The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-01-25

III nllaI reverence were 6nt0fc9u Dy law, Dl1'
Lodge would certainly be found guilty Of an
actionable offsnse against his great-grandfather.
Under dutiful disguise, he tramples on him
at the very first step. "a sentiment OF respect
for the memory of my great-grandfather, and
desire to rescue his name, If possible from COM
plete Oblivion, induced me to undertake the
work of which this volume is the result"
Does not Mr.. Lodge know that in this Essex
county, whore his ancestor was born. great
grandfathers, lowered with unlimited private
respect and public oblivion, ars, as the sands
upon the seashore. innumerable? When MIR.
Thomas Corwin was appointed Secretary Of tho.
Treasury By President Fillmore. he said that
if he went out on the Treasury steps and blew
horn, every man that heard it was as fit for
the place as he. There is not an Essex County
man alive who could not stand on his door
step and blow a horn over toward che old bury
ing-ground at any number of great-grandfsth-
ers as worthy of Immortality as MIR. Cabot
But we do not blow the horn. Oblivion is not
so bad fate. We shall all shortly share it
with our own fathers. We warm our
hearts with their memory; but we reflect
philosophically that if they had not buoyan6y
is but waste of muscle for US to try to keep
their venerable heads above water, and but
very i'll taste to faunt their specific gravity
before the world. But it seems otherwise to
Mr.. Lodge. He appears rather inclined TO ex-
aggerate the hard tug he has had over the re-
mains of his ancestor. 1.-THE difficulties in my
way at first seem insurmountable" II Mr..
Lodge could only have persuaded himself that
it was not necessary to surmount them! "Being
debarred by the nature of my only materials,
from writing suitable biography"-the natu-
raj inference would be that he would not write
it, and we admire at the existence of this ro-
bust octave in 900 pages! "And not considering
that a history of any period could be properly
created in work relating exclusively to an in
dividuar' surely that might go without say
ing unless man is to be excluded altogether
from his own biography In which case he him
self might have some views. And then having
previo usly announced the insurmountable OBJ
stacle bat he had no material for biography,
and must confine himself to Mr.. Cabot's letters,
Mr. Lodge completes his remarkable give-away
game by d sclaring that he had written the BIZ
Ographical ,YartS with the sole purpose of rem
dering the accompanying letters Ineligible. +"
But having thus ground his great-grandfather
between the upper and neither milestone, Mr..
Lodge it mnst be confessed, grapples manfully
with the corpus t5eIiett, and emerges from the
| six hundredJh page like Gaeas from burning
| Troy with Anchistss on his shoulders, though
whethe. Mr.. Lodge has succeeded in endowing
his pulverized burden wiGh any more life than
| it had when he took it up remains to be seen
All the same, the effort was not the less heroic
| and gladly proffer him my humble aid.
Proceeding, apparently, on the principle that
| to give fair account of anything you must be-
l gin at the foundation of the world, Mr.. Lodge
draws back far enough for q start TO come down
| on William the Conqueror at the first leap.
'Among the names on the 'aucent role given
| by Sterr of the 'chisf nobemen aud gentlemen
| which came into England with William the
| COuqueror' is that of Cabot" IT'S fair be-
| ginning, but we are doomed to disappointment
| With his peculiar ideas of reverence l'or the
| dead, no sooner does Mr.. Lodge lift up tn is de
| ceased Cabot into iightsthan he drops him III
| SO homely term may be applied to Cabot =
| like hot potato. Worse than this he lifted
/ him up on purpose to drop him. He drags him
l out of his grave simply to say that he is not
the man at all. BE is another person. He is
not even that "He is a mere name upon an
old parchment" Then why, asks busy world,
1 is be not permitted to stay there?
Having remitted him to his shelteriug sheep.
l skin, Mr.. Lodge makes second jump, and
4 lands this time on the Isle of Jersey. Once
more the prospect brightens. John Cabot,
/ Sebastian Cabot. Rohan-Chabots, Italian Car
l dinals, heirlooms, Norman race, pure blood,
l coats-Of- arms-all are touched upon; nothing
l is wanting to complete our knowledge of the
Cabot family, except, perhaps dissertation on
Il
4 ly and enthusiastically swept away with the
| ruthless remark that "the most patient labor
has failed to carry the genealogy of the Ameri-
4 can family b, ,yond the parents OF those who
\ first emigrated to Massachusetts"
So this careful resuscitation of renowned Ca
| bits is simply for the purpose Of saying that
l they are not to the purpose! In the character
of al Ncestors MIR. Lodge can only point to them
as did Beau Brummeps valet to the heap OF
tumble d cravats on his arm, "These are oul
| failures. In his confessed dearth of material
| we could permit Mr.. Lodge to exc out the life
| aud letters of his great grandfather with the
| life and lett ers OF the men at whose tables he
had dined but it Is abusing good nature e
| stretch the pei mission over raft of people
| who were dead hundreds of years before hi;
| great-grapdfathtr was born.
A third time we start out on stlli hunt
| for TIE Cabot ped igree. and this time we seem
| really to have struck the trail. William the
/ Conaueror and Sebs stian the Explorer give uT
their uncertain ghosts to the more common
| place but substantial claims OF George Caoot
l joiuer and mason, and his wife Abigail. Blue
/ blood does indeed make final and feeble stan(
on the question: as to whether George Cabo
1 won his wife by service, as mason on hel
| fathers house, ''or whether from superio
| knowledge he was enabled to direct the con
struction of his father-in-law's house, and was
| therefore supposed to be nadsonP. But 10 view
| of all the royal line from which he did no
spring, posterity will no doubt judge Georgt
| Cabot's monument of brick more durable thar
brass!
The same tendency TO overlay simple fac
with sounding phrase is displayed Throughout
the book with comical unconsclousness. The
few items of Mr.. Cabot's early life, which
would not crowd a page are elaborated oVel
twenty pages. George Cabot had been in col
lege two years when his father died. Amp'
| provision had been made by will for his remain
| ing college course, and 5000 besides fell to hi
| share from the estate. Yet he instantly iei
| college and went to sea as cabin boy. 1t was
not a very bad thing to do, but when we have
| two pages of picturesque writing upon IT, 10
which we are told of his love of books, aud hi
fancy for the natural sciences and tnst CON
study and that his character never lost the staml
of the quarterback and the dash of salt water
and that he was unwilling to be charge upoI
*IIyE AND LETTERS OF GEORGE CABOT. B.
| Henry Cabot Lodge. Syo., 6l5 PIP. Bostoni Little
L p-n-,., Comnanv 1877