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Abbott</h1> + <hr class="full" /> + <p> </p> + + <h1>African and European Addresses</h1> + <h4>By</h4> + <h3>Theodore Roosevelt</h3> + <h4>With an Introduction presenting a Description of the Conditions<br /> + under which the Addresses were given<br /> + during Mr. Roosevelt's Journey in 1910<br /> + from Khartum through Europe to New York</h4> + <h5>By</h5> + <h4>Lawrence F. Abbott</h4> + <p class="ctr">1910</p> + <hr class="full" /> + <p class="ctr"><a href="#Page_vi"><i>Click Here for Table of Contents</i></a></p> + <hr class="full" /> + <h2><a id="Page_iii" name="Page_iii"></a>FOREWORD</h2> + <p>My original intention had been to return to the United States direct from Africa, + by the same route I took when going out. I altered this intention because of + receiving from the Chancellor of Oxford University, Lord Curzon, an invitation to + deliver the Romanes Lecture at Oxford. The Romanes Foundation had always greatly + interested me, and I had been much struck by the general character of the annual + addresses, so that I was glad to accept. Immediately afterwards, I received and + accepted invitations to speak at the Sorbonne in Paris, and at the University of + Berlin. In Berlin and at Oxford, my addresses were of a scholastic character, + designed especially for the learned bodies which I was addressing, and for men who + shared their interests in scientific and historical matters. In Paris, after + consultation with the French Ambassador, M. Jusserand, through whom the invitation + was tendered, I decided to speak <a id="Page_iv" name="Page_iv"></a>more generally, + as the citizen of one republic addressing the citizens of another republic.</p> + <p>When, for these reasons, I had decided to stop in Europe on my way home, it of + course became necessary that I should speak to the Nobel Prize Committee in + Christiania, in acknowledgment of the Committee's award of the peace prize, after the + Peace of Portsmouth had closed the war between Japan and Russia.</p> + <p>While in Africa, I became greatly interested in the work of the Government + officials and soldiers who were there upholding the cause of civilization. These men + appealed to me; in the first place, because they reminded me so much of our own + officials and soldiers who have reflected such credit on the American name in the + Philippines, in Panama, in Cuba, in Porto Rico; and, in the next place, because I was + really touched by the way in which they turned to me, with the certainty that I + understood and believed in their work, and with the eagerly expressed hope that when + I got the chance I would tell the people at home what they were doing and would urge + that they be supported in doing it.</p> + <p>In my Egyptian address, my endeavor was to hold up the hands of these men, and at + the same time to champion the cause of the missionaries, <a id="Page_v" + name="Page_v"></a>of the native Christians, and of the advanced and enlightened + Mohammedans in Egypt. To do this it was necessary emphatically to discourage the + anti-foreign movement, led, as it is, by a band of reckless, foolish, and sometimes + murderous agitators. In other words, I spoke with the purpose of doing good to Egypt, + and with the hope of deserving well of the Egyptian people of the future, unwilling + to pursue the easy line of moral culpability which is implied in saying pleasant + things of that noisy portion of the Egyptian people of to-day, who, if they could + have their way, would irretrievably and utterly ruin Egypt's future. In the Guildhall + address, I carried out the same idea.</p> + <p>I made a number of other addresses, some of which—those, for instance, at + Budapest, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and the University of + Christiania,—I would like to present here; but unfortunately they were made + without preparation, and were not taken down in shorthand, so that with the exception + of the address made at the dinner in Christiania and the address at the Cambridge + Union these can not be included.</p> + <p class="signature">THEODORE ROOSEVELT.<br /> + SAGAMORE HILL,<br /> + July 15, 1910.</p> + <hr class="full" /> + <h2><a id="Page_vi" name="Page_vi"></a>Contents</h2> + <div class="ctr"> + <table summary="toc"> + <colgroup span="3"> + <col span="2" align="left" /> + <col align="right" /> + </colgroup> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">FOREWORD</td> + <td><a href="#Page_iii">iii</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">INTRODUCTION</td> + <td><a href="#Page_xi">xi</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td>Roosevelt as an Orator.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">PEACE AND JUSTICE IN THE SUDAN</td> + <td><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + </td> + <td>An Address at the American Mission in Khartum, March 16, 1910.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">LAW AND ORDER IN EGYPT</td> + <td><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + </td> + <td>An Address before the National University in Cairo, March 28, 1910.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">CITIZENSHIP IN A REPUBLIC</td> + <td><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + </td> + <td>An Address Delivered at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">INTERNATIONAL PEACE</td> + <td><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + </td> + <td>An Address before the Nobel Prize Committee Delivered at Christiania, + Norway, May 5, 1910.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">THE COLONIAL POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES</td> + <td><a href="#Page_87">87</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + </td> + <td>An Address Delivered at Christiania, Norway, on the Evening of May 5, + 1910.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">THE WORLD MOVEMENT</td> + <td><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + </td> + <td>An Address Delivered at the University of Berlin, May 12, 1910.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">THE CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS</td> + <td><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + </td> + <td>An Address at the Cambridge Union, May 26, 1910.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">BRITISH RULE IN AFRICA</td> + <td><a href="#Page_157">157</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + </td> + <td>Address Delivered at the Guildhall, London, May 31, 1910.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">BIOLOGICAL ANALOGIES IN HISTORY<a id="FNanchor_1_1" + name="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a></td> + <td><a href="#Page_175">175</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + </td> + <td>Delivered at Oxford, June 7, 1910.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">APPENDIX</td> + <td><a href="#Page_241">241</a></td> + </tr> + </table> + </div> + <hr class="full" /> + <h2><a id="Page_xi" name="Page_xi"></a>Introduction</h2> + <h4><i>Mr. Roosevelt as an Orator</i></h4> + <p>In the tumult, on the one hand of admiration and praise and on the other of + denunciation and criticism, which Mr. Roosevelt's tour in Africa and Europe excited + throughout the civilized world, there was one—and I am inclined to think only + one—note of common agreement. Friends and foes united in recognizing the + surprising versatility of talents and of ability which the activities of his tour + displayed. Hunters and explorers, archæologists and ethnologists, soldiers and + sailors, scientists and university doctors, statesmen and politicians, monarchs and + diplomats, essayists and historians, athletes and horsemen, orators and occasional + speakers, met him on equal terms. The purpose of the present volume is to give to + American readers, by collecting a group of his transatlantic addresses and by + relating some incidents and effects of their delivery, some impression of one + particular phase of Mr. Roosevelt's foreign journey,—an impression of the + influence on public thought which he exerted as an orator.<a id="Page_xii" + name="Page_xii"></a></p> + <p>No one would assert that Mr. Roosevelt possesses that persuasive grace of oratory + which made Mr. Gladstone one of the greatest public speakers of modern times. For + oratory as a fine art, he has no use whatever; he is neither a stylist nor an + elocutionist; what he has to say he says with conviction and in the most direct and + effective phraseology that he can find through which to bring his hearers to his way + of thinking. Three passages from the Guildhall speech afford typical illustrations of + the incisiveness of his English and of its effect on his audience.</p> + <blockquote> + <p>Fortunately you have now in the Governor of East Africa, Sir Percy Girouard, a + man admirably fitted to deal wisely and firmly with the many problems before him. + He is on the ground and knows the needs of the country and is zealously devoted to + its interests. All that is necessary is to follow his lead and to give him cordial + support and backing. The principle upon which I think it is wise to act in dealing + with far-away possessions is this: choose your man, change him if you become + discontented with him, but while you keep him, back him up.</p> + <hr /> + <p>I have met people who had some doubt whether the Sudan would pay. Personally, I + think it probably will. But I may add that, in my judgment, this does not alter the + duty of England to stay <a id="Page_xiii" name="Page_xiii"></a>there. It is not + worth while belonging to a big nation unless the big nation is willing, when the + necessity arises, to undertake a big task. I feel about you in the Sudan just as I + felt about us in Panama. When we acquired the right to build the Panama Canal, and + entered on the task, there were worthy people who came to me and said they wondered + whether it would pay. I always answered that it was one of the great world-works + that had to be done; that it was our business as a nation to do it, if we were + ready to make good our claim to be treated as a great World Power; and that as we + were unwilling to abandon the claim, no American worth his salt ought to hesitate + about performing the task. I feel just the same way about you in the Sudan.</p> + <hr /> + <p>It was with this primary object of establishing order that you went into Egypt + twenty-eight years ago; and the chief and ample justification for your presence in + Egypt was this absolute necessity of order being established from without, coupled + with your ability and willingness to establish it. Now, either you have the right + to be in Egypt, or you have not; either it is, or it is not your duty to establish + and keep order. If you feel that you have not the right to be in Egypt, if you do + not wish to establish and keep order there, why then by all means get out of Egypt. + If, as I hope, you feel that your duty to civilized mankind and your fealty to your + own great traditions alike bid you to stay, then make the fact and the name agree, + and show <a id="Page_xiv" name="Page_xiv"></a>that you are ready to meet in very + deed the responsibility which is yours.</p> + </blockquote> + <p>There may be little Ciceronian grace about these passages, but there is + unmistakable verbal power. So many words of one syllable and of Saxon derivation are + used as to warrant the opinion that the speaker possesses a distinctive style. That + it is an effective style was proved by the response of the audience, which greeted + these particular passages (although they contain by implication frank criticisms of + the British people) with cheers and cries of "Hear, hear!" It should be remembered, + too, that the audience, a distinguished one, while neither hostile nor antipathetic, + came in a distinctly critical frame of mind. Like the man from Missouri, they were + determined "to be shown" the value of Mr. Roosevelt's personality and views before + they accepted them. That they did accept them, that the British people accepted them, + I shall endeavor to show a little later.</p> + <p>There are people who entertain the notion that it is characteristic of Mr. + Roosevelt to speak on the spur of the moment, trusting to the occasion to furnish him + with both his ideas and his inspiration. Nothing could be more contrary to the facts. + It is true that in his European journey he developed a facility in extemporaneous <a + id="Page_xv" name="Page_xv"></a>after-dinner speaking or occasional addresses, that + was a surprise even to his intimate friends. At such times, what he said was full of + apt allusions, witty comment (sometimes at his own expense), and bubbling good humor. + The address to the undergraduates at the Cambridge Union, and his remarks at the + supper of the Institute of British Journalists in Stationers' Hall, are good examples + of this kind of public speaking. But his important speeches are carefully and + painstakingly prepared. It is his habit to dictate the first draft to a stenographer. + He then takes the typewritten original and works over it, sometimes sleeps over it, + and edits it with the greatest care. In doing this, he usually calls upon his + friends, or upon experts in the subject he is dealing with, for advice and + suggestion.</p> + <p>Of the addresses collected in this volume, three—the lectures at the + Sorbonne, at the University of Berlin, and at Oxford—were written during the + winter of 1909, before Mr. Roosevelt left the Presidency; a fourth, the Nobel Prize + speech, was composed during the hunting trip in Africa, and the original copy, + written with indelible pencil on sheets of varying size and texture, and covered with + interlineations and corrections, bears all the marks of life in the wilderness. The + Cairo and Guildhall addresses were written and rewritten with great care beforehand. + The <a id="Page_xvi" name="Page_xvi"></a>remaining three, "Peace and Justice in the + Sudan," "The Colonial Policy of the United States," and the speech at the University + of Cambridge were extemporaneous. The Cairo and Guildhall speeches are on the same + subject, and sprang from the same sources, and although one was delivered at the + beginning, and the other at the close of a three months' journey, they should, in + order to be properly understood, be read as one would read two chapters of one + work.</p> + <p>When Mr. Roosevelt reached Egypt, he found the country in one of those periods of + political unrest and religious fanaticism which have during the last twenty-five + years given all Europe many bad quarters of an hour. Technically a part of the + Ottoman Empire and a province of the Sultan of Turkey, Egypt is practically an + English protectorate. During the quarter of a century since the tragic death of + General Gordon at Khartum, Egypt has made astonishing progress in prosperity, in the + administration of justice, and in political stability. All Europe recognizes this + progress to be the fruit of English control and administration. At the time of Mr. + Roosevelt's visit, a faction, or party, of native Egyptians, calling themselves + Nationalists, had come into somewhat unsavory prominence; they openly urged the + expulsion of the English, giving feverish utterance to the cry "Egypt for <a + id="Page_xvii" name="Page_xvii"></a>the Egyptians!" In Egypt, this cry means more + than a political antagonism; it means the revival of the ancient and bitter feud + between Mohammedanism and Christianity. It is in effect a cry of "Egypt for the + Moslem!" The Nationalist party had by no means succeeded in affecting the entire + Moslem population, but it had succeeded in attracting to itself all the adventurers, + and lovers of darkness and disorder who cultivate for their own personal gain such + movements of national unrest. The non-Moslem population, European and native, whose + ability and intelligence is indicated by the fact that, while they form less than ten + per cent. of the inhabitants, they own more than fifty per cent. of the property, + were staunch supporters of the English control which the Nationalists wished to + overthrow. The Nationalists, however, appeared to be the only people who were not + afraid to talk openly and to take definite steps. Just before Mr. Roosevelt's + arrival, Boutros Pasha, the Prime Minister, a native Egyptian Christian, and one of + the ablest administrative officers that Egypt has ever produced, had been brutally + assassinated by a Nationalist. The murder was discussed everywhere with many shakings + of the head, but in quiet corners, and low tones of voice. Military and civil + officers complained in private that the home government was paying little heed to the + <a id="Page_xviii" name="Page_xviii"></a>assassination and to the spirit of disorder + which brought it about. English residents, who are commonly courageous and outspoken + in great crises, gave one the impression of speaking in whispers in the hope that if + it were ignored, the agitation might die away instead of developing into riot and + bloodshed.</p> + <p>Now this way of dealing with a law-breaker and political agitator is totally + foreign to Mr. Roosevelt; even his critics admit that he both talks and fights in the + open. In two speeches in Khartum, one at a dinner given in his honor by British + military and civil officers, and one at a reception arranged by native Egyptian + military men and officials, he pointed out in vigorous language the dangers of + religious fanaticism and the kind of "Nationalism" that condones assassination. + Newspaper organs of the Nationalists attacked him for these speeches when he arrived + in Cairo. This made him all the more determined to say the same things in Cairo when + the proper opportunity came, especially as officials, both military and civil, of + high rank and responsibility, had persistently urged him to do what he properly could + to arouse the attention of the British Government to the Egyptian situation. The + opportunity came in an invitation to address the University of Cairo. His speech was + carefully thought out and was written with equal care; some of his friends, <a + id="Page_xix" name="Page_xix"></a>both Egyptian, and English, whom he consulted, were + in the uncertain frame of mind of hoping that he would mention the assassination of + Boutros, but wondering whether he really ought to do so. Mr. Roosevelt spoke with all + his characteristic effectiveness of enunciation and gesture. He was listened to with + earnest attention and vigorous applause by a representative audience of Egyptians and + Europeans, of Moslems and Christians. The address was delivered on the morning of + March 28th; in the afternoon the comment everywhere was, "Why haven't these things + been said in public before?" Of course the criticisms of the extreme Nationalists + were very bitter. Their newspapers, printed in Arabic, devoted whole pages to + denunciations of the speech. They protested to the university authorities against the + presentation of the honorary degree which was conferred upon Mr. Roosevelt; they + called him "a traitor to the principles of George Washington," and "an advocate of + despotism"; an orator at a Nationalist mass meeting explained that Mr. Roosevelt's + "opposition to political liberty" was due to his Dutch origin, "for the Dutch, as + every one knows, have treated their colonies more cruelly than any other civilized + nation"; one paper announced that the United States Senate had recorded its + disapproval of the speech by taking away Mr. Roosevelt's pension <a id="Page_xx" + name="Page_xx"></a>of five thousand dollars, in amusing ignorance of the fact that + Mr. Roosevelt never had any pension of any kind whatsoever. On the other hand, + government officers of authority united with private citizens of distinction + (including missionaries, native Christians, and many progressive Moslems) in + expressing, personally and by letter, approval of the speech as one that would have a + wide influence in Egypt in supporting the efforts of those who are working for the + development of a stable, just, and enlightened form of government. In connection with + the more widely-known Guildhall address on the same subject it unquestionably has + such an influence.</p> + <p>Between the delivery of the Cairo speech and that of the next fixed address, the + lecture at the Sorbonne in Paris on April 23d, there were a number of extemporaneous + and occasional addresses of which no permanent record has been, or can be made. Some + of these were responses to speeches of welcome made by municipal officials on railway + platforms, or were replies to toasts at luncheons and dinners. In Rome, Mayor Nathan + gave a dinner in his honor in the Campidoglio, or City Hall, which was attended by a + group of about fifty men prominent in Italian official or private life. On this + occasion the Mayor read an address of welcome in French, to which Mr. Roosevelt made + a reply touching upon <a id="Page_xxi" name="Page_xxi"></a>the history of Italy and + some of the social problems with which the Italian people have to deal in common with + the other civilized nations of the earth. He began his reply in French, but soon + broke off, and continued in English, asking the Mayor to translate it, sentence by + sentence, into Italian for the assembled guests, most of whom did not speak English. + Both the speech itself and the personality of the speaker made a marked impression + upon his hearers; and after his retirement from the hall in which the dinner was + held, what he said furnished almost the sole subject of animated conversation, until + the party separated. In Budapest, under the dome of the beautiful House of + Parliament, Count Apponyi, one of the great political leaders of modern Hungary, on + behalf of the Hungarian delegates to the Inter-Parliamentary Union presented to Mr. + Roosevelt an illuminated address in which was recorded the latter's achievements in + behalf of human rights, human liberty, and international justice. Mr. Roosevelt in + his reply showed an intimate familiarity with the Hungarian history such as, Count + Apponyi afterwards said, he had never met in any other public man outside of Hungary. + Although entirely extemporaneous, this reply may be taken as a fair exemplification + of the spirit of all his speeches during his foreign journey. Briefly, in referring + to some allusions in Count Apponyi's speech <a id="Page_xxii" name="Page_xxii"></a>to + the great leaders of liberty in the United States and in Hungary, he asserted that + the principles for which he had endeavored to struggle during his political career + were principles older than those of George Washington or Abraham Lincoln; older, + indeed, than the principles of Kossuth, the great Hungarian leader; they were the + principles enunciated in the Decalogue and the Golden Rule. One of the significant + things about these sermons by Mr. Roosevelt—I call them sermons because he + frequently himself uses the phrase, "I preach"—is that nobody spoke, or + apparently thought the word cant in connection with them. They were accepted as the + genuine and spontaneous expression of a man who believes that the highest moral + principles are quite compatible with all the best social joys of life, and with + dealing knockout blows when it is necessary to fight in order to redress wrongs or to + maintain justice.</p> + <p>The people of Paris are perhaps as quick to detect and to laugh at cant or moral + platitudes as anybody of the modern world. And yet the Sorbonne lecture, delivered by + invitation of the officials of the University of Paris, on April 23d, saturated as it + was with moral ideas and moral exhortation, was a complete success. The occasion + furnished an illustration of the power of moral ideas to interest and to inspire. The + streets surrounding the hall were <a id="Page_xxiii" name="Page_xxiii"></a>filled + with an enormous crowd long before the hour announced for the opening of the doors; + and even ticket-holders had great difficulty in gaining admission. The spacious + amphitheatre of the Sorbonne was filled with a representative audience, numbering + probably three thousand people. Around the hall, were statues of the great masters of + French intellectual life—Pascal, Descartes, Lavoisier, and others. On the wall + was one of the Puvis de Chavannes's most beautiful mural paintings. The group of + university officials and academicians on the dais, from which Mr. Roosevelt spoke, + lent to the occasion an appropriate university atmosphere. The simple but perfect + arrangement of the French and American flags back of the speaker suggested its + international character.</p> + <p>The speech was an appeal for moral rather than for intellectual or material + greatness. It was received with marked interest and approval; the passage ending with + a reference to "cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat," was + delivered with real eloquence, and aroused a long-continued storm of applause. With + characteristic courage, Mr. Roosevelt attacked race suicide when speaking to a race + whose population is diminishing, and was loudly applauded. Occasionally with + quizzical humor he interjected an extemporaneous sentence in French, to the great + satisfaction of his audience.<a id="Page_xxiv" name="Page_xxiv"></a> A passage of + peculiar interest was the statement of his creed regarding the relation of + property-rights to human rights; it was not in his original manuscript but was + written on the morning of the lecture as the result of a discussion of the subject of + vested interests with one or two distinguished French publicists. He first pronounced + this passage in English, and then repeated it in French, enforced by gestures which + so clearly indicated his desire to have his hearers unmistakably understand him in + spite of defective pronunciation of a foreign tongue that the manifest approval of + the audience was expressed in a curious mingling of sympathetic laughter and + prolonged and serious applause.</p> + <p>A fortnight after the Sorbonne address, I received from a friend, an American + military officer living in Paris who knows well its general habit of mind, a letter + from which I venture to quote here, because it so strikingly portrays the influence + that Mr. Roosevelt exerted as an orator during his European journey:</p> + <blockquote> + <p>I find that Paris is still everywhere talking of Mr. Roosevelt. It was a thing + almost without precedent that this <i>blasé</i> city kept up its interest in + him without abatement for eight days; but that a week after his departure should + still find him the main topic of conversation is a fact which has undoubtedly + entered into Paris history. The <i>Temps</i> [one of the foremost daily newspapers + of Paris]<a id="Page_xxv" name="Page_xxv"></a> has had fifty-seven thousand copies + of his Sorbonne address printed and distributed free to every schoolteacher in + France and to many other persons. The Socialist or revolutionary groups and press + had made preparations for a monster demonstration on May first. Walls were + placarded with incendiary appeals and their press was full of calls to arms. + Monsieur Briand [the Prime Minister] flatly refused to allow the demonstration, and + gave orders accordingly to Monsieur Lépine [the Chief of Police]. For the + first time since present influences have governed France, certainly in fifteen + years, the police and the troops were authorized to <i>use their arms in + self-defence</i>. The result of this firmness was that the leaders countermanded + the demonstration, and there can be no doubt that many lives were saved and a new + point gained in the possibility of governing Paris as a free city, yet one where + order must be preserved, votes or no votes. Now this stiff attitude of M. Briand + and the Conseil is freely attributed in intelligent quarters to Mr. Roosevelt. + French people say it is a repercussion of his visit, of his Sorbonne lecture, and + that going away he left in the minds of these people some of that intangible spirit + of his—in other words, they felt what he would have felt in a similar + emergency, and for the first time in their lives showed a disregard of voters when + they were bent upon mischief. It is rather an extraordinary verdict, but it has + seized the Parisian imagination, and I, for one, believe it is correct.</p> + </blockquote> + <p>Some of the English newspapers, while generally <a id="Page_xxvi" + name="Page_xxvi"></a>approving of the Sorbonne address, expressed the feeling that it + contained some platitudes. Of course it did; for the laws of social and moral health, + like the laws of hygiene, are platitudes. It was interesting to have a French + engineer and mathematician of distinguished achievements, who discussed with me the + character and effect of the Sorbonne address, rather hotly denounce those who + affected to regard Mr. Roosevelt's restatement of obvious, but too often forgotten + truth, as platitudinous. "The finest and most beautiful things in life," said this + scientist, "the most abstruse scientific discoveries, are based upon platitudes. It + is a platitude to say that the whole is greater than a part, or that the shortest + distance between two points is a straight line, and yet it is upon such platitudes + that astronomy, by aid of which we have penetrated some of the far-off mysteries of + the universe, is based. The greatest cathedrals are built of single blocks of stone, + and a single block of stone is a platitude. Tear the architectural structure to + pieces, and you have nothing left but the single, common, platitudinous brick; but + for that reason do you say that your architectural structure is platitudinous? The + effect of Mr. Roosevelt's career and personality, which rest upon the secure + foundation of simple and obvious truths, is like that of a fine architectural + structure, and if a man can see only the <a id="Page_xxvii" + name="Page_xxvii"></a>single bricks or stones of which it is composed, so much the + worse for him."</p> + <p>Of the addresses included in this volume the next in chronological order was that + on "International Peace," officially delivered before the Nobel Prize Committee, but + actually a public oration spoken in the National Theatre of Christiania, before an + audience of two or three thousand people. The Norwegians did everything to make the + occasion a notable one. The streets were almost impassable from the crowds of people + who assembled about the theatre, but who were unable to gain admission. An excellent + orchestra played an overture, especially composed for the occasion by a distinguished + Norwegian composer, in which themes from the <i>Star-Spangled Banner</i> and from + Norwegian national airs and folk-songs were ingeniously intertwined. The day was + observed as a holiday in Christiania, and the entire city was decorated with + evergreens and flags. On the evening of the same day, the Nobel Prize Committee gave + a dinner in honor of Mr. Roosevelt which was attended by two or three hundred + guests,—both men and women. General Bratlie, at one time Norwegian Minister of + War, made an address of welcome, reviewing with appreciation Mr. Roosevelt's + qualities both as a man of war and as a man of peace. The address in this volume, + entitled, "Colonial Policy of the<a id="Page_xxviii" name="Page_xxviii"></a> United + States" was Mr. Roosevelt's reply to General Bratlie's personal tribute. It was + wholly extemporaneous, but was taken down stenographically; and it adds to its + interest to note the fact that on the evening of its delivery it was the first public + utterance on any question of American politics which Mr. Roosevelt had made since he + left America a year previous. The Nobel Prize speech and this address taken together + form a pretty complete exposition of what may perhaps be called, for want of a better + term, Mr. Roosevelt's "peace with action" doctrine.</p> + <p>"The World Movement," the address at the University of Berlin, was the first of + two distinctively academic, or scholastic utterances, the other, of course, being the + Romanes lecture. The Sorbonne speech was almost purely sociological and ethical. + There are, to be sure, social and moral applications made of the theories laid down + at Berlin and at Oxford; but these two university addresses are distinctly for a + university audience. My own judgment is that the Sorbonne and Guildhall addresses + were more effective in their human interest and their immediate political influence. + But at both Berlin and Oxford, Mr. Roosevelt showed that he could deal with scholarly + subjects in a scholarly fashion. It may be that he desired on these two occasions to + give some indication that, although universally <a id="Page_xxix" + name="Page_xxix"></a>regarded as a man of action, he is entitled also to be + considered as a man of thought. The lecture at the University of Berlin was a + brilliant and picturesque academic celebration in which doctors' gowns, military + uniforms, and the somewhat bizarre dress of the representatives of the undergraduate + student corps, mingled in kaleidoscopic effect. One interesting feature of the + ceremony was the singing by a finely trained student chorus without instrumental + accompaniment, of <i>Hail Columbia</i> and <i>The Star-Spangled Banner</i>, + harmonized as only the Germans can harmonize choral music. The Emperor and the + Empress, with several members of the Imperial family, attended the lecture. Those who + sat near the Emperor could see that he followed the address with genuine interest, + nodding his head, or smiling now and then with approval at some incisively expressed + idea, or some phrase of interjected humor, or a characteristic gesture on the part of + the speaker. In one respect the lecture was a <i>tour de force</i>. On account of a + sharp attack of bronchitis, from which he was then recovering, it was not decided by + the physicians in charge until the morning of the lecture that Mr. Roosevelt could + use his voice for one hour in safety. Arrangements had been made to have some one + else read the lecture if at the last moment it should be necessary; and the fact that + Mr. Roosevelt was able <a id="Page_xxx" name="Page_xxx"></a>to do it himself + effectively under these circumstances indicates that he has some of the physical as + well as the intellectual attributes of the practised orator.</p> + <p>Mr. Roosevelt's first public speech in England was made at the University of + Cambridge on May 26th when he received the honorary degree of LL.D. His address on + this occasion was not, like the Romanes lecture at Oxford, a part of the academic + ceremony connected with the conferring of the honorary degree. It was spoken to an + audience of undergraduates when, after the academic exercises in the Senate House, he + was elected to honorary membership in the Union Society, the well-known Cambridge + debating club which has trained some of the best public speakers of England. At + Oxford the doctors and dignitaries cracked the jokes—in Latin—while the + undergraduates were highly decorous. At Cambridge, on the other hand, the students + indulged in the traditional pranks which often lend a color of gaiety to University + ceremonies at both Oxford and Cambridge. Mr. Roosevelt entered heartily into the + spirit of the undergraduates, and it was evident that they, quite as heartily, liked + his understanding of the fact that the best university and college life consists in a + judicious mixture of the grave and the gay. The honor which these undergraduates paid + to their guest <a id="Page_xxxi" name="Page_xxxi"></a>was seriously intended, was + admirably planned, and its genuineness was all the more apparent because it had a + note of pleasantry. Mr. Roosevelt spoke as a university student to university + students and what he said, although brief, extemporaneous, and even unpremeditated, + deserves to be included with his more important addresses, because it affords an + excellent example of his characteristic habit of making an occasion of social gaiety + also an occasion of expressing his belief in the fundamental moral principles of + social and political life. The speech was frequently interrupted by the laughter and + applause of the audience, and the theory which Mr. Roosevelt propounded, that any man + in any walk of life may achieve genuine success simply by developing ordinary + qualities to a more than ordinary degree, was widely quoted and discussed by the + press of Great Britain.</p> + <p>Next in chronological order comes the Guildhall speech. In the picturesqueness of + its setting, in the occasion which gave rise to it, in the extraordinary effect it + had upon public opinion in Great Britain, the continent of Europe, and America, and + in the courage which it evinced on the part of the speaker, it is in my judgment the + most striking of all Mr. Roosevelt's foreign addresses.</p> + <p>The occasion was a brilliant and notable one. The ancient and splendid + Guildhall—one of the <a id="Page_xxxii" name="Page_xxxii"></a>most perfect + Gothic interiors in England, which has historical associations of more than five + centuries—was filled with a representative gathering of English men and women. + On the dais, or stage, at one end of the hall, sat the Lord Mayor and the Lady + Mayoress, and the special guests of the occasion were conducted by ushers, in robes + and carrying maces, down a long aisle flanked with spectators on either side and up + the steps of the dais, where they were presented. Their names were called out at the + beginning of the aisle, and as the ushers and the guest moved along, the audience + applauded, little or much, according to the popularity of the newcomer. Thus John + Burns and Mr. Balfour were greeted with enthusiastic hand-clapping and cheers, + although they belong, of course, to opposite parties. The Bishop of London, Lord + Cromer, the maker of modern Egypt, Sargent, the painter, and Sir Edward Grey, the + Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, were among those greeted in this way. In the + front row on one side of the dais were seated the aldermen of the city in their red + robes, and various officials in wigs and gowns lent to the scene a curiously antique + aspect to the American eye. Happily, the City of London has carefully preserved the + historical traditions connected with it and with the Guilds, or groups of merchants, + which in the past had so much to do with the management <a id="Page_xxxiii" + name="Page_xxxiii"></a>of its affairs. Among the invited guests, for example, were + the Master of the Mercers' Company, the Master of the Grocers' Company, the Master of + the Drapers' Company, the Master of the Skinners' Company, the Master of the + Haberdashers' Company, the Master of the Salters' Company, the Master of the + Ironmongers' Company, the Master of the Vintners' Company, and the Master of the + Clothworkers' Company. These various trades, of course, are no longer carried on by + Guilds, but by private firms or corporations, and yet the Guild organization is still + maintained as a sort of social or semi-social recognition of the days when the + Guildhall was not merely a great assembly-room, but the place in which the Guilds + actually managed the affairs of their city. It was in such a place and amid such + surroundings that Mr. Roosevelt was formally nominated and elected a Freeman of the + ancient City of London.