New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-06-27
From the Sunday Chrori,le
The Wisdom Of Success,

'"iuoioSo "Iiuc tHey remain unrecOgnlZed
units OF the multitude, grow into very philOs-
ophers as the beams of good fortune shine
upon them, and are then quoted as both
example and authority. 1t matters not how
success is achieved-by what circuitous
routes; through what fraud, falsehood, or
treachery; by what sacrifice of the good OF
others, or disregard of principles deemed
essential to the preservation of socicty-it is
enough that it is achieved. When the rich
man has mounted the ladder and stands Gilt
tering in gold upon the summit of his pros
perlty, he kicks the ladder away from him,
and no one troubles himself about its broken
pieces. Or his greatness, such as it is, may
have come by Inheritance. He is a genera
Ton or two removed from the base means by
which his fortune has been built up, and is to
that extent the better example and authority
in the eyes of the admiring world Then
pause in the expression of opinion until he
has spoken. His horses are admired; his
taste is approved; his turnout is copied; his
wife's dresses become the fashion; his vices
are tolerated. Orators praise him reporters
OF newspapers herald his outgoings and in
comings, and public lecturers illustrate their
remarks upon character and industry by paint
ing his career Behold the reward of virtu-
Gus industry! See the grand result of a life
OF integrity -Once a poor boy now a wealthy
upon the tioOd-tide that carries men to for
tune.
He may have "struck oil, - or another's in
dustry may have discovered it on the barren
acres OF hitherto worthless patrimonv: or,
like the hero of BOWS Flat" i'm his des-
pairing struggle for water, he NAV have come
upon nugget of gold-it is all the same to
the world. Success has a glamour of its
own. 1t argues ability, strength, foresight.
wisdom-and the successful mans word is
weight. The opinion of poor, wayfaring
tramp, begging bread for himself and child at
convent gates, was of no moment, although
1t resulted in the discovery of new CONT
nent. When it became a demonstrated fact,
ana the dlscoverer came back clothed with
the wealth and pOmp of success, he was al
most god to those who had despised him.
People laughed at the ''crazy philosopher"
tor years in Washington city, where even
BARRIERS shaved for nothing, in charity, the
poor man who tried to establish the magnetic
telegraph. When ultimately popular stupid
ity was overcome, and success brought wealth
and position, Professor Morse was no longer
the "crazy philosopher" to be laughed at, but
a marvelously wise man. Who knows how
much Of his wisdom was lost to the world
through the suffering and contumely to which
he was subjected in his days of poverty :?
America stood across the ocean as well when
Columbus said so in the day of his weary
rambling as after he brought proofs and
MOrse's telegraph was as genuine fact in
the days of the 'crazy philosopher as in
those of the learned philosopher. The his
tory OF the arts is marked down its whole
length by the martyrdom of inventors and
science even, that of all things to be wise,
has allowed her children to fall into disgrace
and penury by the wayside, overburdened
with the weight of some great truth. A
thousand circumstances NAV combine to de-
feat achievement, and curses and imprison-
ment may be the portion of him who strives
to confer blessing on mankind.
But it seems as if all men conspire to rem
der homage to material success. From the
triumphant prizc-fghter to his elder brother,
the warrior; from the bandit to the hero
whoever yields force and seizes his plumber
or governs by the strong arm becomes the
theme Of adulatiOn. So from the pig-drover
to the manufacturer, the tavern keeper to the
politician, the huckster in potatoes to the
huckster in Ofces-whoever can show mate
rial results is the object of commentator.
Literature itself is tainted with the disease,
and exalts stupidity by clothing coarse men
with retinements they never dreamed of pos
sessing, and giving bullet heads the wisdom
OF Socrates. These cut-purses of the bodies
polite and social hold possession of the means
so necessary to life, that they buy the bodies,
brains, and souls of other men, and appro-
pirate them all without conjunction. Their
lives are often an entire fralld--no public act
with which they are credited, no word as
cribed to their speech, being original with
themselves, but purchased by them from OBJ
scure men who would not be listened to by
the world, speak they never so wisely.
1t was Richelieu, the despot, who gave
currency to the maxim, "There is no such
word as fall" an easy declaration to one
who had absorbed all powers of government
and knew no law but his own will. 1t was
Napoleon who believed that the truest wis
dom is resolute determination, and declared
that :" the word impossible was only to be
found in the dictionary of FOOLS" 1t was
Alexander who is said to have wept when he
had no more worlds to conquer, vet he died
in drunken brawl. Bonaparte overleaped
his ambition, and after laying Europe waste,
and drawing millions of men from the paths
OF peace and productive industry to defend
their homes against his ruthless soldierv, he
died in exile, the very magnitude of his crimes
enlisting sympathy. His nephew, the melo-
dramatic hero of Strasburg--the puerie pris-
oner of Ham, the laughing-stock of London,
the perjured president Of the French Repub-
lie, the bloody cOnsprator of the coup d'dat,
Tie Drllilant ruler OF the second Empire, and
white cOlor-sergeant of Sedan-is to-day as
he always has been, the most unmitigated
quack and pretentious humbug on the face of
the globe; yet, look at his career, partly
made for him by his uncle, whose party, long
out Of office, became hungry for power, mainly
achieved by the aid of adventurous rascals
through treason, perjury, and assassination.
History is full Of examples of successful
villainy, Notwithstanding the staple morality
of the pulpit, lecture-roOm, and biographical
memoirs. AS old Burton says in his quaint
book, ''The Anatomy of Melancholy :"
"Consider the beginning, present estate,
progress, ending of gentry, and then tell me
what it is. Oppression, fraud, cozening,
ssury, knavery, bawdery, murder, and tyran-
ny, are the beginning of many ancient fami-
lies ! One hath been a bloOd-sucker, pari-
eide, the death of many silly soul in some
unjust quarrels and seditions--made many an
orphan and poor widow; and for that he is
made lord or an earl and his posterity gen.
tlemen forever after. Another has been a
bawd, pander to some great man, parasite,
a slave, and for that he is exalted Tiberius
preferred money to honOrs in his time be-
cause Of their Righteousness. Many come
into this parchment now by flattery or coZen-
ing. Search your old families, and YOU shall
scarce find multitude Gas Eneas Sylvius OBJ
seryes) gui sceferatum non haJent oifuia. that
have not wicked beginning. One
makes fool of himself to make his lord mer-
ry another handles my young master, be-