The New Orleans Democrat. (New Orleans, La.) 1875-1876, 1876-01-06
The Centennial New Year.
from the New York world.I

tFrOm Lne new 1Ork VOTtu.J
The literature Of many lands is gar
nished with legends which attest the
undying vitality of religious beliefs,
patriotic traditions and national aspi-
rations. There is the myth OF st. John,
sleeping at Ephesus, the seat Of his
ancient pastorate, until the last time
shall come to bring deliverance to the
world grOaning under the bondage OF
sin; the Moorish tale Of King Boabdil,
as he watches and waits in his bloody
shroud for the returning glory OF the
Crescent in its final victorious struggle
with the Cross the mediDval vision
Of Charlemagne, sitting on his throne
i'm the heart of the Untersberg, sword
that Anti-Christ whom he shall finally
destroy from the face Of the earth the
romance of the three Tells, sleeping on
the banks OF Lake Lncerne, but ready
at o. moments call to deliver their coun
try from the dominion of the Austrian |;
the picturesque story Of Don Sebastian
keeping vigil in his unknown grave over
the destinies Of his beloved Portugal
the fiction Of King Arthur, not dead,
but carried to the fairy land from which
he is destined one day to emerge for the
redemption of Britain from Saxon OPP
preston the wild dream Of the Mexican
Indians that the spirit OF Montozuma
still turks behind the stone-faced image
at Gila Bend, and bides his time for the
expulsion of the Spaniard; the old-time
fable of Frederick BarbarosSa, the grim
Emperor OF Germany, slumbering with
his knights around him under the Kyif
hauser i'm Thuringia, till the time shall
come for the unification of the Father
land and for its cxaltation to the high
est place among the nations OF the
earth. In legends such as these we
read the constancy with which men
cleave to the defense OF their affairs and
their tiresides, for it is the pcrpetuity
OF the faith they preserve In the religion
and land Of their fathers that has given
to these fables thoir currency and their
persistence.
Besides these national and religious
traditions, there Is another class Of fic-
tions which have been invented to
illustrate and embOdy the epochs of
growth and expansion witnessed in the
planting of Christianity and in the de-
vclopment Of empire. There, for
Sleepers of Ephesus, which Gibbon has
not disdained to enshrine in the swell
ing pages Of his imperial history, and
which tells us OF the pious youths who
fell asleep under the reign OF the En-
peror Decius, the most inhuman perse-
ci,tor Of the Christians, to wake again
more than hundred and fifty years
afterwards, under the reign of the good
Theodosius, when the religion OF Pagan
ism had sunk into popu lar contempt
and when Christianity had come to rule
the civilized world. And what Ameri-
can reader is not familiar with the ro-
mantle tale Of Rip Van Wrinkle, as told
by Irving, which .recites the strange
adventures that befell the long sleeper
in the Catskill Mountains only to serve
as q prelude to the surprise that fell
upon him when he woke, no longer the
loyal subject of George I'LL, or the
crony of Nicholas Vedder, the tapster,
and the sometimes boon companion of
Van Brummel, the Dutch schoolmaster,
but the free and sovereign citizen OF
this great republic, then for decade of
years or more plotting its way in the
full tide of successful experiment?
Behind legends such as these is hid a
useful moral lesson, which may instruct
the phiosophic mind, albeit that the
legends themselves may seem to be
vagrant and purposeless creations of
the myth-making fancy. AS Schiller
sings:
This visible nature. and this common world
Are oil too narrow yea, deeper import
Turks in the legend told of our infant years
Than lies upon the truth we live to learn.
For these mythical stories warn us
against the misjudement to which men
are subject as the creatures Of day
playing each his several part on the
stage of life without percciying the
grand denOuen,ent oflthe drama in which
he is called to act his subordinate part.
No age fully understands itself or the
place 1t occupies in the great secular
movements OF human history. If we
would catch the increasing purpose"
which runs through the ages, we must
learn to look ut them in those widely
separated cpOchs which mark the
decline and fall, the rise and growth of
political empire. Though to-day be as
Yesterday. and though the morrow
shall be as to day, it still remains to'be
seen that the subtle elements OF histOr-
ical change and development are con-
stantly at work with q Transforming
power which is more the less efficient in
it's results because it Is Invisible in Its
operation. If we would clearly discern
the fact of human progress in know
ledge and virtue we must look at the
file leaders of humanity not as they
mark time In the pauses and breathing
spells ef the daily march, but as they
set up the trophies which signalize the
turning points of human destiny,
whether r it be some decisive battle which
saves Europe from the domination OF
the Persian civilization, asat Marathon,
or q transfer Of the worlds sceptre from
Pagan to Christian hands, as stypified by
the conversion Of Constantine. And in
like manner, il we would clearly per
ceiye the progress that has boon made
by the separate nations OF the world,
now competing with each otherfor the
prizes of place and power, we must con
template their history in it's periodic
times and not in its daily revolutions.
We stand to-day at the threshold OF
the Centennial year In the history of
the United States. At this distance Of
time from the feeble beginnings Of the
republic, We have reached q fitting
point from which to survey the progress
we have made in those elements which
compose the highest glory OF nations.
The retrospect in some of its aspects
may well deserve to tlatter our pride,
hut there are others which we. can
not review without some twtnges
of conscience and without some con
fusion OF face Our material power is
respected abroad, but al. home its re-
spectability suffers in oqr!eyes from the
presence Of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. and OF
Official corruption. Opulent in arts and
in arms beyond the proudest dream OF
our Revolutionary fathers, we must
still hang tho purest and noblest OF our
military shields beneath the name OF