Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1871-11-22
PERSONAL POWER.


was delivered by Rev J. II. McCord before the
Teachers Institute, and is worthy perusal.l
The Worlds idea of power has
changed, and changed many times.
Earth has had its barbaric age and its
barbaric idea, and renews both, in
some degree, in the youth of each in.
dividuaI life, History, fiction and
poetry, literature and art, in .heir va
rious forms, have expressed these
ideas, and themselves remain as chron
icles and monuments of these changes.
And each individual life again has its
season of being bewitchod, with the
barbaric idea Of heroism and manhood
and the literature that sets it forth.
And then the literature and the life,
both pass the succeeding stages of the
worlds progress-tho record and the
passion-though with by no means
equal footstep and perfect sympathy.
Some minds never get beyond barbar.
Ii6 tastes, AID reoG :.G& dgv&%i H-.1
lingcr like idle school boys, in times
first lessons, always,
/. The earliest type of personal
power is the Physical The first heroes
were Nimrods, mighty hunters in the
chase and mighty warriors in the
battle, They were swift of foot, they
were stalwart of frame. tbev were
long and strong Of arm and tireless in
hazardous deeds. They were deep
chestcd, thin .flanked, bold breasted
and made up ofall the approved points
of personal knighthood They were
cool and dauntless of eye, and ad-
vanccd upon danger witha confidence
in the prowcss Of thcir own good
right arm against whatsoever odds
Their foes were wild beasts in the
forests or the amphitheatro, or re-
doutable champions on the plains and
in the passes Of heady fight, or fierce
castled robbers, brutal and strong,
whose fortresses they scaled, whose
brigand heads they hung out over the
castle walls. SO they pass before us
along the scenery of their times, mon
not Of words but Of deeds, grim spec
tres, blood stained, the peeroge Of
human muscles; the best was he who
rode tho boldest stced, who levcled
the stoutcst lance, who whirled the
heaviest mace, who struck with deep
est dint They loom up in the mists
of old romance, man and horse, blend.
cd centaurlike, sheathed in iron, car.
rying in their single puissance the
fortunes of Kingdoms and dynasties
To them the Tyre was struck, OF them
tho minstrel sung, for them the feast
smoked, on them beauty smiled. The
elder Hercules was ono who could
rend oaks and stranglo serpents. The
modern has other labors only symbol.
lied by those Of his prototype, We
shall never be quito able TO suppress
our admiration for physical prowess,
and yet this sort of hero has had his
day. Many things have combined to
push him off the stage. The world in
its various progress has out outgrown
him and left him behind with its own
boyhood. Changing sentiments have
deprecated this gladiatoral and Ro-
man virtue, and the invention of a
small, black, nitrous dust, called gun.
powder, has swept the knights and
their train out Of human story. Per.
sonal greatness is no longer question
of thews and sinews. To be strong
now is not to excel in bone and Drawn.
2. The next type of personal power is
that derived from birth and blood and
pidce-pdtricidn greatness. This sort
of hero drives across the stage chariot.
ed, coroneted and titled. He bears n
name mado illustrious by dead men
who lie in state lie dwells amid his
armed retainers and receives feudal
homage. His lordly castle overlooks
his subject lands and the homes of his
peasantry. He rides with 80 many
spears at his back, and when no goes
TO court, men give him precedence and
consideration, not according as he is
gentle in spirit, true in heart, noble in
purpose and pure in life, but according
to the length Of his buried line and the
number of tho stars blazoned on his
breast. When he stands among his
peers he is first or least in his caste by
descent and rank rather than by
worth. We still cherish some little
portion of this feudal Difference and
make way with decent homage for
the well born. But this greatness is
in our day only shadowy efiigy of its
once ducal prominence. The time
has INST. at least with us. on these
republican shores, when men WELD
largo influence, solely because they
stand high on heap of ancestral
bones, or enter the social scale on the
loftiest lcyel. Not the crown, but what
il circles, is the question no,c not the
emblazoned star, but what beats be.
meath IL; not tho fountain, but the
redncss OF the blood that flows in The
vions.
3. Next arose in history the typo
of personal power derived from