The Republican journal., 1877-10-25
Concerning a Name.

"Wnat $ IN name Z" asks the gentle |
Juliet. There may not be much, to
love sick girl, for whom the world holds
but one object of desire; but to those ac
customed to weigh causes and calculate
effects, there is much, very much. He |
who has euphoniously and appropriately |
christened his son, his daughter, his ship,
| his book, OF any other venture that is to
come before the world, has done some
thing, and often times much, to ensure
success There is a great deal in a name
Suppose that George Washington had
been recorded in the parish register as
Amaziah Scruggins; could he by any pos
sibility have been nations savior and
taken his place on the roll of the worlds
heroes? a Massachusetts cobblcr was
simply jeremiah Coolbroth while be ham
mered his lapstone in Natick but chang
ing his cognomen to Henry Wilson, he
climbed to the Vice Presidency. When
Lord Byron turned on his critics of the
Edinburg Review, one of his shafts trans
fixed rising poet in this manner
"Oh, Amos Cotte. Phpbus what a name
| To fill the sounding trump Of future fame"
And Amos was never heard of again, out
side of Byron's satire. Campbell sings
melodiously of
''The power the grace, the sweetness Of name"
Southey, in describing the terrors Of the
French retreat from Moscow, pursued by
the avenging Russians, crowns the record
Of their discontinue with the assertion
that
Last of all an Admiral came.
A terrible man with a terrible name
'My foot is on my native heath, and
my name is MacGregor," is the proud as
sertion of one of Sir Walter Scott's heroes,
when he feels that he amounts to some
thing. In Don Juan, the poet makes
whimsical allusion to some English vol
unteers that with the hero's adventure
loving party joined the Russian army that
was then, as one is now, trying the road
to Constantinople-
Mongst them several Englishmen of plth
Sixteen called Thomson, and nineteen named
Smith
Not names Of great renown, to be sure,
but certain to belong to good fighters.
But bless YOU, reader, this pen of ours
is straying too far among examples, and
into the howery field Of literature. Let
lis return to the subject. When it was
announced that new Democratic paper
was to be started in Knox county, much
curiosity and some solicitude existed to
learn the christening it would receive
whether the tidings should go abroad that
1.-THE child is born, and his name is Icha-
bod ;" or otherwise 1t proved to be other
wise very much SO. The Rockland
Opinion Opinion.! Opinon... What
the deuce did they give it that name for? 2"
asked the venerable and steadtast Dem
ocrat, as he looked for the first time upon
the OVERLOAD heading. The press of Maine
is courteous to new corners, so the COM
PEELED laugh of the forty editors found
no expression in type. 1t was plain that
the udicious good sense of the Knox
Democracy had not been consulted in
the naming. What is an opinion DR..
Worcester thus defines the term
OPINION That which is thought either when
there is no certain knowledge, or when there are
no facts or sufficient for decided Judgment.
Therefore a newspaper which is an Opin-
ion must be one which thinks it knows
something, but is never sure of it, And
thus, after all, there may have been a di
recting fate in the selection Of this curious
title for a paper that thinks it knows so
much, and is really sure of so little. The
sponsor chose better than he knew. But
it will strike the average observer as in
keeping with the fitness of things that the
mental force which, out of the abundance
of the English language, could select no
filter title for a newspaper, should assume
to mount the tripod and sit in cOndemning
judgment on those that have approved
themselves to the party and public by
long and faithful services.
The word Opinion is scabby term,
everywhere. 1t has been tlouted and rid
iculed by authors from the days of sacred
writ, when Elijah derded the people for
'halting between two Opinions" to the
time when Dickens Jack Bunsby gave
, IAN Opinion as is an Opinion" Shaks-
peare's writings are full Of contempt for
the term. Gratiano speaks Of
"'The FOOLS gudseon, this Opinion.
The biting wit Of Thersites eXclaims-
"A plague of Opinion! A man may wear it on
both sides, like a leather jerkin.
And Sim0nides-
.'Opnon's but fool that makes us sean
The outward habit by the inward man
In the Winters Tale, Camille counsels
his troubled friend
OF this diseased Opinion, and bctimcs
For It's most dangerous.
Caius Marcus, addressing the wrong
headed mob in Cariolanus, speaks out his
thoughts thus
whats the matter YOU dsscntious rogues,
That you, rubbing the poor itch Of your Opinion,
Make yourselves sCabs :!
Dryden's lines, written to burlesque,
the Duke Of Buckingham, might be taken
as not inaccurate portrait of our self
sufficient Rockland neighbor-
Stiff in Opinion always in the wrong
Everything by starts, and nothing long
But, despite all that the great poet has
written in disparagement of our unfor-
tunate cotemporary's unfortunate name,
there is encouragement in one passage
of Shakespeare. 1t is that where Falstatf
addresses one of his boon companions
Il would to God thou and knew where com
modify of good names to be bought
If our ROcklau1 npiphbOr shall ever