</p> + <p>Mr. Roosevelt's speech was far from being extemporaneous; it had been carefully + thought out beforehand, and was based upon his experiences during the previous March, + in Egypt; it was really the desire of influential Englishmen in Africa to have him + say something about Egyptian affairs that led him to make a speech at all. He had had + ample time to think, and he had thought a good deal, yet it was plainly to be seen + that the frankness of his utterance, his characteristic <a id="Page_xxxiv" + name="Page_xxxiv"></a>attitude and gestures, and the pungent quality of his oratory + at first startled his audience, accustomed to more conventional methods of public + speaking. But he soon captured and carried his hearers with him, as is indicated by + the exclamations of approval on the part of the audience which were incorporated in + the verbatim report of the speech in the London <i>Times</i>. It is no exaggeration + to say that his speech became the talk of England—in clubs, in private homes, + and in the newspapers. Of course there was some criticism, but, on the whole, it was + received with commendation. The extreme wing of the Liberal party, whom we should + call Anti-Imperialists, but who are in Great Britain colloquially spoken of as + "Little Englanders," took exception to it, but even their disapproval, save in a few + instances of bitter personal attack, was mild. The London <i>Chronicle</i>, which is + perhaps the most influential of the morning newspapers representing the + Anti-Imperialist view, was of the opinion that the speech was hardly necessary, + because it asserted that the Government and the British nation have long been of Mr. + Roosevelt's own opinion. The <i>Westminster Gazette</i>, the leading evening Liberal + paper, also asserted that "none of the broad considerations advanced by Mr. Roosevelt + have been absent from the minds of Ministers, and of Sir Edward Grey in particular. + We regret <a id="Page_xxxv" name="Page_xxxv"></a>that Mr. Roosevelt should have + thought it necessary to speak out yesterday, not on the narrow ground of etiquette or + precedent, but because we cannot bring ourselves to believe that his words are + calculated to make it any easier to deal with an exceedingly difficult problem."</p> + <p>The views of these two newspapers fairly express the rather mild opposition + excited by the speech among those who regard British control in Egypt as a question + of partisan politics. On the other hand, the best and most influential public + opinion, while recognizing the unconventionality of Mr. Roosevelt's course, heartily + approved of both the matter and the manner of the speech. The London <i>Times</i> + said: "Mr. Roosevelt has reminded us in the most friendly way of what we are at least + in danger of forgetting, and no impatience of outside criticism ought to be allowed + to divert us from considering the substantial truth of his words. His own conduct of + great affairs and the salutary influence of his policy upon American public life ... + at least give him a right, which all international critics do not possess, to utter a + useful, even if not wholly palatable, warning." The <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, after + referring to Mr. Roosevelt as "a practical statesman who combines with all his + serious force a famous sense of humor," expressed the opinion that his "candor is a + tonic, which not only makes plain our immediate <a id="Page_xxxvi" + name="Page_xxxvi"></a>duty but helps us to do it. In Egypt, as in India, there is no + doubt as to the alternative he has stated so vigorously: we must govern or go; and we + have no intention of going." The <i>Pall Mall Gazette's</i> opinion was that Mr. + Roosevelt "delivered a great and memorable speech—a speech that will be read + and pondered over throughout the world."</p> + <p>The London <i>Spectator</i>, which is one of the ablest and most thoughtful + journals published in the English language, and which reflects the most intelligent, + broad-minded, and influential public opinion in the British Empire, devoted a large + amount of space to a consideration of the speech. The <i>Spectator's</i> position in + English journalism is such that I make no apology for a somewhat long quotation from + its comment:</p> + <blockquote> + <p>Perhaps the chief event of the week has been Mr. Roosevelt's speech at the + Guildhall. Timid, fussy, and pedantic people have charged Mr. Roosevelt with all + sorts of crimes because he had the courage to speak out, and have even accused him + of unfriendliness to this country because of his criticisms. Happily the British + people as a whole are not so foolish. Instinctively they have recognized and + thoroughly appreciated the good feeling of Mr. Roosevelt's speech. Only true + friends speak as he spoke.... The barrel-organs, of course, grind out the old tune + about Mr. Roosevelt's tactlessness. In reality he is a very tactful as well as a + very shrewd <a id="Page_xxxvii" name="Page_xxxvii"></a>man. It is surely the height + of tactfulness to recognize that the British people are sane enough and sincere + enough to like being told the truth. His speech is one of the greatest compliments + ever paid to a people by a statesman of another country.... Mr. Roosevelt has made + exactly the kind of speech we expected him to make—a speech strong, clear, + fearless. He has told us something useful and practical, and has not lost himself + in abstractions and platitudes.... The business of a trustee is not to do what the + subject of the trust likes or thinks he likes, but to do, however much he may + grumble, what is in his truest and best interests. Unless a trustee is willing to + do that, and does not trouble about abuse, ingratitude, and accusations of + selfishness, he had better give up his trust altogether.... We thank Mr. Roosevelt + once again for giving us so useful a reminder of our duty in this respect.</p> + </blockquote> + <p>These notes of approval were repeated in a great number of letters which Mr. + Roosevelt received from men and women in all walks of life, men in distinguished + official position and "men in the street." There were some abusive letters, chiefly + anonymous, but the general tone of this correspondence is fairly illustrated by the + following:</p> + <blockquote> + <p>Allow me, an old colonist in his eighty-fourth year, to thank you most heartily + for your manly address at the Guildhall and for your life-work in the cause of + humanity. If I ever come to the great Republic,<a id="Page_xxxviii" + name="Page_xxxviii"></a> I shall do myself the honor of seeking an audience of your + Excellency. I may do so on my one hundredth birthday! With best wishes and profound + respect.</p> + </blockquote> + <p>The envelope of this letter was addressed to "His Excellency 'Govern-or-go' + Roosevelt." That the <i>Daily Telegraph</i> and that the "man in the street" should + independently seize upon this salient point of the address—the "govern-or-go" + theory—is significant.</p> + <p>American readers are sufficiently familiar with Mr. Roosevelt's principles + regarding protectorate or colonial government; any elaborate explanation or + exposition of his views is unnecessary. But it may be well to repeat that he has over + and over again said that all subject peoples, whether in colonies, protectorates, or + insular possessions like the Philippines and Porto Rico, should be governed for their + own benefit and development and should never be exploited for the mere profit of the + controlling powers. It may be well, too, to add Mr. Roosevelt's own explanation of + his criticism of sentimentality. "Weakness, timidity, and sentimentality," he said in + the Guildhall address, "many cause even more far-reaching harm than violence and + injustice. Of all broken reeds sentimentality is the most broken reed on which + righteousness can lean." Referring to these phrases, a correspondent a day or two + after the <a id="Page_xxxix" name="Page_xxxix"></a>speech asked if the word + "sentiment" might not be substituted for the word "sentimentality." Mr. Roosevelt + wrote the following letter in reply:</p> + <div class="blkquot"> + <p>DEAR SIR: I regard sentiment as the exact antithesis of sentimentality, and to + substitute "sentiment" for "sentimentality" in my speech would directly invert its + meaning. I abhor sentimentality, and, on the other hand, I think no man is worth + his salt who is not profoundly influenced by sentiment, and who does not shape his + life in accordance with a high ideal.</p> + <p class="signature">Faithfully yours,</p> + <p class="signature">THEODORE ROOSEVELT.</p> + </div> + <p>The Romanes lecture at Oxford University was the last of Mr. Roosevelt's + transatlantic speeches. I can think of no greater intellectual honor that an + English-speaking man can receive than to have conferred upon him by the queen of all + universities, the highest honorary degree in her power to give, and in addition, to + be invited to address the dignitaries and dons and doctors of that university as a + scholar speaking to scholars. There is no American university man who may not feel + entirely satisfied with the way in which the American university graduate stood the + Oxford test on that occasion. He took in good part the jokes and pleasantries + pronounced in Latin by the Chancellor, Lord Curzon; but <a id="Page_xl" + name="Page_xl"></a>after the ceremonies of initiation were finished, after the + beadles had, in response to the order of the Chancellor, conducted "<i>Doctorem + Honorabilem ad Pulpitum</i>," and after the Chancellor had, this time in very direct + and beautiful English, welcomed him to membership in the University, he delivered an + address, the serious scholarship of which held the attention of those who heard it + and arrested the attention of many thousands of others who received the lecture + through the printed page.</p> + <p>The foregoing review of the chief public addresses which Mr. Roosevelt made during + his foreign journey, I think justifies the assertion that, for variety of subject, + variety of occasion, and variety of the fields of thought and action upon which his + speeches had a direct and manifest influence, he is entitled to be regarded as a + public orator of remarkable distinction and power.</p> + <p>By way of explanation it may perhaps be permissible to add that I met Mr. + Roosevelt in Khartum on March 14, 1910, and travelled with him through the Sudan, + Egypt, the continent of Europe and England, to New York; I heard all his important + speeches, and most of the occasional addresses; much of the voluminous correspondence + which the speeches gave rise to passed through my hands; and I talked with many men, + both in public and private life, in the various <a id="Page_xli" + name="Page_xli"></a>countries through which the journey was taken about the addresses + themselves and their effect upon world-politics. If there is a failure in these pages + to give an intelligent or an adequate impression of the oratorial features of Mr. + Roosevelt's African and European journey, it is not because there was any lack of + opportunity to observe or learn the facts.</p> + <p class="signature">LAWRENCE F. ABBOTT.</p> + <hr class="full" /> + <h2><a id="Page_3" name="Page_3"></a>Peace and Justice in the Sudan</h2> + <h4><i>An Address at the American Mission<a id="FNanchor_2_2" + name="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> in Khartum, March + 16, 1910</i></h4> + <p>I have long wished to visit the Sudan. I doubt whether in any other region of the + earth there is to be seen a more striking instance of the progress, the genuine + progress, made by the substitution of civilization for savagery than what we have + seen in the Sudan for the past twelve years. I feel that you here owe a peculiar duty + to the Government under which you live—a peculiar duty in the direction of + doing your full worth to make the present conditions perpetual. It is incumbent on + every decent citizen of the Sudan to uphold the present order of things; to see that + <a id="Page_4" name="Page_4"></a>there is no relapse; to see that the reign of peace + and justice continues. But you here have that duty resting upon you to a peculiar + degree, and your best efforts must be given in all honor, and as a matter, not merely + of obligation, but as a matter of pride on your part, towards the perpetuation of the + condition of things that has made this progress possible, of the Government as it now + stands—as you represent it, Slatin Pasha.<a id="FNanchor_3_3" + name="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a></p> + <p>I am exceedingly pleased to see here officers of the army, and you have, of + course, your oath. You are bound by every tie of loyalty, military and civil, to work + to the end I have named. But, after all, you are not bound any more than are you, you + civilians. And, another thing, do not think for a moment that when I say that you are + bound to uphold the Government I mean that you are bound to try to get an office + under it. On the contrary, I trust, Dr. Giffen, that the work done here by you, done + by the different educational institutions with which you are connected or with which + you are affiliated, will always be done, bearing in mind the fact that <a id="Page_5" + name="Page_5"></a>the most useful citizen to the Government may be a man who under no + consideration would hold any position connected with the Government. I do not want to + see any missionary college carry on its educational scheme primarily with a view of + turning out Government officials. On the contrary, I want to see the average graduate + prepared to do his work in some capacity in civil life, without any regard to any aid + whatever received from or any salary drawn from the Government. If a man is a good + engineer, a good mechanic, a good agriculturist, if he is trained so that he becomes + a really good merchant, he is, in his place, the best type of citizen. It is a + misfortune in any country, American, European, or African, to have the idea grow that + the average educated man must find his career only in the Government service. I hope + to see good and valuable servants of the Government in the military branch and in the + civil branch turned out by this and similar educational institutions; but, if the + conditions are healthy, those Government servants, civil or military, will never be + more than a small fraction of the graduates, and the prime end and prime object of an + educational institution should be to turn out men who will be able to shift for + themselves, <a id="Page_6" name="Page_6"></a>to help themselves, and to help others, + fully independent of all matters connected with the Government. I feel very strongly + on this subject, and I feel it just as strongly in America as I do here.</p> + <p>Another thing, gentlemen, and now I want to speak to you for a moment from the + religious standpoint, to speak to you in connection with the work of this mission. I + wish I could make every member of a Christian church feel that just in so far as he + spends his time in quarrelling with other Christians of other churches he is helping + to discredit Christianity in the eyes of the world. Avoid as you would the plague + those who seek to embroil you in conflict, one Christian sect with another. Not only + does what I am about to say apply to the behavior of Christians towards one another, + but of all Christians towards their non-Christian brethren, towards their + fellow-citizens of another creed. You can do most for the colleges from which you + come, you can do most for the creed which you profess, by doing your work in the + position to which you have been called in a way that brings the respect of your + fellow-men to you, and therefore to those for whom you stand. Let it be a matter of + pride with the<a id="Page_7" name="Page_7"></a> Christian in the army that in the + time of danger no man is nearer that danger than he is. Let it be a matter of pride + to the officer whose duty it is to fight that no man, when the country calls on him + to fight, fights better than he does. That is how you can do more for Christianity, + for the name of Christians, you who are in the army. Let the man in a civil + governmental position so bear himself that it shall be acceptable as axiomatic that + when you have a Christian, a graduate of a missionary school, in a public office, the + efficiency and honesty of that office are guaranteed. That is the kind of + Christianity that counts in a public official, that counts in the military + official—the Christianity that makes him do his duty in war, or makes him do + his duty in peace. And you—who I hope will be the great majority—who are + not in Government service, can conduct yourselves so that your neighbors shall have + every respect for your courage, your honesty, your good faith, shall have implicit + trust that you will deal religiously with your brother as man to man, whether it be + in business or whether it be in connection with your relations to the community as a + whole. The kind of graduate of a Christian school really worth calling a Christian <a + id="Page_8" name="Page_8"></a>is the man who shows his creed practically by the way + he behaves towards his wife and towards his children, towards his neighbor, towards + those with whom he deals in the business world, and towards the city and Government. + In no way can he do as much for the institution that trains him, in no way can he do + as much to bring respect and regard to the creed that he professes. And, remember, + you need more than one quality. I have spoken of courage; it is, of course, the first + virtue of the soldier, but every one of you who is worth his salt must have it in him + too. Do not forget that the good man who is afraid is only a handicap to his fellows + who are striving for what is best. I want to see each Christian cultivate the manly + virtues; each to be able to hold his own in the country, but in a broil not thrusting + himself forward. Avoid quarrelling wherever you can. Make it evident that the other + man wants to avoid quarrelling with you too.</p> + <p>One closing word. Do not make the mistake, those of you who are young men, of + thinking that when you get out of school or college your education stops. On the + contrary, it is only about half begun. Now, I am fifty years old, and if I had + stopped learning, <a id="Page_9" name="Page_9"></a>if I felt now that I had stopped + learning, had stopped trying to better myself, I feel that my usefulness to the + community would be pretty nearly at an end. And I want each of you, as he leaves + college, not to feel, "Now I have had my education, I can afford to vegetate." I want + you to feel, "I have been given a great opportunity of laying deep the foundations + for a ripe education, and while going on with my work I am going to keep training + myself, educating myself, so that year by year, decade by decade, instead of standing + still I shall go forward, and grow constantly fitter, and do good work and better + work."</p> + <p>I visited, many years ago, the college at Beirut. I have known at first hand what + excellent work was being done there. Unfortunately, owing to my very limited time, it + is not going to be possible for me to stop at the college at Assiut, which has done + such admirable work in Egypt and here in the Sudan, whose graduates I meet in all + kinds of occupations wherever I stop. I am proud, as an American, Dr. Giffen, of what + has been done by men like you, like Mr. Young, like the other Americans who have been + here, and, I want to say still further, by the women who <a id="Page_10" + name="Page_10"></a>have come with them. I always thought that the American was a + pretty good fellow. I think his wife is still better, and, great though my respect + for the man from America has been, my respect for the woman has been greater.</p> + <p>I stopped a few days ago at the little mission at the Sobat. One of the things + that struck me there was what was being accomplished by the medical side of that + mission. From one hundred and twenty-five miles around there were patients who had + come in to be attended to by the doctors in the mission. There were about thirty + patients who were under the charge of the surgeon, the doctor, at that mission. I do + not know a better type of missionary than the doctor who comes out here and does his + work well and gives his whole heart to it. He is doing practical work of the most + valuable type for civilization, and for bringing the people of the country up to a + realization of the standards that you are trying to set. If you make it evident to a + man that you are sincerely concerned in bettering his body, he will be much more + ready to believe that you are trying to better his soul.</p> + <p>Now, gentlemen, it has been a great pleasure <a id="Page_11" name="Page_11"></a>to + see you. When I get back to the United States, this meeting is one of the things I + shall have to tell to my people at home, so that I may give them an idea of what is + being done in this country. I wish you well with all my heart, and I thank you for + having received me to-day.</p> + <hr class="full" /> + <h2><a id="Page_15" name="Page_15"></a>Law and Order in Egypt</h2> + <h4><i>An Address before the National University in Cairo, March 28, 1910</i></h4> + <p>It is to me a peculiar pleasure to speak to-day under such distinguished auspices + as yours, Prince Fouad,<a id="FNanchor_4_4" name="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a + href="#Footnote_4_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> before this National University, and it is of + good augury for the great cause of higher education in Egypt that it should have + enlisted the special interest of so distinguished and eminent a man. The + Arabic-speaking world produced the great University of Cordova, which flourished a + thousand years ago, and was a source of light and learning when the rest of Europe + was either in twilight or darkness; in the centuries following the creation of that + Spanish Moslem university, Arabic men of science, travellers, and + geographers—such as the noteworthy<a id="Page_16" name="Page_16"></a> African + traveller Ibn Batutu, a copy of whose book, by the way, I saw yesterday in the + library of the Alhazar<a id="FNanchor_5_5" name="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a + href="#Footnote_5_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a>—were teachers whose works are still to + be eagerly studied; and I trust that here we shall see the revival, and more than the + revival, of the conditions that made possible such contributions to the growth of + civilization.</p> + <p>This scheme of a National University is fraught with literally untold + possibilities for good to your country. You have many rocks ahead of which you must + steer clear; and because I am your earnest friend and well-wisher, I desire to point + out one or two of these which it is necessary especially to avoid. In the first + place, there is one point upon which I always lay stress in my own country, in your + country, in all countries—the need of entire honesty as the only foundation on + which it is safe to build. It is a prime essential that all who are in any way + responsible for the beginnings of the University shall make it evident to every one + that the management of the University, financial and otherwise, will be conducted + with absolute honesty. Very <a id="Page_17" name="Page_17"></a>much money will have + to be raised and expended for this University in order to make it what it can and + ought to be made; for, if properly managed, I firmly believe that it will become one + of the greatest influences, and perhaps the very greatest influence, for good in all + that part of the world where Mohammedanism is the leading religion; that is, in all + those regions of the Orient, including North Africa and Southwestern Asia, which + stretch from the Atlantic Ocean to the farther confines of India and to the hither + provinces of China. This University should have a profound influence in all things + educational, social, economic, industrial, throughout this whole region, because of + the very fact of Egypt's immense strategic importance, so to speak, in the world of + the Orient; an importance due partly to her geographical position, partly to other + causes. Moreover, it is most fortunate that Egypt's present position is such that + this University will enjoy a freedom hitherto unparalleled in the investigation and + testing out of all problems vital to the future of the peoples of the Orient.</p> + <p>Nor will the importance of this University be confined to the Orient. Egypt must + necessarily from now on always occupy a similar <a id="Page_18" + name="Page_18"></a>strategic position as regards the peoples of the Occident, for she + sits on one of the highways of the commerce that will flow in ever-increasing volume + from Europe to the East. Those responsible for the management of this University + should set before themselves a very high ideal. Not merely should it stand for the + uplifting of all Mohammedan peoples and of all Christians and peoples of other + religions who live in Mohammedan lands, but it should also carry its teaching and + practice to such perfection as in the end to make it a factor in instructing the + Occident. When a scholar is sufficiently apt, sufficiently sincere and intelligent, + he always has before him the opportunity of eventually himself giving aid to the + teachers from whom he has received aid.</p> + <p>Now, to make a good beginning towards the definite achievement of these high ends, + it is essential that you should command respect and should be absolutely trusted. + Make it felt that you will not tolerate the least little particle of financial + crookedness in the raising or expenditure of any money, so that those who wish to + give money to this deserving cause may feel entire confidence that their piasters + will be well and honestly applied.</p> + <p>In the next place, show the same good faith, <a id="Page_19" + name="Page_19"></a>wisdom, and sincerity in your educational plans that you do in the + financial management of the institution. Avoid sham and hollow pretence just as you + avoid religious, racial, or political bigotry. You have much to learn from the + universities of Europe and of my own land, but there is also in them not a little + which it is well to avoid. Copy what is good in them, but test in a critical spirit + whatever you take, so as to be sure that you take only what is wisest and best for + yourselves. More important even than avoiding any mere educational shortcoming is the + avoidance of moral shortcoming. Students are already being sent to Europe to prepare + themselves to return as professors. Such preparation is now essential, for it is of + prime importance that the University should be familiar with what is being done in + the best universities of Europe and America. But let the men who are sent be careful + to bring back what is fine and good, what is essential to the highest kind of modern + progress, and let them avoid what are the mere non-essentials of the present-day + civilization, and, above all, the vices of modern civilized nations. Let these men + keep open minds. It would be a capital blunder to refuse to copy, and thereafter to + adapt to your own needs, <a id="Page_20" name="Page_20"></a>what has raised the + Occident in the scale of power and justice and clean living. But it would be a no + less capital blunder to copy what is cheap or trivial or vicious, or even what is + merely wrongheaded. Let the men who go to Europe feel that they have much to learn + and much also to avoid and reject; let them bring back the good and leave behind the + discarded evil.</p> + <p>Remember that character is far more important than intellect, and that a really + great university should strive to develop the qualities that go to make up character + even more than the qualities that go to make up a highly trained mind. No man can + reach the front rank if he is not intelligent and if he is not trained with + intelligence; but mere intelligence by itself is worse than useless unless it is + guided by an upright heart, unless there are also strength and courage behind it. + Morality, decency, clean living, courage, manliness, self-respect—these + qualities are more important in the make-up of a people than any mental subtlety. + Shape this University's course so that it shall help in the production of a + constantly upward trend for all your people.</p> + <p>You should be always on your guard against <a id="Page_21" name="Page_21"></a>one + defect in Western education. There has been altogether too great a tendency in the + higher schools of learning in the West to train men merely for literary, + professional, and official positions; altogether too great a tendency to act as if a + literary education were the only real education. I am exceedingly glad that you have + already started industrial and agricultural schools in Egypt. A literary education is + simply one of many different kinds of education, and it is not wise that more than a + small percentage of the people of any country should have an exclusively literary + education. The average man must either supplement it by another education, or else as + soon as he has left an institution of learning, even though he has benefited by it, + he must at once begin to train himself to do work along totally different lines. His + Highness the Khedive, in the midst of his activities touching many phases of Egyptian + life, has shown conspicuous wisdom, great foresight, and keen understanding of the + needs of the country in the way in which he has devoted himself to its agricultural + betterment, in the interest which he has taken in the improvement of cattle, crops, + etc. You need in this country, as is the case in every other country, a certain <a + id="Page_22" name="Page_22"></a>number of men whose education shall fit them for the + life of scholarship, or to become teachers or public officials. But it is a very + unhealthy thing for any country for more than a small proportion of the strongest and + best minds of the country to turn into such channels. It is essential also to develop + industrialism, to train people so that they can be cultivators of the soil in the + largest sense on as successful a scale as the most successful lawyer or public man, + to train them so that they shall be engineers, merchants—in short, men able to + take the lead in all the various functions indispensable in a great modern civilized + state. An honest, courageous, and far-sighted politician is a good thing in any + country. But his usefulness will depend chiefly upon his being able to express the + wishes of a population wherein the politician forms but a fragment of the leadership, + where the business man and the landowner, the engineer and the man of technical + knowledge, the men of a hundred different pursuits, represent the average type of + leadership. No people has ever permanently amounted to anything if its only public + leaders were clerks, politicians, and lawyers. The base, the foundation, of healthy + life in any country, in <a id="Page_23" name="Page_23"></a>any society, is + necessarily composed of the men who do the actual productive work of the country, + whether in tilling the soil, in the handicrafts, or in business; and it matters + little whether they work with hands or head, although more and more we are growing to + realize that it is a good thing to have the same man work with both head and hands. + These men, in many different careers, do the work which is most important to the + community's life; although, of course, it must be supplemented by the work of the + other men whose education and activities are literary and scholastic, of the men who + work in politics or law, or in literary and clerical positions.</p> + <p>Never forget that in any country the most important activities are the activities + of the man who works with head or hands in the ordinary life of the community, + whether he be handicraftsman, farmer, or business man—no matter what his + occupation, so long as it is useful and no matter what his position, from the guiding + intelligence at the top down all the way through, just as long as his work is good. I + preach this to you here by the banks of the Nile, and it is the identical doctrine I + preach no less earnestly by the banks of <a id="Page_24" name="Page_24"></a>the + Hudson, the Mississippi, and the Columbia.</p> + <p>Remember always that the securing of a substantial education, whether by the + individual or by a people, is attained only by a process, not by an act. You can no + more make a man really educated by giving him a certain curriculum of studies than + you can make a people fit for self-government by giving it a paper constitution. The + training of an individual so as to fit him to do good work in the world is a matter + of years; just as the training of a nation to fit it successfully to fulfil the + duties of self-government is a matter, not of a decade or two, but of generations. + There are foolish empiricists who believe that the granting of a paper constitution, + prefaced by some high-sounding declaration, of itself confers the power of + self-government upon a people. This is never so. Nobody can "give" a people + "self-government," any more than it is possible to "give" an individual "self-help." + You know that the Arab proverb runs, "God helps those who help themselves." In the + long run, the only permanent way by which an individual can be helped is to help him + to help himself, and this is one of the things your University should inculcate. But + it must be his own slow growth in character <a id="Page_25" name="Page_25"></a>that + is the final and determining factor in the problem. So it is with a people. In the + two Americas we have seen certain commonwealths rise and prosper greatly. We have + also seen other commonwealths start under identically the same conditions, with the + same freedom and the same rights, the same guarantees, and yet have seen them fail + miserably and lamentably, and sink into corruption and anarchy and tyranny, simply + because the people for whom the constitution was made did not develop the qualities + which alone would enable them to take advantage of it. With any people the essential + quality to show is, not haste in grasping after a power which it is only too easy to + misuse, but a slow, steady, resolute development of those substantial qualities, such + as the love of justice, the love of fair play, the spirit of self-reliance, of + moderation, which alone enable a people to govern themselves. In this long and even + tedious but absolutely essential process, I believe your University will take an + important part. When I was recently in the Sudan I heard a vernacular proverb, based + on a text in the Koran, which is so apt that, although not an Arabic scholar, I shall + attempt to repeat it in Arabic: "<i>Allah ma el saberin, izza <a id="Page_26" + name="Page_26"></a>sabaru</i>"—God is with the patient, <i>if they know how to + wait</i>.<a id="FNanchor_6_6" name="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a + href="#Footnote_6_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a></p> + <p>One essential feature of this process must be a spirit which will condemn every + form of lawless evil, every form of envy and hatred, and, above all, hatred based + upon religion or race. All good men, all the men of every nation whose respect is + worth having, have been inexpressibly shocked by the recent assassination of Boutros + Pasha. It was an even greater calamity for Egypt than it was a wrong to the + individual himself. The type of man which turns out an assassin is a type possessing + all the qualities most alien to good citizenship; the type which produces poor + soldiers in time of war and worse citizens in time of peace. Such a man stands on a + pinnacle of evil infamy; and those who apologize for or condone his act, those who, + by word or deed, directly or indirectly, encourage such an act in advance, or defend + it afterwards, occupy the same bad eminence. It is of no consequence <a id="Page_27" + name="Page_27"></a>whether the assassin be a Moslem or a Christian or a man of no + creed; whether the crime be committed in political strife or industrial warfare; + whether it be an act hired by a rich man or performed by a poor man; whether it be + committed under the pretence of preserving order or the pretence of obtaining + liberty. It is equally abhorrent in the eyes of all decent men, and, in the long run, + equally damaging to the very cause to which the assassin professes to be devoted.</p> + <p>Your University is a National University, and as such knows no creed. This is as + it should be. When I speak of equality between Moslem and Christian, I speak as one + who believes that where the Christian is more powerful he should be scrupulous in + doing justice to the Moslem, exactly as under reverse conditions justice should be + done by the Moslem to the Christian. In my own country we have in the Philippines + Moslems as well as Christians. We do not tolerate for one moment any oppression by + the one or by the other, any discrimination by the Government between them or failure + to mete out the same justice to each, treating each man on his worth as a man, and + behaving towards him as his conduct demands and deserves.<a id="Page_28" + name="Page_28"></a></p> + <p>In short, gentlemen, I earnestly hope that all responsible for the beginnings of + the University, which I trust will become one of the greatest and most powerful + educational influences throughout the whole world, will feel it incumbent upon + themselves to frown on every form of wrong-doing, whether in the shape of injustice + or corruption or lawlessness, and to stand with firmness, with good sense, and with + courage, for those immutable principles of justice and merciful dealing as between + man and man, without which there can never be the slightest growth towards a really + fine and high civilization.