The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-12-18
SEATTLE. SUNDAY. DEC. IS.
BILIOUS PHILOSOPHERS.


own times in both England and America
seem to be all pessimists; that is, people
who think We are all in bad way and ex-
pect the worst. Doctors might define
these fellows as Macaulay defined the av-
erage Englishman. who went out to India
poor and returned to England rich. as gen.
orally a fellow 'with q bad liver and q
worse heart"
The Westminster Reriew confesses that
pessimism is at present an especial char
acteristic of Englishmen, and cites the
names of Tennyson. Browning, George
Meredith, Matthew Arnold, Clough. Ros-
setti and William Morris as proof that
"our splendid literature is invested with
melancholy" The New York Sun COM
ments upon this confession, and insists that
pessimlsm is not the mood of the Amer
lean people and does not tinge its litera-
ture. As people we are, it is true. not
rs apprehensive of the future as thought
full Englishmen, but that is because
we are a far younger nation, if not a
more thoughtless. 1t is true, however,
that our literature. if We may consider our
leading magazines and reviews as Ameri-
and melancholy to noticeable degree,
and aine-tenths of the sermons and ad-
dresses preached by our leading clergy
men on public occasions are full of melan-
choly foreboding of the future and
depressing references to splendid past
4 A,~ g
English spirit of pessimism had begun to
infect James Russell Lowell in his later
years. 80 that his last utterances were as
querulous and captious criticisms of Amer
lea as any that Arnold or Carlyle ever
wrote. The prevailing spirit of serious
American literature, as expressed by our
scholars in our reviews and periodical lit
erature and by our pulpits. is quite as
melancholy and pessimistic in thought
and expression as that of England.
The common cry Of our college-bred
critics and pulpiteers. posing as prophets.
is that the present day is deficient in men
of political virtue, brains and power.
There is SO little foundation for this
gloomy view that it would not be extrava-
CANT to say that if an emergency called for
display of intellectual and physical
power we are perhaps as we'll prepared to-
day as ever in our history. The pressure
of emergency would, we believe. develop
our latent strength of mental power and
physical resources as rapidly and fruitfully
as at any period of our history. 1t is as
true of US as it has ever been of a nation
that the pressure of emergencies reveals
our best power. The pressure of political
emergency forced Hampden from the atti.
tude Of an amiable, easy-going country
gentleman into that of q serious and
sagacious statesman; made Cromwell 9
soldier at 40. and Pym. vane and Eliot
great debaters and agitators. The struggle
of 1910 was not their work half so much as
they were its children, the spontaneous
generation kindled by the spirit of the
times, even as the throes of French revo
luton threw Mirabeau aud Danton and
finally Napoleon to the surface; even as
our Colonial quarrel with England re-
vealed to Patrick Henry that he was an
orator, stimulated to the highest pitch the
powers of Washington, Jefferson, Frank.
lin. Hamilton and Sam Adams, and lifted
them to the level OF the work of patriotic
statesmen and soldiers
While these men would have been fairly
tall figures in any time, for they were the
natural peers of that first order of pract
cal minds who knew how to legislat,
wisely and govern successfully, neverthe
less the reason why our Revolutionary
period. our anti-slavery struggle, our civil
war and our period OF reconstruction were
unusually fertile in able men was becaus,
under the pressure of the struggle fol
existence the only test applied to a publ,
man is that of his wisdom, his integrity
and patriotic capacity for his work. There
was no party hate, because all had TO b,
for the beleaguerei country or It woulC
perish. SO natural leaders had nothing t,
overcome on their way 30 the front of tn,
people. Ii is not until the lite of the stat
is firmly secured that party jealousy anC
private pique assert themselves anC
lighter and cheaper men lind thei
way TO the front. The demagogu,
IS one Oh inc tSnkeFS OF Calf
world: the caterpillars of the state
when the piping times of peace are IN
broken by nearing cries Of war: but plac
our nation today under the same pressur
she was In 1861 and men OF degenerat
quality would no more darken the council
Of state than the same sort did after tn
firing On Sumter. Before Sumter fellow
like Fernando Wood persuaded mercantile
New York TO all wear the white cockaae
Of peace az any price, peace withou
honor in their hats, but after Sumte
Wood was glad 20 put his white cockade j,
his pocket and throw mp his ha. on Unio
square for war. Confront US tomorrow
with a tremendous crisis, like that OF lS6l
and We would send our men of weight
sense and capacity 90 the from. REGARDLESS
or private piQues or animosities. for "
should feel that the trivial day of politics
as rlsy. was passed; that it Was time 70
work and not for yapo-; that our presi
dent or our* governor must not be III
shadow OF name. but the substance OF
n