Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1918-06-02
HISTORY AND THE PRESENT.

| as any ever attmptd. There are men
/ living today as great, or almost as
great, as any who ever lived. There
re many tremendous happenings occur
/ ring today that are far more crucial
than any that have ever gone before
| And we are spectators at it all. In the
after years, instead of reading what
happened, we can tell from our own
knowledge what occurred. We can
, say that we lived then and were pres
ent, occupying seats in the grandstand.
1t will be interesting, of course, to
read the memoirs of the chief partici-
pants, just as it is interesting as well
as educational now to read accounts
that the notables among the ancients
have left for posterity.
Caesar owes as much of his fame to
his Commentaries as to his victories.
The fruits of his conquests have long
since persisted. The mighty empire
which he founded has crumbled into
the dust Happily for mankind the
system of government for which his
name has become the synonym is in
process of ultimate extinction-it will
be completely wiped from the face of
the earth when the monstrous man
known as the Kaiser is a prisoner and
the flags of the Allies float from the
palaces of Berlin. Caesar by his Com
mentaries has helped to form the
minds of the youths of every civilized
country under heaven, through twenty
centuries of mans most interesting
history and most stupendous endeavor.
So long as education is valued, Caesar
will exercise imperial sway over the
human mind, not by the power Of his
invincible sword. which is rust, but
by the cunning of his mind. Fighting
was the serious business of his life.
The preparation of his Common
taries was merely a mental recreation
in his tent at eyen-tide, amid the clat-
ter of camps and the clangor of arms.
Some of it was written on the fields of
France, where today our own boys are
battling for their own liberties and for
civilization.
Some of it was written in the tren-
ches, as strange as that may seem;
for it was Julius Caesar who devised
the system of trench warfare, and who
dug the first trenches in the valley of
the Marine.
Yet had Caesar been asked to name
his most important achievement, he
would have entirely overlooked his
Commentaries, but Notwithstanding
they constitute his clearest, strongest
and most enduring title to the favor
able consideration of mankind
I ut will be remembered after you
are Dead" said Benjamin Franklin,
either do something worth writing,
| or write something worth reading.
I Caesar did both, so did Napoleon, the
greatest man ever born of woman, that
astounding son of Mars, who with a
clearer vision and a wiser judgment
as to the relative value of human
achievements, declared that he would
descend to posterity with his Code
in his hand, a prophecy which has
been fulfilled. The crimson glorie'
of his earlier victories were dimme(
by Waterloo and the dismal journe!
to st. Helena. The thrones which
he ravaged from hostile kings AM
, bestowed upon his relatives and hi
friends passed again to his roya
j enemies; the imperial crown bough
? with so much blood and agony and 81
much crime for his only son, neve
encircled the brow of that patheti
child of misfortune; but the law
4 created by the great Corsican hav,
) descended to us and today bless tn
r lives of million inhabitants of Francs
: and are even the basis of the state law
5 of Louisiana.
= rrbaxr surviyod hooauca thav war