The herald., 1897-07-11
The Middleman

-HarperS Bazar.
The Middleman
If we ask where the average intelll-
gent reader, seeking to keep abreast Of
the swiftly flowing stream of scientific
progress, gets his knowledge of the prob
lens that are being worked out from ye ar
to year. we shall find in almost every
case that the middleman is his guide and
prophet. Of this fact alone there could
be no cause for complaint; it is of the
nature of things that the stream of
knowledge should find its way to the
public from 1.-The little sanctuary of its
planned systems of irrigation. Broadly
considered, our entire educational
plant" is nothing more than such a
system of irrigation. 1t muddies the
waters and makes their flow sluggish, to
be sure, but it does accomplish its pur-
pose of bringing them to the places
where they are needed. The just COM
plant is not then, that the middleman
exists, but that in the performance of
his useful function he looms SO large
in the view of those to whom he min
listers. 1t is doubtless better than hav-
ing no ideas at all upon such subjects
to get our electricity from Mr.. Edison.
and our Buddhism from Sir Edwin Ar
mold, and our comparative philology
from Professor Max Muller. But it is
unfortunate, at least, that having got
our ideas from these copious source2,
we should be wholly unaware that such
men as Clerk Maxwell and Professor
Rhys-Davids and Professor Brugmann
stand in the background. 1t seems.
however, an almost unbroken law of
human nature that the really great
thinkers of the world do not come to
their own-as far as a. reputation COM
mensurate with their achievements is
concerned-until it becomes possible to
view them in the perspective of
lapsed generations, and pronounce the
definite judgment upon their work-The
Dial.
Mrs. Sherwood writes thus Of a dinner
at Webster's Marshfield home, in her
"Epistle to Posterity:"
''The dinner was profuse and excel
lent. Mr.. Webster had dressed for it.
and looked so grand in his blue coat and
brass buttons that was more and more
afraid of him, but he grew more and
more kind He offered goose for the
piece de resistance and carved it himself
with great deftness. He afterward
whispered to me that he was afraid il
would not go round. liked
him best in the morning, when, with his
soft hat on his head, he sat on the We
randa with his dogs and his friends.
talking, telling stories and being the
genial, magnetic host. He of all men
next to Napoleon deserved the title of
magnetic. His powerful face 30 often
described, so characterized by Carlyle
Macaulay and Sydney Smith, was capa-
bic of the most lustrous and winning and
beautiful smile I can remember Had
Mr.. Webster been like Charles James
Fox, professional lady killer, he would
have won every woman in the land. a
He could be as terrible as he was gentle,
and we had curious instance of his
power. Mrs. Webster complained to
him of the revolt of a kitchen maid
Send her to me- he said. The house
keeper told US that he simply looked Il
her. when she cried out: Don't do that!
Don't do thati l will scrub the buttery ;
1t was like lash on sensitive flesh to
have his black eyes flash their lightning
at one"
OF Margaret Fuller, at Brook farm,
Mrs. Sherwood writes:
Margaret Fuller, who had always
struck me as very plain woman. was
the oracle. She had a very long neck,
which DR.. Holmes described as either
being swan-like or suggesting the great
ophidian who betrayed our Mother Eve. >
She had a habit Of craning her head for
ward as if her hearing were defective,
but she had a set of woman worshipers
who said that the flowers faded when
she did not appear. She was the Aspa-
sia of this great council. She seemed to
have special relationship to each o. the
intellectual men, doubtless discerning
and reading them better than they did
themselves. Some one said of her that
she was a kind of spiritual fortune tel
Ter, and that her eyes were at times Wis
ible in the darkness. Their devotion 10
her was akin to anaticism, and they
would talk of the magic play of her voice
as the singing of fountain. =
With such wonderful imagination and a
genius like that of George Eliot, there
was much that was morbid and I'M
healthy and strange in Margaret I7u!-
ler.''
y y \
A new book by Tostoi is to be pub
ished. 1t Is study of the relationship
between the sexes. The work is taken
from diary kept by the author.
y y =
The action OF what we arc ell calling
''plucky little Greece" inevitably recalls
Lord Eyron ard that other eriand to
the same struggling country DR.. Samuel
Howe. Most persons who remember tha.
this great philanthropist and teacher
fought for Greece in His youthful ardor,
do not know that he was the subject of
ore o. Whittier's poems, that called
"The Hero" Herein are exploited some