</p> + <hr class="full" /> + <h2><a id="Page_31" name="Page_31"></a>Citizenship in a Republic</h2> + <h4><i>An Address Delivered at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910</i></h4> + <p>Strange and impressive associations rise in the mind of a man from the New World + who speaks before this august body in this ancient institution of learning. Before + his eyes pass the shadows of mighty kings and warlike nobles, of great masters of law + and theology; through the shining dust of the dead centuries he sees crowded figures + that tell of the power and learning and splendor of times gone by; and he sees also + the innumerable host of humble students to whom clerkship meant emancipation, to whom + it was well-nigh the only outlet from the dark thraldom of the Middle Ages.</p> + <p>This was the most famous university of mediæval Europe at a time when no one + dreamed that there was a New World to discover. Its services to the cause of human + knowledge already stretched far back into the <a id="Page_32" + name="Page_32"></a>remote past at the time when my forefathers, three centuries ago, + were among the sparse bands of traders, plowmen, woodchoppers, and fisherfolk who, in + hard struggle with the iron unfriendliness of the Indian-haunted land, were laying + the foundations of what has now become the giant republic of the West. To conquer a + continent, to tame the shaggy roughness of wild nature, means grim warfare; and the + generations engaged in it cannot keep, still less add to, the stores of garnered + wisdom which once were theirs, and which are still in the hands of their brethren who + dwell in the old land. To conquer the wilderness means to wrest victory from the same + hostile forces with which mankind struggled in the immemorial infancy of our race. + The primeval conditions must be met by primeval qualities which are incompatible with + the retention of much that has been painfully acquired by humanity as through the + ages it has striven upward toward civilization. In conditions so primitive there can + be but a primitive culture. At first only the rudest schools can be established, for + no others would meet the needs of the hard-driven, sinewy folk who thrust forward the + frontier in the teeth of savage man and savage nature; and many <a id="Page_33" + name="Page_33"></a>years elapse before any of these schools can develop into seats of + higher learning and broader culture.</p> + <p>The pioneer days pass; the stump-dotted clearings expand into vast stretches of + fertile farm land; the stockaded clusters of log cabins change into towns; the + hunters of game, the fellers of trees, the rude frontier traders and tillers of the + soil, the men who wander all their lives long through the wilderness as the heralds + and harbingers of an oncoming civilization, themselves vanish before the civilization + for which they have prepared the way. The children of their successors and + supplanters, and then their children and children's children, change and develop with + extraordinary rapidity. The conditions accentuate vices and virtues, energy and + ruthlessness, all the good qualities and all the defects of an intense individualism, + self-reliant, self-centred, far more conscious of its rights than of its duties, and + blind to its own shortcomings. To the hard materialism of the frontier days succeeds + the hard materialism of an industrialism even more intense and absorbing than that of + the older nations; although these themselves have likewise already entered on the age + of a complex and predominantly industrial civilization.<a id="Page_34" + name="Page_34"></a></p> + <p>As the country grows, its people, who have won success in so many lines, turn back + to try to recover the possessions of the mind and the spirit, which perforce their + fathers threw aside in order better to wage the first rough battles for the continent + their children inherit. The leaders of thought and of action grope their way forward + to a new life, realizing, sometimes dimly, sometimes clear-sightedly, that the life + of material gain, whether for a nation or an individual, is of value only as a + foundation, only as there is added to it the uplift that comes from devotion to + loftier ideals. The new life thus sought can in part be developed afresh from what is + round about in the New World; but it can be developed in full only by freely drawing + upon the treasure-houses of the Old World, upon the treasures stored in the ancient + abodes of wisdom and learning, such as this where I speak to-day. It is a mistake for + any nation merely to copy another; but it is an even greater mistake, it is a proof + of weakness in any nation, not to be anxious to learn from another, and willing and + able to adapt that learning to the new national conditions and make it fruitful and + productive therein. It is for us of the New World to sit at the feet of the Gamaliel + of the Old; <a id="Page_35" name="Page_35"></a>then, if we have the right stuff in + us, we can show that, Paul in his turn can become a teacher as well as a scholar.</p> + <p>To-day I shall speak to you on the subject of individual citizenship, the one + subject of vital importance to you, my hearers, and to me and my countrymen, because + you and we are citizens of great democratic republics. A democratic republic such as + each of ours—an effort to realize in its full sense government by, of, and for + the people—represents the most gigantic of all possible social experiments, the + one fraught with greatest possibilities alike for good and for evil. The success of + republics like yours and like ours means the glory, and our failure the despair, of + mankind; and for you and for us the question of the quality of the individual citizen + is supreme. Under other forms of government, under the rule of one man or of a very + few men, the quality of the rulers is all-important. If, under such governments, the + quality of the rulers is high enough, then the nation may for generations lead a + brilliant career, and add substantially to the sum of world achievement, no matter + how low the quality of the average citizen; because the average citizen is an almost + negligible quantity in working out the <a id="Page_36" name="Page_36"></a>final + results of that type of national greatness.</p> + <p>But with you and with us the case is different. With you here, and with us in my + own home, in the long run, success or failure will be conditioned upon the way in + which the average man, the average woman, does his or her duty, first in the + ordinary, every-day affairs of life, and next in those great occasional crises which + call for the heroic virtues. The average citizen must be a good citizen if our + republics are to succeed. The stream will not permanently rise higher than the main + source; and the main source of national power and national greatness is found in the + average citizenship of the nation. Therefore it behooves us to do our best to see + that the standard of the average citizen is kept high; and the average cannot be kept + high unless the standard of the leaders is very much higher.</p> + <p>It is well if a large proportion of the leaders in any republic, in any democracy, + are, as a matter of course, drawn from the classes represented in this audience + to-day; but only provided that those classes possess the gifts of sympathy with plain + people and of devotion to great ideals. You and those like you have received special + advantages; you have all of <a id="Page_37" name="Page_37"></a>you had the + opportunity for mental training; many of you have had leisure; most of you have had a + chance for the enjoyment of life far greater than comes to the majority of your + fellows. To you and your kind much has been given, and from you much should be + expected. Yet there are certain failings against which it is especially incumbent + that both men of trained and cultivated intellect, and men of inherited wealth and + position, should especially guard themselves, because to these failings they are + especially liable; and if yielded to, their—your—chances of useful + service are at an end.</p> + <p>Let the man of learning, the man of lettered leisure, beware of that queer and + cheap temptation to pose to himself and to others as the cynic, as the man who has + outgrown emotions and beliefs, the man to whom good and evil are as one. The poorest + way to face life is to face it with a sneer. There are many men who feel a kind of + twisted pride in cynicism; there are many who confine themselves to criticism of the + way others do what they themselves dare not even attempt. There is no more unhealthy + being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to + hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief <a id="Page_38" name="Page_38"></a>towards + all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, + even if it fails, comes second to achievement. A cynical habit of thought and speech, + a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an + intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life's realities—all + these are marks, not, as the possessor would fain think, of superiority, but of + weakness. They mark the men unfit to bear their part manfully in the stern strife of + living, who seek, in the affectation of contempt for the achievements of others, to + hide from others and from themselves their own weakness. The role is easy; there is + none easier, save only the role of the man who sneers alike at both criticism and + performance.</p> + <p>It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man + stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs + to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and + blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because + there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do + the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; <a id="Page_39" + name="Page_39"></a>who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the + end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least + fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and + timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. Shame on the man of cultivated taste + who permits refinement to develop into a fastidiousness that unfits him for doing the + rough work of a workaday world. Among the free peoples who govern themselves there is + but a small field of usefulness open for the men of cloistered life who shrink from + contact with their fellows. Still less room is there for those who deride or slight + what is done by those who actually bear the brunt of the day; nor yet for those + others who always profess that they would like to take action, if only the conditions + of life were not what they actually are. The man who does nothing cuts the same + sordid figure in the pages of history, whether he be cynic, or fop, or voluptuary. + There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of the great and + generous emotion, of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, of the + men who quell the storm and ride the thunder. Well for these men if they succeed; + well also, though not so well, <a id="Page_40" name="Page_40"></a>if they fail, given + only that they have nobly ventured, and have put forth all their heart and strength. + It is war-worn Hotspur, spent with hard fighting, he of the many errors and the + valiant end, over whose memory we love to linger, not over the memory of the young + lord who "but for the vile guns would have been a soldier."</p> + <p>France has taught many lessons to other nations; surely one of the most important + is the lesson her whole history teaches, that a high artistic and literary + development is compatible with notable leadership in arms and statecraft. The + brilliant gallantry of the French soldier has for many centuries been proverbial; and + during these same centuries at every court in Europe the "freemasons of fashion" have + treated the French tongue as their common speech; while every artist and man of + letters, and every man of science able to appreciate that marvellous instrument of + precision, French prose, has turned towards France for aid and inspiration. How long + the leadership in arms and letters has lasted is curiously illustrated by the fact + that the earliest masterpiece in a modern tongue is the splendid French epic which + tells of Roland's doom and the vengeance of Charlemagne when <a id="Page_41" + name="Page_41"></a>the lords of the Frankish host were stricken at Roncesvalles.</p> + <p>Let those who have, keep, let those who have not, strive to attain, a high + standard of cultivation and scholarship. Yet let us remember that these stand second + to certain other things. There is need of a sound body, and even more need of a sound + mind. But above mind and above body stands character—the sum of those qualities + which we mean when we speak of a man's force and courage, of his good faith and sense + of honor. I believe in exercise for the body, always provided that we keep in mind + that physical development is a means and not an end. I believe, of course, in giving + to all the people a good education. But the education must contain much besides + book-learning in order to be really good. We must ever remember that no keenness and + subtleness of intellect, no polish, no cleverness, in any way make up for the lack of + the great solid qualities. Self-restraint, self-mastery, common-sense, the power of + accepting individual responsibility and yet of acting in conjunction with others, + courage and resolution—these are the qualities which mark a masterful people. + Without them no people can control itself, or save <a id="Page_42" + name="Page_42"></a>itself from being controlled from the outside. I speak to a + brilliant assemblage; I speak in a great university which represents the flower of + the highest intellectual development; I pay all homage to intellect, and to elaborate + and specialized training of the intellect; and yet I know I shall have the assent of + all of you present when I add that more important still are the commonplace, + every-day qualities and virtues.</p> + <p>Such ordinary, every-day qualities include the will and the power to work, to + fight at need, and to have plenty of healthy children. The need that the average man + shall work is so obvious as hardly to warrant insistence. There are a few people in + every country so born that they can lead lives of leisure. These fill a useful + function if they make it evident that leisure does not mean idleness; for some of the + most valuable work needed by civilization is essentially non-remunerative in its + character, and of course the people who do this work should in large part be drawn + from those to whom remuneration is an object of indifference. But the average man + must earn his own livelihood. He should be trained to do so, and he should be trained + to feel that he occupies a contemptible position if he does not <a id="Page_43" + name="Page_43"></a>do so; that he is not an object of envy if he is idle, at + whichever end of the social scale he stands, but an object of contempt, an object of + derision.</p> + <p>In the next place, the good man should be both a strong and a brave man; that is, + he should be able to fight, he should be able to serve his country as a soldier, if + the need arises. There are well-meaning philosophers who declaim against the + unrighteousness of war. They are right only if they lay all their emphasis upon the + unrighteousness. War is a dreadful thing, and unjust war is a crime against humanity. + But it is such a crime because it is unjust, not because it is war. The choice must + ever be in favor of righteousness, and this whether the alternative be peace or + whether the alternative be war. The question must not be merely, Is there to be peace + or war? The question must be, Is the right to prevail? Are the great laws of + righteousness once more to be fulfilled? And the answer from a strong and virile + people must be, "Yes," whatever the cost. Every honorable effort should always be + made to avoid war; just as every honorable effort should always be made by the + individual in private life to keep out of a brawl, to keep out of trouble; <a + id="Page_44" name="Page_44"></a>but no self-respecting individual, no self-respecting + nation, can or ought to submit to wrong.</p> + <p>Finally, even more important than ability to work, even more important than + ability to fight at need, is it to remember that the chief of blessings for any + nation is that it shall leave its seed to inherit the land. It was the crown of + blessings in Biblical times; and it is the crown of blessings now. The greatest of + all curses is the curse of sterility, and the severest of all condemnations should be + that visited upon wilful sterility. The first essential in any civilization is that + the man and the woman shall be father and mother of healthy children, so that the + race shall increase and not decrease. If this is not so, if through no fault of the + society there is failure to increase, it is a great misfortune. If the failure is due + to deliberate and wilful fault, then it is not merely a misfortune, it is one of + those crimes of ease and self-indulgence, of shrinking from pain and effort and risk, + which in the long run Nature punishes more heavily than any other. If we of the great + republics, if we, the free people who claim to have emancipated ourselves from the + thraldom of wrong and error, bring down on our heads the curse <a id="Page_45" + name="Page_45"></a>that comes upon the wilfully barren, then it will be an idle waste + of breath to prattle of our achievements, to boast of all that we have done. No + refinement of life, no delicacy of taste, no material progress, no sordid heaping up + of riches, no sensuous development of art and literature, can in any way compensate + for the loss of the great fundamental virtues; and of these great fundamental + virtues, the greatest is the race's power to perpetuate the race. Character must show + itself in the man's performance both of the duty he owes himself and of the duty he + owes the State. The man's foremost duty is owed to himself and his family; and he can + do this duty only by earning money, by providing what is essential to material + well-being; it is only after this has been done that he can hope to build a higher + superstructure on the solid material foundation; it is only after this has been done + that he can help in movements for the general well-being. He must pull his own weight + first, and only after this can his surplus strength be of use to the general public. + It is not good to excite that bitter laughter which expresses contempt; and contempt + is what we feel for the being whose enthusiasm to benefit mankind is such that he is + a burden to <a id="Page_46" name="Page_46"></a>those nearest him; who wishes to do + great things for humanity in the abstract, but who cannot keep his wife in comfort or + educate his children.</p> + <p>Neverthless, while laying all stress on this point, while not merely acknowledging + but insisting upon the fact that there must be a basis of material well-being for the + individual as for the nation, let us with equal emphasis insist that this material + well-being represents nothing but the foundation, and that the foundation, though + indispensable, is worthless unless upon it is raised the superstructure of a higher + life. That is why I decline to recognize the mere multi-millionaire, the man of mere + wealth, as an asset of value to any country; and especially as not an asset to my own + country. If he has earned or uses his wealth in a way that makes him of real benefit, + of real use,—and such is often the case,—why, then he does become an + asset of worth. But it is the way in which it has been earned or used, and not the + mere fact of wealth, that entitles him to the credit. There is need in business, as + in most other forms of human activity, of the great guiding intelligences. Their + places cannot be supplied by any number of lesser intelligences. It is a good <a + id="Page_47" name="Page_47"></a>thing that they should have ample recognition, ample + reward. But we must not transfer our admiration to the reward instead of to the deed + rewarded; and if what should be the reward exists without the service having been + rendered, then admiration will come only from those who are mean of soul. The truth + is that, after a certain measure of tangible material success or reward has been + achieved, the question of increasing it becomes of constantly less importance + compared to other things that can be done in life. It is a bad thing for a nation to + raise and to admire a false standard of success; and there can be no falser standard + than that set by the deification of material well-being in and for itself. The man + who, for any cause for which he is himself accountable, has failed to support himself + and those for whom he is responsible, ought to feel that he has fallen lamentably + short in his prime duty. But the man who, having far surpassed the limit of providing + for the wants, both of body and mind, of himself and of those depending upon him, + then piles up a great fortune, for the acquisition or retention of which he returns + no corresponding benefit to the nation as a whole, should himself be made to feel + that, so far from <a id="Page_48" name="Page_48"></a>being a desirable, he is an + unworthy, citizen of the community; that he is to be neither admired nor envied; that + his right-thinking fellow-countrymen put him low in the scale of citizenship, and + leave him to be consoled by the admiration of those whose level of purpose is even + lower than his own.</p> + <p>My position as regards the moneyed interests can be put in a few words. In every + civilized society property rights must be carefully safeguarded; ordinarily, and in + the great majority of cases, human rights and property rights are fundamentally and + in the long run identical; but when it clearly appears that there is a real conflict + between them, human rights must have the upper hand, for property belongs to man and + not man to property.</p> + <p>In fact, it is essential to good citizenship clearly to understand that there are + certain qualities which we in a democracy are prone to admire in and of themselves, + which ought by rights to be judged admirable or the reverse solely from the + standpoint of the use made of them. Foremost among these I should include two very + distinct gifts—the gift of money-making and the gift of oratory. Money-making, + the money touch, I have spoken of above. It is a quality which <a id="Page_49" + name="Page_49"></a>in a moderate degree is essential. It may be useful when developed + to a very great degree, but only if accompanied and controlled by other qualities; + and without such control the possessor tends to develop into one of the least + attractive types produced by a modern industrial democracy. So it is with the orator. + It is highly desirable that a leader of opinion in a democracy should be able to + state his views clearly and convincingly. But all that the oratory can do of value to + the community is to enable the man thus to explain himself; if it enables the orator + to persuade his hearers to put false values on things, it merely makes him a power + for mischief. Some excellent public servants have not the gift at all, and must rely + upon their deeds to speak for them; and unless the oratory does represent genuine + conviction, based on good common-sense and able to be translated into efficient + performance, then the better the oratory the greater the damage to the public it + deceives. Indeed, it is a sign of marked political weakness in any commonwealth if + the people tend to be carried away by mere oratory, if they tend to value words in + and for themselves, as divorced from the deeds for which they are supposed to + stand.<a id="Page_50" name="Page_50"></a> The phrase-maker, the phrase-monger, the + ready talker, however great his power, whose speech does not make for courage, + sobriety, and right understanding, is simply a noxious element in the body politic, + and it speaks ill for the public if he has influence over them. To admire the gift of + oratory without regard to the moral quality behind the gift is to do wrong to the + republic.</p> + <p>Of course all that I say of the orator applies with even greater force to the + orator's latter-day and more influential brother, the journalist. The power of the + journalist is great, but he is entitled neither to respect nor admiration because of + that power unless it is used aright. He can do, and he often does, great good. He can + do, and he often does, infinite mischief. All journalists, all writers, for the very + reason that they appreciate the vast possibilities of their profession, should bear + testimony against those who deeply discredit it. Offenses against taste and morals, + which are bad enough in a private citizen, are infinitely worse if made into + instruments for debauching the community through a newspaper. Mendacity, slander, + sensationalism, inanity, vapid triviality, all are potent factors for the debauchery + of the public mind <a id="Page_51" name="Page_51"></a>and conscience. The excuse + advanced for vicious writing, that the public demands it and that the demand must be + supplied, can no more be admitted than if it were advanced by the purveyors of food + who sell poisonous adulterations.</p> + <p>In short, the good citizen in a republic must realize that he ought to possess two + sets of qualities, and that neither avails without the other. He must have those + qualities which make for efficiency; and he must also have those qualities which + direct the efficiency into channels for the public good. He is useless if he is + inefficient. There is nothing to be done with that type of citizen of whom all that + can be said is that he is harmless. Virtue which is dependent upon a sluggish + circulation is not impressive. There is little place in active life for the timid + good man. The man who is saved by weakness from robust wickedness is likewise + rendered immune from the robuster virtues. The good citizen in a republic must first + of all be able to hold his own. He is no good citizen unless he has the ability which + will make him work hard and which at need will make him fight hard. The good citizen + is not a good citizen unless he is an efficient citizen.<a id="Page_52" + name="Page_52"></a></p> + <p>But if a man's efficiency is not guided and regulated by a moral sense, then the + more efficient he is the worse he is, the more dangerous to the body politic. + Courage, intellect, all the masterful qualities, serve but to make a man more evil if + they are used merely for that man's own advancement, with brutal indifference to the + rights of others. It speaks ill for the community if the community worships these + qualities and treats their possessors as heroes regardless of whether the qualities + are used rightly or wrongly. It makes no difference as to the precise way in which + this sinister efficiency is shown. It makes no difference whether such a man's force + and ability betray themselves in the career of money-maker or politician, soldier or + orator, journalist or popular leader. If the man works for evil, then the more + successful he is the more he should be despised and condemned by all upright and + far-seeing men. To judge a man merely by success is an abhorrent wrong; and if the + people at large habitually so judge men, if they grow to condone wickedness because + the wicked man triumphs, they show their inability to understand that in the last + analysis free institutions rest upon the character of citizenship, and that by <a + id="Page_53" name="Page_53"></a>such admiration of evil they prove themselves unfit + for liberty.</p> + <p>The homely virtues of the household, the ordinary workaday virtues which make the + woman a good housewife and house-mother, which make the man a hard worker, a good + husband and father, a good soldier at need, stand at the bottom of character. But of + course many others must be added thereto if a State is to be not only free but great. + Good citizenship is not good citizenship if exhibited only in the home. There remain + the duties of the individual in relation to the State, and these duties are none too + easy under the conditions which exist where the effort is made to carry on free + government in a complex, industrial civilization. Perhaps the most important thing + the ordinary citizen, and, above all, the leader of ordinary citizens, has to + remember in political life is that he must not be a sheer doctrinaire. The closet + philosopher, the refined and cultured individual who from his library tells how men + ought to be governed under ideal conditions, is of no use in actual governmental + work; and the one-sided fanatic, and still more the mob leader, and the insincere man + who to achieve power promises what by no possibility can <a id="Page_54" + name="Page_54"></a>be performed, are not merely useless but noxious.</p> + <p>The citizen must have high ideals, and yet he must be able to achieve them in + practical fashion. No permanent good comes from aspirations so lofty that they have + grown fantastic and have become impossible and indeed undesirable to realize. The + impracticable visionary is far less often the guide and precursor than he is the + embittered foe of the real reformer, of the man who, with stumblings and + shortcomings, yet does in some shape, in practical fashion, give effect to the hopes + and desires of those who strive for better things. Woe to the empty phrase-maker, to + the empty idealist, who, instead of making ready the ground for the man of action, + turns against him when he appears and hampers him as he does the work! Moreover, the + preacher of ideals must remember how sorry and contemptible is the figure which he + will cut, how great the damage that he will do, if he does not himself, in his own + life, strive measurably to realize the ideals that he preaches for others. Let him + remember also that the worth of the ideal must be largely determined by the success + with which it can in practice be realized. We <a id="Page_55" + name="Page_55"></a>should abhor the so-called "practical" men whose practicality + assumes the shape of that peculiar baseness which finds its expression in disbelief + in morality and decency, in disregard of high standards of living and conduct. Such a + creature is the worst enemy of the body politic. But only less desirable as a citizen + is his nominal opponent and real ally, the man of fantastic vision who makes the + impossible better forever the enemy of the possible good.</p> + <p>We can just as little afford to follow the doctrinaires of an extreme + individualism as the doctrinaires of an extreme socialism. Individual initiative, so + far from being discouraged, should be stimulated; and yet we should remember that, as + society develops and grows more complex, we continually find that things which once + it was desirable to leave to individual initiative can, under the changed conditions, + be performed with better results by common effort. It is quite impossible, and + equally undesirable, to draw in theory a hard and fast line which shall always divide + the two sets of cases. This every one who is not cursed with the pride of the closet + philosopher will see, if he will only take the trouble to think about some of our + commonest phenomena. For instance, when people live on <a id="Page_56" + name="Page_56"></a>isolated farms or in little hamlets, each house can be left to + attend to its own drainage and water supply; but the mere multiplication of families + in a given area produces new problems which, because they differ in size, are found + to differ not only in degree but in kind from the old; and the questions of drainage + and water supply have to be considered from the common standpoint. It is not a matter + for abstract dogmatizing to decide when this point is reached; it is a matter to be + tested by practical experiment. Much of the discussion about socialism and + individualism is entirely pointless, because of failure to agree on terminology. It + is not good to be the slave of names. I am a strong individualist by personal habit, + inheritance, and conviction; but it is a mere matter of common sense to recognize + that the State, the community, the citizens acting together, can do a number of + things better than if they were left to individual action. The individualism which + finds its expression in the abuse of physical force is checked very early in the + growth of civilization, and we of to-day should in our turn strive to shackle or + destroy that individualism which triumphs by greed and cunning, which exploits the + weak by craft instead of ruling <a id="Page_57" name="Page_57"></a>them by brutality. + We ought to go with any man in the effort to bring about justice and the equality of + opportunity, to turn the tool user more and more into the tool owner, to shift + burdens so that they can be more equitably borne. The deadening effect on any race of + the adoption of a logical and extreme socialistic system could not be overstated; it + would spell sheer destruction; it would produce grosser wrong and outrage, fouler + immorality, than any existing system. But this does not mean that we may not with + great advantage adopt certain of the principles professed by some given set of men + who happen to call themselves Socialists; to be afraid to do so would be to make a + mark of weakness on our part.</p> + <p>But we should not take part in acting a lie any more than in telling a lie. We + should not say that men are equal where they are not equal, nor proceed upon the + assumption that there is an equality where it does not exist; but we should strive to + bring about a measurable equality, at least to the extent of preventing the + inequality which is due to force or fraud. Abraham Lincoln, a man of the plain + people, blood of their blood and bone of their bone, who all his life toiled and <a + id="Page_58" name="Page_58"></a>wrought and suffered for them, and at the end died + for them, who always strove to represent them, who would never tell an untruth to or + for them, spoke of the doctrine of equality with his usual mixture of idealism and + sound common-sense. He said (I omit what was of merely local significance):</p> + <blockquote> + <p>I think the authors of the Declaration of Independence intended to include all + men, but that they did not mean to declare all men equal <i>in all respects</i>. + They did not mean to say all men were equal in color, size, intellect, moral + development, or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness in what + they did consider all men created equal—equal in certain inalienable rights, + among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This they said, and + this they meant. They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth that all were then + actually enjoying that equality, or yet that they were about to confer it + immediately upon them. They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society which + should be familiar to all—constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and, + even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby + constantly spreading and deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness and + value of life to all people, everywhere.</p> + </blockquote> + <p>We are bound in honor to refuse to listen to those men who would make us desist + from <a id="Page_59" name="Page_59"></a>the effort to do away with the inequality + which means injustice; the inequality of right, of opportunity, of privilege. We are + bound in honor to strive to bring ever nearer the day when, as far as is humanly + possible, we shall be able to realize the ideal that each man shall have an equal + opportunity to show the stuff that is in him by the way in which he renders service. + There should, so far as possible, be equality of opportunity to render service; but + just so long as there is inequality of service there should and must be inequality of + reward. We may be sorry for the general, the painter, the artist, the worker in any + profession or of any kind, whose misfortune rather than whose fault it is that he + does his work ill. But the reward must go to the man who does his work well; for any + other course is to create a new kind of privilege, the privilege of folly and + weakness; and special privilege is injustice, whatever form it takes.</p> + <p>To say that the thriftless, the lazy, the vicious, the incapable, ought to have + the reward given to those who are far-sighted, capable, and upright, is to say what + is not true and cannot be true. Let us try to level up, but let us beware of the evil + of levelling down. If a man stumbles, it is a good thing <a id="Page_60" + name="Page_60"></a>to help him to his feet. Every one of us needs a helping hand now + and then. But if a man lies down, it is a waste of time to try to carry him; and it + is a very bad thing for every one if we make men feel that the same reward will come + to those who shirk their work and to those who do it.</p> + <p>Let us, then, take into account the actual facts of life, and not be misled into + following any proposal for achieving the millennium, for re-creating the golden age, + until we have subjected it to hard-headed examination. On the other hand, it is + foolish to reject a proposal merely because it is advanced by visionaries. If a given + scheme is proposed, look at it on its merits, and, in considering it, disregard + formulas. It does not matter in the least who proposes it, or why. If it seems good, + try it. If it proves good, accept it; otherwise reject it. There are plenty of men + calling themselves Socialists with whom, up to a certain point, it is quite possible + to work. If the next step is one which both we and they wish to take, why of course + take it, without any regard to the fact that our views as to the tenth step may + differ. But, on the other hand, keep clearly in mind that, though it has been worth + while to take one step, this does not <a id="Page_61" name="Page_61"></a>in the least + mean that it may not be highly disadvantageous to take the next. It is just as + foolish to refuse all progress because people demanding it desire at some points to + go to absurd extremes, as it would be to go to these absurd extremes simply because + some of the measures advocated by the extremists were wise.