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fellowship with landscapes, trees, skies, birds, with an open mind and in a receptive mood, soon develops in one a kind of spiritual sense which takes cognizance of things not seen before and adds a new joy and resource to life. In like manner the feeling for literature is quickened and nourished by intimate acquaintance with books of beauty and power. Such an intimacy makes the sense of delight more keen, preserves it against influences which tend to deaden it, and makes the taste more sure and trustworthy. A man who has long had acquaintance with the best in any department of art comes to have, almost unconsciously to himself, an instinctive power of discerning good work from bad, of recognizing on the instant the sound and true method and style, and of feeling a fresh and constant delight in such work. His education comes not by didactic, but by vital methods.

4. Agnes Repplier (1857

) was born in Philadelphia.

She has made an enviable name for herself in the world of letters through her delightful essays. (For readings, see Bibliography, page 414.)

He

5. Theodore Roosevelt (1858- ), President of the United States from 1901 to 1909, was born in New York City. held many public offices before he became President, serving as police commissioner of New York City, member of the United States Civil Service Commission, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, during the first administration of President McKinley, Governor of New York, and Vice-President until the assassination of President McKinley, when he became President. When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898 he resigned his post as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and took an active part in the war. He is a great traveller and hunter of big game, a vigorous speaker, and a prolific writer-biography, history, and travel being his chief fields. The Winning of the West is, perhaps, his best-known book.

JUSTICE VS. VINDICTIVENESS

(Speech made at Oyster Bay, New York, July 4, 1906) Mr. Chairman and you, my old friends and neighbors, you among whom I was brought up, and with whom I

have lived for so many years, it is a real and glorious pleasure to have the chance of being with you to-day, to say a few words of greeting to you, and in a sense to give an account of my stewardship. I say "in a sense," friends, because, after all, the stewardship really has to give an account of itself. If a man needs to explain overmuch what he has done, it is pretty sure proof that he ought to have done it a little differently, and so as regards most of what I have done I must let it speak for itself.

But there are two or three things about which I want to talk to you to-day and if, in the presence of the dominies, I may venture to speak from a text, I shall take as my text the words of Abraham Lincoln which he spoke in a remarkable little address delivered to a band of people who were serenading him at the White House just after his reëlection to the Presidency. He said (I quote from memory only): "In any great national trial hereafter, the men of that day as compared with those of this will be as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us, therefore, study the incidents of this as philosophy from which to learn wisdom, and not as wrong to be avenged." And he added later in the speech a touching and characteristic expression of his, saying, "So long as I have been here I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man's breast."

It is in just that spirit that we, as a nation, if we possess the power of learning aright the lessons to be taught us by Lincoln's life, will approach problems of to-day. We have not got the same problems nor as great problems as those with which the men of Lincoln's generation were brought face to face, and yet our problems are real and great, and upon the way in which we solve them will depend whether or not our children have cause to feel pride or shame as American citizens. If Lincoln and the men of his generation, the men who followed Grant in the field, who upheld the statesmanship of Lincoln himself in the council chamber -if these men had not done their full duty, not a man here would carry his head high as an American citizen.

We have heard a great deal during the past year or two

of the frightful iniquities in our politics and our business life, the frightful wrongdoing in our social life. Now there is plenty of iniquity, in business, in politics, in our social life. There is every warrant for our acknowledging these great evils.

But there is no warrant for growing hysterical about them. It is a poor trick to spend nine tenths of the time in saying that there never was such iniquity as is shown in this nation; and the remaining tenth in saying that we are the most remarkable nation that ever existed. We want to be more careful in blaming ourselves and more careful in praising ourselves. Overemphasis in praise, as well as overemphasis in blame, is apt to overreach itself; just as the man who promises too much—especially on the stump is apt to strike the balance by performing too little. It is true that there is much evil; but in speaking about it do not let us lose our heads; and, above all, let us avoid the wild vindictiveness preached by certain demagogues the vindictiveness as far as the poles asunder from the wise charity of Abraham Lincoln.

