, 1874-05-06
LIVINGSTONE AND HIS LABORs.
from the N. Y. HERALD

an Engllshman were paid on Saturday to the
memory OF DIR. Livingstone. Surrounded by
many OF the amous men in England, his body
was received by the authorities Of Westminster
and committed to the dust under the walls of
the venerable Abbey. The Queen and the
Prince OF Wales sent tokens Of sympathy, and
the English nation accepted the charge Of his
funeral. So he sleeps at last in what has been
called the great temple of peace and reconcilia.
ton. Many illustrious men lie beside him,
but no one OF this generation, at least, carries TO
the grave a wider or more deserving fame. It
was Nelson who resolved to come out of a
battle a peer or be carried out of it to West
minister Abbey. These were the ultimate
honors to that heroic soul. This ultimate hon
or has been won by Livingstone by achieve
ments no less renowned and no less deserving
the atectIonate remembrance Of mankind than
'h' victories of Copenhagen and the Nile.
This is not the time to sum up the results
OF the life Of Livingstone. We do not have
the final results of his discoveries, and some
time must eLapse before we have the informa-
ton upon which the Judgment of gcoaraphcrs
and men OF science will be based. In the mean
time the quaint letter addressed to Mr.. Stanley,
our correspondent, viii have a melancholy in
tercSt. Ii has the earnest playfulness Of charac-
tcr,tho truthfujnoss and atfectionlte sincerity,
$1,000 1900 " AtFO NbAO GINA Il
able man. This easy freedom of conf
Dental intercourse gives the letter a value which
a formal report of discoveries and achievements
would not possess. 1t seems clear from the
hints given by the Doctor that his discoveries
will destroy the legends of Portuguese geo.
graphy, dissolve mountains and lakes which
have lived for centuries on maps of Africa,
and seem to have been as b~Q5eles3 as the fabrics
Of a vision. 81 have been the unfortunate
means saysthe Doctor, "of demolishingtwo en-
pIresin Portuguese geography" aud it would not
surprise us to learn that the modern inventions
which are called maps must give place to the
chronicles Of the ancient travellers, who have
long since been d~espiscd as fable writer's 1t
would be an odd and striking comment upon
our civilization to learn that the more we dis
cover the more closely VIC approach the attain
mentS of men who lived more than two thousand
years ago that it has taken twenty-thrce cen
turtles Of adventure to conf m the narratives of
Herod0tus. How far the results of Livingstone's
labor8 will change the map Of Africa remains
to be seen. 1t seems likely that he has solved
the problem of the Nile. That ia itself would
be a monument of enduring fame. But he has
also given Africa a new life. 1t is no longer
the forbidding, deadly land Of miasma, fever
and canuibalism, We sec something more
attractive than the useless gorillas of NJ. du
Chaillu. Africa is a home for men of courage
and enterprise-a rich, ripe, necessary Cont
nent, with everything to tempt the founders of
an empire. There arc nationa'ities who have
already attained a rude but interesting and
progressive civilization, and there is no reason
why this Continent should not be made the
seat of enlightenment and peace, like our own
Continent of America, which was unknown and
abandoned to the savage Indian four centuries
ago.
This seems to be the browning result of the
labors Of Livingstone. He has achieved more
than vas ever achieved by a discoverer. lie
has opened a new continent, so that while the
tired, lonely, devoted old man is carried to
rest we feel that his work is not done. We
have seen only its beginning. Civilization
already pierces the African Continent and seeks
the paths laid down by the genius of Living
stone. In the South the British hold dominion.
On the West Coast the powerful and barbarous
Ashantee kingdom has been overturned by a
British army, and we presume that this coast
will pass under the judicious rule of England.
In Liberia we have an interesting experiment
in self government, while tho Kh6dive of
Egypt seems resolved to restore the splendor
of the Pharaohs, and to extend the dominions
Of his kingdom into realms which never obey
ed Pharaoh The French have made Algeria
n nroSnarOus colopxy and tho Spanish NAV Of