</p> + <p>The good citizen will demand liberty for himself, and as a matter of pride he will + see to it that others receive the liberty which he thus claims as his own. Probably + the best test of true love of liberty in any country is the way in which minorities + are treated in that country. Not only should there be complete liberty in matters of + religion and opinion, but complete liberty for each man to lead his life as he + desires, provided only that in so doing he does not wrong his neighbor. Persecution + is bad because it is persecution, and without reference to which side happens at the + moment to be the persecutor and which the persecuted. Class hatred is bad in just the + same way, and without any regard to the individual who, at a given time, substitutes + loyalty to a class for loyalty to the nation, or substitutes hatred of men because + they happen to come in a certain social category, for judgment <a id="Page_62" + name="Page_62"></a>awarded them according to their conduct. Remember always that the + same measure of condemnation should be extended to the arrogance which would look + down upon or crush any man because he is poor, and to the envy and hatred which would + destroy a man because he is wealthy. The overbearing brutality of the man of wealth + or power, and the envious and hateful malice directed against wealth or power, are + really at root merely different manifestations of the same quality, merely the two + sides of the same shield. The man who, if born to wealth and power, exploits and + ruins his less fortunate brethren, is at heart the same as the greedy and violent + demagogue who excites those who have not property to plunder those who have. The + gravest wrong upon his country is inflicted by that man, whatever his station, who + seeks to make his countrymen divide primarily on the line that separates class from + class, occupation from occupation, men of more wealth from men of less wealth, + instead of remembering that the only safe standard is that which judges each man on + his worth as a man, whether he be rich or poor, without regard to his profession or + to his station in life. Such is the only true democratic test, the only test <a + id="Page_63" name="Page_63"></a>that can with propriety be applied in a republic. + There have been many republics in the past, both in what we call antiquity and in + what we call the Middle Ages. They fell, and the prime factor in their fall was the + fact that the parties tended to divide along the line that separates wealth from + poverty. It made no difference which side was successful; it made no difference + whether the republic fell under the rule of an oligarchy or the rule of a mob. In + either case, when once loyalty to a class had been substituted for loyalty to the + republic, the end of the republic was at hand. There is no greater need to-day than + the need to keep ever in mind the fact that the cleavage between right and wrong, + between good citizenship and bad citizenship, runs at right angles to, and not + parallel with, the lines of cleavage between class and class, between occupation and + occupation. Ruin looks us in the face if we judge a man by his position instead of + judging him by his conduct in that position.</p> + <p>In a republic, to be successful we must learn to combine intensity of conviction + with a broad tolerance of difference of conviction. Wide differences of opinion in + matters of religious, political, and social belief must exist if conscience <a + id="Page_64" name="Page_64"></a>and intellect alike are not to be stunted, if there + is to be room for healthy growth. Bitter internecine hatreds, based on such + differences, are signs, not of earnestness of belief, but of that fanaticism which, + whether religious or anti-religious, democratic or anti-democratic, is itself but a + manifestation of the gloomy bigotry which has been the chief factor in the downfall + of so many, many nations.</p> + <p>Of one man in especial, beyond any one else, the citizens of a republic should + beware, and that is of the man who appeals to them to support him on the ground that + he is hostile to other citizens of the republic, that he will secure for those who + elect him, in one shape or another, profit at the expense of other citizens of the + republic. It makes no difference whether he appeals to class hatred or class + interest, to religious or anti-religious prejudice. The man who makes such an appeal + should always be presumed to make it for the sake of furthering his own interest. The + very last thing that an intelligent and self-respecting member of a democratic + community should do is to reward any public man because that public man says he will + get the private citizen something to which this private citizen is not entitled, or + will gratify some <a id="Page_65" name="Page_65"></a>emotion or animosity which this + private citizen ought not to possess. Let me illustrate this by one anecdote from my + own experience. A number of years ago I was engaged in cattle-ranching on the great + plains of the western United States. There were no fences. The cattle wandered free, + the ownership of each being determined by the brand; the calves were branded with the + brand of the cows they followed. If on the round-up an animal was passed by, the + following year it would appear as an unbranded yearling, and was then called a + maverick. By the custom of the country these mavericks were branded with the brand of + the man on whose range they were found. One day I was riding the range with a newly + hired cowboy, and we came upon a maverick. We roped and threw it; then we built a + little fire, took out a cinch-ring, heated it at the fire; and the cowboy started to + put on the brand. I said to him, "It is So-and-so's brand," naming the man on whose + range we happened to be. He answered: "That's all right, boss; I know my business." + In another moment I said to him, "Hold on, you are putting on my brand!" To which he + answered, "That's all right; I always put on the boss's brand." I answered, "Oh, very + well. Now you go <a id="Page_66" name="Page_66"></a>straight back to the ranch and + get what is owing to you; I don't need you any longer." He jumped up and said: "Why, + what's the matter? I was putting on your brand." And I answered: "Yes, my friend, and + if you will steal <i>for</i> me you will steal <i>from</i> me."</p> + <p>Now, the same principle which applies in private life applies also in public life. + If a public man tries to get your vote by saying that he will do something wrong + <i>in</i> your interest, you can be absolutely certain that if ever it becomes worth + his while he will do something wrong <i>against</i> your interest.</p> + <p>So much for the citizenship of the individual in his relations to his family, to + his neighbor, to the State. There remain duties of citizenship which the State, the + aggregation of all the individuals, owes in connection with other states, with other + nations. Let me say at once that I am no advocate of a foolish cosmopolitanism. I + believe that a man must be a good patriot before he can be, and as the only possible + way of being, a good citizen of the world. Experience teaches us that the average man + who protests that his international feeling swamps his national feeling, that he does + not care for his country because he cares so much for mankind, in actual practice <a + id="Page_67" name="Page_67"></a>proves himself the foe of mankind; that the man who + says that he does not care to be a citizen of any one country, because he is a + citizen of the world, is in very fact usually an exceedingly undesirable citizen of + whatever corner of the world he happens at the moment to be in. In the dim future all + moral needs and moral standards may change; but at present, if a man can view his own + country and all other countries from the same level with tepid indifference, it is + wise to distrust him, just as it is wise to distrust the man who can take the same + dispassionate view of his wife and his mother. However broad and deep a man's + sympathies, however intense his activities, he need have no fear that they will be + cramped by love of his native land.</p> + <p>Now, this does not mean in the least that a man should not wish to do good outside + of his native land. On the contrary, just as I think that the man who loves his + family is more apt to be a good neighbor than the man who does not, so I think that + the most useful member of the family of nations is normally a strongly patriotic + nation. So far from patriotism being inconsistent with a proper regard for the rights + of other nations, I hold that the true patriot, who is as jealous of the <a + id="Page_68" name="Page_68"></a>national honor as a gentleman is of his own honor, + will be careful to see that the nation neither inflicts nor suffers wrong, just as a + gentleman scorns equally to wrong others or to suffer others to wrong him. I do not + for one moment admit that political morality is different from private morality, that + a promise made on the stump differs from a promise made in private life. I do not for + one moment admit that a man should act deceitfully as a public servant in his + dealings with other nations, any more than that he should act deceitfully in his + dealings as a private citizen with other private citizens. I do not for one moment + admit that a nation should treat other nations in a different spirit from that in + which an honorable man would treat other men.</p> + <p>In practically applying this principle to the two sets of cases there is, of + course, a great practical difference to be taken into account. We speak of + international law; but international law is something wholly different from private + or municipal law, and the capital difference is that there is a sanction for the one + and no sanction for the other; that there is an outside force which compels + individuals to obey the one, while there is no such outside <a id="Page_69" + name="Page_69"></a>force to compel obedience as regards the other. International law + will, I believe, as the generations pass, grow stronger and stronger until in some + way or other there develops the power to make it respected. But as yet it is only in + the first formative period. As yet, as a rule, each nation is of necessity obliged to + judge for itself in matters of vital importance between it and its neighbors, and + actions must of necessity, where this is the case, be different from what they are + where, as among private citizens, there is an outside force whose action is + all-powerful and must be invoked in any crisis of importance. It is the duty of wise + statesmen, gifted with the power of looking ahead, to try to encourage and build up + every movement which will substitute or tend to substitute some other agency for + force in the settlement of international disputes. It is the duty of every honest + statesman to try to guide the nation so that it shall not wrong any other nation. But + as yet the great civilized peoples, if they are to be true to themselves and to the + cause of humanity and civilization, must keep ever in mind that in the last resort + they must possess both the will and the power to resent wrong-doing from others. The + men who sanely believe in a lofty morality <a id="Page_70" name="Page_70"></a>preach + righteousness; but they do not preach weakness, whether among private citizens or + among nations. We believe that our ideals should be high, but not so high as to make + it impossible measurably to realize them. We sincerely and earnestly believe in + peace; but if peace and justice conflict, we scorn the man who would not stand for + justice though the whole world came in arms against him.</p> + <p>And now, my hosts, a word in parting. You and I belong to the only two Republics + among the great powers of the world. The ancient friendship between France and the + United States has been, on the whole, a sincere and disinterested friendship. A + calamity to you would be a sorrow to us. But it would be more than that. In the + seething turmoil of the history of humanity certain nations stand out as possessing a + peculiar power or charm, some special gift of beauty or wisdom or strength, which + puts them among the immortals, which makes them rank forever with the leaders of + mankind. France is one of these nations. For her to sink would be a loss to all the + world. There are certain lessons of brilliance and of generous gallantry that she can + teach better than any of her sister nations. When the French peasantry <a + id="Page_71" name="Page_71"></a>sang of Malbrook, it was to tell how the soul of this + warrior-foe took flight upward through the laurels he had won. Nearly seven centuries + ago, Froissart, writing of a time of dire disaster, said that the realm of France was + never so stricken that there were not left men who would valiantly fight for it. You + have had a great past. I believe that you will have a great future. Long may you + carry yourselves proudly as citizens of a nation which bears a leading part in the + teaching and uplifting of mankind.</p> + <hr class="full" /> + <h2><a id="Page_75" name="Page_75"></a>International Peace</h2> + <h4><i>An Address before the Nobel Prize Committee Delivered at Christiania, Norway, + May 5, 1910</i></h4> + <p>It is with peculiar pleasure that I stand here to-day to express the deep + appreciation I feel of the high honor conferred upon me by the presentation of the + Nobel Peace Prize.<a id="FNanchor_7_7" name="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a + href="#Footnote_7_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> The gold medal which formed part of the prize + I shall always keep, and I shall hand it on to my children as a precious heirloom. + The sum of money provided as part of the prize by the wise generosity of the + illustrious founder of this world-famous prize system I did not, under the peculiar + circumstances of the case, feel at liberty to keep. I think it eminently just and + proper that in most cases the recipient of the prize should keep for his <a + id="Page_76" name="Page_76"></a>own use the prize in its entirety. But in this case, + while I did not act officially as President of the United States, it was nevertheless + only because I was President that I was enabled to act at all; and I felt that the + money must be considered as having been given me in trust for the United States. I + therefore used it as a nucleus for a foundation to forward the cause of industrial + peace, as being well within the general purpose of your Committee; for in our complex + industrial civilization of to-day the peace of righteousness and justice, the only + kind of peace worth having, is at least as necessary in the industrial world as it is + among nations. There is at least as much need to curb the cruel greed and arrogance + of part of the world of capital, to curb the cruel greed and violence of part of the + world of labor, as to check a cruel and unhealthy militarism in international + relationships.</p> + <p>We must ever bear in mind that the great end in view is righteousness, justice as + between man and man, nation and nation, the chance to lead our lives on a somewhat + higher level, with a broader spirit of brotherly good-will one for another. Peace is + generally good in itself, but it is never the highest good unless it comes as the + handmaid of righteousness; and <a id="Page_77" name="Page_77"></a>it becomes a very + evil thing if it serves merely as a mask for cowardice and sloth, or as an instrument + to further the ends of despotism or anarchy. We despise and abhor the bully, the + brawler, the oppressor, whether in private or public life; but we despise no less the + coward and the voluptuary. No man is worth calling a man who will not fight rather + than submit to infamy or see those that are dear to him suffer wrong. No nation + deserves to exist if it permits itself to lose the stern and virile virtues; and this + without regard to whether the loss is due to the growth of a heartless and + all-absorbing commercialism, to prolonged indulgence in luxury and soft effortless + ease, or to the deification of a warped and twisted sentimentality.</p> + <p>Moreover, and above all, let us remember that words count only when they give + expression to deeds or are to be translated into them. The leaders of the Red Terror + prattled of peace while they steeped their hands in the blood of the innocent; and + many a tyrant has called it peace when he has scourged honest protest into silence. + Our words must be judged by our deeds; and in striving for a lofty ideal we must use + practical methods; and if we cannot attain all at one leap, we must advance towards + <a id="Page_78" name="Page_78"></a>it step by step, reasonably content so long as we + do actually make some progress in the right direction.</p> + <p>Now, having freely admitted the limitations to our work, and the qualifications to + be borne in mind, I feel that I have the right to have my words taken seriously when + I point out where, in my judgment, great advance can be made in the cause of + international peace. I speak as a practical man, and whatever I now advocate I + actually tried to do when I was for the time being the head of a great nation, and + keenly jealous of its honor and interest. I ask other nations to do only what I + should be glad to see my own nation do.</p> + <p>The advance can be made along several lines. First of all, there can be treaties + of arbitration. There are, of course, states so backward that a civilized community + ought not to enter into an arbitration treaty with them, at least until we have gone + much further than at present in securing some kind of international police action. + But all really civilized communities should have effective arbitration treaties among + themselves. I believe that these treaties can cover almost all questions liable to + arise between such nations, if they are drawn with the explicit agreement that each + contracting party will respect <a id="Page_79" name="Page_79"></a>the other's + territory and its absolute sovereignty within that territory, and the equally + explicit agreement that (aside from the very rare cases where the nation's honor is + vitally concerned) all other possible subjects of controversy will be submitted to + arbitration. Such a treaty would insure peace unless one party deliberately violated + it. Of course, as yet there is no adequate safeguard against such deliberate + violation, but the establishment of a sufficient number of these treaties would go a + long way towards creating a world opinion which would finally find expression in the + provision of methods to forbid or punish any such violation.</p> + <p>Secondly, there is the further development of The Hague Tribunal, of the work of + the conferences and courts at The Hague. It has been well said that the first Hague + Conference framed a Magna Charta for the nations; it set before us an ideal which has + already to some extent been realized, and towards the full realization of which we + can all steadily strive. The second Conference made further progress; the third + should do yet more. Meanwhile the American Government has more than once tentatively + suggested methods for completing the Court of Arbitral Justice, constituted <a + id="Page_80" name="Page_80"></a>at the second Hague Conference, and for rendering it + effective. It is earnestly to be hoped that the various Governments of Europe, + working with those of America and of Asia, shall set themselves seriously to the task + of devising some method which shall accomplish this result. If I may venture the + suggestion, it would be well for the statesmen of the world in planning for the + erection of this world court, to study what has been done in the United States by the + Supreme Court. I cannot help thinking that the Constitution of the United States, + notably in the establishment of the Supreme Court and in the methods adopted for + securing peace and good relations among and between the different States, offers + certain valuable analogies to what should be striven for in order to secure, through + The Hague courts and conferences, a species of world federation for international + peace and justice. There are, of course, fundamental differences between what the + United States Constitution does and what we should even attempt at this time to + secure at The Hague; but the methods adopted in the American Constitution to prevent + hostilities between the States, and to secure the supremacy of the Federal Court in + certain classes of cases, are <a id="Page_81" name="Page_81"></a>well worth the study + of those who seek at The Hague to obtain the same results on a world scale.</p> + <p>In the third place, something should be done as soon as possible to check the + growth of armaments, especially naval armaments, by international agreement. No one + Power could or should act by itself; for it is eminently undesirable, from the + standpoint of the peace of righteousness, that a Power which really does believe in + peace should place itself at the mercy of some rival which may at bottom have no such + belief and no intention of acting on it. But, granted sincerity of purpose, the great + Powers of the world should find no insurmountable difficulty in reaching an agreement + which would put an end to the present costly and growing extravagance of expenditure + on naval armaments. An agreement merely to limit the size of ships would have been + very useful a few years ago, and would still be of use; but the agreement should go + much further.</p> + <p>Finally, it would be a master stroke if those great Powers honestly bent on peace + would form a League of Peace, not only to keep the peace among themselves, but to + prevent, by force if necessary, its being broken by others. The supreme difficulty in + connection with developing <a id="Page_82" name="Page_82"></a>the peace work of The + Hague arises from the lack of any executive power, of any police power, to enforce + the decrees of the court. In any community of any size the authority of the courts + rests upon actual or potential force; on the existence of a police, or on the + knowledge that the able-bodied men of the country are both ready and willing to see + that the decrees of judicial and legislative bodies are put into effect. In new and + wild communities where there is violence, an honest man must protect himself; and + until other means of securing his safety are devised, it is both foolish and wicked + to persuade him to surrender his arms while the men who are dangerous to the + community retain theirs. He should not renounce the right to protect himself by his + own efforts until the community is so organized that it can effectively relieve the + individual of the duty of putting down violence. So it is with nations. Each nation + must keep well prepared to defend itself until the establishment of some form of + international police power, competent and willing to prevent violence as between + nations. As things are now, such power to command peace throughout the world could + best be assured by some combination between those great nations <a id="Page_83" + name="Page_83"></a>which sincerely desire peace and have no thought themselves of + committing aggressions. The combination might at first be only to secure peace within + certain definite limits and certain definite conditions; but the ruler or statesman + who should bring about such a combination would have earned his place in history for + all time and his title to the gratitude of all mankind.</p> + <hr class="full" /> + <h2><a id="Page_87" name="Page_87"></a>The Colonial Policy of the United States</h2> + <h4><i>An Address Delivered at Christiania, Norway, on the Evening of May 5, + 1910</i></h4> + <p>When I first heard that I was to speak again this evening, my heart failed me. But + directly after hearing Mr. Bratlie<a id="FNanchor_8_8" name="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a + href="#Footnote_8_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> I feel that it is a pleasure to say one or + two things; and before saying them, let me express my profound acknowledgment for + your words. You have been not only more than just but more than generous. Because I + have been so kindly treated, I am going to trespass on your kindness still further, + and say a word or two about my own actions while I was President. I do not speak of + them, my friends, save to illustrate the thesis that I especially uphold, that the + man who has the power to act is to be judged not by his words but by his + acts—by his words in so far as they agree with his acts. All that I say about + peace I wish to have <a id="Page_88" name="Page_88"></a>judged and measured by what I + actually did as President.</p> + <p>I was particularly pleased by what you said about our course, the course of the + American people, in connection with the Philippines and Cuba. I believe that we have + the Cuban Minister here with us to-night? [A voice: "Yes."] Well, then, we have a + friend who can check off what I am going to say. At the close of the war of '98 we + found our army in possession of Cuba, and man after man among the European diplomats + of the old school said to me: "Oh, you will never go out of Cuba. You said you would, + of course, but that is quite understood; nations don't expect promises like that to + be kept." As soon as I became President, I said, "Now you will see that the promise + will be kept." We appointed a day when we would leave Cuba. On that day Cuba began + its existence as an independent republic. Later there came a disaster, there came a + revolution, and we were obliged to land troops again, while I was President, and then + the same gentlemen with whom I had conversed before said: "Now you are relieved from + your promise; your promise has been kept, and now you will stay in Cuba." I answered: + "No, we shall not. We will keep the promise not <a id="Page_89" + name="Page_89"></a>only in the letter but in the spirit. We will stay in Cuba to help + it on its feet, and then we will leave the island in better shape to maintain its + permanent independent existence." And before I left the Presidency Cuba resumed its + career as a separate republic, holding its head erect as a sovereign state among the + other nations of the earth. All that our people want is just exactly what the Cuban + people themselves want—that is, a continuance of order within the island, and + peace and prosperity, so that there shall be no shadow of an excuse for any outside + intervention.</p> + <p>We acted along the same general lines in the case of San Domingo. We intervened + only so far as to prevent the need of taking possession of the island. None of you + will know of this, so I will just tell you briefly what it was that we did. The + Republic of San Domingo, in the West Indies, had suffered from a good many + revolutions. In one particular period when I had to deal with the island, while I was + President, it was a little difficult to know what to do, because there were two + separate governments in the island, and a revolution going on against each. A number + of dictators, under the title of President, had seized power at different times, had + <a id="Page_90" name="Page_90"></a>borrowed money at exorbitant rates of interest + from Europeans and Americans, and had pledged the custom-houses of the different + towns to different countries; and the chief object of each revolutionary was to get + hold of the custom-houses. Things got to such a pass that it became evident that + certain European Powers would land and take possession of parts of the island. We + then began negotiations with the Government of the island. We sent down ships to keep + within limits various preposterous little manifestations of the revolutionary habit, + and, after some negotiations, we concluded an agreement. It was agreed that we should + put a man in as head of the custom-houses, that the collection of customs should be + entirely under the management of that man, and that no one should be allowed to + interfere with the custom-houses. Revolutions could go on outside them without + interference from us; but the custom-houses were not to be touched. We agreed to turn + over to the San Domingo Government forty-five per cent. of the revenue, keeping + fifty-five per cent. as a fund to be applied to a settlement with the creditors. The + creditors also acquiesced in what we had done, and we started the new arrangement. I + found considerable <a id="Page_91" name="Page_91"></a>difficulty in getting the + United States Senate to ratify the treaty, but I went ahead anyhow and executed it + until it was ratified. Finally it was ratified, for the opposition was a purely + factious opposition, representing the smallest kind of politics with a leaven of even + baser motive. Under the treaty we have turned over to the San Domingo Government + forty-five per cent. of the revenues collected, and yet we have turned over nearly + double as much as they ever got when they collected it <i>all</i> themselves. In + addition, we have collected sufficient to make it certain that the creditors will + receive every cent to which they are entitled. It is self-evident, therefore, that in + this affair we gave a proof of our good faith. We might have taken possession of San + Domingo. Instead of thus taking possession, we put into the custom-houses one head + man and half a dozen assistants, to see that the revenues were honestly collected, + and at the same time served notice that they should not be forcibly taken away; and + the result has been an extraordinary growth of the tranquillity and prosperity of the + islands, while at the same time the creditors are equally satisfied, and all danger + of outside interference has ceased.<a id="Page_92" name="Page_92"></a></p> + <p>That incident illustrates two things: First, if a nation acts in good faith, it + can often bring about peace without abridging the liberties of another nation. + Second, our experience emphasizes the fact (which every Peace Association should + remember) that the hysterical sentimentalist for peace is a mighty poor person to + follow. I was actually assailed, right and left, by the more extreme members of the + peace propaganda in the United States for what I did in San Domingo; most of the + other professional peace advocates took no interest in the matter, or were tepidly + hostile; however, I went straight ahead and did the job. The ultra-peace people + attacked me on the ground that I had "declared war" against San Domingo, the "war" + taking the shape of the one man put in charge of the custom-houses! This will seem to + you incredible, but I am giving you an absolutely accurate account of what occurred. + I disregarded those foolish people, as I shall always disregard sentimentalists of + that type when they are guilty of folly. At the present we have comparative peace and + prosperity in the island, in consequence of my action, and of my disregard of these + self-styled advocates of peace.</p> + <p>The same reasoning applies in connection <a id="Page_93" name="Page_93"></a>with + what we did at the Isthmus of Panama, and what we are doing in the Philippines. Our + colonial problems in the Philippines are not the same as the colonial problems of + other Powers. We have in the Philippines a people mainly Asiatic in blood, but with a + streak of European blood and with the traditions of European culture, so that their + ideals are largely the ideals of Europe. At the moment when we entered the islands + the people were hopelessly unable to stand alone. If we had abandoned the islands, we + should have left them a prey to anarchy for some months, and then they would have + been seized by some other Power ready to perform the task that we had not been able + to perform. Now I hold that it is not worth while being a big nation if you cannot do + a big task; I care not whether that task is digging the Panama Canal or handling the + Philippines. In the Philippines I feel that the day will ultimately come when the + Philippine people must settle for themselves whether they wish to be entirely + independent, or in some shape to keep up a connection with us. The day has not yet + come; it may not come for a generation or two. One of the greatest friends that + liberty has ever had, the great British statesman Burke, said <a id="Page_94" + name="Page_94"></a>on one occasion that there must always be government, and that if + there is not government from within, then it must be supplied from without. A child + has to be governed from without, because it has not yet grown to a point when it can + govern itself from within; and a people that shows itself totally unable to govern + itself from within must expect to submit to more or less of government from without, + because it cannot continue to exist on other terms—indeed, it cannot be + permitted permanently to exist as a source of danger to other nations. Our aim in the + Philippines is to train the people so that they may govern themselves from within. + Until they have reached this point they cannot have self-government. I will never + advocate self-government for a people so long as their self-government means crime, + violence, and extortion, corruption within, lawlessness among themselves and towards + others. If that is what self-government means to any people then they ought to be + governed by others until they can do better.</p> + <p>What I have related represents a measure of practical achievement in the way of + helping forward the cause of peace and justice, and of giving to different peoples + freedom of action <a id="Page_95" name="Page_95"></a>according to the capacities of + each. It is not possible, as the world is now constituted, to treat every nation as + one private individual can treat all other private individuals, because as yet there + is no way of enforcing obedience to law among nations as there is among private + individuals. If in the streets of this city a man walks about with the intent to kill + somebody, if he manages his house so that it becomes a source of infection to the + neighborhood, the community, with its law officers, deals with him forthwith. That is + just what happened at Panama, and, as nobody else was able to deal with the matter, I + dealt with it myself, on behalf of the United States Government, and now the Canal is + being dug, and the people of Panama have their independence and a prosperity hitherto + unknown in that country.</p> + <p>In the end, I firmly believe that some method will be devised by which the people + of the world, as a whole, will be able to insure peace, as it cannot now be insured. + How soon that end will come I do not know; it may be far distant; and until it does + come I think that, while we should give all the support that we can to any possible + feasible scheme for quickly bringing about such a state of affairs, yet we <a + id="Page_96" name="Page_96"></a>should meanwhile do the more practicable, though less + sensational, things. Let us advance step by step; let us, for example, endeavor to + increase the number of arbitration treaties and enlarge the methods for obtaining + peaceful settlements. Above all, let us strive to awaken the public international + conscience, so that it shall be expected, and expected efficiently, of the public men + responsible for the management of any nation's affairs that those affairs shall be + conducted with all proper regard for the interests and well-being of other Powers, + great or small.</p> + <hr class="full" /> + <h2><a id="Page_99" name="Page_99"></a>The World Movement</h2> + <h4><i>An Address Delivered at the University of Berlin, May 12, 1910</i></h4> + <p>I very highly appreciate the chance to address the University of Berlin in the + year that closes its first centenary of existence. It is difficult for you in the Old + World fully to appreciate the feelings of a man who comes from a nation still in the + making, to a country with an immemorial historic past; and especially is this the + case when that country, with its ancient past behind it, yet looks with proud + confidence into the future, and in the present shows all the abounding vigor of lusty + youth. Such is the case with Germany. More than a thousand years have passed since + the Roman Empire of the West became in fact a German Empire. Throughout + mediæval times the Empire and the Papacy were the two central features in the + history of the Occident. With the Ottos and the Henrys began the slow rise <a + id="Page_100" name="Page_100"></a>of that Western life which has shaped modern + Europe, and therefore ultimately the whole modern world. Their task was to organize + society and to keep it from crumbling to pieces. They were castle-builders, + city-founders, road-makers; they battled to bring order out of the seething + turbulence around them; and at the same time they first beat back heathendom and then + slowly wrested from it its possessions.</p> + <p>After the downfall of Rome and the breaking in sunder of the Roman Empire, the + first real crystallization of the forces that were working for a new uplift of + civilization in Western Europe was round the Karling House, and, above all, round the + great Emperor, Karl the Great, the seat of whose Empire was at Aachen. Under the + Karlings the Arab and the Moor were driven back beyond the Pyrenees; the last of the + old heathen Germans were forced into Christianity, and the Avars, wild horsemen from + the Asian steppes, who had long held tented dominion in Middle Europe, were utterly + destroyed. With the break-up of the Karling Empire came chaos once more, and a fresh + inrush of savagery: Vikings from the frozen North, and new hordes of outlandish + riders from Asia. It was <a id="Page_101" name="Page_101"></a>the early Emperors of + Germany proper who quelled these barbarians; in their time Dane and Norseman and + Magyar became Christians, and most of the Slav peoples as well, so that Europe began + to take on a shape which we can recognize to-day. Since then the centuries have + rolled by, with strange alternations of fortune, now well-nigh barren, and again + great with German achievement in arms and in government, in science and the arts. The + centre of power shifted hither and thither within German lands; the great house of + Hohenzollern rose, the house which has at last seen Germany spring into a commanding + position in the very forefront among the nations of mankind.