The record-union., 1892-05-11
OUR HERITAGE"
An Interesting Discourse by Or. Nc
Clish Last Evening,
He Tells Of What the People of To-day
Owe to the Past, and of Oppor-
tunities Neglected.

The second of course of lectures being
given at the Sixth Methodist Church was
delivered by Dr.. 4. McClish of San
! Francisco last evening. Though not
large, the audience proved an appreciatiye Q
one, ana was well entertained by the
scholarly and interesting speaker.
DR.. McChsh opened mis- remarks in a
very graceful manner, and delivered his
address without reference to notes or
manuscript. Emitting his lecture, 1--WE
Heirs and Cur Heritage" hequoted at its
commencement from Agassiz. Goethe and
Wendell Phillips, passages going TO show
that few things in the world are new or
novel, and that most may be traced back
to ancient or prehistoric times.
Wendell Phillips was quoted as saying
that there were only about twenty good
original stories cXtant, and all others
were conscious or unconscious limitations
Even TIE popular Irish bulls are found
on investigation to date back 10 tie
Greeks or Romans, and there We're
really few things new under the sun.
The lecturer told pathetic auecdOte of
miner who tunneied into the rock for
years until his money was gone and he
had lost the confidence OF his friends He
mine just as he was within drills
length OF the rich vein that made the for
tune of a successor. From this point he
showed how the world belonged To man.
but that effort was required of him 10
claim the heritage. Great thinkers, from
st. Paul to Emerson, have said that man
is heir 10 everything, but he must work
to appropriate his heritage. The child
learning his B Us is indebted to past
ages Tor even the key TO learning and un-
derstanding.
He stated the origination OF our alpha
bet TO have been III ancient ages OF the
Greek and Roman, and that il originated
with the builders OF the Pyramids. The
Angio-SaXons have added but the single
letter w TO it. The educated ear hears
the tread OF the people of all ages III the
Anglo-Saxon tongue. AS With the letters
OF the alphabet, SO ii is with the words of
the language. We have the word teal
from the Chinese, and the word "toma-
hawk" from the Indian. We are the
great borrowers-the thieves appropriat-
ing the wealth of the ages and OF the
world.
The Declaration of Independence and
the Constitution are good, but they are
not new ideas; they were in the Magma
Charta OF Great Britain. John Hampton
said long before that taxation and repre-
Sentation went together. Washington
took up the sword of Oliver Cromwell,
and he in turn had the idea from farther
back-ldeas struggle on through the ages,
and We're conceived and felt for by the
Greeks and Romans; even the Bible
came TO us through ages of blood and
ashes.
We, as q race, have not done much, and
what we have done was not always done
purposely. We did not fight the war of
rebellion to iberate slaves; it was not
cur idea, but the work of Divinity.
Abraham Lincoln said deliberately, that
the great object Of the war was 10 save
the machine-the Union, as he called it
and not for the purpose of striking the
shackles from men and women; that fol-
lowed as an involuntary effect ali acci-
dent.
AS an illustration of mans position in
the universe, the lecturer dwelt upon the
evolution theory of mans gradual devei-
opment from the lower animals. Refer
ring to the lmmensity OF creations, he
spoke Of the facts established by astrono-
mers and scientists, and the computation
that the light from the iarthest star would
be 5,000,O00 years III reaching us, although
1t would encompass our world in few
inStantS.
He spoke Of a benighted race in Africa.
near deserted missionary station. The
ignorant natives returned to their
primitive habits and had no use
for q schoolhOuse and shop in
their midst, provided with the KEYS
to civilization and enlightenment
They had not the power of appropriating
their heritage. All the world was mans,
but he must drill the gold from the mines
of wealth about him.
The lecturer instanced the StorkS in
and about the great cities of Germany,
surrounded by all the great institutions
OF learning, etc., but without the power of
appropriation. He held that it was even
so with man in his pilgrimage to the
pearly gates themselves. A man was no.
shut out of the wonderful gates, but he
might not enter them. Some men, be-
ing incapable, could get nothing from
great opportunities; and, although sur
rounded by the wealth OF the world
would remain in primitive condition,
Like the stork-laclling the ability to ap-
prOpriate their heritage.
Without wishing to be considered ero-
tlstlcal, the lecturer reverted to his own
career, and gave brief synopsis of his
history. at twenty years of age he haa
read but little and had q hard struggle
with tyrannical circumstances. He found
he could board himself cheaper than 9th
ers could, and succeeded in living upon
slNty-siX cents per week in the fifth story
OF building-the highest living he ever
experienced. He thus instanced, from
his own experience, the power of after
cultivation, which enabled him to appre-
ciate and appropriate 10 himself the BEN
efits that are derived by effort from art
and literature and all that goes to enrich
the human mind.
He recited one of Whittier's ablest
poems, ana concluded with a brilliant
tribute 10 Imagination as one OF the best
powers of man. He gave vivid descrip-
tions Of historic battles, modern and an
cieut, at which he was present and felt
real emotion aad rapture merely by the
force OF imagination. He finally ended
his lecture with 4 brilliant effort, in
which he said the best productions of the
world, OF the greatest men and minds
the sphere itseif-beionged to the man
who could grasp and appropriate the
wealth with which be was surrounded,
The audience was intensely interested
throughout the lecture and heartily ap-
piaGoed at frequent intervals
Estate of Abbey a. French.
Richard p. Burr petitioned the Superior