What's What in AmericaBrewster, Eugene V. (Eugene Valentine)
History
What's What in America
Brewster, Eugene V. (Eugene Valentine)
United States -- Civilization; United States -- Social life and customs
Again, in selecting the great men, should there not be some limit in
number and some method of declaring different degrees of greatness,
because otherwise the man who wrote "Home, Sweet Home" might find a
place alongside Shakespeare. Again, should a conqueror be classed among
the great? Still again, are philosophers like Schopenhauer, Ibsen,
Bernard Shaw and Nietzsche to be numbered among the great, when most
people say that their philosophy is wrong, destructive and immoral? No
wonder, then, that nobody has yet been able to give a satisfactory
definition of Greatness. Alexander accomplished wonders: he conquered
the then known world and wept for other worlds to conquer; but perhaps
he was not so deserving of his fellows as some poor shoemaker. And take
Napoleon: he made all Europe run blood; yet he certainly did much good;
are we to balance his account and determine if the good outweighed the
bad? Dante and Milton are always numbered among the greatest men, yet
some do say that these great poets did more harm than good by
perpetuating the false doctrines of Hell and Paradise. Was Robespierre a
great man?--no one questions that great good came from the French
Revolution, yet who will urge a monument to Robespierre, the
personification of that Revolution? His intentions were good, however
bad may have been the method, but so were Cromwell's regardless of his
fanaticism; yet public opinion curses the one and crowns the other. Some
men seem to accomplish world-wonders without effort, while others
struggle against tremendous odds: of the two, the latter, of course, are
the greater, because, as Bryant says, "Difficulty is a nurse of
greatness--a harsh nurse, who rocks her foster children roughly, but
rocks them into strength. The mind, grappling with great aims and
wrestling with mighty impediments, grows by a certain necessity to the
stature of greatness." Some say that greatness is founded in human
sympathy, and that the man who shows the biggest heart plus the greatest
ability to do, is the greatest man. Others say that greatness consists
in reforming the world along religious lines, and still others maintain
that greatness is merely righteousness--"He is not great, who is no
greatly good" (Shakespeare). Was Caesar great? Remember Campbell's
line,--"What millions died that Caesar might be great." Beecher was
doubtless right when he said, "Greatness lies not in being strong, but
in the right use of strength," but men may differ as to what is the
right use, for, suppose he uses it to defend his people against some
other people, and for a cause which he believes in, as did Robert E.
Lee? He thought he was right, many others thought he was right, and he
displayed qualities truly great, yet Beecher would say that Lee was not
a great man. No great man ever yet lived who was conceded so to be by
everybody. We see many who are great, in a sense, and many that are
good; but we seldom see a man who is both great and good; and, according
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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