The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1885-10-16
TIVE Lightsdng Strokes.

/ TIVE Lightning Strokes.
N. Y Tribune.
The fact that two lightning strokes;
one of which fell On the site chosen for
Gen. Grant s. tomb in the Riverside
Pa rk, and the other at McGregoE
VIZ ere his body'lay~ should have occa-
sio ned scarcely amy comment, shows
the extent of thee advance made in ap-
pre- hens: on of mans relations to ma.
| tur,, and the v4rtual d isappearance of
one of the most prevalent and persist
ent of suppositions. To-day these oc-
eur1 ences are SIMPLY regarded as CO..
incit lences; strange, perhaps, but per-
fectl Y natural and rosse :sing no hui
man significance But for ages man
kind, and even the most highly civil
lied races, firmly believed that the
death of great men were marked by
pertlu rbat:o ons im nature. The history
Of reH gion shows that in regard to the
found ers of creeds this belief was uni
versal and throughout the history of
pagan Rome prpdigies were supposed
to atte nd theraocesS;on and death of
rulers. Shakespeare has faithfully rep
resente the" feeling of that period
when makes-an old Roman say:
The he avens themselves blaze forth the
death OF princes:
And tn reverential credulity of the
age find expression in the assertion:
1t is he part:ef men to fear and tremble
When t he most uighty gods, by tokens, send
Such DIR eadful heralds to astonish u.s.
During he republic OF Rome the Sen
ate itself undertook to interpret such
prodigiei ), and the aEgurs had class
flied ligh thing strokes into eleven cat
egories, Zach of,wlr oh had its special
applicati IN and gnitfcance.
Nor die the belief in portents. and
especially in ths,oocurrence of convul-
S ons of II ature upon; the death of great
men. ceas with pagan sm. The nat
ural tende .ncy to,essociate earthly i'm
portance With some special relation to
the cosmo proved too strong for the
reaaissanc to eNtirpase, and even
long after science" had removed the
foundat on from the reva ling pop
ular super 5ttioRs this one survived.
That it did so, however. is certainly
due quite 5 much to the occurrence
of co ncidences Gs to the inherent force
of popular credai2tr. In the infinite
variety of aturabphenomena of course
it must ha ppern sometimes that re-
markable storms or other convulsions
coincide wiah the deaths of great men.
In such c..se,s the: coiEci idence alone is
remembered; and the. great majority
of ca ses in whichanDthing happens are
ignored. And so 1t is possible to find
many curious instances OF such events,
most of which have been noted by his
torians deprecatinglyg. vet with that
touch of superstition, or feeling for
the unseen, which.is apart of human
nature.
Down into comparatively modern
tines this kind OF coincidence has
been remarked. Thus. on the death
of Cromwell, a greatlstorm swept over !
England. a storEaA comnemorated by
Waller in the lines:
Heaven his great seul does claim
In storms, as lop istas has Immortal fame.
Such storm lashed!the. desolate plat |
eau of ST. Helena, and wrecked the |
plantations abotst Longw ood when Ma
poleon breathed his last, and it is re-
corded that a favoritetree under which |
the dead Emperor had been wont to sit !
was ther struck by Lightning or pros |
trated by the wind at the moment I
when, muttering. tete d. arnaee-he t
passed away.
Condolences such as these have often
occurred. but. it is only recently |
that their trHe character has been rec
ognized. Not;many generations ago |
the two lightning" strokes at Riversidaa
Park and Maunt McGregor wouldd
have causedi1 q widespread sensation, |
and people with blanched cheeks andl
fear-haunted syss, would have whis+ |
pered to ,one. another Their fancifca |
ideas as tosthe. supernatural meaning,
of the occurrence, and would have eags
erly discussed its supposed bearing up /
on the caseer OR the ultimate fate of /
the great departed. Now the world |
has passedlheyond such illusions, and |
condolences, however seeming strange,
have lost their mysterious aspect.