Show pram Prom t he 4 test ta I 1 THE adb 0 mediocrity WHERE IS THEBE A areat MAN the woi oi 1 has its iron age its iti golden ae its heroic hero i age its feudal aie age and its dark age but bu c never before could it be so emphatically record ripcord ed as of ours that it is the age of mediocrity MiDIO CRITY i bat a generation since europe had bad its napoleons I 1 and pitts its byrons and scotts its I 1 I 1 lers and Go goetges ethes while america could ye yet ti present her jefferson and adams her fulton and Clin clinton tori vve even ten years since it wits was said I 1 that europe had five great men wellington ai I 1 peel louis phillippe metternich and nicholas 1 of these thes ethree three are dead one has gone into uti ter retirement retirement and one only nicholas survives I 1 I 1 on oil the theatre of action ano ana who have taken their places the war in the east with its imi im lations and inertia is a commentary y on oa the dearth of great men in europe from the days of queen ann and loas lo 10 ns XIV to lo the time lime of victoria and louis napoleon there ameier alvet has beert bea alime amidst all the mutations of government and ministries in which I 1 the english and french people would have submitted to the humility of such a miserable farce as s tl th eyare now playing out under the pretence predence pre tence of war ivar in all other de departments pirt meats the he same spectacle tace acle of inertness and dullness is presented where has europ pl a single great poet piet ls Is there one who would even pretend to such a character england talks about a certain alexander smith who approaches as near being a great pet as robert owen did aid of being a grgat great philosopher or cobden and aberdeen of being great statesmen As to the continent they offer us nobody dy greiter greater than an beranger and bg nortine wh ire I 1 is there a great novelist bulwer certainly 11 has as done bly in his line but how far short of scot ott or fielding eldina I 1 in our country the tha picture of national greatness in mind is even more humiliating who are our statesmen by whom are we represent ed can we as answer that q without a blush but a brief time since and we had bad adams webster Ye lister clay and calhoun Cal lioun who auld bear comparison with the great men of other d days tys if they had nothing olse else they had bad moral courage they did not sink in cowadd faintness before every burst of the mob and every blus 1 ter of brainless demagogues who have replaced 1 them who loor LOOK to the american senate and you yau wilt will seek in vain under its corinthian columns for a single mm man who can be called great in anything the webster is occupied ty by mr sum sunner ier a scholar like gentlemanly min man but hardly above the average talent df well educated gentlemen the seat of mr clay is occupied by a AV air dix in of whom the lea leaff ii said the better the sent scat of mr calhoun is occupied by some man of the n name ame of E evans vans of w whom hom ne ther w we e nor any body this side the santee river know anything I til the scat delit of mr adams in the honsa is mccu I 1 pied by we know not who the senate contains som very useful and worthy n nen en but fur for the mst part its members are men of ordinary ability and ver verv v conat common non for bothin nothing a but their tend ncy to the mo moat t itura I 1 demagogue ism I 1 al the hile of representatives presents a sim simlar lar picture while at home among tire thie people we can find everywhere men of science worth intelligence and spotless character how few are in the american congress it seema as a if for halt the members of congress we had sent dx expressly pressly to the grow grog r shop hop the faro table and stews or wherever we ive could pick them wo UD the whig party parly are called conservative and are supposed to have a secial affection fo for men of talent yet look at the lot of men they have sent to congress when they have the power they send men to whom no term can be aptly i applied but that of mediocrity in public life we have come to the period when the post of lir san station af I 1 but hw hocks is it in literature and science science in the united states we are about on the level with avith europe in these particulars to poets we do not pretend but we delight in hawthorner Haw tales and go into over uncle tom we are with ethiopian ean melodies embrace tile the clown of the hippodrome and really believe dickens Dic kons p police aice novels the last great H effort of human anius aws such is the spectacle of politics and liter literature I 1 presented presen ted in the middle of the century can our vanity by any method of exaggeration and boast mike it brighter than tho the neutral trait of mediocrity we hemiy kiy be called a great age in bulk as we aspea speak k of great pumpkins but certainly to greatness in the illustrious walks irenius of action of heroism in war of in polities politics of excellence in literature we have small claims 1 the moral of our story is that never was a belter time for young men to prepare them then vic salves ves to be great men inen Th they eyare are not overshadow eu by the great greatness nesa chica adit precedes them the world affords them theux full freedom and opportunity of action they can choose their own paths una lind eim ami at any elevation of position or character are there not some who wi will 11 devote themselves t with a industry arid heros energy I 1 to tho th life task of acquiring excellence in some branch of human development are I 1 I 1 there not some who will rise to the dignity of a moral courage that much neglected virtue come young men and nd save your age and nation from sinking r into utter indifference and present to after ages something worthy of historical fame |