Wichita eagle., 1888-03-08
DESTINY" OF THE GREAT.
The Fate Element in Men Of Eminer
Mark-Lincoln's Presentiment.

| The Fate Element in Men of Eminent
Mark-LincoIn's Presentiment.
One might roughly indicate the difference
| between ordinary men and men OF eminent
mark by referring to their relative possession
of a Consciousness Of destiny. So often has a
sense Of being set apart and devoted to some
| thing accompanied great capacity that it
! would seem to be natural and legitimate
help to the carrying out OF any arduous
undertaking. Schopenhauer declares tdat
no one can be blind TO his own merit any
| more than the man who is six feet high can
remain ignorant OF the fact that he towers
above his fellows. He notes the pride with
which Horace, Lucretius, Ovid, Dante,
Shakespeare and Bacon have spoken of them
| selves, and quotes the Englishman who wit
tily observed that merit and Eodesty have
nothing in common except the initial letter.
~ have always a suspicion about modest
celebrities" he adds, that they may be
right" Goethe has frankly said: +'Only
good for nothings are modest" II begin
with this" he told his mother as a small boy.
Later On in life shall distinguish myself in
far other ways"
The fact is that as long as he lived Goethe
believed in oracles, and was as willing as
Rousseau TO trust his fortunes to the merest
Grocesses OF chance. Rousseau was to be saved
in the other world if the stone he threw hit
the tree at which it was aimed, and had
Goethe caught the plunge OF the valuable
pocket knife which he tossed into the river
Lahn from behind the bushes where he stood,
he might have become painter instead OF
poet. There may be a divinity that shapes
the ends of all men, but only the exceptional
individual seems at all conscious of the fact
or in the way of turning it to practical ac-
count by actually relying upon it in daily
life. Thus it comes about that demonic men,
men Of a definite bent and direction which
they cannot resist, are given TO trusting more
than those whose standpoint is merely per-
sonal and commonplace. Greene, the histo-
rian, tells IL. that Elizabeth had, as all strong
natures have, an unbounded confidence in
her luck. .n"Her ma jesty counts much on For
tune, Walsingharn wrote bitterly" 81 wish
she would trust more in Almighty God"
Lincoln never for an instant doubted that
ne formed for some great or miserable
end, and freely talked about the impression
10 this effect, which had been with MIN all his
life, and which, after the year ls40, assumed
the character of a positive conviction His
Diographer asserts that this presentiment
was as clear and certain as any image con-
veyed by the senses. "Thc star under which
he was born was at once brilliant and malir-
nant The horoscope was cast, fixed, ire
versible, and he had no more power to divert
it in the minutest particular than he had to
reverse toe law Of gravitation." Substitute
the word providence for fate, and many
other instances Of this higher sort Of conf
dence might be adducod, showing how large
an influence trust has had in human success
1t went into exile with Luther and sustained
Carlyle in sickness and neglect. In gener-
al way, it is to be doubted if any one has
ever reached a very eminent station in life
without something Of this feeling In the atti-
tude which he has assumed toward his work.
Atlantic Monthly.