Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-06-22
lanraster fntelliger1cer.
MONDAY EVENING. JUNE %, 1880.
Greatness and Goodness.

MONDAY EVENING. JUNE %, 1880.
Greatness and Goodness.
Napoleon Bonaparte has taken rank in
history as one of the greatest men of the
world, but history will need to be revised
to accord with the latest information as
TO his character, unless we can admit
that the greatest of men may also be the
meanest, and that greatness and virtue
have no part or lot with each other. 1t
has been said of Lord Bacon, whose rank
as one OF the worlds great men can never
be disputed that he was also the meanest
of mankind. In that day Napoleon had
not lived, by whose side Bacon was
noble. We fear that it will have to be
admitted that greatness in the worlds
eve does not come SO invariably as it
should to the men who remember and
act upon the lessons of goodness and mo-
rality that are taught them at their
mothers knee. All over the world good
parents are striving to do their duty to
their children by teaching them to be
truthful, honest, unselfish and magnani-
nous in every action of their life; and
the good children are laboring hard to
learn the lesson. 1t is not according to
their nature. The self-control they strive
to attain is hard to reach. They do want
to crafty their appetites, but their teach
ing won't let them. They are being ed
ucated to he good men and if they pro-
fit by their instruction they will make
themselves agreeable to their fellow men,
good citizens, sons, brothers and hus-
bands; but, also, all this is not helping
them to be great. To he great and to
cut great figure in the eyes of the world
is the natural aim of every ambitious
boy; and it must demoralize him sadly
to realize that all the lessons of goodness
he is learning are leaden clogs on his up
ward march to such magnitude of fame
rs Napoleon won.
This may be why so many of our men
do not remember their childhood's teach
ings in their daily walk and conversation.
The wickedness of the world is increas-
ing every day with the increase of popu-
lation all the parental teaching that
can be ground into the youthful mind
won't diminish this wickedness, for the
lessons are but imperfectly taught and
learned at the best but the increase of
it is due no doubt to the fact that men
perceive that the lessons of goodness are
not always the ones that lead them on
ward and upward in career of worldly
prosperity and in their aspirations after
mems applause. Men do not applaud
goodness always; they applaud success.
And to succeed it does seem that men
must be vicious. They must be selfish,
else they cannot thrust themselves up
ward upon the top of those against whom
they contend for supremacy. Take the
candidates who struggle now for the
presidential nomination; the one who
succeeds is elevated at the cost of the
many who fail. And this is the mildest
way of putting the selfshness that leads
men to struggle against their fellows.
That is degree of sellishness which the
most pious of men may properly gratlfy
1t is that degree of selfishness which is a
virtue instead of vice. Without it men S
energies would be paralyzed. There
would be no struggle for bread. None
would enjoy more of life's luNuries than
another. 1t might be state of exist
ence which would suit the theoretical
ideas of philosophers, but it is not one
adapted to our human nature. We need
total reorganization to make it practical
ble.
In their struggles for fame men do not
stop anywhere near the line of virtuous
selfishness. They are not content to try
the examples of the worlds great men
who have gone before them. Napoleon's s
greatness consisted wholly in his martial
ability; he was not great in any virtue.
He does not seem to have had any virtues
at all to speak of. He was false, cruel,
selfish. dishonest and mean. He put
himself under no virtuous self-restraint :;
and yet he was great. So that the
children who listen to the maternal i'm
pressions of goodness must be torn be-
tween the conflicting desire for the peace
of heaven and for the applause of men.
Both they may not readily have in those
walks of life where glory mostly lies.
They may be great and good; but they
have reason to suspect that they may be
greater without being good. And, there
fore, SO many men are not good but
they fall between two stools; for few OF
them become great. They had done
better to choose rather to be good; for
it is easier to be good than to be great.