Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1875-08-19
Henry Ward Beecher.

How many men-even the most
famous and popular and beloved-could
have their lives turned inside out, as il
were, and the public not be astonished?
In his article upon Daniel Webster, Mr.
Parton was reproached for suggesting
| that he was sometimes flown with
wine. Was that all that could be said
of him? And had every thing been
| publicly blaZoned as it was privately
whispered, would he, who, upon the
whole, was thought to be the greatest
man of his time in America, have been
held to be so great? What would hap
pen if every thing were plainly told OF
DR.. Franklin, the good patriarctal
uncle of his country, as Washington is
the father? Is he great because we
have not the Wallets knowledge? Do
we insist upon keeping the mountain
remote in order that it may enchant us?
How many biographies tell the truth,
or show us the man as he was and as
the biOgrarher finds him to be? Or,
again, the microscopic detail of every
moment, of every word, of every deed,
of every look; still more the nalevO-
lent Interpretation, the suspicion, the
insinuation, the crafty perversion-
how many lives could bear these and
still seem to be not only spotless, but
irreprohchable? Ia general we know
only the large, salient, obvious points
and aspects of the hest-known men, as
they are called, and might well be
amazed at the results if we saw them
exposed, for instance, to the stripping
and the searching scrutiny of court
of law.
Yet, as great and conspicuous and
long-extended hypocrisy and imposture
are very unusual-aS it is now under
stood that Mohammed, despite the his
tories for many a generation, was not
an imPoster nor Cromwell hypocrite,
and as CaliOstrO was soon seen to be
knave-it is undoubtedly true that the
dominant impression made by a man
whose life is open to all mems eyes,
who speaks, writes, acts, in the very
focus of public observation, and
especially if he be man of large,
generous, expansive, and sympathetic
nature, is the true impression of the
man. Errors of judgment, lamentable
weaknesses that had not been suspect
ed, unanticipated credulities, when
they are laid bare by the rigorous ex
posure of such mans daily and hour
ly life, may amaze, may occasion re-
gret, but they can not affect the great
general impression which his person
ality has produced. If, indeed, a man
who is indiscret has been supposed to
be Of singularly sound judgment, if
man who is passionately impetuous
has been thought to be especially cool
and prudent, if one who is essentially
boy has been thought to be peculiar
ly a man, the sudden revelation of the
truth will startle and sadden those
whom it undeceives. But if he be a
genial, generous, impulsive man, full
of genius, of an exhaustless imagina-
ton, of magnetic power, he is not the
less so because his sagacity Is proved at
at fault, and because he has had more
trust tnan insight. Those who have
always seen that the mountain was an
Alp, a hill of our common earth, and
not a pillar of the sky, will, when the
storm passes over, see that it stands, as
of old, clear nd defined in the sum
light, ming l of green woods and
coarse herbage. of shady dell and bold
pasture, the winds of heaven still sing
ing through its far-stretching foliage,
the hues of heaven as bright as ever in
its mantling surface of fowers.-[ Edi-
tors Easy Chair, in Haper's Magazine
for September.