The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-04-19

head and Gloucester wear black. I
know what the great storm" from
which the people of the coast date
events, mean. 1 know the herOism and
good will that is afiOat on every smack
that sails. know what it is to be friend
less ana out OF money on the jericho
road" of city. That knowledge has
an effect upon me. 1 am not likely to
be classman. I prefer to stay with
the folks
England has an artificial arrange
ment for making and perpetuating
an aristOcracy, keeping it within
limits not impossible to genius, like
that that of Erskine or Disraeli or Ten
nysOn, but impossible to mere talent,
but that fence is going. We have no
such an arrangement. People are con-
tinuany crossing from poverty to
wealth, from obscurity to daylight. Ma
ture favOrs one family with renlarka-
BILE brains, but not for long. What has
become of the Napoleon family?
Interest in the land others" is COM
paratively modern. Max Muller says
that the word mankind is only 1800
years old. Voltaire was the first his
tOrian who paid much attention to the
people. He takes little notice of the
intrigueS of court or of the changes of
ministers, or Of the fate of kings"
L wish,' he says, ito write a his
tory, not of wars, but of society, and to
ascertain how men lived in the interior
of their families and what were the arts
commonly cultivated. My object is the
history of the human mind; nor am L
concerned with the history OI great
lords. who made war upon French
kings, but 1 want to know what were
the steps by which men passed from
barbarism to civilization"
This is the modern way of looking at
men, women and children. Not because
they are lords and ladies and heirs-ap-
parent, but because they are human
What do great novels deal with? Ger
tainly with humanity. There is not
great novel that is a class novel. The
great novel takes us all IN. I am wait
ing now for a new Uncle Toms CABIN
that will do for the white slaves of the
great cities what was done for the black
children of Gideon
Very wisely, it seems to me, does Vol
taire insist on what history shall in
clude and what leave out. McMaSteTS
has followed Voltaire. He has written
"A History of the People of the United
States" Now we can know how the
GRANDPA theirs and grandmothers lived
what were their food and shelter ana
dress and pleasure and toll and hope
and purpose. The Declare ton Of indie
pendence, with its array of distinguish
ed signatures, is very feeble docu-
ment unless you include the and 9th
ers,'' the rank and file who made the
glittering generalities practical. And
others when the men folks marched
away to Quebec with Montgomery and
Arnold, stayed with the stuff and kept
house and raised the children.
We are tolerably familiar with the
names of Gladstone and Parnen and
Sexton. But when we cannot think of
any more names we think of the multi
tude of silent in Ireland and England
and in Scotland and in the world, who
stand behind these great names and
give them all their power and all their
These men we know are simply voices
flags of q mighty army-who know how
to march, and how to wait, and know
how, if need be, to die. We ought to be
speak of England. The England that
makes foolish and wicked wars the Eng
n
sion, the England that suggests palaces
and castles and perhaps cathedrals-that
another There is a vast power of sym
pathy with the doctrines of liberty in the
hearts of those who SOW and spin and
weave and hammer.
We notice the steady rise of the aver
age man. There is a Bible prophecy that
every valley shall be exalted and every
mountain brought low. EXalting the val
common school enables the many to
know what gave the few the advantage.
- we nave no one Shakespeare or one
some millions of people who read
what Socrates and Shakespeare have
written.
Once the men were SO great and SO few
Through a distant Olympian atmosphere,
Like vast caTyatids upholding the age.
Now the men are so many and small. dis
engage
One man from the million to mark him.
The crowd sweeps him hurriedly out of
your command;
And since we seek vainly Ito praise in our
sOngS)
Mid our fellows the size which to heroes
belongs.
We take the whole age of hero. in want
OF a better, and Still in its favor diScant,
On the strength and the beauty, which
failing to find
In any one man, we ascribe to mankind.
Admit it, if you must. the lack of great
men. 1t IS great century. Better the
coming of a recent mankind than a lone
~ perfect man here and there. Better
many tail and strong than one huge Atlas.
We are eonsoled for the lack of prodi-
giles by the lack of fools The brains of
the world are more evenly distributed and
good conduct is not :. monopoly.
1t is not necessary, is it. that I now in
conclusion trail back all these character
iSticS and tendencies of the age in which
live to the birthplace of the one who
called himself the Son of MANI Not of
any particular family clan tribe.
nor of any caste or class, but the Son OF
Man. Never man sp.s1e like this man"
His speaking is of all sorts and condt-
tons. His work is for all. And others
seemed to be to Him not mass, blur
unknown quaRtity-but people, with
each man a name to Him. and q soul and
an endless life He was not satisfied that
a class. a large class, were sheltered s&nd
fed, ninety-nine out of hundred safe
i go to the desert to seek my sheep"
This is the power that is now working
the world. PERTAINS the fullest eyprpssiON