Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Teachers | Page 2

people
out of captivity and so impressed his ideals and personality upon them

that they endure as a distinct and peculiar people, even unto this day.
He founded a nation. And chronologically he is the civilized world's
first author.
Moses was a soldier, a diplomat, an executive, a writer, a teacher, a
leader, a prophet, a stonecutter. Beside all these he was a farmer--a
workingman, one who when forty years of age tended flocks and herds
for a livelihood. Every phase of the outdoor life of the range was
familiar to him. And the greatness of the man is revealed in the fact that
his plans and aspirations were so far beyond his achievements that at
last he thought he had failed. Exultant success seems to go with that
which is cheap and transient. All great teachers have, in their own
minds, been failures--they saw so much further than they were able to
travel.
* * * * *
All ancient chronology falls easily into three general divisions: the
fabulous, the legendary, and the probable or natural.
In the understanding of history, psychology is quite as necessary as
philology.
To reject anything that has a flaw in it is quite as bad as to have that
excess of credulity which swallows everything presented.
It is not necessary to throw away the fabulous nor deny the legendary.
But it is certainly not wise to construe the fabulous as the actual and
maintain the legendary as literally true. Things may be true
allegorically and false literally, and to be able to distinguish the one
from the other, and prize each in its proper place, is the mark of
wisdom.
If, however, we were asked to describe the man Moses to a jury of sane,
sensible, intelligent and unprejudiced men and women, and show why
he is worthy of the remembrance of mankind, we would have to
eliminate the fabulous, carefully weigh the traditional, and rest our
argument upon records that are fair, sensible and reasonably free from

dispute.
The conclusions of professional retainers, committed before they begin
their so-called investigations to a literal belief in the fabulous, should
be accepted with great caution. For them to come to conclusions
outside of that which they have been taught, is not only to forfeit their
social position, but to lose their actual means of livelihood. Perhaps the
truth in the final summing up can best be gotten from those who have
made no vows that they will not change their opinions, and have
nothing to lose if they fail occasionally to gibe with the popular.
On a certain occasion after Colonel Ingersoll had delivered his famous
lecture entitled, "Some Mistakes of Moses," he was entertained by a
local club. At the meeting, which was of the usual informal kind known
as "A Dutch Feed," a young lawyer made bold to address the great
orator thus: "Colonel Ingersoll, you are a lover of freedom--with you
the word liberty looms large. All great men love liberty, and no man
lives in history, respected and revered, save as he has sought to make
men free. Moses was a lover of liberty. Now, wouldn't it be gracious
and generous in you to give Moses, who in some ways was in the same
business as yourself, due credit as a liberator and law-giver and not
emphasize his mistakes to the total exclusion of his virtues?"
Colonel Ingersoll listened--he was impressed by the fairness of the
question. He listened, paused and replied: "Young man, you have asked
a reasonable question, and all you suggest about the greatness of Moses,
in spite of his mistakes, is well taken. The trouble in your logic lies in
the fact that you do not understand my status in this case. You seem to
forget that I am not the attorney for Moses. He has more than two
million men looking after his interests. I am retained on the other side!"
Like unto Colonel Ingersoll, I am not an attorney for Moses. I desire,
however, to give a fair, clear and judicial account of the man. I will
attempt to present a brief for the people, and neither prosecute nor
defend. I will simply try to picture the man as he once existed, nothing
extenuating, nor setting down aught in malice. As the original office of
the State's Attorney was rather to protect the person at the bar than to
indict him, so will I try to bring out the best in Moses, rather than hold

up his mistakes and raise a laugh by revealing his ignorance. Modesty,
which is often egotism turned wrong side out, might here say, "Oh,
Moses requires no defense at this late day!" But Moses, like all great
men, has suffered at the hands of his friends. To this man has been
attributed