New-York tribune., 1874-03-20
civil or criminal which was brought before him Doc


sto Donna f"-where is tho lsdyf
DID over any Of you read Archbishop Whstevs MS,
torio Doubts about the Emperor Nspo'eon 'no "''
Therein the learned and witty Archoishop prV'ou-"'
early as ls19-by fair use OF the criticism oi '' "o
and the Sceptc School. that the whole ns'or' VI VI"
great Napoleon ought TO be treated oy "ise 'non a"
myth and that there Is lt'le OF no o''o"'
that he ever existed at all and the story OF MS srauo
sucoesses and strange defeats was probaDV
the Government In order to pander 10 'ne VANITY " VIZ
English nation How easily one or two 'houSahu !oai
hence will the skeptical critic OF the iuture pio'e "
poleon Third TO have been myth. "ha' wiz nv 90, "a
that landing at Boulogne with the tame eagle bu'
these bits OF romance are offen the uuo9''"S "'''
most interesting portions OF history
However the ditch.water theory OF history Is ho'
always and altogether wrong It's advocates are r'H",
in SAYING that great historic changes are not prouuo
by one great person, by one remarka0ie event ihe5
have been preparing. perhaps for centuries FOR in
stance Cyrus could not have conquered the meuo'u
Empire at single blow II. first, that empire hau no.
been utterly rotten and he and his handfu OF
Persians had been tempered and sharpeheu oy os
bardihood to the finest cutting edge YES tnere "oi0
all the materials for the caastrophe-the cahhon '"o
powder the shot But to say that the Perslans i""'
have conquered the Medes, even If Cyrus hau he'oi
lived is to say that given cannon, powder ana sho'
will fire itself of some day. If only leave II alone
long enough II may he so; but spontaneous colnpuS
tion is rare and usually when great event Is rea'y "
be done. one must come ana do H.
Having trimmed thus adroity between the Buck<
and the Carlyle theories OF history MI Kingsley ic-
turned 10 his Cyrus. He eulOgzed the CWopGd'a' an
ldeai book which, in its exquisite Greek or IN
translation he would fain in the hands OF every
Young uau lie then reau considerable length from
the Prophet Isaiah the Hebrew prophets conception oil
Cyrus the great Puritan OF the Old World.
But what became OF Cyrus ana his eIpiref Keno
phon states expressly and with detail that cyrus from
the very time triumph became an Eastern despot
living apart from his people in the vast fortified paiace
which he built for himself. and initiating, in all save
vice and eiemlnacy, those very Medes, whom ne hau
despised and conquered OF this at least there ia no
doubt that his sous and their empire rapidly through
that same vicious circle OF corruption to which all des-
potiss are oomed and became within $50 years even
as the Medes the Cbaldeans the Lydians, whom they
hal conquered children no longer OF Ormuzd, out oi
Ahriman-O darkness and not OF ght-to DO conquered
by Alexander and his Greeks, even moro rapidly ahu
more fatally than themselves had conquered the East
But here we are tonghtthe latest link in chain OF
and effects which reaches far back as the emil
grafton of the Persians southwark from the plateau OF
Pamir For by the fall of Babylon and its empire
the Jews were freed from their capyy-large numbers
OF them, east-an1 sent men 20 their own Jerusalem
Their return Jerusalem preserved for Us the Old Tes
lament while it restored to them national center
sacred city loyalty TO which prevented their being Ut
! terly absorbed by the more civilized Eastern races
OF captves Then another and seemingly needful link
| OF cause aud effect Alexander OF Macedon de-
sroyed the Persian Empire aud the Est became Greek
| aud Alexandria rather than Jerusalem, became the
headquarters of jewish learning But from that very
cause the Scriptures not left inaccessible to the
mass OF mankind but translated into and contin
ued in the all but world wide Hellenic speech which
was TO the ancient world what French Is to the modern
| Then the East became Roman, without losing us
Greek speech And under the wide domination OF the
later Roman Empire. that Divine book carried faT
and wde from the heart of Abyssni1 to the mountains
of Armenia, ana to the isles of the ocean beyond
Britain itself to Ireland and the Hebrdes. And that
book IL was which to these transatlantic shores
the founders of this great nation. That book gave them
their instinct of freedom, tempered by reverence for
law Long strange indeed is the chain OF causes
and effects which links the present scene and hearers
| 10 the old heroes who down from Central Asia
because the land had wOndrOus cold that there
| were ten months of Winter to two of Summer.
The lecture listened to throughout with interested
attention. but moro than hearer regrets that the
lecturer had not chosen modern theme, and made
alive for again of the heroic figures OF more
recent history, few could do so well as he, born
hero worshper as all who have read and heard him
| must feel.