Delaware gazette and state journal., 1899-11-23
rHE FORGOTTEN MIhLIuNs.
President Eliot of Harvard Tells the Life
Story of Typicai American.

President Eliot of Harvard Tells the Life-
Story of Typical American.
The biography of Mr.. John Giiley,
which President Eliot of Harvard re-
lates in the November Century, is by
no means an exciting story, and it is
for this very reason that it is told. 1t
is typical OF the lives of what the
writer calls 1.-THE Forgotten Millions,
and is the second of series Of papers
under that general title:
10 be absolutely forgotten in few
years is the common fate of mankind.
Isaac Watts did not exaggerate when
he wrote:
Time like an ever-rolling stream
Bears all its sons away:
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.
With the rarest exceptions, the death
of each human individual is followed
| in short time by complete oblivion,
so far as living human memories are
concerned. Even family recollection
or tradition quickly becomes dim, and
soun fades utterly away. Few of us
have any clear transmitted impression
| of our great grandparents; some of us
| could not describe our grandparents.
| Even men accounted famous at their
deaths slip from living memories and
become mere shadows or word pictures
| shadows OF pictures which too often
| distort or misrepi esent the originals.
| Not one human being in ten million-is
really long remembered. For the mass
| of mankind absolute oblivion, like
death, is sure. But what il it isY
Should this irdubitable fact affect in.
juriously the mortal life in this world
Of the ordinary human being? Not ut
all. Fol most men and women tho
Ell Ejoyments, interests. and duties oi
this world are just as real and absorb
ing, at the moment, as they would be
If the enjoying, interested and dutifui
individuals coald imagine that they
were long to be remembered on this
earthly stage. A few unusually
imaginative and ambitious persons are
doubtless stimulated and supported by
the hope of undying fame--a hope
which in the immense majority of such
cases proves to be pure delusion. The
fact is that foielooking is not a com
mon occupation Of the human mind.
We all live, as a rule, in the present
and the past, and take very little
Thought for the future. Now, in esti
mating the aggregate well-being ant
happiness of a community or nation
it is obviously the condition of thu
obscure millions who are sure to pt
absolutely forgotten, that it is mos
important to see and weigh Alright
yet history and biography alike neglec
these humble. sreechless multitudos
and modern fiction finds it profitable
to portray the most squalid and vicious
lsides of the life of these millions rather
than the best and the commonest
Thus the facts about the life of tn
common multitude go unobserved, O
at least unrecorded, while fiction paint
!, that ifo in false colors.
This paper describes with accurac.
the actual life of one Of the to-he
: forgotten millions. Is this life a tru
American type? If it is, there is goot
hope or our country.
This is the life of one of the for
gotten millions. 1t contains no ma
tarial for distinction, fame, OF lon
,, remembrance; but it does contain th
material and present the scene for
normal human development througl
mingled joy and sorrow. labor an
4 rest adversity and success and throug
. the lender loves of childhood, maturity
and age, We cannot but believe tina
| it is Just for countless quiet, simpl
, lives like this that God made and ur
2 holds this earth.