Year: 1876

Behind legends such as these is hid
o useful moral lesson, which may in.
struct tho philosophic mind, albeit that
the legends themselves may seem to be
the vagrant and purposelcss creations
Of the myth-making fancy. As Schil-
ler sings i


"This visible nature, and this common world


Are all to narrow ysa, deeper import


Turks In the legend told our infant years


Than lies upon the truth we live to learn


For these mythical stories warn us
against the misjudgments TO which
men are subject as the creatures of a
day--playing each his several part on
the stage ofliie without perceiyiDg the
grand denouement Of the dramain which
he is called to act his subordinate part.
No ago fully Understands itself or the
place It occupies In the great secular
movements OF human history. If we
would catch tho increasing purpose
which runs throuf,4 tho ages. we must
learn to look at them in those widely
separated cpocbs which mark the de-
cline and fall, the rise and growth of
political empire. Though to-day be as
yesterday and though the morrow shall
be as today, it still remains to be seen
that the subtle elements Of historical
change and development are constantly
ut work with a transforming power
which is none the less efficient in its
results because II is invisiblein its oper-
atoms. If we would clearly discern
the fact of human progress in knowl-
edge and virtue we must look at the
file leaders Of humanity not as they
mark time in the pauses and breathing
spells of the daily march, but as they
set up the trophies which signalize the
turning point ofhuman destiny, .wheth-
or it be some decisive battle which
saves Europe from the domination of
Persian civilization, as at Marathon, or
transfer Of the worlds sceptrc from
Pagan to Christian hands, as typifcd
by the conversion of Constantine. And
in like manner, II we would clearly
perceive the progress that has been
made by the separate nations Of the
world, now competing with each other
for the prizes of place and power, we
must contemplate their history in its
periodic times and not il its daily rev
olutions


We stand to-day at the threshold Of
the Centennial year in the history of
the United States. At this distance Of
time from the feeble beginning of the
republic, we have reached a fitting
point from which to survey the pro
gress we have made in those elements
which compose the highest glory of
nations. The retrospect in some of its
aspects may well deserve TO natter our
pride, but there are others which we
cannot review without some twinges
of conscience and without some confu-
sion Of face. Our material power is
respected abroad, but at home its re-
spectability suffers in our eyes from
the presence Of maladministration and
Of official corruption. Opulent in arts
and in arms beyond the proudest dream
Of our revolutionary fathers, we must
still hang the purcst and noblest Of our
military shields beneath the name of
Washington, and where, in the days
on which we have fallen, is now to be
found craftsmanship in the splendor
of which the fame OF Jefferson and
Madison is in any danger of growing
palep


But though the review to which this
day invites us be not without its shame
as we'll as its glories, we shall most of
all mistake the historic lesson which il
comes 10 teach us If we derive from
that review the weak complainings of
shallow despondency, instead of draw
ing from it the. incentives Of a fervent
and unremitting patriotism. AS Ci-
ccro reasoned that they who saved the
Roman reepblic were entitled TO hardly
less Of credit than those who founded
1t, so the men of this generation while
rejoicing in the rich political heritage
bequeathcd to us by our ancestors,
may still more Justly rejoice II il shall
bc reserved for them, In this Centen-
nlal year, to rescue the good name o.!
our republic from the reproaches that
lie against it, and to build anew the
fabric ofits prosperity on the indestruc-
tible foundations of truth and justice
and law. Else it will remain for us TO
find a solaco for our political misfor-
tunes only in the invention Of some
curious legend which shall preserve the
memory of what we were as the best,
and as the sole surviving earnest of
what our children may hope TO be.
And in this way, too, we shall add
another to the legends which record
the forlorn hopes of buried nations
Ne,c York World.