The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-12-09


shout with delight to hear him reproached
and condemned from his own side, and the
man who did it would thereby place him.
self at the head of the list from whom the
people will in 1880 select their President.
Prince Bismarck Universologist.
There are SO many elements of strength
in the personal character of the German
Chancellor that while he remains upon his
own field he is ever .facile priaceps among
living European statesmen. Prudence
would seem to dictate that while he has
always open to his ambition so many fields
in which he can hold his own against the
world, he should not rashly go out of his
way to challenge inevitable defeat,
And leave a name, at which the world grew pale,
To point moral or adorn "a tale.
But this is precisely what Prince Bismarck
has done in permitting his crude imagin-
As long as he remained intrenched in his
impregnable castle Of undying antipathy
to the "Celtic" races he could safely
pursue his diplomatic campaign for the
humiliation of France, but when he
condescends to give reason for his faith
and to enrich the humdrum science of eth
nology with a new classification of races he
discovers the weak point in his coat of mail.
Prince Bismarck may be very great rs
ruler, but he is very small as an ethnolo-
gist, and he incurs the chances Of disas-
trous chastisement when he peaches upon
the profoundly metaphysical preserves of
our New York philosopher, the founder of
''universology." Neither rs philosopher
nor as Pantarch can Prince Bismarck for
. moment be compared to the sage of Thir-
ty-fourth street, who is popularity supposed
to have ''squatted upon the universe" and
made it his own by the abstruseness of his
generalizations. The distinction between
'smasculoid" and .'feminoid" nations is one
which the Chancellor would do we'll to
leave in the hands Of the expert who first
established the doctrine that the principle of
organization is metaphysically the feminine
element in the universe. Prince Bismarck
holds that the Celts and Slavs are ''fem-
inine'' nations, while s'the Germanic race is
the great. manly, generating principle"
This classification is, of course, believed
and intended by the Chancellor to be title
Of immense prestige for his own race and
Of corresponding humiliation for the unfor-
tunate Celts and Slavs What our ardent
partisans Of female suffrage may think Of
the matter we do not know, but in the do
main Of "universology' the answer is
prompt and decisive. There is O sense in
which the classification Of the Celts as
feminine" is perfectly true; but SO far
from its being. as the Chancellor supposes,
whitening reproach, it involves compli-
ment which every Cclt should be proud to
accept. It was upon the alliance Of the
Celt with the Roman rested the greatness of
the Roman Empire, and both the Celts and
the Romans were, ENTHUSIASTICALLY speak
ing, ssfeminoid" races. The Celts are FEM
mime just SO far as the feminine ele-
mcnt typifies civilization as contrasted
with brawny barbarism. This is q
sense which does not belittle but
rather enhances the genius of the
Celto-Roman races for founding universal
Republics task which they performed two
LnOuSauu ycurS aSo ouu "HlCA tHcy VIZ
perform again. There was a marvellous
sympathy between the Latin and the Celtic
races. They had their conflicts, but they
were not implacable, like the conflict be-
tween Roman and Carthaginian or Ro-
man and Germanian. The Celts took kindly
to Latin civilization, adopted the Latin
language and Latin customs without repug-
nance, sent their sons to Rome to become
poets philosophers, generals and emperors
under the mask Of Roman names-in fact,
became more Roman than the Romans. 1t
is outside of Italy, in Southern France, in
Spain and Portugal, that the Latin language
was more accurately preserved than in the
peninsula which was SO often and SO COM
plctely overrun by the tribes of the North.
II was not the Roman arms, but the Roman
civilization, that founded the Empire, and
it was upon Celtic basis that that proud
superstructure was reared.
Glorious Opportunity.
The State Of Virginia has enjoyed and
improved many opportunities for putting
herself in the position of q leader of her
sister States, but at present she has o more