The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1881-02-09
For THE RECORD.
THE Old SQUARE ALMANAC. :


moon aud weather, win often find, IN the hiss,
torical or rpiscellapebus, 4 column, names of
men oadly grouped together. The cdnbina1
tion may be simply odd or amusing; it may
be really interesting, and suggestive of cons
trasts and comparisons before unthought Of.
I February B, as We gather from the Kalsn-l
dars, new aud old, is the death day of John
of Gaunt, and the birth day Of Horace Greeley,
both men ofmark, agitators, ST atesmep, mould
ers and directors Of popular opinions and
measures.
The American is universally honored for
his large-hearted philanthropy, his breadth
and energy Of thought the clearness and vi
gor with which he uttered his convictions and
urged his counsels. Those counses were not
always the wisest, nor those convictions the
soundest; and the general verdict will proba-
bly, be that his place is not so much with
philosophers as with g doctrinoires," whose
political theories are too full Of dreams and
fancies to make them wisely practical But
no one will dispute the vast benefit conferred
by him upon his country and his age, in en-
larging the scope and raising the tone of the
ton, is of itself cyclop@dis and library of
current literature. art aud science and Jour
nalism, everywhere, is more free and full and
alive, because of bis efforts.
A life SO generously and unsparingly given
to the cause of humanity, had. as we all re-
member, most impoteDt conclusion--disap-
pointment, defeat, a broken. heart, death.
And why2 ~ 81.
Was it because, either through personal
ambition or the fatal weakness of doctrinair-
ism, he falsifed himself and 5ewildered by
the glamour Of his impossible dreams, played
into the hands of political Anniversaries Per-
haps this is a sufficient account Of his fall.
We have always thought, however that
Horace Greeley was weak, insecure, unbal-
anced, in his entire career--uncertain as TO
himself, aud unsafe as leader--becauses the
deepest, truest, strongest element OF sound
philosophy and of lasting prosperity was
wanting to his system of principles and. prac
tice. Knowing much as he did, and teaching
| WE'LL about the world of matter and the world
of men, he yet did not sufficiently remember
that the world is GoD's or, at least, the GoD
| " W IOnt 40 Wouin Cbttucs utuocH anu thO
worlds government was not the GoD of the
Christians Creed-the Jehovah of Abraham's
praise the Jesus of Paul's belief, the Triune
Con, whom all the Angels adore and obey.
We do not pursue the thought, but recon-
mend it to the consideration of our readers,
and add only our conviction, that much of hol-
lowness n the theories aud rottenness n the
fabrics of politics and of g philosophy, falsely
so,called. !" is due to this same defect--Christ
left out. where of right He should be included.
| in the faith and homage of human hearts aud
brains, of human schemes and efforts.
John of Gaunt, the g time honored Lam
caster y Of Shakespeare, aud father of Henry
~, was, for sturdy energy, UNITING INDUS
try, bold opinion, and popular leadership,
! fully equal to the American whose name we
| nave found standing beside Ills 10 day. The
Enslishman lived in a stirring time. and he
helped to make the bustle He aided the
Black Prince in France, and shared his de-.
feats He meddled in Spanish politics, and
married Spanish princess His was the age
of Chaucer and Wiclif-of the greatest de-
graduation of the Papacy, and of the first turn
of that tide, which, at its flood, brought Eng.
land and Germany to the Reformation of the
18th century. John of Gaunt, strong and
bold as he often appeared, was not dsin-
terested partisan nor are we able to believe
his support of Wicif was either very honest
in motive or very Christian in temper. And
yet, ProvidentialIy, he was an instrument of
protection and strength to the outspoken and
| learned Pastor of Lutterworth; as the un-
doubleday bad Henry VIII. was the secular
shield, against Rome's secular power, to the
true. hearted restorers of Engand's true faith,
two centuries later. The Duke himself turn
ed against Wiclif and the other Lollards,
when they denied the false tenet of transub-
sanitation aud the triumph of the combina-
tion against the open Bible and intellectual
freedom that Wicif preached, was the curiew
of knowledge for the long sleep of another
hundred years. Intellectual life slumbered
at best; thought and religion made no pro-
gress, but the hundred gears gar was Eng
lands long nightmare dream of horrors, aveng-
ing that guilty repression of the truth, in the
age of Wicif. s.o
February q, 1928, died Anne Radcliffe the
same day, 1872, died Charles Dickens. No
other two names could better express the
change--the improvement, We may say--in
popular literary taste that took place within
little more than half century. The novels
that the world reads. much more than the
plays they attend, or even the songs they sing,
show to what they have attained, in the way
of mental culture.
Mrs. Radcliffe was far in advance of her
predecessors, in English romance writing, in
many ways; but what were the charms of her
pen, admired not by the unthinkipg readers
only, but by men of genius, eighty years ago2
Her characters are insipid her story comes
to nothing. But in narrowing up the soul
with imaginary horrors, aud making the flesh
creep and the nerves thrill with fond hopes
and fears, she is unrivalled among her fair
countrywomen. Her great powe. lies in de-
scribing the indefiuable, and embodying q
phantom"
Who win lament that tho Mysteries Of
Udolpho has become one of the curiosities of