The Red Cloud chief., 1888-08-10
A NOTION.

A MISTAKEN NOTION.
The Obligation Due From the N~Instseath
Century 20 the Eighteenth.
There Is always to be heard and
read, under m form Dr. another Of ex-
preston. a great deal Of indulgence in
mutual congratulatiOn as to this nine
teenth century of ours, and all Of its
accomplishments, its tremendous intel
lectual force, its wonderful achieve
ments. while we speak and think of il
"a though the nineteenth century were
something that has suddenly wheeled
out of space. unrelated to any thing
that had gone before. wheeled out as
the new burning star in the northern
crown did, as something integral with
out any debt to the past. But in reali-
ty the nineteenth century has no such
separate and individual existence; it is
the last length Of the growing stem.
and if the life and juice Of the stem
have run into it more freely, SO that it
blossoms more generously. it is tho
other lengths carer the root that have
conducted to it that life and juice; and
thus much that has come to perfection
in the nineteenth century is indeed but
the completed force of the eighteenth.
and even of others that have preceded
that. Had not Franklin. q hundred
years or so earlier. sem his kite into tho
air. would Morse have sent speech in
viewless fire through the air, would Bell
have carried a whisper after it around
the earth. and the various electricians
have kindled their electric lights re-
fulgent at midnight as the moons of the
tropics? If Watts had not watched his
tea-kettle lid tremble and dance and
lift with the steam beneath it. would
the prOdigious motive powers that
move the commerce Of the world have
ever been brought into being? Every
thing in life is the result Of something
that has gone before it. We have no
actual right to attribute any great doing
to ourselves; We are like the sons Of
rich men whose money has been made
for them. deserving or u~ndeserving.
and who are only required to let it lie
at interest in order to receive income;
we r simply tho heirs of ''all ages in
the foremost files of time"
1t is not so flattering to Il vanity to
acknowledge our debt to those that
have preceded us, those for whom pos
sibly We entertain some Indifferent dis
lain. as, like Mr.. BOunderby. to imagine
and proclaim ourselves self-made. But
1t is interesting. now and then. to get
q glimpse of the truth, and to UNDER
dot only as a truism as respects
the passage Of time. but as a fact re-
speeding the work. discovery and gen.
eral greatness of this era. that there
century if also there had not already
been m eighteenth - Hibernianism
though the statement may be. Great
thoughts have their fruits in great
tho eighteenth century was full
of great thoughts that have come to
fruit in the nineteenth.
In all this We have our reckoning to
cast up. We fancy that the emancipa-
ton from much that il sordid or be-
If not degrading. is due
to the influences of to-day; rather
b it due. we shall find, to the action
If to-day; the influences were Started
long ago. The man who walks tho
street to-day. educated. comfortable.
and at large liberty in the matter Of
property. labor and movement. would
never have been so if the germ of the
idea had not stirred far back in the
dark. and undergoing all the con-
ditiOns of growth. and not to-day come
into the open light. II in her heart
the woman Of the eighteenth century
had not rebelled against ignorance.
the Withholding of her prop
erty from her. against being held
under compulsiOn as = piece of prop
erty herself. against many Of the in
and inequalities to which very !
through want Of observation
and thought. she was then subjected. !
the woman Of the nineteenth century
would still be where her predecessor
was when the first idea of discomfort
demonstrated within her-that discOn-
tent that grew to open rebellion. and
received its reward long after she who
first held it was dust and ashes.
We are all Of US greatly in the habit
Of looking down from our scOrnful
height of to-day upon the past as some
hing buried in mists of ignorance, and
with want of effort. It might
better become us to think Of what the
past has done for us. step by step. and
lay after day, till all that it had not we
nave in full measure. The same habit
eads US to despise even our own past
q individuals, rs If never till now had
attained wisdom. forgetting all
Ibout the fact that the despisinG indi-
yi6,,al haa M mOro claim unOn tho do. i