The national leader., 1889-01-05
fhe Romance OF the Nineteenth
Century.

Lair KNOWS ltS6lf. lC may well DC tnat
when men look back, two or three hun
dred years hence. upon this nineteenth
century, they will announce its salient
characteristic to have been not sclen-
tilc, not inventive, but romantic. Sci
ence will soon bury our present heaps OF
facts under larger accumulatlons, from
the summit Of which broader theories
may be scanned; tomorrow will make
to-day's wonderful invention old-fasl-
ioned and insufficient: but the romance
with which this later time has been
charged will exercise an increasing fas-
cination over poets and novelists and
historians, as the years roll on. ObliV-
ion swallows up material achievements,
but great deeds never grow old. That
many of our contemporary writers
should not have heard this note of the
age argues that they rather than the age.
are prosaic and commonplace. For to
what other period shall we turn for
richer store of those vicissitudes and
contrasts in fortune which make up the
real romance, the profound tragedy, OF
life? Everywhere the dissolution of a
society rooted in medieval traditions is
accompanied by confusion and struggle
the birth-pangs Of a new ord. r.
Glasses whose separation seemed perma-
nent are thrown together, and antagon-
istic elements are strangely mixed there
is strife, and doubt, and excess; sudden
ly rent by discords; anachronisms -four
ish side by side with innovations; new
institutions wear old names. and cd
abuses mask in new disguises.
In such crisis two facts are promi.
nant: The unusual range Of activity
offered to the individual may he not
traverse the whole scale Of experience?
and the dependence Of the individual
upon himself. He rises or he falls by
his own motion. The privileges of caste
avail nothing; for the very confusion
produced a certain wild equality where
by all start at the line and the swiftest
wins. Napoleon's maxim, La corrlere
oatUerte dur talents, is the motto of the
century. Napoleon himself is a stupen-
dous illustration Of the power of the in-
dividual to make the momentum Of cir
cumstauces work for him. The Revo-
luton, it is true, had harnessed the
steeds; but Napoleon dared to mount
the chariot, took the reins and drove
over Europe, upsettIng thrones and
princedoms and hierarchies. The
naughty descendants of immemorial
lineage gave place to the brothers and
comrades of the ''COrslan upstart. "
Murat, the son of tavern keeper; Ney
| a breness law student; Lannes, dyer;
ooult, Massena. Berthier, Junot, SOL
diers of fortune; and how many other
| children of the third estate smiled at
| the pretensions of humbled Bourbons,
Hapsburgers and Hohenzollerns2 Ere
quent reactions and reservations serve
to emphasize the depth and stress of
| this crisis: and these contrasts in the
conditions of men, revealing human
character under the most diverse
phases, show how inextricaOly the rO-
mantle and the tragic are interviewer
In the average lot.
Nor in Europe only has this spectacle
been going forward. The United
States also have witnessed Similarly rap
id transmutations, partly due to other
causes. Within generation we have
seen gigantic national upheaval: g.
900, 900 of artisans. clerks. merchants
and lawyers were transformed by the
magic of drum-beat into soldiers; and
then. the conflict being over, soldiers
and uniforms vanished. and the labors
Of peace were resumed. Lincoln,
country lawyer, became the President
of the nation, and Grant, an obscure
tanner, rose to the command of the
mightiest army of modern times. If
we read of such transpositions in an
cient history, great would be our aston
ishment. significant the moral we should
draw from them; to posterity our his
tory will be ancient, and it's significance
clear.