Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-11-25


g.
"obllvion and Its Defeats" Is my suhiec,
to-day. There IL an old monster that swtl-
lows down everything, IL crunches lnii-
yiduals. families, communities, States, Ma
tions, continents, hemisphcres. worlds Its
diet ia made up OF years, OF centuries. o.
ages, OF cycles, Of millenniuns, OF cons.
That monster Is called by Noah Webster and
all the other dictionarians oblivion. II Is a
steep down which everything rolls. II il a
conflagration in which everything Is con-
sumed II ia dirge in whicn all orchestrai
play and period at which everything stops.
It is the cemetery OF the human race II Is
the domain OF forgettulness. Oblivion! At
times II throws a shadow over all OF US, AMI
l would not pronounce 1t to-day il did not
come armed In the strength OF the eternal
God on your behalf to attack 1t, to routit, to
demolish 1t.
Why, Just look at the way the families OF
the earth disappear For awhilethey are to-
gether, inseparable and to each other indis-
pensable and then they part, some by mar
rage going to establish other homes. and
some leave this life, and century Ia long
enough to plant n family. develop It, prosper
1t and obliterate So the generations van
fish,
Walk up Broadway, New York State street,
Boston; Chestnut street. Philadelphia the
Strand, London ; Princess street. Edinburgh
Champs Elysees, Paris Inter den Linden.
Berlin, and you will meet in this year 1898
not one person who walked It in 1893 What
engulfmenti All the ordinary effort at per-
petuation are dead failures. Walter SCOTS
h0ld Mortality" may go round with his
chisel to recut the faded eptaphs on tomb
stones, but Old Oblivion has u quicker chisel
with which he can cut out athousand cpl
taphs while "Old Mortality" is cutting in one
eptaph. Whole libraries OF biographies de-
voured OF bookworms or unread OF the rising
generations
All the signs OF the stores and warehouses
OF great firms have changed, unless the
grandsons think that it Is an advantage to
keep the old sign up, because the name OF
the ancestor was more commendatory than
the name OF the descendant. The city OF
Rome stands to-day, but dig down deep
enough and you come TO another Rome,
buried, and go down still farther and you
will find a third Rome. Jerusalem stands to-
day, but dig down deep enough and you will
find Jerusalem underneath, and go on and
deeper down a third Jerusalem. Alexandria
on the top OF an Alexandria, and the second
on the top OF the third.
Many OF the ancient cities arc buried thirty
feet deep, or fifty deep, or 100 feet. What
WIS llle ANY special CdlhIIlitJ W.
The winds and waves and sands and flying
dust are all undertakers and grave diSgers
and II the world stands long enough the
present Brooklyn and New York and London
will have on top OF them other Brooklynf
and New Yorks and Londons, and only alter
digging and boring and blasting will the
archRologist OF far distant centuries come
down as far as the highest spires and domes
and turrets OF our present American and
European cities.
Cali the roll OF the armies OF Baldwin l.,
or OF Charles Martel, or OF Marlborough, OF
OF Mithridates. or of Prince Frederick, or oil
Cortes, and not one answer will you hear.
Stand them in line and call the roll OF ,000,-
900 men in the army OF Thebes. Not one
answer. Stand them In line. the 100000
Infantry and the 200, 900 cavalry OF the As
syrian army under Minus, and call the roll.
Not one answer. Stand In line the l 900, 00C
men of Sesostris, the l, 200, 900 men OF Artax
srxes at Cunsxa, the 2,64l, 900 men under
Xerxes at Thermopyl@, and call the Ions
roll. Not one answer.
At tho opening Of our civil war the mon o
the Northern and Southern armies were told
that II they fell In battle their names woult
never be forgotten by their country. Out o
the million men who fell In battle or died IL
military hospitals, you cannot call the name:
OF 100, nor the names OF fifty. OBLIVION
Are the feet OF the dancers who were ut tn
ball OF the Duchess OF Richmond at Brussel
the night before Waterloo all still? All still
Are all the ears that heard the guns OF Bun
ker Hill all deaf? All deaf. Are the eyes tina
saw the coronation OF George Ill all closed
All closed. Oblivion! A hundred year
from now there will not be q being on thi!
earth that knew we ever lived.
In some old family record descendant
studying up the ancestral line may spell on
our name, and from the nearly faded INK
with great effort, find that some person 0
our name was born somewhere between 1871
and $780, but they will know no more abou
us than We know about tho color OF q child
eyes born last night in u village in Pata
gonia. Tell me something about your great
grandfather What were his featnres2 Wha
did he do2 What year was he born? Wha
year did he die2 And your great-grand
mother. VIII you describe tho style OF I'll
hat she wore, and how did she and you
great-grandfather get on in each other
companionship? Was 1t March weather o
June?
Oblivion! That mountain surge rolls owe
everything. Even the pyramids are dying
Not a day passes but there Is chiselei or
chip OF that granite. The sea Is trumphini
over the land and what Is going on at Cone.
Island Is going on all around the world, anf
the continents are crumbling into the waves
and while this is TRANSPORTING on the outside
Of the world the hot chisel OF the eternal frt
Ia digging under the foundation Of the eartl
and cutting its way out towar the surface
1t surprises me to hear people say they d
not think the world will finally be burne'
up, when all scientists will tell you that
has for ages been on fire. Why, there is onl
a crust between US and the furnaces insId
raging to get out.
Obliyionl The world itself will roll int
1t as easily as q schoolhoys india rubber bal
rolls down hill, and when our world goe
1t Is so interlocked by the law OF gravltatio
with other worlds that they will 20, too, an
so far from having our memory perpetuate
by a monument of Aberdeen granite in thi
world there is no world In sight OF on
strongest telescope that will be "a sure pedi
ment for any slab OF oommemoration OF tn
fact that we ever lived or died at all. Gu
earth is struck with death. The axletree q
the consultations will break and let dow
the population OF other worlds. Stellar
lunar, solar mortality. Oblivlonl 1t ca
swallow and will swallow whole galaxies g
worlds as easily as crocodile takes dow
frog.
Yet oblivion does not remove or swalloV
anything that had better not be removed o
swallowed. The old monster Is welcome
his meal. This world would long ago hay
been overcrowded II 1t had not been for TIL
merciful removal Of Nations and genera
tions. What II all the books had lived tina
we're ever written and printed and pub
lished? The libraries would by their i'm
mensity have INSTRUCTED intelligence an
made all research impossible. The fata
epidemic OF books was a merclful epidemic
Many of the State and National librarle
to-day are only morgues III which dea
books arc waiting for some one to come al
recognize them. What II all the peopl
that had been born were still alive2 W
would have been elbowed by our ancestor
OF ten centuries ago, and people who ough
to have said their last word 5000 years ag
would snarl at US, saying, "What are 20
doing here2" There would have been n
room to turn around Some OF tho pa
generations Of mankind were not. worth n
Numbering. The first useful thing thu
many people did was to die, tn cir cradle
misfortune and their grave boon.
This world was hardly q comfortable plac
Al t,,nf L., IaNA - - q, L.