</p> + <p>To this ancient land, with its glorious past and splendid present, to this land of + many memories and of eager hopes, I come from a young nation, which is by blood akin + to, and yet different from, each of the great nations of Middle and Western Europe; + which has inherited or acquired much from each, but is changing and developing every + inheritance and acquisition into something new and strange. The German strain in our + blood is large, for almost from the beginning there has been a large German element + among the successive waves of newcomers whose children's children <a id="Page_102" + name="Page_102"></a>have been and are being fused into the American nation; and I + myself trace my origin to that branch of the Low Dutch stock which raised Holland out + of the North Sea. Moreover, we have taken from you, not only much of the blood that + runs through our veins, but much of the thought that shapes our minds. For + generations American scholars have flocked to your universities, and, thanks to the + wise foresight of his Imperial Majesty the present Emperor, the intimate and friendly + connection between the two countries is now in every way closer than it has ever been + before.</p> + <p>Germany is pre-eminently a country in which the world movement of to-day in all of + its multitudinous aspects is plainly visible. The life of this University covers the + period during which that movement has spread until it is felt throughout every + continent; while its velocity has been constantly accelerating, so that the face of + the world has changed, and is now changing, as never before. It is therefore fit and + appropriate here to speak on this subject.</p> + <p>When, in the slow procession of the ages, man was developed on this planet, the + change worked by his appearance was at first slight. Further ages passed, while he + groped and <a id="Page_103" name="Page_103"></a>struggled by infinitesimal degrees + upward through the lower grades of savagery; for the general law is that life which + is advanced and complex, whatever its nature, changes more quickly than simpler and + less advanced forms. The life of savages changes and advances with extreme slowness, + and groups of savages influence one another but little. The first rudimentary + beginnings of that complex life of communities which we call civilization marked a + period when man had already long been by far the most important creature on the + planet. The history of the living world had become, in fact, the history of man, and + therefore something totally different in kind as well as in degree from what it had + been before. There are interesting analogies between what has gone on in the + development of life generally and what has gone on in the development of human + society, and these I shall discuss elsewhere.<a id="FNanchor_9_9" + name="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> But the + differences are profound, and go to the root of things.</p> + <p>Throughout their early stages the movements of civilization—for, properly + speaking, there was no one movement—were very slow, were local in space, and + were partial in the sense that each developed along but few lines.<a id="Page_104" + name="Page_104"></a> Of the numberless years that covered these early stages we have + no record. They were the years that saw such extraordinary discoveries and inventions + as fire, and the wheel, and the bow, and the domestication of animals. So local were + these inventions that at the present day there yet linger savage tribes, still fixed + in the half-bestial life of an infinitely remote past, who know none of them except + fire—and the discovery and use of fire may have marked, not the beginning of + civilization, but the beginning of the savagery which separated man from brute.</p> + <p>Even after civilization and culture had achieved a relatively high position, they + were still purely local, and from this fact subject to violent shocks. Modern + research has shown the existence in prehistoric or, at least, protohistoric times of + many peoples who, in given localities, achieved a high and peculiar culture, a + culture that was later so completely destroyed that it is difficult to say what, if + any, traces it left on the subsequent cultures out of which we have developed our + own; while it is also difficult to say exactly how much any one of these cultures + influenced any other. In many cases, as where invaders with weapons of bronze or iron + conquered the neolithic peoples, <a id="Page_105" name="Page_105"></a>the higher + civilization completely destroyed the lower civilization, or barbarism, with which it + came in contact. In other cases, while superiority in culture gave its possessors at + the beginning a marked military and governmental superiority over the neighboring + peoples, yet sooner or later there accompanied it a certain softness or enervating + quality which left the cultured folk at the mercy of the stark and greedy neighboring + tribes, in whose savage souls cupidity gradually overcame terror and awe. Then the + people that had been struggling upward would be engulfed, and the levelling waves of + barbarism wash over them. But we are not yet in position to speak definitely on these + matters. It is only the researches of recent years that have enabled us so much as to + guess at the course of events in prehistoric Greece; while as yet we can hardly even + hazard a guess as to how, for instance, the Hallstadt culture rose and fell, or as to + the history and fate of the builders of those strange ruins of which Stonehenge is + the type.</p> + <p>The first civilizations which left behind them clear records rose in that hoary + historic past which geologically is part of the immediate present—and which is + but a span's length from <a id="Page_106" name="Page_106"></a>the present, even when + compared only with the length of time that man has lived on this planet. These first + civilizations were those which rose in Mesopotamia and the Nile valley some six or + eight thousand years ago. As far as we can see, they were well-nigh independent + centres of cultural development, and our knowledge is not such at present as to + enable us to connect either with the early cultural movements, in southwestern Europe + on the one hand, or in India on the other, or with that Chinese civilization which + has been so profoundly affected by Indian influences.</p> + <p>Compared with the civilizations with which we are best acquainted, the striking + features in the Mesopotamian and Nilotic civilizations were the length of time they + endured and their comparative changelessness. The kings, priests, and peoples who + dwelt by the Nile or Euphrates are found thinking much the same thoughts, doing much + the same deeds, leaving at least very similar records, while time passes in tens of + centuries. Of course there was change; of course there were action and reaction in + influence between them and their neighbors; and the movement of change, of + development, material, mental, spiritual, was much faster than anything that had + occurred <a id="Page_107" name="Page_107"></a>during the æons of mere savagery. + But in contradistinction to modern times the movement was very slow indeed, and, + moreover, in each case it was strongly localized; while the field of endeavor was + narrow. There were certain conquests by man over nature; there were certain conquests + in the domain of pure intellect; there were certain extensions which spread the area + of civilized mankind. But it would be hard to speak of it as a "world movement" at + all; for by far the greater part of the habitable globe was not only unknown, but its + existence unguessed at, so far as peoples with any civilization whatsoever were + concerned.</p> + <p>With the downfall of these ancient civilizations there sprang into prominence + those peoples with whom our own cultural history may be said to begin. Those ideas + and influences in our lives which we can consciously trace back at all are in the + great majority of instances to be traced to the Jew, the Greek, or the Roman; and the + ordinary man, when he speaks of the nations of antiquity, has in mind specifically + these three peoples—although, judged even by the history of which we have + record, theirs is a very modern antiquity indeed.</p> + <p>The case of the Jew was quite exceptional.<a id="Page_108" name="Page_108"></a> + His was a small nation, of little more consequence than the sister nations of Moab + and Damascus, until all three, and the other petty states of the country, fell under + the yoke of the alien. Then he survived, while all his fellows died. In the spiritual + domain he contributed a religion which has been the most potent of all factors in its + effect on the subsequent history of mankind; but none of his other contributions + compare with the legacies left us by the Greek and the Roman.</p> + <p>The Græco-Roman world saw a civilization far more brilliant, far more varied + and intense, than any that had gone before it, and one that affected a far larger + share of the world's surface. For the first time there began to be something which at + least foreshadowed a "world movement" in the sense that it affected a considerable + portion of the world's surface and that it represented what was incomparably the most + important of all that was happening in world history at the time. In breadth and + depth the field of intellectual interest had greatly broadened at the same time that + the physical area affected by the civilization had similarly extended. Instead of a + civilization affecting only one river valley or one nook of the Mediterranean, there + was a <a id="Page_109" name="Page_109"></a>civilization which directly or indirectly + influenced mankind from the Desert of Sahara to the Baltic, from the Atlantic Ocean + to the westernmost mountain chains that spring from the Himalayas. Throughout most of + this region there began to work certain influences which, though with widely varying + intensity, did nevertheless tend to affect a large portion of mankind. In many of the + forms of science, in almost all the forms of art, there was great activity. In + addition to great soldiers there were great administrators and statesmen whose + concern was with the fundamental questions of social and civil life. Nothing like the + width and variety of intellectual achievement and understanding had ever before been + known; and for the first time we come across great intellectual leaders, great + philosophers and writers, whose works are a part of all that is highest in modern + thought, whose writings are as alive to-day as when they were first issued; and there + were others of even more daring and original temper, a philosopher like Democritus, a + poet like Lucretius, whose minds leaped ahead through the centuries and saw what none + of their contemporaries saw, but who were so hampered by their surroundings that it + was physically impossible for them <a id="Page_110" name="Page_110"></a>to leave to + the later world much concrete addition to knowledge. The civilization was one of + comparatively rapid change, viewed by the standard of Babylon and Memphis. There was + incessant movement; and, moreover, the whole system went down with a crash to seeming + destruction after a period short compared with that covered by the reigns of a score + of Egyptian dynasties, or with the time that elapsed between a Babylonian defeat by + Elam and a war sixteen centuries later which fully avenged it.</p> + <p>This civilization flourished with brilliant splendor. Then it fell. In its + northern seats it was overwhelmed by a wave of barbarism from among those half-savage + peoples from whom you and I, my hearers, trace our descent. In the south and east it + was destroyed later, but far more thoroughly, by invaders of an utterly different + type. Both conquests were of great importance; but it was the northern conquest which + in its ultimate effects was of by far the greatest importance.</p> + <p>With the advent of the Dark Ages the movement of course ceased, and it did not + begin anew for many centuries; while a thousand years passed before it was once more + in full swing, so far as European civilization, so far <a id="Page_111" + name="Page_111"></a>as the world civilization of to-day, is concerned. During all + those centuries the civilized world, in our acceptation of the term, was occupied, as + its chief task, in slowly climbing back to the position from which it had fallen + after the age of the Antonines. Of course a general statement like this must be + accepted with qualifications. There is no hard and fast line between one age or + period and another, and in no age is either progress or retrogression universal in + all things. There were many points in which the Middle Ages, because of the simple + fact that they were Christian, surpassed the brilliant pagan civilization of the + past; and there are some points in which the civilization that succeeded them has + sunk below the level of the ages which saw such mighty masterpieces of poetry, of + architecture—especially cathedral architecture—and of serene spiritual + and forceful lay leadership. But they were centuries of violence, rapine, and cruel + injustice; and truth was so little heeded that the noble and daring spirits who + sought it, especially in its scientific form, did so in deadly peril of the fagot and + the halter.</p> + <p>During this period there were several very important extra-European movements, one + or two of which deeply affected Europe. Islam <a id="Page_112" + name="Page_112"></a>arose, and conquered far and wide, uniting fundamentally + different races into a brotherhood of feeling which Christianity has never been able + to rival, and at the time of the Crusades profoundly influencing European culture. It + produced a civilization of its own, brilliant and here and there useful, but + hopelessly limited when compared with the civilization of which we ourselves are the + heirs. The great cultured peoples of southeastern and eastern Asia continued their + checkered development totally unaffected by, and without knowledge of, any European + influence.</p> + <p>Throughout the whole period there came against Europe, out of the unknown wastes + of central Asia, an endless succession of strange and terrible conqueror races whose + mission was mere destruction—Hun and Avar, Mongol, Tartar, and Turk. These + fierce and squalid tribes of warrior horsemen flailed mankind with red scourges, + wasted and destroyed, and then vanished from the ground they had overrun. But in no + way worth noting did they count in the advance of mankind.</p> + <p>At last, a little over four hundred years ago, the movement towards a world + civilization took up its interrupted march. The beginning of the modern movement may + roughly <a id="Page_113" name="Page_113"></a>be taken as synchronizing with the + discovery of printing, and with that series of bold sea ventures which culminated in + the discovery of America; and after these two epochal feats had begun to produce + their full effects in material and intellectual life, it became inevitable that + civilization should thereafter differ not only in degree but even in kind from all + that had gone before. Immediately after the voyages of Columbus and Vasco da Gama + there began a tremendous religious ferment; the awakening of intellect went hand in + hand with the moral uprising; the great names of Copernicus, Bruno, Kepler, and + Galileo show that the mind of man was breaking the fetters that had cramped it; and + for the first time experimentation was used as a check upon observation and + theorization. Since then, century by century, the changes have increased in rapidity + and complexity, and have attained their maximum in both respects during the century + just past. Instead of being directed by one or two dominant peoples, as was the case + with all similar movements of the past, the new movement was shared by many different + nations. From every standpoint it has been of infinitely greater moment than anything + hitherto seen. Not in one but in many different peoples there <a id="Page_114" + name="Page_114"></a>has been extraordinary growth in wealth, in population, in power + of organization, and in mastery over mechanical activity and natural resources. All + of this has been accompanied and signalized by an immense outburst of energy and + restless initiative. The result is as varied as it is striking.</p> + <p>In the first place, representatives of this civilization, by their conquest of + space, were enabled to spread into all the practically vacant continents, while at + the same time, by their triumphs in organization and mechanical invention, they + acquired an unheard-of military superiority as compared with their former rivals. To + these two facts is primarily due the further fact that for the first time there is + really something that approaches a world civilization, a world movement. The spread + of the European peoples since the days of Ferdinand the Catholic and Ivan the + Terrible has been across every sea and over every continent. In places the conquests + have been ethnic; that is, there has been a new wandering of the peoples, and new + commonwealths have sprung up in which the people are entirely or mainly of European + blood. This is what happened in the temperate and sub-tropical regions of the Western + Hemisphere, <a id="Page_115" name="Page_115"></a>in Australia, in portions of + northern Asia and southern Africa. In other places the conquest has been purely + political, the Europeans representing for the most part merely a small caste of + soldiers and administrators, as in most of tropical Asia and Africa and in much of + tropical America. Finally, here and there instances occur where there has been no + conquest at all, but where an alien people is profoundly and radically changed by the + mere impact of Western civilization. The most extraordinary instance of this, of + course, is Japan; for Japan's growth and change during the last half-century has been + in many ways the most striking phenomenon of all history. Intensely proud of her past + history, intensely loyal to certain of her past traditions, she has yet with a single + effort wrenched herself free from all hampering ancient ties, and with a bound has + taken her place among the leading civilized nations of mankind.</p> + <p>There are of course many grades between these different types of influence, but + the net outcome of what has occurred during the last four centuries is that + civilization of the European type now exercises a more or less profound effect over + practically the entire world. There are nooks and corners to which it has <a + id="Page_116" name="Page_116"></a>not yet penetrated; but there is at present no + large space of territory in which the general movement of civilized activity does not + make itself more or less felt. This represents something wholly different from what + has ever hitherto been seen. In the greatest days of Roman dominion the influence of + Rome was felt over only a relatively small portion of the world's surface. Over much + the larger part of the world the process of change and development was absolutely + unaffected by anything that occurred in the Roman Empire; and those communities the + play of whose influence was felt in action and reaction, and in inter-action, among + themselves, were grouped immediately around the Mediterranean. Now, however, the + whole world is bound together as never before; the bonds are sometimes those of + hatred rather than love, but they are bonds nevertheless.</p> + <p>Frowning or hopeful, every man of leadership in any line of thought or effort must + now look beyond the limits of his own country. The student of sociology may live in + Berlin or St. Petersburg, Rome or London, or he may live in Melbourne or San + Francisco or Buenos Aires; but in whatever city he lives, he must pay heed to the + studies of men who <a id="Page_117" name="Page_117"></a>live in each of the other + cities. When in America we study labor problems and attempt to deal with subjects + such as life insurance for wage-workers, we turn to see what you do here in Germany, + and we also turn to see what the far-off commonwealth of New Zealand is doing. When a + great German scientist is warring against the most dreaded enemies of mankind, + creatures of infinitesimal size which the microscope reveals in his blood, he may + spend his holidays of study in central Africa or in eastern Asia; and he must know + what is accomplished in the laboratories of Tokyo, just as he must know the details + of that practical application of science which has changed the Isthmus of Panama from + a death-trap into what is almost a health resort. Every progressive in China is + striving to introduce Western methods of education and administration, and hundreds + of European and American books are now translated into Chinese. The influence of + European governmental principles is strikingly illustrated by the fact that + admiration for them has broken down the iron barriers of Moslem conservatism, so that + their introduction has become a burning question in Turkey and Persia; while the very + unrest, the impatience of European or American control, <a id="Page_118" + name="Page_118"></a>in India, Egypt, or the Philippines, takes the form of demanding + that the government be assimilated more closely to what it is in England or the + United States. The deeds and works of any great statesman, the preachings of any + great ethical, social, or political teacher, now find echoes in both hemispheres and + in every continent. From a new discovery in science to a new method of combating or + applying Socialism, there is no movement of note which can take place in any part of + the globe without powerfully affecting masses of people in Europe, America, and + Australia, in Asia and Africa. For weal or for woe, the peoples of mankind are knit + together far closer than ever before.</p> + <p>So much for the geographical side of the expansion of modern civilization. But + only a few of the many and intense activities of modern civilization have found their + expression on this side. The movement has been just as striking in its conquest over + natural forces, in its searching inquiry into and about the soul of things.</p> + <p>The conquest over Nature has included an extraordinary increase in every form of + knowledge of the world we live in, and also an extraordinary increase in the power of + utilizing <a id="Page_119" name="Page_119"></a>the forces of Nature. In both + directions the advance has been very great during the past four or five centuries, + and in both directions it has gone on with ever-increasing rapidity during the last + century. After the great age of Rome had passed, the boundaries of knowledge shrank, + and in many cases it was not until well-nigh our own times that her domain was once + again pushed beyond the ancient landmarks. About the year 150 A.D., Ptolemy, the + geographer, published his map of central Africa and the sources of the Nile, and this + map was more accurate than any which we had as late as 1850 A.D. More was known of + physical science, and more of the truth about the physical world was guessed at, in + the days of Pliny, than was known or guessed until the modern movement began. The + case was the same as regards military science. At the close of the Middle Ages the + weapons were what they had always been—sword, shield, bow, spear; and any + improvement in them was more than offset by the loss in knowledge of military + organization, in the science of war, and in military leadership since the days of + Hannibal and Cæsar. A hundred years ago, when this University was founded, the + methods of transportation did <a id="Page_120" name="Page_120"></a>not differ in the + essentials from what they had been among the highly civilized nations of antiquity. + Travellers and merchandise went by land in wheeled vehicles or on beasts of burden, + and by sea in boats propelled by sails or by oars; and news was conveyed as it always + had been conveyed. What improvements there had been had been in degree only and not + in kind; and in some respects there had been retrogression rather than advance. There + were many parts of Europe where the roads were certainly worse than the old Roman + post-roads; and the Mediterranean Sea, for instance, was by no means as well policed + as in the days of Trajan. Now steam and electricity have worked a complete + revolution; and the resulting immensely increased ease of communication has in its + turn completely changed all the physical questions of human life. A voyage from Egypt + to England was nearly as serious an affair in the eighteenth century as in the + second; and the news communications between the two lands were not materially + improved. A graduate of your University to-day can go to mid-Asia or mid-Africa with + far less consciousness of performing a feat of note than would have been the case a + hundred years ago with a student who <a id="Page_121" name="Page_121"></a>visited + Sicily and Andalusia. Moreover, the invention and use of machinery run by steam or + electricity have worked a revolution in industry as great as the revolution in + transportation; so that here again the difference between ancient and modern + civilization is one not merely of degree but of kind. In many vital respects the huge + modern city differs more from all preceding cities than any of these differed one + from the other; and the giant factory town is of and by itself one of the most + formidable problems of modern life.</p> + <p>Steam and electricity have given the race dominion over land and water such as it + never had before; and now the conquest of the air is directly impending. As books + preserve thought through time, so the telegraph and the telephone transmit it through + the space they annihilate, and therefore minds are swayed one by another without + regard to the limitations of space and time which formerly forced each community to + work in comparative isolation. It is the same with the body as with the brain. The + machinery of the factory and the farm enormously multiplies bodily skill and vigor. + Countless trained intelligences are at work to teach us how to avoid or counteract + the effects of waste. Of course <a id="Page_122" name="Page_122"></a>some of the + agents in the modern scientific development of natural resources deal with resources + of such a kind that their development means their destruction, so that exploitation + on a grand scale means an intense rapidity of development purchased at the cost of a + speedy exhaustion. The enormous and constantly increasing output of coal and iron + necessarily means the approach of the day when our children's children, or their + children's children, shall dwell in an ironless age—and, later on, in an age + without coal—and will have to try to invent or develop new sources for the + production of heat and use of energy. But as regards many another natural resource, + scientific civilization teaches us how to preserve it through use. The best use of + field and forest will leave them decade by decade, century by century, more fruitful; + and we have barely begun to use the indestructible power that comes from harnessed + water. The conquests of surgery, of medicine, the conquests in the entire field of + hygiene and sanitation, have been literally marvellous; the advances in the past + century or two have been over more ground than was covered during the entire previous + history of the human race.</p> + <p>The advances in the realm of pure intellect <a id="Page_123" + name="Page_123"></a>have been of equal note, and they have been both intensive and + extensive. Great virgin fields of learning and wisdom have been discovered by the + few, and at the same time knowledge has spread among the many to a degree never + dreamed of before. Old men among us have seen in their own generation the rise of the + first rational science of the evolution of life. The astronomer and the chemist, the + psychologist and the historian, and all their brethren in many different fields of + wide endeavor, work with a training and knowledge and method which are in effect + instruments of precision, differentiating their labors from the labors of their + predecessors as the rifle is differentiated from the bow.</p> + <p>The play of new forces is as evident in the moral and spiritual world as in the + world of the mind and the body. Forces for good and forces for evil are everywhere + evident, each acting with a hundred- or a thousand-fold the intensity with which it + acted in former ages. Over the whole earth the swing of the pendulum grows more and + more rapid, the main-spring coils and spreads at a rate constantly quickening, the + whole world movement is of constantly accelerating velocity.</p> + <p>In this movement there are signs of much <a id="Page_124" name="Page_124"></a>that + bodes ill. The machinery is so highly geared, the tension and strain are so great, + the effort and the output have alike so increased, that there is cause to dread the + ruin that would come from any great accident, from any breakdown, and also the ruin + that may come from the mere wearing out of the machine itself. The only previous + civilization with which our modern civilization can be in any way compared is that + period of Græco-Roman civilization extending, say, from the Athens of + Themistocles to the Rome of Marcus Aurelius. Many of the forces and tendencies which + were then at work are at work now. Knowledge, luxury, and refinement, wide material + conquests, territorial administration on a vast scale, an increase in the mastery of + mechanical appliances and in applied science—all these mark our civilization as + they marked the wonderful civilization that flourished in the Mediterranean lands + twenty centuries ago; and they preceded the downfall of the older civilization. Yet + the differences are many, and some of them are quite as striking as the similarities. + The single fact that the old civilization was based upon slavery shows the chasm that + separates the two. Let me point out one further and very significant <a id="Page_125" + name="Page_125"></a>difference in the development of the two civilizations, a + difference so obvious that it is astonishing that it has not been dwelt upon by men + of letters.</p> + <p>One of the prime dangers of civilization has always been its tendency to cause the + loss of virile fighting virtues, of the fighting edge. When men get too comfortable + and lead too luxurious lives, there is always danger lest the softness eat like an + acid into their manliness of fibre. The barbarian, because of the very conditions of + his life, is forced to keep and develop certain hardy qualities which the man of + civilization tends to lose, whether he be clerk, factory hand, merchant, or even a + certain type of farmer. Now I will not assert that in modern civilized society these + tendencies have been wholly overcome; but there has been a much more successful + effort to overcome them than was the case in the early civilizations. This is + curiously shown by the military history of the Græco-Roman period as compared + with the history of the last four or five centuries here in Europe and among nations + of European descent. In the Grecian and Roman military history the change was + steadily from a citizen army to an army of mercenaries. In the days of the early + greatness <a id="Page_126" name="Page_126"></a>of Athens, Thebes, and Sparta, in the + days when the Roman Republic conquered what world it knew, the armies were filled + with citizen soldiers. But gradually the citizens refused to serve in the armies, or + became unable to render good service. The Greek states described by Polybius, with + but few exceptions, hired others to do their fighting for them. The Romans of the + days of Augustus had utterly ceased to furnish any cavalry, and were rapidly ceasing + to furnish any infantry, to the legions and cohorts. When the civilization came to an + end, there were no longer citizens in the ranks of the soldiers. The change from the + citizen army to the army of mercenaries had been completed.</p> + <p>Now, the exact reverse has been the case with us in modern times. A few centuries + ago the mercenary soldier was the principal figure in most armies, and in great + numbers of cases the mercenary soldier was an alien. In the wars of religion in + France, in the Thirty Years' War in Germany, in the wars that immediately thereafter + marked the beginning of the break-up of the great Polish Kingdom, the regiments and + brigades of foreign soldiers formed a striking and leading feature in every army. Too + often the men of the country in <a id="Page_127" name="Page_127"></a>which the + fighting took place played merely the ignoble part of victims, the burghers and + peasants appearing in but limited numbers in the mercenary armies by which they were + plundered. Gradually this has all changed, until now practically every army is a + citizen army, and the mercenary has almost disappeared, while the army exists on a + vaster scale than ever before in history. This is so among the military monarchies of + Europe. In our own Civil War of the United States the same thing occurred, peaceful + people as we are. At that time more than two generations had passed since the War of + Independence. During the whole of that period the people had been engaged in no + life-and-death struggle; and yet, when the Civil War broke out, and after some costly + and bitter lessons at the beginning, the fighting spirit of the people was shown to + better advantage than ever before. The war was peculiarly a war for a principle, a + war waged by each side for an ideal, and while faults and shortcomings were plentiful + among the combatants, there was comparatively little sordidness of motive or conduct. + In such a giant struggle, where across the warp of so many interests is shot the woof + of so many purposes, dark strands and bright, <a id="Page_128" + name="Page_128"></a>strands sombre and brilliant, are always intertwined; inevitably + there was corruption here and there in the Civil War; but all the leaders on both + sides, and the great majority of the enormous masses of fighting men, wholly + disregarded, and were wholly uninfluenced by, pecuniary considerations. There were of + course foreigners who came over to serve as soldiers of fortune for money or for love + of adventure; but the foreign-born citizens served in much the same proportion, and + from the same motives, as the native-born. Taken as a whole, it was, even more than + the Revolutionary War, a true citizens' fight, and the armies of Grant and Lee were + as emphatically citizen armies as Athenian, Theban, or Spartan armies in the great + age of Greece, or as a Roman army in the days of the Republic.</p> + <p>Another striking contrast in the course of modern civilization as compared with + the later stages of the Græco-Roman or classic civilization is to be found in + the relations of wealth and politics. In classic times, as the civilization advanced + toward its zenith, politics became a recognized means of accumulating great wealth. + Cæsar was again and again on the verge of bankruptcy; he spent an enormous + fortune; and he recouped himself by the <a id="Page_129" name="Page_129"></a>money + which he made out of his political-military career. Augustus established Imperial + Rome on firm foundations by the use he made of the huge fortune he had acquired by + plunder. What a contrast is offered by the careers of Washington and Lincoln! There + were a few exceptions in ancient days; but the immense majority of the Greeks and the + Romans, as their civilizations culminated, accepted money-making on a large scale as + one of the incidents of a successful public career. Now all of this is in sharp + contrast to what has happened within the last two or three centuries. During this + time there has been a steady growth away from the theory that money-making is + permissible in an honorable public career. In this respect the standard has been + constantly elevated, and things which statesmen had no hesitation in doing three + centuries or two centuries ago, and which did not seriously hurt a public career even + a century ago, are now utterly impossible. Wealthy men still exercise a large, and + sometimes an improper, influence in politics, but it is apt to be an indirect + influence; and in the advanced states the mere suspicion that the wealth of public + men is obtained or added to as an incident of their public careers will <a + id="Page_130" name="Page_130"></a>bar them from public life. Speaking generally, + wealth may very greatly influence modern political life, but it is not acquired in + political life. The colonial administrators, German or American, French or English, + of this generation lead careers which, as compared with the careers of other men of + like ability, show too little rather than too much regard for money-making; and + literally a world scandal would be caused by conduct which a Roman proconsul would + have regarded as moderate, and which would not have been especially uncommon even in + the administration of England a century and a half ago. On the whole, the great + statesmen of the last few generations have been either men of moderate means, or, if + men of wealth, men whose wealth was diminished rather than increased by their public + services.</p> + <p>I have dwelt on these points merely because it is well to emphasize in the most + emphatic fashion the fact that in many respects there is a complete lack of analogy + between the civilization of to-day and the only other civilization in any way + comparable to it, that of the ancient Græco-Roman lands. There are, of course, + many points in which the analogy is close, and in some of these points the + resemblances <a id="Page_131" name="Page_131"></a>are as ominous as they are + striking. But most striking of all is the fact that in point of physical extent, of + wide diversity of interest, and of extreme velocity of movement, the present + civilization can be compared to nothing that has ever gone before. It is now + literally a world movement, and the movement is growing ever more rapid and is ever + reaching into new fields. Any considerable influence exerted at one point is certain + to be felt with greater or less effect at almost every other point. Every path of + activity open to the human intellect is followed with an eagerness and success never + hitherto dreamed of. We have established complete liberty of conscience, and, in + consequence, a complete liberty for mental activity. All free and daring souls have + before them a well-nigh limitless opening for endeavor of any kind.