Montgomery County sentinel., 1882-04-07
MisCellameams.
Written for the SENTINEL.
AMBITION.

Ambition is defined as being "a wish
for proferment or honor, desire Of
something great or noble" In some
respects this definition Of ambition is a
perfectly correct one, especially when
used in its primitive and better sense !;
but its signGcaton has been so per-
yerted Sat il now more commonly de-
notes Z craving for power or promi-
nenee than desire of honorable
proferment. We will first consider it
in its original and better sense. There
is nothing that tends so much toward
the elevation, refinement and preserva-
ton of the character of mankind us this
ambition it strengthens and ennobles
all his virtues, calls for the best produc.
tions Of mind and body and having once
called every faculty into the field urges
the two divisions Of his army, mind and
body, to u harmonious and persistent eff
fort to scale the heights of difficulty and
to raise the flag of fame on its summit,
or as Campbell has put it in "Lochie's
Warning"
"Leaving in battle no blot on his name,
Look proudly 10 heaven from the death bed
of fame.
It was this ambition that led Cicero to
leave his native village for the Forum
and entering there the gap of obscurity
to pass through it and out on to the
path of fame and to follow it tirelessly
until he reached the goal of immortal
renown; this that enabled Newton to
work so tirelessly for years and finally
TO stand without peer in the scientific
world this that has spurred on Franklin,
Fulton, Morse, Edison and host Of others
to labor as they have for the benefit of
their fcllow-men.
This subject is absolutely inexhausti-
BILE, 80 let it suffice US to say that it is
this ambition aud this only which can
and does constitute the man. For what
is man without ambitionY He is as a
machine without a motive power. AS
the goad is to the OK, as the spur is to
the horse, so ambition is to man. But
as they say in geometry this is self-evi-
dent proposition and requires no further
demonstration to prove il.
Next let US consider ambition, not as
dcnoting desire for honorable advance
ment, but, az iBordinate craving for
power or wealth, as power before
which even honor must bow down. It
is THU ambition which makes despots and
tyrants; IL is this that leads on the seenI-
ingly contented man TO the requirement
Of position at any cost; it is this that
has induced selfish politicians TO bring
American politics to their present de-
grading and disgraccful condition and TO
cast blot on the spotlcss shield Of
American integrity that only the lapse
Of centuries can efface. II is this greed
Of power, this inordinate lust for su-
prcmacy and greed for gold that tar
nishes the glory and renown 80 bravely
won by Alexander. by Caesar, by Han
nibal and by Napoleon Bonaparte. Look
at the career Of Rome, mistress at one
time Of nearly all the known world, she
lost both honor and possessions in an
ambitious attempt to bring under her
imperial yoke the little remnant that re-
NAMED free. As with corporations so
with individuals, in thus striving for
too much they lose that which they al
ready have. This was we'll illustrated
by Napoleon when with the French
eagles he bearded the Russian bear in
his frigid den. He gave the order and
with 100000 men at his back be
marched on Moscow, his star was in
It's zenith, but from that time it rapidly
descended 10 tho horizon and finally set
in dense clouds Of sulphurous smoke,
the smoke Of tho battles iu which be
had sacrificed thousands OF brave and
loyal men 10 fatal ambition.
p. WILLIAMS AvIRETT.