The poorest of all emotions for any American citizen to feel is the emotion of hatred toward his fellows. Let him feel a just and righteous indignation where that just and righteous indignation is called for; let him not hesitate to inflict punishment where the punishment is needed in the interest of the public, but let him beware of demanding mere vengeance, and above all of inviting the masses of the people to such demand. Such a demand is alike unchristian and un-American, and the man who makes it is false to the highest duties, principles, and privileges of American citizenship.

There is wrong and enough to fight. Fight it, cut it out, and, having cut it out, go your ways without either hatred or exultation over those at whose expense it has been necessary that it should be cut out. There are plenty of wrongs done by men of great means, and there are plenty of wrongs done by men of small means. Another sentence of Abraham Lincoln's which it is well to remember is, "There is a deal of human nature in mankind." If a man

possesses a twisted morality, he will show that twisted morality wherever he happens to be. If he is not a man of really twisted morals, but an ordinary happy-go-lucky individual who does not think very deeply, he will often do what ought not to be done, if nobody brings home his duty to him, and if the chances are such as to render easy wrongdoing.

This year in Congress our chief task has been to carry the government forward along the course which I think it might follow consistently for a number of years to come —that is, in the direction of seeking on behalf of the people as a whole, through the national government, which represents the people as a whole, to exercise a measure of supervision, control, and restraint over the individuals, and especially over the corporations, of great wealth, in so far as the business use of that wealth brings it within the reach of the federal government. We have accomplished a fair amount, and the reason that we have done so has been, in the first place, because we have not tried to do too much, and, in the next place, because we have approached the task absolutely free from any spirit of rancor or hatred.

When it becomes necessary to curb a great corporation, curb it. I will do my best to help you, but I will do it in no spirit of anger or hatred to the men who own or control that corporation, and if any seek in their turn to do wrong to the men of means, to do wrong to the men who own these corporations, I will turn around and fight for them in defense of their rights just as hard as I fight against them when I think they are doing wrong.

Distrust as a demagogue the man who talks only of the wrong done by the men of wealth. Distrust as a demagogue the man who measures iniquity by the purse. Measure iniquity by the heart, whether a man's purse be full or empty, partly full or partly empty. If the man is a decent man, whether well off or not, stand by him; if he is not a decent man, stand against him, whether he be rich or poor. Stand against him in no spirit of vengeance, but only with the resolute purpose to make him act as

decent citizens must act if this republic is to be and to become what it should.

6. Booker T. Washington (1858- ), the most famous negro of the day, is carrying on a great work for the elevation of his race at Tuskeegee, an industrial school which he founded. He has delivered many addresses both in this country and abroad and has published many articles and essays, his one theme being the negro.

THE BETTER PART

(A speech delivered at the Thanksgiving Peace Jubilee Exercises, Chicago, October 16, 1898)

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: On an important occasion in the life of the Master, when it fell to Him to pronounce judgment on two courses of action, these memorable words fell from his lips: "And Mary hath chosen the better part." This was the supreme test in the case of an individual! It is the highest test in the case of a race or nation. Let us apply this test to the American negro.

In the life of our republic, when he has had the opportunity to choose, has it been the better or worse part? When, in the childhood of this nation, the negro was asked to submit to slavery or choose death and extinction, as did the aborigines, he chose the better part, that which perpetuated the race.

When, in 1776, the negro was asked to decide between British oppression and American independence, we find him choosing the better part, and Crispus Attucks, a negro, was the first to shed his blood on State Street, Boston, that the white American might enjoy liberty forever, though his race remained in slavery.

When, in 1814, at New Orleans, the test of patriotism came again, we find the negro choosing the better part, and General Andrew Jackson himself testifying that no heart was more loyal and no arm more strong and useful in defence of righteousness.

When the long and memorable struggle came between

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