</p> + <p>Hitherto every civilization that has arisen has been able to develop only a + comparatively few activities; that is, its field of endeavor has been limited in kind + as well as in locality. There have, of course, been great movements, but they were of + practically only one form of activity; and although usually this set in motion other + kinds of activities, such was not always <a id="Page_132" name="Page_132"></a>the + case. The great religious movements have been the pre-eminent examples of this type. + But they are not the only ones. Such peoples as the Mongols and the Phoenicians, at + almost opposite poles of cultivation, have represented movements in which one + element, military or commercial, so overshadowed all other elements that the movement + died out chiefly because it was one-sided. The extraordinary outburst of activity + among the Mongols of the thirteenth century was almost purely a military movement, + without even any great administrative side; and it was therefore well-nigh purely a + movement of destruction. The individual prowess and hardihood of the Mongols, and the + perfection of their military organization, rendered their armies incomparably + superior to those of any European, or any other Asiatic, power of that day. They + conquered from the Yellow Sea to the Persian Gulf and the Adriatic; they seized the + Imperial throne of China; they slew the Caliph in Bagdad; they founded dynasties in + India. The fanaticism of Christianity and the fanaticism of Mohammedanism were alike + powerless against them. The valor of the bravest fighting men in Europe was impotent + to check them. They trampled Russia into <a id="Page_133" name="Page_133"></a>bloody + mire beneath the hoofs of their horses; they drew red furrows of destruction across + Poland and Hungary; they overthrew with ease any force from western Europe that dared + encounter them. Yet they had no root of permanence; their work was mere evil while it + lasted, and it did not last long; and when they vanished they left hardly a trace + behind them. So the extraordinary Phoenician civilization was almost purely a + mercantile, a business civilization, and though it left an impress on the life that + came after, this impress was faint indeed compared to that left, for instance, by the + Greeks with their many-sided development. Yet the Greek civilization itself fell, + because this many-sided development became too exclusively one of intellect, at the + expense of character, at the expense of the fundamental qualities which fit men to + govern both themselves and others. When the Greek lost the sterner virtues, when his + soldiers lost the fighting edge, and his statesmen grew corrupt, while the people + became a faction-torn and pleasure-loving rabble, then the doom of Greece was at + hand, and not all their cultivation, their intellectual brilliancy, their artistic + development, their adroitness in speculative science, could save the<a id="Page_134" + name="Page_134"></a> Hellenic peoples as they bowed before the sword of the iron + Roman.</p> + <p>What is the lesson to us to-day? Are we to go the way of the older civilizations? + The immense increase in the area of civilized activity to-day, so that it is nearly + coterminous with the world's surface; the immense increase in the multitudinous + variety of its activities; the immense increase in the velocity of the world + movement—are all these to mean merely that the crash will be all the more + complete and terrible when it comes? We cannot be certain that the answer will be in + the negative; but of this we can be certain, that we shall not go down in ruin unless + we deserve and earn our end. There is no necessity for us to fall; we can hew out our + destiny for ourselves, if only we have the wit and the courage and the honesty.</p> + <p>Personally, I do not believe that our civilization will fall. I think that on the + whole we have grown better and not worse. I think that on the whole the future holds + more for us than even the great past has held. But, assuredly, the dreams of golden + glory in the future will not come true unless, high of heart and strong of hand, by + our own mighty deeds we make them come true. We cannot afford <a id="Page_135" + name="Page_135"></a>to develop any one set of qualities, any one set of activities, + at the cost of seeing others, equally necessary, atrophied. Neither the military + efficiency of the Mongol, the extraordinary business ability of the Phoenician, nor + the subtle and polished intellect of the Greek availed to avert destruction.</p> + <p>We, the men of to-day and of the future, need many qualities if we are to do our + work well. We need, first of all and most important of all, the qualities which stand + at the base of individual, of family life, the fundamental and essential + qualities—the homely, every-day, all-important virtues. If the average man will + not work, if he has not in him the will and the power to be a good husband and + father; if the average woman is not a good housewife, a good mother of many healthy + children, then the State will topple, will go down, no matter what may be its + brilliance of artistic development or material achievement. But these homely + qualities are not enough. There must, in addition, be that power of organization, + that power of working in common for a common end, which the German people have shown + in such signal fashion during the last half-century. Moreover, the things of the + spirit are even more important than the things of <a id="Page_136" + name="Page_136"></a>the body. We can well do without the hard intolerance and and + intellectual barrenness of what was worst in the theological systems of the past, but + there has never been greater need of a high and fine religious spirit than at the + present time. So, while we can laugh good-humoredly at some of the pretensions of + modern philosophy in its various branches, it would be worse than folly on our part + to ignore our need of intellectual leadership. Your own great Frederick once said + that if he wished to punish a province he would leave it to be governed by + philosophers; the sneer had in it an element of justice; and yet no one better than + the great Frederick knew the value of philosophers, the value of men of science, men + of letters, men of art. It would be a bad thing indeed to accept Tolstoy as a guide + in social and moral matters; but it would also be a bad thing not to have Tolstoy, + not to profit by the lofty side of his teachings. There are plenty of scientific men + whose hard arrogance, whose cynical materialism, whose dogmatic intolerance, put them + on a level with the bigoted mediæval ecclesiasticism which they denounce. Yet + our debt to scientific men is incalculable, and our civilization of to-day would have + reft from it all that which most <a id="Page_137" name="Page_137"></a>highly + distinguishes it if the work of the great masters of science during the past four + centuries were now undone or forgotten. Never has philanthropy, humanitarianism, seen + such development as now; and though we must all beware of the folly, and the + viciousness no worse than folly, which marks the believer in the perfectibility of + man when his heart runs away with his head, or when vanity usurps the place of + conscience, yet we must remember also that it is only by working along the lines laid + down by the philanthropists, by the lovers of mankind, that we can be sure of lifting + our civilization to a higher and more permanent plane of well-being than was ever + attained by any preceding civilization. Unjust war is to be abhorred; but woe to the + nation that does not make ready to hold its own in time of need against all who would + harm it! And woe thrice over to the nation in which the average man loses the + fighting edge, loses the power to serve as a soldier if the day of need should + arise!</p> + <p>It is no impossible dream to build up a civilization in which morality, ethical + development, and a true feeling of brotherhood shall all alike be divorced from false + sentimentality, and from the rancorous and evil passions <a id="Page_138" + name="Page_138"></a>which, curiously enough, so often accompany professions of + sentimental attachment to the rights of man; in which a high material development in + the things of the body shall be achieved without subordination of the things of the + soul; in which there shall be a genuine desire for peace and justice without loss of + those virile qualities without which no love of peace or justice shall avail any + race; in which the fullest development of scientific research, the great + distinguishing feature of our present civilization, shall yet not imply a belief that + intellect can ever take the place of character—for, from the standpoint of the + nation as of the individual, it is character that is the one vital possession.</p> + <p>Finally, this world movement of civilization, this movement which is now felt + throbbing in every corner of the globe, should bind the nations of the world together + while yet leaving unimpaired that love of country in the individual citizen which in + the present stage of the world's progress is essential to the world's well-being. + You, my hearers, and I who speak to you, belong to different nations. Under modern + conditions the books we read, the news sent by telegraph to our newspapers, the + strangers we meet, half of the things we <a id="Page_139" name="Page_139"></a>hear + and do each day, all tend to bring us into touch with other peoples. Each people can + do justice to itself only if it does justice to others; but each people can do its + part in the world movement for all only if it first does its duty within its own + household. The good citizen must be a good citizen of his own country first before he + can with advantage be a citizen of the world at large. I wish you well. I believe in + you and your future. I admire and wonder at the extraordinary greatness and variety + of your achievements in so many and such widely different fields; and my admiration + and regard are all the greater, and not the less, because I am so profound a believer + in the institutions and the people of my own land.</p> + <hr class="full" /> + <h2><a id="Page_143" name="Page_143"></a>The Conditions of Success</h2> + <h4><i>An Address at the Cambridge Union, May 26, 1910</i></h4> + <p>Mr. President and gentlemen, it is a very great pleasure for me to be here to-day + and to address you and to wear what the Secretary<a id="FNanchor_10_10" + name="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a><a + id="Page_144" name="Page_144"></a> has called the gilded trappings which show that I + am one of the youngest living graduates of Cambridge. Something in the nature of a + tract was handed to me before I came up here. It was an issue of the <i>Gownsman</i> + [holding up, amid laughter, a copy of an undergraduate publication] with a poem + portraying the poet's natural anxiety lest I should preach at him. Allow me to + interpose an anecdote taken from your own hunting field. A one-time Master of + Foxhounds strongly objected to the presence of a rather near-sighted and very + hard-riding friend who at times insisted on riding in the middle of the pack; and on + one occasion he earnestly addressed him as follows: "Mr. So and So, would you mind + looking at those two dogs, Ploughboy and Melody. They are very valuable, and I really + wish you would not jump on them." To which his friend replied, with great courtesy: + "My dear sir, I should be delighted to oblige you, but unfortunately I have left my + glasses at home, and I am afraid they must take their chance." I will promise to + preach as little as I can, but you must take your chance, for <a id="Page_145" + name="Page_145"></a>it is impossible to break the bad habit of a lifetime at the + bidding of a comparative stranger. I was deeply touched by the allusion to the lion + and the coat-of-arms. Before I reached London I was given to understand that it was + expected that when I walked through Trafalgar Square, I should look the other way as + I passed the lions.</p> + <p>Now I thank you very much for having made me an honorary member. Harvard men feel + peculiarly at home when they come to Cambridge. We feel we are in the domain of our + spiritual forefathers, and I doubt if you yourselves can appreciate what it is to + walk about the courts, to see your buildings, and your pictures and statues of the + innumerable men whose names we know so well, and who have been brought closer to us + by what we see here. That would apply not alone to men of the past. The Bishop of Ely + to you is the Bishop of to-day; but I felt like asking him when I met him this + morning, "Where is Hereward the Wake?" It gives an American university man a peculiar + feeling to come here and see so much that tells of the ancient history of the + University.</p> + <p>The tie between Harvard and Cambridge has always been kept up. I remember when <a + id="Page_146" name="Page_146"></a>you sent over Mr. Lehmann to teach us how to row. + He found us rather refractory pupils, I am afraid. In the course of the struggle, the + captain of the Harvard crew was eliminated. He afterwards came down to Cuba and was + one of the very best captains in my regiment. At that time, however, he was still too + close to his college days—he was separated from them only by about two weeks + when he joined me—to appreciate what I endeavored to instil into him, that + while winning a boat-race was all very well, to take part in a victorious fight, in a + real battle, was a good deal better. Sport is a fine thing as a pastime, and indeed + it is more than a mere pastime; but it is a very poor business if it is permitted to + become the one serious occupation of life.</p> + <p>One of the things I wish we could learn from you is how to make the game of + football a rather less homicidal pastime. (Laughter.) I do not wish to speak as a + mere sentimentalist; but I do not think that killing should be a normal accompaniment + of the game, and while we develop our football from Rugby, I wish we could go back + and undevelop it, and get it nearer your game. I am not qualified to speak as an + expert on the subject, but I wish we could make it more open and eliminate <a + id="Page_147" name="Page_147"></a>some features that certainly tend to add to the + danger of the game as it is played in America now. On the Pacific slope we have been + going back to your type of Rugby football. I would not have football abolished for + anything, but I want to have it changed, just because I want to draw the teeth of the + men who always clamor for the abolition of any manly game. I wish to deprive those + whom I put in the mollycoddle class, of any argument against good sport. I thoroughly + believe in sport, but I think it is a great mistake if it is made anything like a + profession, or carried on in a way that gives just cause for fault-finding and + complaint among people whose objection is not really to the defects, but to the sport + itself.</p> + <p>Now I am going to disregard your poet and preach to you for just one moment, but I + will make it as little obnoxious as possible. (Laughter.) The Secretary spoke of me + as if I were an athlete. I am not, and never have been one, although I have always + been very fond of outdoor amusement and exercise. There was, however, in my class at + Harvard, one real athlete who is now in public life. I made him Secretary of State, + or what you call Minister of Foreign Affairs, and he is <a id="Page_148" + name="Page_148"></a>now Ambassador in Paris. If I catch your terminology straight, he + would correspond to your triple blue. He was captain of the football eleven, played + on the base-ball team, and rowed in the crew, and in addition to that he was champion + heavy-weight boxer and wrestler, and won the 220-yard dash. His son was captain of + the Harvard University crew that came over here and was beaten by Oxford two years + ago. [Voices: "Cambridge."] Well, I never took a great interest in defeats. (Loud + laughter and applause.) Now, as I said before, I never was an athlete, although I + have always led an outdoor life, and have accomplished something in it, simply + because my theory is that almost any man can do a great deal, if he will, by getting + the utmost possible service out of the qualities that he actually possesses.</p> + <p>There are two kinds of success. One is the very rare kind that comes to the man + who has the power to do what no one else has the power to do. That is genius. I am + not discussing what form that genius takes; whether it is the genius of a man who can + write a poem that no one else can write, <i>The Ode on a Grecian Urn</i>, for + example, or <i>Helen, thy beauty is to me</i>; or of a man who can do 100 <a + id="Page_149" name="Page_149"></a>yards in nine and three-fifths seconds. Such a man + does what no one else can do. Only a very limited amount of the success of life comes + to persons possessing genius. The average man who is successful,—the average + statesman, the average public servant, the average soldier, who wins what we call + great success—is not a genius. He is a man who has merely the ordinary + qualities that he shares with his fellows, but who has developed those ordinary + qualities to a more than ordinary degree.</p> + <p>Take such a thing as hunting or any form of vigorous bodily exercise. Most men can + ride hard if they choose. Almost any man can kill a lion if he will exercise a little + resolution in training the qualities that will enable him to do it. [Taking a tumbler + from the table, Mr. Roosevelt held it up.] Now it is a pretty easy thing to aim + straight at an object about that size. Almost any one, if he practises with the rifle + at all, can learn to hit that tumbler; and he can hit the lion all right if he learns + to shoot as straight at its brain or heart as at the tumbler. He does not have to + possess any extraordinary capacity, not a bit,—all he has to do is to develop + certain rather ordinary qualities, but develop them to <a id="Page_150" + name="Page_150"></a>such a degree that he will not get flustered, so that he will + press the trigger steadily instead of jerking it—and then he will shoot at the + lion as well as he will at that tumbler. It is a perfectly simple quality to develop. + You don't need any remarkable skill; all you need is to possess ordinary qualities, + but to develop them to a more than ordinary degree.</p> + <p>It is just the same with the soldier. What is needed is that the man as soldier + should develop certain qualities that have been known for thousands of years, but + develop them to such a point that in an emergency he does, as a matter of course, + what a great multitude of men can do but what a very large proportion of them don't + do. And in making the appeal to the soldier, if you want to get out of him the stuff + that is in him, you will have to use phrases which the intellectual gentlemen who do + not fight will say are platitudes. (Laughter and applause.)</p> + <p>It is just so in public life. It is not genius, it is not extraordinary subtlety, + or acuteness of intellect, that is important. The things that are important are the + rather commonplace, the rather humdrum, virtues that in their sum are designated as + character. If you have in public life men of good ability, not geniuses, but <a + id="Page_151" name="Page_151"></a>men of good abilities, with character,—and, + gentlemen, you must include as one of the most important elements of character + commonsense—if you possess such men, the Government will go on very well.</p> + <p>I have spoken only of the great successes; but what I have said applies just as + much to the success that is within the reach of almost every one of us. I think that + any man who has had what is regarded in the world as a great success must realize + that the element of chance has played a great part in it. Of course a man has to take + advantage of his opportunities; but the opportunities have to come. If there is not + the war, you don't get the great general; if there is not a great occasion you don't + get the great statesman; if Lincoln had lived in times of peace no one would have + known his name now. The great crisis must come, or no man has the chance to develop + great qualities.</p> + <p>There are exceptional cases, of course, where there is a man who can do just one + thing, such as a man who can play a dozen games of chess or juggle with four rows of + figures at once—and as a rule he can do nothing else. A man of this type can do + nothing unless in the one crisis for which his powers fit him. But <a id="Page_152" + name="Page_152"></a>normally the man who makes the great success when the emergency + arises is the man who would have made a fair success in any event. I believe that the + man who is really happy in a great position—in what we call a career—is + the man who would also be happy and regard his life as successful if he had never + been thrown into that position. If a man lives a decent life and does his work fairly + and squarely so that those dependent on him and attached to him are better for his + having lived, then he is a success, and he deserves to feel that he has done his duty + and he deserves to be treated by those who have had greater success as nevertheless + having shown the fundamental qualities that entitle him to respect. We have in the + United States an organization composed of the men who forty-five years ago fought to + a finish the great Civil War. One thing that has always appealed to me in that + organization is that all of the men admitted are on a perfect equality provided the + records show that their duty was well done. Whether a man served as a + lieutenant-general or an eighteen-year-old recruit, so long as he was able to serve + for six months and did his duty in his appointed place, then he is called Comrade and + stands on an exact equality with <a id="Page_153" name="Page_153"></a>the other men. + The same principle should shape our associations in ordinary civil life.</p> + <p>I am not speaking cant to you. I remember once sitting at a table with six or + eight other public officials, and each was <ins class="correction" + title="Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'explaning'.">explaining</ins> how + he regarded being in public life, how only the sternest sense of duty prevented him + from resigning his office, and how the strain of working for a thankless constituency + was telling upon him, and nothing but the fact that he felt he ought to sacrifice his + comfort to the welfare of his country kept him in the arduous life of statesmanship. + It went round the table until it came to my turn. This was during my first term of + office as President of the United States. I said: "Now, gentlemen, I do not wish + there to be any misunderstanding. I like my job, and I want to keep it for four years + longer." (Loud laughter and applause.) I don't think any President ever enjoyed + himself more than I did. Moreover, I don't think any ex-President ever enjoyed + himself more. I have enjoyed my life and my work because I thoroughly believe that + success—the real success—does not depend upon the position you hold, but + upon how you carry yourself in that position. There is no man here <a id="Page_154" + name="Page_154"></a>to-day who has not the chance so to shape his life after he + leaves this university that he shall have the right to feel, when his life ends, that + he has made a real success of it; and his making a real success of it does not in the + least depend upon the prominence of the position he holds. Gentlemen, I thank you, + and I am glad I have violated the poet's hope and have preached to you.</p> + <hr class="full" /> + <h2><a id="Page_157" name="Page_157"></a>British Rule in Africa</h2> + <h4><i>Address Delivered at the Guildhall, London, May 31, 1910</i><a + id="FNanchor_11_11" name="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a + href="#Footnote_11_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a></h4> + <p>It is a peculiar pleasure to me to be here. And yet I cannot but appreciate, as we + all do, the sadness of the fact that I come here just after the death of the + Sovereign whom you so mourn, and whose death caused such an outburst of sympathy for + you throughout the civilized world. One of the things I shall never forget is the + attitude of that great mass of people, assembled on the day of the funeral, who in + silence, in perfect order, and with uncovered heads, saw the body of the dead King + pass to its last resting-place. I had the high honor <a id="Page_158" + name="Page_158"></a>of being deputed to come to the funeral as the representative of + America, and by my presence to express the deep and universal feeling of sympathy + which moves the entire American people for the British people in their hour of + sadness and trial.</p> + <p>I need hardly say how profoundly I feel the high honor that you confer upon me; an + honor great in itself, and great because of the ancient historic associations + connected with it, with the ceremonies incident to conferring it, and with the place + in which it is conferred. I am very deeply appreciative of all that this ceremony + means, all that this gift implies, and all the kind words which Sir Joseph Dimsdale + has used in conferring it. I thank you heartily for myself. I thank you still more + because I know that what you have done is to be taken primarily as a sign of the + respect and friendly good-will which more and more, as time goes by, tends to knit + together the English-speaking peoples.</p> + <p>I shall not try to make you any extended address of mere thanks, still less of + mere eulogy. I prefer to speak, and I know you would prefer to have me speak, on + matters of real concern to you, as to which I happen at this moment to possess some + first-hand knowledge; <a id="Page_159" name="Page_159"></a>for recently I traversed + certain portions of the British Empire under conditions which made me intimately + cognizant of their circumstances and needs. I have just spent nearly a year in + Africa. While there I saw four British protectorates. I grew heartily to respect the + men whom I there met, settlers and military and civil officials; and it seems to me + that the best service I can render them and you is very briefly to tell you how I was + impressed by some of the things that I saw. Your men in Africa are doing a great work + for your Empire, and they are also doing a great work for civilization. This fact and + my sympathy for and belief in them are my reasons for speaking. The people at home, + whether in Europe or in America, who live softly, often fail fully to realize what is + being done for them by the men who are actually engaged in the pioneer work of + civilization abroad. Of course, in any mass of men there are sure to be some who are + weak or unworthy, and even those who are good are sure to make occasional + mistakes—that is as true of pioneers as of other men. Nevertheless, the great + fact in world history during the last century has been the spread of civilization + over the world's waste spaces. The work is still going on; and the soldiers, <a + id="Page_160" name="Page_160"></a>the settlers, and the civic officials who are + actually doing it are, as a whole, entitled to the heartiest respect and the fullest + support from their brothers who remain at home.</p> + <p>At the outset, there is one point upon which I wish to insist with all possible + emphasis. The civilized nations who are conquering for civilization savage lands + should work together in a spirit of hearty mutual good-will. I listened with special + interest to what Sir Joseph Dimsdale said about the blessing of peace and good-will + among nations. I agree with that in the abstract. Let us show by our actions and our + words in specific cases that we agree with it also in the concrete. Ill-will between + civilized nations is bad enough anywhere, but it is peculiarly harmful and + contemptible when those actuated by it are engaged in the same task, a task of such + far-reaching importance to the future of humanity, the task of subduing the savagery + of wild man and wild nature, and of bringing abreast of our civilization those lands + where there is an older civilization which has somehow gone crooked. Mankind as a + whole has benefited by the noteworthy success that has attended the French occupation + of Algiers and Tunis, just as mankind as a whole has benefited by what England <a + id="Page_161" name="Page_161"></a>has done in India; and each nation should be glad + of the other nation's achievements. In the same way, it is of interest to all + civilized men that a similar success shall attend alike the Englishman and the German + as they work in East Africa; exactly as it has been a benefit to every one that + America took possession of the Philippines. Those of you who know Lord Cromer's + excellent book in which he compares modern and ancient imperialism need no words from + me to prove that the dominion of modern civilized nations over the dark places of the + earth has been fraught with widespread good for mankind; and my plea is that the + civilized nations engaged in doing this work shall treat one another with respect and + friendship, and shall hold it as discreditable to permit envy and jealousy, + backbiting and antagonism among themselves. I visited four different British + protectorates or possessions in Africa—namely, East Africa, Uganda, the Sudan, + and Egypt. About the first three, I have nothing to say to you save what is pleasant, + as well as true. About the last, I wish to say a few words because they are true, + without regard to whether or not they are pleasant.</p> + <p>In the highlands of East Africa you have a land which can be made a true white + man's <a id="Page_162" name="Page_162"></a>country. While there I met many settlers + on intimate terms, and I felt for them a peculiar sympathy, because they so + strikingly reminded me of the men of our own western frontier of America, of the + pioneer farmers and ranch-men who built up the States of the great plains and the + Rocky Mountains. It is of high importance to encourage these settlers in every way, + remembering—I say that here in the City—remembering that the prime need + is not for capitalists to exploit the land, but for settlers who shall make their + permanent homes therein. Capital is a good servant, but a mighty poor master. No + alien race should be permitted to come into competition with the settlers. + Fortunately you have now in the Governor of East Africa, Sir Percy Girouard, a man + admirably fitted to deal wisely and firmly with the many problems before him. He is + on the ground and knows the needs of the country, and is zealously devoted to its + interests. All that is necessary is to follow his lead, and to give him cordial + support and backing. The principle upon which I think it is wise to act in dealing + with far-away possessions is this—choose your man, change him if you become + discontented with him, but while you keep him back him up.<a id="Page_163" + name="Page_163"></a></p> + <p>In Uganda the problem is totally different. Uganda cannot be made a white man's + country, and the prime need is to administer the land in the interest of the native + races, and to help forward their development. Uganda has been the scene of an + extraordinary development of Christianity. Nowhere else of recent times has + missionary effort met with such success; the inhabitants stand far above most of the + races in the Dark Continent in their capacity for progress towards civilization. They + have made great strides, and the English officials have shown equal judgment and + disinterestedness in the work they have done; and they have been especially wise in + trying to develop the natives along their own lines, instead of seeking to turn them + into imitation or make-believe Englishmen. In Uganda all that is necessary is to go + forward on the paths you have already marked out.</p> + <p>The Sudan is peculiarly interesting because it affords the best possible example + of the wisdom—and when I say that I speak with historical accuracy—of + disregarding the well-meaning but unwise sentimentalists who object to the spread of + civilization at the expense of savagery. I remember a quarter of a century ago when + you were engaged in the occupation <a id="Page_164" name="Page_164"></a>of the Sudan + that many of your people at home and some of ours in America said that what was + demanded in the Sudan was the application of the principles of independence and + self-government to the Sudanese, coupled with insistence upon complete religious + toleration and the abolition of the slave trade. Unfortunately, the chief reason why + the Mahdists wanted independence and self-government was that they could put down all + religions but their own and carry on the slave trade. I do not believe that in the + whole world there is to be found any nook of territory which has shown such + astonishing progress from the most hideous misery to well-being and prosperity as the + Sudan has shown during the last twelve years while it has been under British rule. Up + to that time it was independent, and it governed itself; and independence and + self-government in the hands of the Sudanese proved to be much what independence and + self-government would have been in a wolf pack. Great crimes were committed there, + crimes so dark that their very hideousness protects them from exposure. During a + decade and a half, while Mahdism controlled the country, there flourished a tyranny + which for cruelty, blood-thirstiness, unintelligence, and wanton destructiveness <a + id="Page_165" name="Page_165"></a>surpassed anything which a civilized people can + even imagine. The keystones of the Mahdist party were religious intolerance and + slavery, with murder and the most abominable cruelty as the method of obtaining + each.</p> + <p>During those fifteen years at least two-thirds of the population, probably seven + or eight millions of people, died by violence or by starvation. Then the English came + in; put an end to the independence and self-government which had wrought this hideous + evil; restored order, kept the peace, and gave to each individual a liberty which, + during the evil days of their own self-government, not one human being possessed, + save only the blood-stained tyrant who at the moment was ruler. I stopped at village + after village in the Sudan, and in many of them I was struck by the fact that, while + there were plenty of children, they were all under twelve years old; and inquiry + always developed that these children were known as "Government children," because in + the days of Mahdism it was the literal truth that in a very large proportion of the + communities every child was either killed or died of starvation and hardship, whereas + under the peace brought by English rule families are flourishing, men and women are + no longer hunted to death, and <a id="Page_166" name="Page_166"></a>the children are + brought up under more favorable circumstances, for soul and body, than have ever + previously obtained in the entire history of the Sudan. In administration, in + education, in police work, the Sirdar<a id="FNanchor_12_12" + name="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> and his + lieutenants, great and small, have performed to perfection a task equally important + and difficult. The Government officials, civil and military, who are responsible for + this task, and the Egyptian and Sudanese who have worked with and under them, and as + directed by them, have a claim upon all civilized mankind which should be heartily + admitted. It would be a crime not to go on with the work, a work which the + inhabitants themselves are helpless to perform, unless under firm and wise guidance + from outside. I have met people who had some doubt as to whether the Sudan would pay. + Personally, I think it probably will. But I may add that, in my judgment, this fact + does not alter the duty of England to stay there. It is not worth while belonging to + a big nation unless the big nation is willing when the necessity arises to undertake + a big task. I feel about you in the Sudan just as I felt about <a id="Page_167" + name="Page_167"></a>us in Panama. When we acquired the right to build the Panama + Canal, and entered on the task, there were worthy people who came to me and said they + wondered whether it would pay. I always answered that it was one of the great world + works which had to be done; that it was our business as a nation to do it, if we were + ready to make good our claim to be treated as a great world Power; and that as we + were unwilling to abandon the claim, no American worth his salt ought to hesitate + about performing the task. I feel just the same way about you in the Sudan.</p> + <p>Now as to Egypt. It would not be worth my while to speak to you at all, nor would + it be worth your while to listen, unless on condition that I say what I deeply feel + ought to be said. I speak as an outsider, but in one way this is an advantage, for I + speak without national prejudice. I would not talk to you about your own internal + affairs here at home; but you are so very busy at home that I am not sure whether you + realize just how things are, in some places at least, abroad. At any rate, it can do + you no harm to hear the view of one who has actually been on the ground, and has + information at first hand; of one, moreover, who, it is true, is a sincere + well-wisher <a id="Page_168" name="Page_168"></a>of the British Empire, but who is + not English by blood, and who is impelled to speak mainly because of his deep concern + in the welfare of mankind and in the future of civilization. Remember also that I who + address you am not only an American, but a Radical, a real—not a + mock—democrat, and that what I have to say is spoken chiefly because I am a + democrat, a man who feels that his first thought is bound to be the welfare of the + masses of mankind, and his first duty to war against violence and injustice and + wrong-doing, wherever found; and I advise you only in accordance with the principles + on which I have myself acted as American President in dealing with the + Philippines.