gave large sums to
the Southern Educational Fund, and to his ma
tive town. But those gifts were rather a good
use o. money than a self-forgetting generosity.
When we say that he had not the sentiment Of
charity, we mean that had he been a poor man,
or even much poorer man than he was, it
would not have occurred to him that his small
income should be given to the needy, nor that
his meager loaf should be parted, nor that the
hepfulness of counsel and sympathy and per-
sonal friendly effort are often worth as much
as money, when they are freely bestowed.
Let us not be understood to decry or belittle
the very great work which Mr.. Peabody has
accomplished. The man who gives half mil
lion to Lodging Houses for the Poor has
brought such comfort into miserable existences,
offered them such possibilities of health and
decency and the safety of home, that, since
every bettered life touches some other and
makes it better, the largeness of his benefac-
ton cannot be estimated. And IL the money
given to tho Educational Fund were less wisely
bestowed, and fail to achieve the good intended,
tending rather to strengthen old animosites
and cultivate the prejudices of caste Ga mis-
fortune which we are not yet prepared to
accept), we can still admire the magnanimity,
while we deplore the mistake.
But while it is a matter of pride to us all
that an American boy made his honest way to
great social and business success in another
country, and matter of still better pride that
4 i. - ...I
not less freedom than to his own, it is as well
to remember that the fact of his having made
the money before he spent it, and the fact
that he is borne back as dead prince might
be borne to his kingdom, do greatly influence
the popular appreciation Of his services That
instructive homage which noble minds pay to
nobility, that recognition of qualities to COM
mand the worlds respect in man whose cir
cumstances were like our own and who
is greater than we only by force of
his own greatness, these uplIft and
strengthen the man or the people that
pays them. But to be dauled by splendid
gifts so that we ascribe virtue that is not
to the giver, and as we unduly exalt him un-
duly neglect to emulate the smaller charities,
the larger insight, and kindliness and sympa-
thy of the man next door, this enthusiasm does
not uplft. There is the danger, always, after
the apOtheosis of an enormous deed, whether
of labor, or genius, or benevolence, of the
paralysis of humber and more limited efforts.
Men say. "Oh, yes, if / had but the money of
Peabody, but the inspiration of Shakespeare,
"but the arm of Sidney! AS it is, will eat,
"drink, and be merry J"
If these words seem unsympathetc, now
when funeral bells fill the air and dirge floats
over the sea, while dirge responsive echoes
among New England rocks, and the Nation,
by its high officers, strews flowers on m open
grave. if we seem to cayil at omission or COM