The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-03
THE MIND
Recoils From
Perfection.
HUMAN TOUCH.
Examples Given Of Mems
Personalities.

OF all the great men who have died
within the past 10 years, die TWO who
stood forth as the very greatest We're
Germans-Moltke, a German by his
own deliberate choice, and Bismarck.
a German by birth. The one attained
supreme distinction in the art Of war,
and the other an equal emiEence i'll
craftsmanship. Now, it has been a sort
of axiom from the time CT Cicero down
to the present day, that ITO fame is, to
the popular mind, SO brilliant, 50 fas-
einating and so enduring as the fame
OF the successful warrior. Some one has
explained this fact by the assumption
that all men have within their hearts
vein of cowardice which makes them
admire most intensely those whose
deeds involve true fortituda and dar-
ing. Whatever be the explanation, we
may accept it as a gen truth that
soldier does stand il the popular es-
ti;nation far above the man of reace-
ful pursuits-above the statesman,
above the artist, above the scholar,
above the writer, above the philoso--
pher.
Nevertheless, in the case of the two
great men who have just been named,
u.
Although Moltke's success in war was
relatively more completes than Bis
marck's success in statesmanship in
asmCch as Bismarck sometimes Tailed
While Moltke never did, and although
the glory of the warrior appeals mUre
strongly to the imagination than the
glory of the statesman, In this psrtic-
ular instance, not only ia Germany,
but throughout the world, It is Bis
marck who claims the greater share
OF popular interest. J think the ex>
PLANTATION of this fact is to be found
In difference Of personality. Moltke
was, indeed, marvel OF precision and
efficiency and exhctness.
He worked out his campaign on pa
per In advance; he foreSaw and provid-
ed for every possible emergency; his
calculations never failed. And, as
man, he was precisely the person from
which this scientific exactitude might
be expected; for he was cold, reserved.
invariably taciturn, free from vice,
man of no intimates and, apparently,
of no faults. Bismarck, on the other
hand, while a master of every form of
diplomatic method, and possessing that
rare originality which accepts tradition
or defies it according to the inspiration
of the moment, was not f1awless be-
ing, but an intensely human man. His
greatness was at times combined with
smallness- almost of pettiness., He was
intolerant of opposition, violent in
speech and action, full of prejudices, a
great eater, a deep drinker, an everlast-
ing smoker And it was precisely these
counterbaiancing weaknesses, for weak
neSse6 they were, which enabled him
to touch the popular imagination and
win the hearts Of his contemporaries as
M0ltke never did and never could. In
other words, his personality had in it
Just the human touch without which no
man ever quite achieves the highest
kind Of universal fame,
We see examples of this fact in every
age and every sphere of life. There is
something In the mind of man which
recoils a little from the thought of alb
solute perfection, because perfection is
felt to be thing remote from the or
binary life of man. The possession of 1t
seems to remove the possessor out Of
the range Of our interests or, at any
rate, away from the need of our sym
pathies. Perhaps, also, we may be justi-
fed in saying that in order to appreci-
ate perfection, we must see it in close
proximity to it's opposite. Just as tiny
mole or a little freckle on the face
brings out the purity of a beautiful
complexion, and just as an artfully in
serted discord makes the ear more ex-
quisitely sensitive to a succeeding har-
mony, so the essential greatness of a
human being is the better seen and
understood when strikingly contrasted
with his minor failings. Perhaps, again,
we are all Of US inclined to resent an
absolute perfection which is beyond
anything that we can look for in our
selves. Perhaps we can more frankly
admire If we are allowed at the same
time to criticise a little, to pity, or to
condone Certain it is at any rate, that
unless the human touch be present
1nr w re lya
any one into the innermost recesses of
our hearts to cherish with affection as
distinguished from respect.
1t is, in fact, quite true that nearly
all those persons whose fame is of the
highest order and whose memory will
endure while men and women live upon
earth will be found to have possessed
the human touch.
Alexander the Great destroying one
of the nightiest cities of the world to
crafty the passing whim of a woman
whom he loved; Julius Caesar, impass-
i've amid the perils of unequal battle
and the splendor of his public tri-
umphs, but perpetually ashamed and
worried because of his increasing bald
ness; Frederick the Great standing
forth in heroic figure against the allied
arms of the entire continent and ac-
cepting his final victory with calm COM
posure while at the same time pitiful-
" eager to be praised for the wretched
verses that he wrote; Napoleon, on the
eve of the battle that was to make or
mar his whole career, sitting by
camp fire and, forgetful of all else,
pouring out his very soul In a passion
ate letter to the tickle, vain and faded
woman whom he had left behind him
at the captain all these men it is the
human touch which confirms and
STRENGTHENS the universal admiration
of their greatness. From nothing else,
perhaps, has the fame of Washington
suffered quite 50 much as from the APP
narent lack in him of this same human
touch. Many persons have frankly
confessed to a sort of provocation at
the perfection Of his character and life,
and it has been a real comfort even to
many who are themselves devout, to
be assured by the historian that at the
battle of Monmouth, when Lee began
his cowardly retreat, the indignant re-
bulxe which he received from Washing
ton was spiced and pointed with some
good round oaths. The dignity of
Webster has lost nothing from
knowledge of the fact that once upon
a time at a public dinner, at which the
wine had been both very good and re-
markably abundant, the stately defen-
der of the constitution arose and as
tonished the attentive guests by bland
ly proposing to pay the entire national
debt out of his own pocket.
1t was the human touch that so en-
dears the memory of Lincoln to his
countrymen-his awkwardness, his love
of storytelling, his carpet slippers,
and, in the earlier days of his adminis
tration. his not infrequent lapses from
official dignity. Gen. Grant at first
seemed likely, as an historic figure, to
be as dim and colorless as Moltke, for
he was as sphinx-liks. as taciturn, and,
to the world at large as inscrutable.
The nonular imagination, however,