</p> + <p>In Egypt you are not only the guardians of your own interests; you are also the + guardians of the interests of civilization; and the present condition of affairs in + Egypt is a grave menace to both your Empire and the entire civilized world. You have + given Egypt the best government it has had for at least two thousand + years—probably a better government than it has ever had before; for never in + history has the poor man in Egypt, the tiller of the soil, the ordinary laborer, been + treated with as much justice and mercy, under a rule as free <a id="Page_169" + name="Page_169"></a>from corruption and brutality, as during the last twenty-eight + years. Yet recent events, and especially what has happened in connection with and + following on the assassination of Boutros Pasha three months ago, have shown that, in + certain vital points, you have erred; and it is for you to make good your error. It + has been an error proceeding from the effort to do too much and not too little in the + interests of the Egyptians themselves; but unfortunately it is necessary for all of + us who have to do with uncivilized peoples, and especially with fanatical peoples, to + remember that in such a situation as yours in Egypt weakness, timidity, and + sentimentality may cause even more far-reaching harm than violence and injustice. Of + all broken reeds, sentimentality<a id="FNanchor_13_13" name="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a + href="#Footnote_13_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> is the most broken reed on which + righteousness can lean.</p> + <p>In Egypt you have been treating all religions with studied fairness and + impartiality; and instead of gratefully acknowledging this, a noisy section of the + native population takes advantage of what your good treatment has done to bring about + an anti-foreign movement, a movement in which, as events have <a id="Page_170" + name="Page_170"></a>shown, murder on a large or a small scale is expected to play a + leading part. Boutros Pasha<a id="FNanchor_14_14" name="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a + href="#Footnote_14_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> was the best and most competent Egyptian + official, a steadfast upholder of English rule, and an earnest worker for the welfare + of his countrymen; and he was murdered simply and solely because of these facts, and + because he did his duty wisely, fearlessly, and uprightly. The attitude of the + so-called Egyptian Nationalist Party in connection with this murder has shown that + they were neither desirous nor capable of guaranteeing even that primary justice the + failure to supply which makes self-government not merely an empty but a noxious + farce. Such are the conditions; and where the effort made by your officials to help + the Egyptians towards self-government is taken advantage of by them, not to make + things better, not to help their country, but to try to bring murderous chaos upon + the land, then it becomes the primary duty of whoever is responsible for the + government in Egypt to establish order, and to take whatever measures are necessary + to that end.</p> + <p>It was with this primary object of establishing order that you went into Egypt + twenty-eight <a id="Page_171" name="Page_171"></a>years ago; and the chief and ample + justification for your presence in Egypt was this absolute necessity of order being + established from without, coupled with your ability and willingness to establish it. + Now, either you have the right to be in Egypt or you have not; either it is or it is + not your duty to establish and keep order. If you feel that you have not the right to + be in Egypt, if you do not wish to establish and to keep order there, why, then, by + all means get out of Egypt. If, as I hope, you feel that your duty to civilized + mankind and your fealty to your own great traditions alike bid you to stay, then make + the fact and the name agree and show that you are ready to meet in very deed the + responsibility which is yours. It is the thing, not the form, which is vital; if the + present forms of government in Egypt, established by you in the hope that they would + help the Egyptians upward, merely serve to provoke and permit disorder, then it is + for you to alter the forms; for if you stay in Egypt it is your first duty to keep + order, and above all things also to punish murder and to bring to justice all who + directly or indirectly incite others to commit murder or condone the crime when it is + committed. When a people <a id="Page_172" name="Page_172"></a>treats assassination as + the corner-stone of self-government, it forfeits all right to be treated as worthy of + self-government. You are in Egypt for several purposes, and among them one of the + greatest is the benefit of the Egyptian people. You saved them from ruin by coming + in, and at the present moment, if they are not governed from outside, they will again + sink into a welter of chaos. Some nation must govern Egypt. I hope and believe that + you will decide that it is your duty to be that nation.</p> + <hr class="full" /> + <h2><a id="Page_175" name="Page_175"></a>Biological Analogies in History<a + id="FNanchor_15_15" name="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a + href="#Footnote_15_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a></h2> + <h4><i>Delivered at Oxford, June 7, 1910</i></h4> + <p>An American who in response to such an invitation as I have received speaks in + this University of ancient renown, cannot but feel with peculiar vividness the + interest and charm of his surroundings, fraught as they are with a thousand + associations. Your great universities, and all the memories that make them great, are + living realities in the minds of scores of thousands of men who have never seen them + and who dwell across the seas in other lands. Moreover, these associations are no + stronger in the men of English stock than in those who are not. My people have been + for eight generations in America; but in one thing I am like <a id="Page_176" + name="Page_176"></a>the Americans of to-morrow, rather than like many of the + Americans of to-day; for I have in my veins the blood of men who came from many + different European races. The ethnic make-up of our people is slowly changing, so + that constantly the race tends to become more and more akin to that of those + Americans who like myself are of the old stock but not mainly of English stock. Yet I + think that as time goes by, mutual respect, understanding, and sympathy among the + English-speaking peoples grow greater and not less. Any of my ancestors, Hollander or + Huguenot, Scotchman or Irishman, who had come to Oxford in "the spacious days of + great Elizabeth," would have felt far more alien than I, their descendant, now feel. + Common heirship in the things of the spirit makes a closer bond than common heirship + in the things of the body.</p> + <p>More than ever before in the world's history we of to-day seek to penetrate the + causes of the mysteries that surround not only mankind but all life, both in the + present and the past. We search, we peer, we see things dimly; here and there we get + a ray of clear vision, as we look before and after. We study the tremendous + procession of the ages, from the immemorial <a id="Page_177" name="Page_177"></a>past + when in "cramp elf and saurian forms" the creative forces "swathed their too-much + power," down to the yesterday, a few score thousand years distant only, when the + history of man became the overwhelming fact in the history of life on this planet; + and studying, we see strange analogies in the phenomena of life and death, of birth, + growth, and change, between those physical groups of animal life which we designate + as species, forms, races, and the highly complex and composite entities which rise + before our minds when we speak of nations and civilizations.</p> + <p>It is this study which has given science its present-day prominence. In the world + of intellect, doubtless, the most marked features in the history of the past century + have been the extraordinary advances in scientific knowledge and investigation, and + in the position held by the men of science with reference to those engaged in other + pursuits. I am not now speaking of applied science; of the science, for instance, + which, having revolutionized transportation on the earth and the water, is now on the + brink of carrying it into the air; of the science that finds its expression in such + extraordinary achievements as the telephone and the telegraph; of the sciences which + <a id="Page_178" name="Page_178"></a>have so accelerated the velocity of movement in + social and industrial conditions—for the changes in the mechanical appliances + of ordinary life during the last three generations have been greater than in all the + preceding generations since history dawned. I speak of the science which has no more + direct bearing upon the affairs of our everyday life than literature or music, + painting or sculpture, poetry or history. A hundred years ago the ordinary man of + cultivation had to know something of these last subjects; but the probabilities were + rather against his having any but the most superficial scientific knowledge. At + present all this has changed, thanks to the interest taken in scientific discoveries, + the large circulation of scientific books, and the rapidity with which ideas + originating among students of the most advanced and abstruse sciences become, at + least partially, domiciled in the popular mind.</p> + <p>Another feature of the change, of the growth in the position of science in the + eyes of every one, and of the greatly increased respect naturally resulting for + scientific methods, has been a certain tendency for scientific students to encroach + on other fields. This is particularly true of the field of historical study. Not only + have scientific men insisted <a id="Page_179" name="Page_179"></a>upon the necessity + of considering the history of man, especially in its early stages, in connection with + what biology shows to be the history of life, but furthermore there has arisen a + demand that history shall itself be treated as a science. Both positions are in their + essence right; but as regards each position the more arrogant among the invaders of + the new realm of knowledge take an attitude to which it is not necessary to assent. + As regards the latter of the two positions, that which would treat history henceforth + merely as one branch of scientific study, we must of course cordially agree that + accuracy in recording facts and appreciation of their relative worth and + inter-relationship are just as necessary in historical study as in any other kind of + study. The fact that a book, though interesting, is untrue, of course removes it at + once from the category of history, however much it may still deserve to retain a + place in the always desirable group of volumes which deal with entertaining fiction. + But the converse also holds, at least to the extent of permitting us to insist upon + what would seem to be the elementary fact that a book which is written to be read + should be readable. This rather obvious truth seems to have been forgotten by <a + id="Page_180" name="Page_180"></a>some of the more zealous scientific historians, who + apparently hold that the worth of a historical book is directly in proportion to the + impossibility of reading it, save as a painful duty. Now I am willing that history + shall be treated as a branch of science, but only on condition that it also remains a + branch of literature; and, furthermore, I believe that as the field of science + encroaches on the field of literature there should be a corresponding encroachment of + literature upon science; and I hold that one of the great needs, which can only be + met by very able men whose culture is broad enough to include literature as well as + science, is the need of books for scientific laymen. We need a literature of science + which shall be readable. So far from doing away with the school of great historians, + the school of Polybius and Tacitus, Gibbon and Macaulay, we need merely that the + future writers of history, without losing the qualities which have made these men + great, shall also utilize the new facts and new methods which science has put at + their disposal. Dryness is not in itself a measure of value. No "scientific" treatise + about St. Louis will displace Joinville, for the very reason that Joinville's place + is in both history and literature; no <a id="Page_181" name="Page_181"></a>minute + study of the Napoleonic wars will teach us more than Marbot—and Marbot is as + interesting as Walter Scott. Moreover, certain at least of the branches of science + should likewise be treated by masters in the art of presentment, so that the layman + interested in science, no less than the layman interested in history, shall have on + his shelves classics which can be read. Whether this wish be or be not capable of + realization, it assuredly remains true that the great historian of the future must + essentially represent the ideal striven after by the great historians of the past. + The industrious collector of facts occupies an honorable, but not an exalted, + position, and the scientific historian who produces books which are not literature + must rest content with the honor, substantial, but not of the highest type, that + belongs to him who gathers material which some time some great master shall arise to + use.</p> + <p>Yet, while freely conceding all that can be said of the masters of literature, we + must insist upon the historian of mankind working in the scientific spirit, and using + the treasure-houses of science. He who would fully treat of man must know at least + something of biology, of the science that treats of living, <a id="Page_182" + name="Page_182"></a>breathing things; and especially of that science of evolution + which is inseparably connected with the great name of Darwin. Of course there is no + exact parallelism between the birth, growth, and death of species in the animal + world, and the birth, growth, and death of societies in the world of man. Yet there + is a certain parallelism. There are strange analogies; it may be that there are + homologies.</p> + <p>How far the resemblances between the two sets of phenomena are more than + accidental, how far biology can be used as an aid in the interpretation of human + history, we cannot at present say. The historian should never forget, what the + highest type of scientific man is always teaching us to remember, that willingness to + admit ignorance is a prime factor in developing wisdom out of knowledge. Wisdom is + advanced by research which enables us to add to knowledge; and, moreover, the way for + wisdom is made ready when men who record facts of vast but unknown import, if asked + to explain their full significance, are willing frankly to answer that they do not + know. The research which enables us to add to the sum of complete knowledge stands + first; but second only stands the research which, <a id="Page_183" + name="Page_183"></a>while enabling us clearly to pose the problem, also requires us + to say that with our present knowledge we can offer no complete solution.</p> + <p>Let me illustrate what I mean by an instance or two taken from one of the most + fascinating branches of world-history, the history of the higher forms of life, of + mammalian life, on this globe.</p> + <p>Geologists and astronomers are not agreed as to the length of time necessary for + the changes that have taken place. At any rate, many hundreds of thousands of years, + some millions of years, have passed by since in the eocene, at the beginning of the + tertiary period, we find the traces of an abundant, varied, and highly developed + mammalian life on the land masses out of which have grown the continents as we see + them to-day. The ages swept by, until, with the advent of man substantially in the + physical shape in which we now know him, we also find a mammalian fauna not + essentially different in kind, though widely differing in distribution, from that of + the present day. Throughout this immense period form succeeds form, type succeeds + type, in obedience to laws of evolution, of progress and retrogression, of + development and death, which <a id="Page_184" name="Page_184"></a>we as yet + understand only in the most imperfect manner. As knowledge increases our wisdom is + often turned into foolishness, and many of the phenomena of evolution which seemed + clearly explicable to the learned master of science who founded these lectures, to us + nowadays seem far less satisfactorily explained. The scientific men of most note now + differ widely in their estimates of the relative parts played in evolution by natural + selection, by mutation, by the inheritance of acquired characteristics; and we study + their writings with a growing impression that there are forces at work which our + blinded eyes wholly fail to apprehend; and where this is the case the part of wisdom + is to say that we believe we have such and such partial explanations, but that we are + not warranted in saying that we have the whole explanation. In tracing the history of + the development of faunal life during this period, the age of mammals, there are some + facts which are clearly established, some great and sweeping changes for which we can + with certainty ascribe reasons. There are other facts as to which we grope in the + dark, and vast changes, vast catastrophes, of which we can give no adequate + explanation.</p> + <p>Before illustrating these types, let us settle <a id="Page_185" + name="Page_185"></a>one or two matters of terminology. In the changes, the + development and extinction, of species we must remember that such expressions as "a + new species," or as "a species becoming extinct," are each commonly and + indiscriminately used to express totally different and opposite meanings. Of course + the "new" species is not new in the sense that its ancestors appeared later on the + globe's surface than those of any old species tottering to extinction. + Phylogenetically, each animal now living must necessarily trace its ancestral descent + back through countless generations, through æons of time, to the early stages + of the appearance of life on the globe. All that we mean by a "new" species is that + from some cause, or set of causes, one of these ancestral stems slowly or suddenly + develops into a form unlike any that has preceded it; so that while in one form of + life the ancestral type is continuously repeated and the old species continues to + exist, in another form of life there is a deviation from the ancestral type and a new + species appears.</p> + <p>Similarly, "extinction of species" is a term which has two entirely different + meanings. The type may become extinct by dying out and leaving no descendants. Or it + may die <a id="Page_186" name="Page_186"></a>out because as the generations go by + there is change, slow or swift, until a new form is produced. Thus in one case the + line of life comes to an end. In the other case it changes into something different. + The huge titanothere, and the small three-toed horse, both existed at what may + roughly be called the same period of the world's history, back in the middle of the + mammalian age. Both are extinct in the sense that each has completely disappeared and + that nothing like either is to be found in the world to-day. But whereas all the + individual titanotheres finally died out, leaving no descendants, a number of the + three-toed horses did leave descendants, and these descendants, constantly changing + as the ages went by, finally developed into the highly specialized one-toed horses, + asses, and zebras of to-day.</p> + <p>The analogy between the facts thus indicated and certain facts in the development + of human societies is striking. A further analogy is supplied by a very curious + tendency often visible in cases of intense and extreme specialization. When an animal + form becomes highly specialized, the type at first, because of its specialization, + triumphs over its allied rivals and its enemies, and attains a great <a id="Page_187" + name="Page_187"></a>development; until in many cases the specialization becomes so + extreme that from some cause unknown to us, or at which we merely guess, it + disappears. The new species which mark a new era commonly come from the less + specialized types, the less distinctive, dominant, and striking types, of the + preceding era.</p> + <p>When dealing with the changes, cataclysmic or gradual, which divide one period of + palæontological history from another, we can sometimes assign causes, and again + we cannot even guess at them. In the case of single species, or of faunas of very + restricted localities, the explanation is often self-evident. A comparatively slight + change in the amount of moisture in the climate, with the attendant change in + vegetation, might readily mean the destruction of a group of huge herbivores with a + bodily size such that they needed a vast quantity of food, and with teeth so weak or + so peculiar that but one or two kinds of plants could furnish this food. Again, we + now know that the most deadly foes of the higher forms of life are various lower + forms of life, such as insects, or microscopic creatures conveyed into the blood by + insects. There are districts in South America where many large animals, wild and + domestic, cannot live because of the <a id="Page_188" name="Page_188"></a>presence + either of certain ticks or of certain baleful flies. In Africa there is a terrible + genus of poison fly, each species acting as the host of microscopic creatures which + are deadly to certain of the higher vertebrates. One of these species, though + harmless to man, is fatal to all domestic animals, and this although harmless to the + closely-related wild kinsfolk of these animals. Another is fatal to man himself, + being the cause of the "sleeping sickness" which in many large districts has killed + out the entire population. Of course the development or the extension of the range of + any such insects, and any one of many other causes which we see actually at work + around us, would readily account for the destruction of some given species or even + for the destruction of several species in a limited area of country.</p> + <p>When whole faunal groups die out over large areas, the question is different, and + may or may not be susceptible of explanation with the knowledge we actually possess. + In the old arctogæal continent, for instance, in what is now Europe, Asia, and + North America, the glacial period made a complete, but of course explicable, change + in the faunal life of the region. At one time the continent held a rich <a + id="Page_189" name="Page_189"></a>and varied fauna. Then a period of great cold + supervened, and a different fauna succeeded the first. The explanation of the change + is obvious.</p> + <p>But in many other cases we cannot so much as hazard a guess at why a given change + occurred. One of the most striking instances of these inexplicable changes is that + afforded by the history of South America towards the close of the tertiary period. + For ages South America had been an island by itself, cut off from North America at + the very time that the latter was at least occasionally in land communication with + Asia. During this time a very peculiar fauna grew up in South America, some of the + types resembling nothing now existing, while others are recognizable as ancestral + forms of the ant-eaters, sloths, and armadillos of to-day. It was a peculiar and + diversified mammalian fauna, of, on the whole, rather small species, and without any + representatives of the animals with which man has been most familiar during his + career on this earth.</p> + <p>Towards the end of the tertiary period there was an upheaval of land between this + old South American island and North America, near what is now the Isthmus of Panama, + <a id="Page_190" name="Page_190"></a>thereby making a bridge across which the teeming + animal life of the northern continent had access to this queer southern continent. + There followed an inrush of huge, or swift, or formidable creatures which had + attained their development in the fierce competition of the arctogæal realm. + Elephants, camels, horses, tapirs, swine, sabre-toothed tigers, big cats, wolves, + bears, deer, crowded into South America, warring each against the other incomers and + against the old long-existing forms. A riot of life followed. Not only was the + character of the South American fauna totally changed by the invasion of these + creatures from the north, which soon swarmed over the continent, but it was also + changed through the development wrought in the old inhabitants by the severe + competition to which they were exposed. Many of the smaller or less capable types + died out. Others developed enormous bulk or complete armor protection, and thereby + saved themselves from the new beasts. In consequence, South America soon became + populated with various new species of mastodons, sabre-toothed tigers, camels, + horses, deer, cats, wolves, hooved creatures of strange shapes and some of them of + giant size, all of these being descended from <a id="Page_191" + name="Page_191"></a>the immigrant types; and side by side with them there grew up + large autochthonous [TR: original autochthonus] ungulates, giant ground sloths + well-nigh as large as elephants, and armored creatures as bulky as an ox but + structurally of the armadillo or ant-eater type; and some of these latter not only + held their own, but actually in their turn wandered north over the isthmus and + invaded North America. A fauna as varied as that of Africa to-day, as abundant in + species and individuals, even more noteworthy, because of its huge size or odd type, + and because of the terrific prowess of the more formidable flesh-eaters, was thus + developed in South America, and flourished for a period which human history would + call very long indeed, but which geologically was short.</p> + <p>Then, for no reason that we can assign, destruction fell on this fauna. All the + great and terrible creatures died out, the same fate befalling the changed + representatives of the old autochthonous fauna and the descendants of the migrants + that had come down from the north. Ground sloth and glyptodon, sabre-tooth, horse and + mastodon, and all the associated animals of large size, vanished, and South America, + though still retaining its connection with North America, once again became <a + id="Page_192" name="Page_192"></a>a land with a mammalian life small and weak + compared to that of North America and the Old World. Its fauna is now marked, for + instance, by the presence of medium-sized deer and cats, fox-like wolves, and small + camel-like creatures, as well as by the presence of small armadillos, sloths, and + ant-eaters. In other words, it includes diminutive representatives of the giants of + the preceding era, both of the giants among the older forms of mammalia, and of the + giants among the new and intrusive kinds. The change was widespread and + extraordinary, and with our present means of information it is wholly inexplicable. + There was no ice age, and it is hard to imagine any cause which would account for the + extinction of so many species of huge or moderate size, while smaller + representatives, and here and there medium-sized representatives, of many of them + were left.</p> + <p>Now as to all of these phenomena in the evolution of species, there are, if not + homologies, at least certain analogies, in the history of human societies, in the + history of the rise to prominence, of the development and change, of the temporary + dominance, and death or transformation, of the groups of varying kind which form + races or nations. Here, as in <a id="Page_193" name="Page_193"></a>biology, it is + necessary to keep in mind that we use each of the words "birth" and "death," "youth" + and "age," often very loosely, and sometimes as denoting either one of two totally + different conceptions. Of course, in one sense there is no such thing as an "old" or + a "young" nation, any more than there is an "old" or "young" family. + Phylogenetically, the line of ancestral descent must be of exactly the same length + for every existing individual, and for every group of individuals, whether forming a + family or a nation. All that can properly be meant by the terms "new" and "young" is + that in a given line of descent there has suddenly come a period of rapid change. + This change may arise either from a new development or transformation of the old + elements, or else from a new grouping of these elements with other and varied + elements; so that the words "new" nation or "young" nation may have a real difference + of significance in one case from what they have in another.</p> + <p>As in biology, so in human history, a new form may result from the specialization + of a long-existing, and hitherto very slowly changing, generalized or non-specialized + form; as, for instance, occurs when a barbaric race from <a id="Page_194" + name="Page_194"></a>a variety of causes suddenly develops a more complex cultivation + and civilization. This is what occurred, for instance, in Western Europe during the + centuries of the Teutonic and, later, the Scandinavian ethnic overflows from the + north. All the modern countries of Western Europe are descended from the states + created by these northern invaders. When first created they would be called "new" or + "young" states in the sense that part or all of the people composing them were + descended from races that hitherto had not been civilized, and that therefore, for + the first time, entered on the career of civilized communities. In the southern part + of Western Europe the new states thus formed consisted in bulk of the inhabitants + already in the land under the Roman Empire; and it was here that the new kingdoms + first took shape. Through a reflex action their influence then extended back into the + cold forests from which the invaders had come, and Germany and Scandinavia witnessed + the rise of communities with essentially the same civilization as their southern + neighbors; though in those communities, unlike the southern communities, there was no + infusion of new blood, so that the new civilized nations which gradually developed <a + id="Page_195" name="Page_195"></a>were composed entirely of members of the same races + which in the same regions had for ages lived the life of a slowly changing barbarism. + The same was true of the Slavs and the slavonized Finns of Eastern Europe, when an + infiltration of Scandinavian leaders from the north, and an infiltration of Byzantine + culture from the south, joined to produce the changes which have gradually, out of + the little Slav communities of the forest and the steppe, formed the mighty Russian + Empire of to-day.</p> + <p>Again, the new form may represent merely a splitting off from a long established, + highly developed, and specialized nation. In this case the nation is usually spoken + of as a "young," and is correctly spoken of as a "new," nation; but the term should + always be used with a clear sense of the difference between what is described in such + case, and what is described by the same term in speaking of a civilized nation just + developed from barbarism. Carthage and Syracuse were new cities compared to Tyre and + Corinth; but the Greek or Phoenician race was in every sense of the word as old in + the new city as in the old city. So, nowadays, Victoria or Manitoba is a new + community compared with England <a id="Page_196" name="Page_196"></a>or Scotland; but + the ancestral type of civilization and culture is as old in one case as in the other. + I of course do not mean for a moment that great changes are not produced by the mere + fact that the old civilized race is suddenly placed in surroundings where it has + again to go through the work of taming the wilderness, a work finished many centuries + before in the original home of the race; I merely mean that the ancestral history is + the same in each case. We can rightly use the phrase "a new people," in speaking of + Canadians or Australians, Americans or Afrikanders. But we use it in an entirely + different sense from that in which we use it when speaking of such communities as + those founded by the Northmen and their descendants during that period of astonishing + growth which saw the descendants of the Norse sea-thieves conquer and transform + Normandy, Sicily, and the British Islands; we use it in an entirely different sense + from that in which we use it when speaking of the new states that grew up around + Warsaw, Kief, Novgorod, and Moscow, as the wild savages of the steppes and the marshy + forests struggled haltingly and stumblingly upward to become builders of cities and + to form stable governments. The kingdoms of<a id="Page_197" name="Page_197"></a> + Charlemagne and Alfred were "new," compared to the empire on the Bosphorus; they were + also in every way different; their lines of ancestral descent had nothing in common + with that of the polyglot realm which paid tribute to the Cæsars of Byzantium; + their social problems and after-time history were totally different. This is not true + of those "new" nations which spring direct from old nations. Brazil, the Argentine, + the United States, are all "new" nations, compared with the nations of Europe; but, + with whatever changes in detail, their civilization is nevertheless of the general + European type, as shown in Portugal, Spain, and England. The differences between + these "new" American and these "old" European nations are not as great as those which + separate the "new" nations one from another, and the "old" nations one from another. + There are in each case very real differences between the new and the old nation; + differences both for good and for evil; but in each case there is the same ancestral + history to reckon with, the same type of civilization, with its attendant benefits + and shortcomings; and, after the pioneer stages are passed, the problems to be + solved, in spite of superficial differences, are in their essence the same; they are + those <a id="Page_198" name="Page_198"></a>that confront all civilized peoples, not + those that confront only peoples struggling from barbarism into civilization.</p> + <p>So, when we speak of the "death" of a tribe, a nation, or a civilization, the term + may be used for either one of two totally different processes, the analogy with what + occurs in biological history being complete. Certain tribes of savages—the + Tasmanians, for instance, and various little clans of American Indians—have + within the last century or two completely died out; all of the individuals have + perished, leaving no descendants, and the blood has disappeared. Certain other tribes + of Indians have as tribes disappeared or are now disappearing; but their blood + remains, being absorbed into the veins of the white intruders, or of the black men + introduced by those white intruders; so that in reality they are merely being + transformed into something absolutely different from what they were. In the United + States, in the new State of Oklahoma, the Creeks, Cherokees, Chickasaws, Delawares, + and other tribes, are in process of absorption into the mass of the white population; + when the State was admitted a couple of years ago, one of the two Senators, and three + of the five Representatives in Congress, were partly of<a id="Page_199" + name="Page_199"></a> Indian blood. In but a few years these Indian tribes will have + disappeared as completely as those that have actually died out; but the disappearance + will be by absorption and transformation into the mass of the American + population.</p> + <p>A like wide diversity in fact may be covered in the statement that a civilization + has "died out." The nationality and culture of the wonderful city-builders of the + lower Mesopotamian Plain have completely disappeared, and, though doubtless certain + influences dating therefrom are still at work, they are in such changed and hidden + form as to be unrecognizable. But the disappearance of the Roman Empire was of no + such character. There was complete change, far-reaching transformation, and at one + period a violent dislocation; but it would not be correct to speak either of the + blood or the culture of Old Rome as extinct. We are not yet in a position to + dogmatize as to the permanence or evanescence of the various strains of blood that go + to make up every civilized nationality; but it is reasonably certain that the blood + of the old Roman still flows through the veins of the modern Italian; and though + there has been much intermixture, from many different foreign sources—from <a + id="Page_200" name="Page_200"></a>foreign conquerors and from foreign + slaves—yet it is probable that the Italian type of to-day finds its dominant + ancestral type in the ancient Latin. As for the culture, the civilization of Rome, + this is even more true. It has suffered a complete transformation, partly by natural + growth, partly by absorption of totally alien elements, such as a Semitic religion, + and certain Teutonic governmental and social customs; but the process was not one of + extinction, but one of growth and transformation, both from within and by the + accretion of outside elements. In France and Spain the inheritance of Latin blood is + small; but the Roman culture which was forced on those countries has been tenaciously + retained by them, throughout all their subsequent ethnical and political changes, as + the basis on which their civilizations have been built. Moreover, the permanent + spreading of Roman influence was not limited to Europe. It has extended to and over + half of that New World which was not even dreamed of during the thousand years of + brilliant life between the birth and the death of Pagan Rome. This New World was + discovered by one Italian, and its mainland first reached and named by another; and + in it, over a territory many times <a id="Page_201" name="Page_201"></a>the size of + Trajan's empire, the Spanish, French, and Portuguese adventurers founded, beside the + St. Lawrence and the Amazon, along the flanks of the Andes and in the shadow of the + snow-capped volcanoes of Mexico, from the Rio Grande to the Straits of Magellan, + communities, now flourishing and growing apace, which in speech and culture, and even + as regards one strain in their blood, are the lineal heirs of the ancient Latin + civilization. When we speak of the disappearance, the passing away, of ancient + Babylon or Nineveh, and of ancient Rome, we are using the same terms to describe + totally different phenomena.