The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1909-08-26
INFLUENCES.

INFLUENCES.
The wonderful discoveries of the past
fifty years have brought to light many OF
the hidden things of nature, and enabled
man to weigh and measure invisible and
impalpable forces and gases; but no sclen'
test has yet been found with skill enough
to estimate the power of personal influence
and set the true value upon the way IN
which we affect those with whom we are
thrown in contact The volt and the am
pere of the electrician has no correspond
ing value in metaphysics, since the very
source and nature of this influence still
remains involved in mystery. We know
that it exists, just as our ancestors knew
there was such force as electricity from
the effect it produced, but We are as little
able to give an explanation of one as they
were of the other. We speak of one man
as having great personal influence because
he holds decided opinions and is able by
his eloquence to sway men at his will; we
look upon another who takes no part in
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influence, and perhaps live to see all our
estimates of the two reversed by the dis
covery that it was the quiet thinker who
exerted the greater power over men.
In the political history of the United
States there have been scores of cases in
which men who by general consent were
regarded as great party leaders, possess
ing brilliant talents and great personal
influence, failed to secure the high official
positions they desired, while men of very
mediocre capacity reached them almost
without an effort. Calhoun, Webster,
Stephen Douglas, Clay, Blaine and host
of other great names have failed to awaken
the enthusiasm of the populace to suoh
degree as to reach the Presidency; andyet
each in turn has exerted a tremendous in
fluence in the political world.
1t is a happy circumstance that no man
is capable of forming an accurate opinion
of the amount of influence he has over
others. Such knowledge would some
times render him insufferably arrogant
him with sense of responsibility, and
again depress him beyond power of exer-
ton when he realized how hard he had
labored and how little he had succeeded.
And yet, after all, it is perhaps the lives
that have been apparent failures, so for as
their own interests are concerned, that
have the most power over others. Weighed
by the worlds scales what did Robert E.
Lee accomplish? Certainly he gained
neither personal aggrandizement, nor final
success for the cause to which he devoted
himself; but what name in Southern an.
mails can so thrill the heart and inspire
noble thoughts as can his? 1t will live for
centuries in the hearts of his countrymen,
and even those least in sympathy with his
aims have been forced to honor and admire
his noble character.
1t is generally after man is dead that
we can best study the influence he has had
upon his generation. During his life
friends over-estimate his powers for good,
and enemies those he has possessed for
evil. When he can no longer help the
former nor hurt the latter, a fairer esti-
mate of his character can be reached. The
effect of death upon mans fame is very
curious. Unless his life has been too in
significant to merit comment, his demise is
certain to call forth burst of eulogy from
his friends, while those who have most dis
liked him are momentarily silenced by the
feeling that it is cowardly to strike a fallen
foe. After time he comes to be viewed
more impartially by both, and as years
pass on, carrying him farther and farther
away from the passions and prejudices Of
the living, he gradully takes his true place
in the pages of history. What a very
different man Napoleon Bonapate appears
to this generation from what he appeared
to those living one hundred years ago?
The descendants of those whom he led to
victory, and of those whom he conquered,
can now cooliy estimate his greatness and
his littleness, his genius and his blindness,
while all must acknowledge the tremen-
dous influence he exerted on the history of
the world.
1t is the peculiar reward of the highest
literary fame that its influence generally
increases with time, touching hearts and
helping to mould character centuries after