The Indianapolis leader. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1879-1890, 1880-09-04
Communicated.
Sword and PEN.
BY w. ALISON SWEENEY.

BY w. ALISON SWEENEY.
Literature has been termed by one com.
mentator the preserved thoughts of the
mind of man." by another, 'brain and mind
atoms, corked up and laid away in the wine-
cellars of human affairs for future use'
Both solutions are certainly very quaint and
withal truthful solutions of an element in
human affairs which has had more to do to-
ward civilizing and discriminating the world
from barbarism than the sword and forum
combined. The sword has indeed been pow
erful as factor of civilization, and in shap-
ing the destnies of nations-but it has also
been fatal. In the hands of an Alexander,
Casa or Napoleon it has raised up and
carved out kingdoms and empires; it has
also destroyed them. If it has made glad
and exultant the beart of ambitious royalty,
it has at the same time filled with grief and
sadness time and again the bosom of man
kind. And as much can frequently be said
of the deceitful and fascinating glare of the
delusive eloquence of the tribune. 1t was
the fowery, imprisoned rhetoric of Mira
beau, Danton and Marat that kindled the
fires of the French Revolution, and in the
holy name of liberty drenched La Belle
France with martyred, innocent blood. And
in our own native land-America-wher
liberty has been cheat and manhood de-
fusion to the colored man, the most ignoble
act that ever disgraced the statute-books of
any land or age-the fugitive slave bill
became law manly by and through the
bewildering elOquence of Daniel Webster,
who, losing his head in a mad dream of am
bition for the Presidency, hardened his heart
to the appeals of humanity, and at the
tempter's signal the grandest intellect this
country has ever produced was prostituted
to the schemes of human slavery and OPP
preston.
Yet, very far from nv intent is it to un-
dervalue or mistake the great and salutary
influence of the sword and forum as display
ed in the past history of the world, or to
speak slightingly of weapons which certain
ly belong to civilization and progress instead
of barbarism and retrogression-far from it;
but, instead, am merely drawing contrast
between the amount of their influence as
compared to that of literature; but not the
quality, for in this respect their claims are
extenuation of the pen which cannot be re-
corded Of the sword and forum-things
which compelled Bulwer, in flight of tran
scendant genius, to declare, 1.-THE pen is
mightier than the sword" Silent and noise
less though it is in its execution, it distances
competition. 1t sacks no cities; it drenches
no land with fraternal blood; it binds the
chain on none of human kind when welded
by philanthropy, nor places crowns upon
the brows of tyrants; but surely, like the
edicts of fate, has its influence been felt over
and above and through the affairs of men
and nations since the star of Christian civil.
ization first shed its lambent light DER the
dark places of the earth, and in every walk
OF life, in every sphere of human action.
The martial deeds and chivalrous proves
of the Bayards, The Richards, the DeMoores,
once charmed a valor-loving world and be-
came the theme of tale and story at every
Preside, and from thousand poets Tyres.
But when the encroaching rust of time shall
have invaded and fastened upon the halo
the shimmering glory with which history
and tradition have surrounded their seques-
tered and fol gotten tombs; when their fame
has become but struggling line in the flu
ture encyclopedias of the day, the names of
Homer, Virgil, Herodotus, Plutarch, Livy
and Tacitus, whose pens flashed forth their
genius centuries before knight-errantry be-
came the noblest occupation of man, will
grow brighter and brighter time goes on,
gathering about them an undying lustre, an
Immortality of glory that mere deeds of
blood can not aspire to; or, aspiring to, shall
not obtain. A vindication of the philosophy
of the survival of the fittest. Warrior,
sword, tomb-yea, all that pertaineth there
to-must sooner or later sink into oblivion;
when the work of the pen, as inspired by
these fathers of literature, is assigned
to the place on the facade on
which is written deathless fame;