</p> + <p>The anthropologist and historian of to-day realize much more clearly than their + predecessors of a couple of generations back how artificial most great nationalities + are, and how loose is the terminology usually employed to describe them. There is an + element of unconscious and rather pathetic humor in the simplicity of half a century + ago which spoke of the Aryan and the Teuton with reverential admiration, as if the + words denoted, not merely something definite, but something ethnologically sacred; + the writers having much the same pride and faith in their own and their + fellow-countrymen's <a id="Page_202" name="Page_202"></a>purity of descent from these + imaginary Aryan or Teutonic ancestors that was felt a few generations earlier by the + various noble families who traced their lineage direct to Odin, Æneas, or Noah. + Nowadays, of course, all students recognize that there may not be, and often is not, + the slightest connection between kinship in blood and kinship in tongue. In America + we find three races, white, red, and black, and three tongues, English, French, and + Spanish, mingled in such a way that the lines of cleavage of race continually run at + right angles to the lines of cleavage of speech; there being communities practically + of pure blood of each race found speaking each language. Aryan and Teutonic are terms + having very distinct linguistic meanings; but whether they have any such ethnical + meanings as were formerly attributed to them is so doubtful, that we cannot even be + sure whether the ancestors of most of those we call Teutons originally spoke an Aryan + tongue at all. The term Celtic, again, is perfectly clear when used linguistically; + but when used to describe a race it means almost nothing until we find out which one + of several totally different terminologies the writer or speaker is adopting. If, for + instance, the term is used <a id="Page_203" name="Page_203"></a>to designate the + short-headed, medium-sized type common throughout middle Europe, from east to west, + it denotes something entirely different from what is meant when the name is applied + to the tall, yellow-haired opponents of the Romans and the later Greeks; while if + used to designate any modern nationality, it becomes about as loose and meaningless + as the term Anglo-Saxon itself.</p> + <p>Most of the great societies which have developed a high civilization and have + played a dominant part in the world have been—and are—artificial; not + merely in social structure, but in the sense of including totally different race + types. A great nation rarely belongs to any one race, though its citizens generally + have one essentially national speech. Yet the curious fact remains that these great + artificial societies acquire such unity that in each one all the parts feel a subtle + sympathy, and move or cease to move, go forward or go back, all together, in response + to some stir or throbbing, very powerful, and yet not to be discerned by our senses. + National unity is far more apt than race unity to be a fact to reckon with; until + indeed we come to race differences as fundamental as those which divide from one + another the half-dozen great ethnic divisions <a id="Page_204" name="Page_204"></a>of + mankind, when they become so important that differences of nationality, speech, and + creed sink into littleness.</p> + <p>An ethnological map of Europe in which the peoples were divided according to their + physical and racial characteristics, such as stature, coloration, and shape of head, + would bear no resemblance whatever to a map giving the political divisions, the + nationalities, of Europe; while on the contrary a linguistic map would show a general + correspondence between speech and nationality. The northern Frenchman is in blood and + physical type more nearly allied to his German-speaking neighbor than to the + Frenchman of the Mediterranean seaboard; and the latter, in his turn, is nearer to + the Catalan than to the man who dwells beside the Channel or along the tributaries of + the Rhine. But in essential characteristics, in the qualities that tell in the + make-up of a nationality, all these kinds of Frenchmen feel keenly that they are one, + and are different from all outsiders, their differences dwindling into + insignificance, compared with the extraordinary, artificially produced, resemblances + which bring them together and wall them off from the outside world. The same is true + when we compare the German who dwells <a id="Page_205" name="Page_205"></a>where the + Alpine springs of the Danube and the Rhine interlace, with the physically different + German of the Baltic lands. The same is true of Kentishman, Cornishman, and + Yorkshireman in England.</p> + <p>In dealing, not with groups of human beings in simple and primitive relations, but + with highly complex, highly specialized, civilized, or semi-civilized societies, + there is need of great caution in drawing analogies with what has occurred in the + development of the animal world. Yet even in these cases it is curious to see how + some of the phenomena in the growth and disappearance of these complex, artificial + groups of human beings resemble what has happened in myriads of instances in the + history of life on this planet.</p> + <p>Why do great artificial empires, whose citizens are knit by a bond of speech and + culture much more than by a bond of blood, show periods of extraordinary growth, and + again of sudden or lingering decay? In some cases we can answer readily enough; in + other cases we cannot as yet even guess what the proper answer should be. If in any + such case the centrifugal forces overcome the centripetal, the nation will of course + fly to pieces, and the reason for its failure to become a dominant <a id="Page_206" + name="Page_206"></a>force is patent to every one. The minute that the spirit which + finds its healthy development in local self-government, and is the antidote to the + dangers of an extreme centralization, develops into mere particularism, into + inability to combine effectively for achievement of a common end, then it is hopeless + to expect great results. Poland and certain republics of the Western Hemisphere are + the standard examples of failure of this kind; and the United States would have + ranked with them, and her name would have become a byword of derision, if the forces + of union had not triumphed in the Civil War. So, the growth of soft luxury after it + has reached a certain point becomes a national danger patent to all. Again, it needs + but little of the vision of a seer to foretell what must happen in any community if + the average woman ceases to become the mother of a family of healthy children, if the + average man loses the will and the power to work up to old age and to fight whenever + the need arises. If the homely commonplace virtues die out, if strength of character + vanishes in graceful self-indulgence, if the virile qualities atrophy, then the + nation has lost what no material prosperity can offset.</p> + <p>But there are plenty of other phenomena <a id="Page_207" + name="Page_207"></a>wholly or partially inexplicable. It is easy to see why Rome + trended downward when great slave-tilled farms spread over what had once been a + country-side of peasant proprietors, when greed and luxury and sensuality ate like + acids into the fibre of the upper classes, while the mass of the citizens grew to + depend not upon their own exertions, but upon the State, for their pleasures and + their very livelihood. But this does not explain why the forward movement stopped at + different times, so far as different matters were concerned; at one time as regards + literature, at another time as regards architecture, at another time as regards + city-building. There is nothing mysterious about Rome's dissolution at the time of + the barbarian invasions; apart from the impoverishment and depopulation of the + Empire, its fall would be quite sufficiently explained by the mere fact that the + average citizen had lost the fighting edge—an essential even under a despotism, + and therefore far more essential in free, self-governing communities, such as those + of the English-speaking peoples of to-day. The mystery is rather that out of the + chaos and corruption of Roman society during the last days of the oligarchic + republic, there should have sprung an Empire able to <a id="Page_208" + name="Page_208"></a>hold things with reasonable steadiness for three or four + centuries. But why, for instance, should the higher kinds of literary productiveness + have ceased about the beginning of the second century, whereas the following + centuries witnessed a great outbreak of energy in the shape of city-building in the + provinces, not only in Western Europe, but in Africa? We cannot even guess why the + springs of one kind of energy dried up, while there was yet no cessation of another + kind.</p> + <p>Take another and smaller instance, that of Holland. For a period covering a little + more than the seventeenth century, Holland, like some of the Italian city-states at + an earlier period, stood on the dangerous heights of greatness, beside nations so + vastly her superior in territory and population as to make it inevitable that sooner + or later she must fall from the glorious and perilous eminence to which she had been + raised by her own indomitable soul. Her fall came; it could not have been + indefinitely postponed; but it came far quicker than it needed to come, because of + shortcomings on her part to which both Great Britain and the United States would be + wise to pay heed. Her government was singularly ineffective, the decentralization + being such as <a id="Page_209" name="Page_209"></a>often to permit the separatist, + the particularist, spirit of the provinces to rob the central authority of all + efficiency. This was bad enough. But the fatal weakness was that so common in rich, + peace-loving societies, where men hate to think of war as possible, and try to + justify their own reluctance to face it either by high-sounding moral platitudes, or + else by a philosophy of short-sighted materialism. The Dutch were very wealthy. They + grew to believe that they could hire others to do their fighting for them on land; + and on sea, where they did their own fighting, and fought very well, they refused in + time of peace to make ready fleets so efficient, as either to insure them against the + peace being broken, or else to give them the victory when war came. To be opulent and + unarmed is to secure ease in the present at the almost certain cost of disaster in + the future.</p> + <p>It is therefore easy to see why Holland lost when she did her position among the + powers; but it is far more difficult to explain why at the same time there should + have come at least a partial loss of position in the world of art and letters. Some + spark of divine fire burned itself out in the national soul. As the line of great + statesmen, of great warriors, by land <a id="Page_210" name="Page_210"></a>and sea, + came to an end, so the line of the great Dutch painters ended. The loss of + pre-eminence in the schools followed the loss of pre-eminence in camp and in council + chamber.</p> + <p>In the little republic of Holland, as in the great empire of Rome, it was not + death which came, but transformation. Both Holland and Italy teach us that races that + fall may rise again. In Holland, as in the Scandinavian kingdoms of Norway and + Sweden, there was in a sense no decadence at all. There was nothing analogous to what + has befallen so many countries; no lowering of the general standard of well-being, no + general loss of vitality, no depopulation. What happened was, first a flowering time, + in which the country's men of action and men of thought gave it a commanding position + among the nations of the day; then this period of command passed, and the State + revolved in an eddy, aside from the sweep of the mighty current of world life; and + yet the people themselves in their internal relations remained substantially + unchanged, and in many fields of endeavor have now recovered themselves, and play + again a leading part.</p> + <p>In Italy, where history is recorded for a far longer time, the course of affairs + was different. When the Roman Empire that was <a id="Page_211" + name="Page_211"></a>really Roman went down in ruin, there followed an interval of + centuries when the gloom was almost unrelieved. Every form of luxury and frivolity, + of contemptuous repugnance for serious work, of enervating self-indulgence, every + form of vice and weakness which we regard as most ominous in the civilization of + to-day, had been at work throughout Italy for generations. The nation had lost all + patriotism. It had ceased to bring forth fighters or workers, had ceased to bring + forth men of mark of any kind; and the remnant of the Italian people cowered in + helpless misery among the horse-hoofs of the barbarians, as the wild northern bands + rode in to take the land for a prey and the cities for a spoil. It was one of the + great cataclysms of history; but in the end it was seen that what came had been in + part change and growth. It was not all mere destruction. Not only did Rome leave a + vast heritage of language, culture, law, ideas, to all the modern world; but the + people of Italy kept the old blood as the chief strain in their veins. In a few + centuries came a wonderful new birth for Italy. Then for four or five hundred years + there was a growth of many little city-states which, in their energy both in peace + and war, in their fierce, fervent life, in <a id="Page_212" name="Page_212"></a>the + high quality of their men of arts and letters, and in their utter inability to + combine so as to preserve order among themselves or to repel outside invasion, cannot + unfairly be compared with classic Greece. Again Italy fell, and the land was ruled by + Spaniard or Frenchman or Austrian; and again, in the nineteenth century, there came + for the third time a wonderful new birth.</p> + <p>Contrast this persistence of the old type in its old home, and in certain lands + which it had conquered, with its utter disappearance in certain other lands where it + was intrusive, but where it at one time seemed as firmly established as in + Italy—certainly as in Spain or Gaul. No more curious example of the growth and + disappearance of a national type can be found than in the case of the + Græco-Roman dominion in Western Asia and North Africa. All told it extended + over nearly a thousand years, from the days of Alexander till after the time of + Heraclius. Throughout these lands there yet remain the ruins of innumerable cities + which tell how firmly rooted that dominion must once have been. The over-shadowing + and far-reaching importance of what occurred is sufficiently shown by the familiar + fact that the New Testament was written <a id="Page_213" name="Page_213"></a>in + Greek; while to the early Christians, North Africa seemed as much a Latin land as + Sicily or the Valley of the Po. The intrusive peoples and their culture flourished in + the lands for a period twice as long as that which has elapsed since, with the voyage + of Columbus, modern history may fairly be said to have begun; and then they withered + like dry grass before the flame of the Arab invasion, and their place knew them no + more. They overshadowed the ground; they vanished; and the old types reappeared in + their old homes, with beside them a new type, the Arab.</p> + <p>Now, as to all these changes we can at least be sure of the main facts. We know + that the Hollander remains in Holland, though the greatness of Holland has passed; we + know that the Latin blood remains in Italy, whether to a greater or less extent; and + that the Latin culture has died out in the African realm it once won, while it has + lasted in Spain and France, and thence has extended itself to continents beyond the + ocean. We may not know the causes of the facts, save partially; but the facts + themselves we do know. But there are other cases in which we are at present ignorant + even of the facts; we do not know what the <a id="Page_214" + name="Page_214"></a>changes really were, still less the hidden causes and meaning of + these changes. Much remains to be found out before we can speak with any certainty as + to whether some changes mean the actual dying out or the mere transformation of + types. It is, for instance, astonishing how little permanent change in the physical + make-up of the people seems to have been worked in Europe by the migrations of the + races in historic times. A tall, fair-haired, long-skulled race penetrates to some + southern country and establishes a commonwealth. The generations pass. There is no + violent revolution, no break in continuity of history, nothing in the written records + to indicate an epoch-making change at any given moment; and yet after a time we find + that the old type has reappeared and that the people of the locality do not + substantially differ in physical form from the people of other localities that did + not suffer such an invasion. Does this mean that gradually the children of the + invaders have dwindled and died out; or, as the blood is mixed with the ancient + blood, has there been a change, part reversion and part assimilation, to the ancient + type in its old surroundings? Do tint of skin, eyes and hair, shape of skull, and + stature, change in the new <a id="Page_215" name="Page_215"></a>environment, so as to + be like those of the older people who dwelt in this environment? Do the intrusive + races, without change of blood, tend under the pressure of their new surroundings to + change in type so as to resemble the ancient peoples of the land? Or, as the strains + mingled, has the new strain dwindled and vanished, from causes as yet obscure? Has + the blood of the Lombard practically disappeared from Italy, and of the Visigoth from + Spain, or does it still flow in large populations where the old physical type has + once more become dominant? Here in England, the long-skulled men of the long barrows, + the short-skulled men of the round barrows, have they blended, or has one or the + other type actually died out; or are they merged in some older race which they + seemingly supplanted, or have they adopted the tongue and civilization of some later + race which seemingly destroyed them? We cannot say. We do not know which of the + widely different stocks now speaking Aryan tongues represents in physical + characteristics the ancient Aryan type, nor where the type originated, nor how or why + it imposed its language on other types, nor how much or how little mixture of blood + accompanied the change of tongue.<a id="Page_216" name="Page_216"></a></p> + <p>The phenomena of national growth and decay, both of those which can and those + which cannot be explained, have been peculiarly in evidence during the four centuries + that have gone by since the discovery of America and the rounding of the Cape of Good + Hope. These have been the four centuries of by far the most intense and constantly + accelerating rapidity of movement and development that the world has yet seen. The + movement has covered all the fields of human activity. It has witnessed an altogether + unexampled spread of civilized mankind over the world, as well as an altogether + unexampled advance in man's dominion over nature; and this together with a literary + and artistic activity to be matched in but one previous epoch. This period of + extension and development has been that of one race, the so-called white race, or, to + speak more accurately, the group of peoples living in Europe, who undoubtedly have a + certain kinship of blood, who profess the Christian religion, and trace back their + culture to Greece and Rome.</p> + <p>The memories of men are short, and it is easy to forget how brief is this period + of unquestioned supremacy of the so-called white race. It is but a thing of + yesterday. During <a id="Page_217" name="Page_217"></a>the thousand years which went + before the opening of this era of European supremacy, the attitude of Asia and + Africa, of Hun and Mongol, Turk and Tartar, Arab and Moor, had on the whole been that + of successful aggression against Europe. More than a century went by after the + voyages of Columbus before the mastery in war began to pass from the Asiatic to the + European. During that time Europe produced no generals or conquerors able to stand + comparison with Selim and Solyman, Baber and Akbar. Then the European advance + gathered momentum; until at the present time peoples of European blood hold dominion + over all America and Australia and the islands of the sea, over most of Africa, and + the major half of Asia. Much of this world conquest is merely political, and such a + conquest is always likely in the long run to vanish. But very much of it represents + not a merely political, but an ethnic conquest; the intrusive people having either + exterminated or driven out the conquered peoples, or else having imposed upon them + its tongue, law, culture, and religion, together with a strain of its blood. During + this period substantially all of the world achievements worth remembering are to be + credited to the people of European descent.<a id="Page_218" name="Page_218"></a> The + first exception of any consequence is the wonderful rise of Japan within the last + generation—a phenomenon unexampled in history; for both in blood and in culture + the Japanese line of ancestral descent is as remote as possible from ours, and yet + Japan, while hitherto keeping most of what was strongest in her ancient character and + traditions, has assimilated with curious completeness most of the characteristics + that have given power and leadership to the West.</p> + <p>During this period of intense and feverish activity among the peoples of European + stock, first one and then another has taken the lead. The movement began with Spain + and Portugal. Their flowering time was as brief as it was wonderful. The gorgeous + pages of their annals are illumined by the figures of warriors, explorers, statesmen, + poets, and painters. Then their days of greatness ceased. Many partial explanations + can be given, but something remains behind, some hidden force for evil, some hidden + source of weakness upon which we cannot lay our hands. Yet there are many signs that + in the New World, after centuries of arrested growth, the peoples of Spanish and + Portuguese stock are entering upon another era of development, and there <a + id="Page_219" name="Page_219"></a>are other signs that this is true also in the + Iberian peninsula itself.</p> + <p>About the time that the first brilliant period of the leadership of the Iberian + peoples was drawing to a close, at the other end of Europe, in the land of melancholy + steppe and melancholy forest, the Slav turned in his troubled sleep and stretched out + his hand to grasp leadership and dominion. Since then almost every nation of Europe + has at one time or another sought a place in the movement of expansion; but for the + last three centuries the great phenomenon of mankind has been the growth of the + English-speaking peoples and their spread over the world's waste spaces.</p> + <p>Comparison is often made between the Empire of Britain and the Empire of Rome. + When judged relatively to the effect on all modern civilization, the Empire of Rome + is of course the more important, simply because all the nations of Europe and their + offshoots in other continents trace back their culture either to the earlier Rome by + the Tiber, or the later Rome by the Bosphorus. The Empire of Rome is the most + stupendous fact in lay history; no empire later in time can be compared with it. But + this is merely another way of saying that the nearer the source the <a id="Page_220" + name="Page_220"></a>more important becomes any deflection of the stream's current. + Absolutely, comparing the two empires one with the other in point of actual + achievement, and disregarding the immensely increased effect on other civilizations + which inhered in the older empire because it antedated the younger by a couple of + thousand years, there is little to choose between them as regards the wide and + abounding interest and importance of their careers.</p> + <p>In the world of antiquity each great empire rose when its predecessor had already + crumbled. By the time that Rome loomed large over the horizon of history, there were + left for her to contend with only decaying civilizations and raw barbarism. When she + conquered Pyrrhus, she strove against the strength of but one of the many fragments + into which Alexander's kingdom had fallen. When she conquered Carthage, she overthrew + a foe against whom for two centuries the single Greek city of Syracuse had contended + on equal terms; it was not the Sepoy armies of the Carthaginian plutocracy, but the + towering genius of the House of Barca, which rendered the struggle for ever + memorable. It was the distance and the desert, rather than the Parthian horse-bowmen, + that set bounds to Rome in the east; <a id="Page_221" name="Page_221"></a>and on the + north her advance was curbed by the vast reaches of marshy woodland, rather than by + the tall barbarians who dwelt therein. During the long generations of her greatness, + and until the sword dropped from her withered hand, the Parthian was never a menace + of aggression, and the German threatened her but to die.</p> + <p>On the contrary, the great expansion of England has occurred, the great Empire of + Britain has been achieved, during the centuries that have also seen mighty military + nations rise and flourish on the continent of Europe. It is as if Rome, while + creating and keeping the empire she won between the days of Scipio and the days of + Trajan, had at the same time held her own with the Nineveh of Sargon and Tiglath, the + Egypt of Thothmes and Rameses, and the kingdoms of Persia and Macedon in the red + flush of their warrior-dawn. The Empire of Britain is vaster in space, in population, + in wealth, in wide variety of possession, in a history of multiplied and manifold + achievement of every kind, than even the glorious Empire of Rome. Yet, unlike Rome, + Britain has won dominion in every clime, has carried her flag by conquest and + settlement to the uttermost ends of the earth, <a id="Page_222" + name="Page_222"></a>at the very time that haughty and powerful rivals, in their + abounding youth or strong maturity, were eager to set bounds to her greatness, and to + tear from her what she had won afar. England has peopled continents with her + children, has swayed the destinies of teeming myriads of alien race, has ruled + ancient monarchies, and wrested from all comers the right to the world's waste + spaces, while at home she has held her own before nations, each of military power + comparable to Rome's at her zenith.</p> + <p>Rome fell by attack from without only because the ills within her own borders had + grown incurable. What is true of your country, my hearers, is true of my own; while + we should be vigilant against foes from without, yet we need never really fear them + so long as we safeguard ourselves against the enemies within our own households; and + these enemies are our own passions and follies. Free peoples can escape being + mastered by others only by being able to master themselves. We Americans and you + people of the British Isles alike need ever to keep in mind that, among the many + qualities indispensable to the success of a great democracy, and second only to a + high and stern sense of duty, of moral <a id="Page_223" + name="Page_223"></a>obligation, are self-knowledge and self-mastery. You, my hosts, + and I may not agree in all our views; some of you would think me a very radical + democrat—as, for the matter of that, I am—and my theory of imperialism + would probably suit the anti-imperialists as little as it would suit a certain type + of forcible-feeble imperialist. But there are some points on which we must all agree + if we think soundly. The precise form of government, democratic or otherwise, is the + instrument, the tool, with which we work. It is important to have a good tool. But, + even if it is the best possible, it is only a tool. No implement can ever take the + place of the guiding intelligence that wields it. A very bad tool will ruin the work + of the best craftsman; but a good tool in bad hands is no better. In the last + analysis the all-important factor in national greatness is national character.</p> + <p>There are questions which we of the great civilized nations are ever tempted to + ask of the future. Is our time of growth drawing to an end? Are we as nations soon to + come under the rule of that great law of death which is itself but part of the great + law of life? None can tell. Forces that we can see, and other forces that are hidden + or that can but <a id="Page_224" name="Page_224"></a>dimly be apprehended, are at + work all around us, both for good and for evil. The growth in luxury, in love of + ease, in taste for vapid and frivolous excitement, is both evident and unhealthy. The + most ominous sign is the diminution in the birth-rate, in the rate of natural + increase, now to a larger or lesser degree shared by most of the civilized nations of + Central and Western Europe, of America and Australia; a diminution so great that if + it continues for the next century at the rate which has obtained for the last + twenty-five years, all the more highly civilized peoples will be stationary or else + have begun to go backward in population, while many of them will have already gone + very far backward.</p> + <p>There is much that should give us concern for the future. But there is much also + which should give us hope. No man is more apt to be mistaken than the prophet of + evil. After the French Revolution in 1830 Niebuhr hazarded the guess that all + civilization was about to go down with a crash, that we were all about to share the + fall of third-and fourth-century Rome—a respectable, but painfully overworked, + comparison. The fears once expressed by the followers of Malthus as to the future of + the world have proved groundless <a id="Page_225" name="Page_225"></a>as regards the + civilized portion of the world; it is strange indeed to look back at Carlyle's + prophecies of some seventy years ago, and then think of the teeming life of + achievement, the life of conquest of every kind, and of noble effort crowned by + success, which has been ours for the two generations since he complained to High + Heaven that all the tales had been told and all the songs sung, and that all the + deeds really worth doing had been done. I believe with all my heart that a great + future remains for us; but whether it does or does not, our duty is not altered. + However the battle may go, the soldier worthy of the name will with utmost vigor do + his allotted task, and bear himself as valiantly in defeat as in victory. Come what + will, we belong to peoples who have not yielded to the craven fear of being great. In + the ages that have gone by, the great nations, the nations that have expanded and + that have played a mighty part in the world, have in the end grown old and weakened + and vanished; but so have the nations whose only thought was to avoid all danger, all + effort, who would risk nothing, and who therefore gained nothing. In the end, the + same fate may overwhelm all alike; but the memory of the one type perishes with it, + while <a id="Page_226" name="Page_226"></a>the other leaves its mark deep on the + history of all the future of mankind.</p> + <p>A nation that seemingly dies may be born again; and even though in the physical + sense it die utterly, it may yet hand down a history of heroic achievement, and for + all time to come may profoundly influence the nations that arise in its place by the + impress of what it has done. Best of all is it to do our part well, and at the same + time to see our blood live young and vital in men and women fit to take up the task + as we lay it down; for so shall our seed inherit the earth. But if this, which is + best, is denied us, then at least it is ours to remember that if we choose we can be + torch-bearers, as our fathers were before us. The torch has been handed on from + nation to nation, from civilization to civilization, throughout all recorded time, + from the dim years before history dawned down to the blazing splendor of this teeming + century of ours. It dropped from the hands of the coward and the sluggard, of the man + wrapped in luxury or love of ease, the man whose soul was eaten away by + self-indulgence; it has been kept alight only by those who were mighty of heart and + cunning of hand. What they worked at, provided it was worth doing at all, <a + id="Page_227" name="Page_227"></a>was of less matter than how they worked, whether in + the realm of the mind or the realm of the body. If their work was good, if what they + achieved was of substance, then high success was really theirs.</p> + <p>In the first part of this lecture I drew certain analogies between what has + occurred to forms of animal life through the procession of the ages on this planet, + and what has occurred and is occurring to the great artificial civilizations which + have gradually spread over the world's surface, during the thousands of years that + have elapsed since cities of temples and palaces first rose beside the Nile and the + Euphrates, and the harbors of Minoan Crete bristled with the masts of the Ægean + craft. But of course the parallel is true only in the roughest and most general way. + Moreover, even between the civilizations of to-day and the civilizations of ancient + times, there are differences so profound that we must be cautious in drawing any + conclusions for the present based on what has happened in the past. While freely + admitting all of our follies and weaknesses of to-day, it is yet mere perversity to + refuse to realize the incredible advance that has been made in ethical standards. I + do not believe that there is the slightest necessary <a id="Page_228" + name="Page_228"></a>connection between any weakening of virile force and this advance + in the moral standard, this growth of the sense of obligation to one's neighbor and + of reluctance to do that neighbor wrong. We need have scant patience with that silly + cynicism which insists that kindliness of character only accompanies weakness of + character. On the contrary, just as in private life many of the men of strongest + character are the very men of loftiest and most exalted morality, so I believe that + in national life, as the ages go by, we shall find that the permanent national types + will more and more tend to become those in which, though intellect stands high, + character stands higher; in which rugged strength and courage, rugged capacity to + resist wrongful aggression by others, will go hand in hand with a lofty scorn of + doing wrong to others. This is the type of Timoleon, of Hampden, of Washington, and + Lincoln. These were as good men, as disinterested and unselfish men, as ever served a + State; and they were also as strong men as ever founded or saved a State. Surely such + examples prove that there is nothing Utopian in our effort to combine justice and + strength in the same nation. The really high civilizations must themselves supply the + antidote to <a id="Page_229" name="Page_229"></a>the self-indulgence and love of ease + which they tend to produce.</p> + <p>Every modern civilized nation has many and terrible problems to solve within its + own borders, problems that arise not merely from juxtaposition of poverty and riches, + but especially from the self-consciousness of both poverty and riches. Each nation + must deal with these matters in its own fashion, and yet the spirit in which the + problem is approached must ever be fundamentally the same. It must be a spirit of + broad humanity; of brotherly kindness; of acceptance of responsibility, one for each + and each for all; and at the same time a spirit as remote as the poles from every + form of weakness and sentimentality. As in war to pardon the coward is to do cruel + wrong to the brave man whose life his cowardice jeopardizes, so in civil affairs it + is revolting to every principle of justice to give to the lazy, the vicious, or even + the feeble or dull-witted, a reward which is really the robbery of what braver, + wiser, abler men have earned. The only effective way to help any man is to help him + to help himself; and the worst lesson to teach him is that he can be permanently + helped at the expense of some one else. True liberty <a id="Page_230" + name="Page_230"></a>shows itself to best advantage in protecting the rights of + others, and especially of minorities. Privilege should not be tolerated because it is + to the advantage of a minority; nor yet because it is to the advantage of a majority. + No doctrinaire theories of vested rights or freedom of contract can stand in the way + of our cutting out abuses from the body politic. Just as little can we afford to + follow the doctrinaires of an impossible—and incidentally of a highly + undesirable—social revolution, which in destroying individual + rights—including property rights—and the family, would destroy the two + chief agents in the advance of mankind, and the two chief reasons why either the + advance or the preservation of mankind is worth while. It is an evil and a dreadful + thing to be callous to sorrow and suffering and blind to our duty to do all things + possible for the betterment of social conditions. But it is an unspeakably foolish + thing to strive for this betterment by means so destructive that they would leave no + social conditions to better. In dealing with all these social problems, with the + intimate relations of the family, with wealth in private use and business use, with + labor, with poverty, the one prime necessity is to remember <a id="Page_231" + name="Page_231"></a>that though hardness of heart is a great evil it is no greater an + evil than softness of head.</p> + <p>But in addition to these problems, the most intimate and important of all, and + which to a larger or less degree affect all the modern nations somewhat alike, we of + the great nations that have expanded, that are now in complicated relations with one + another and with alien races, have special problems and special duties of our own. + You belong to a nation which possesses the greatest empire upon which the sun has + ever shone. I belong to a nation which is trying on a scale hitherto unexampled to + work out the problems of government for, of, and by the people, while at the same + time doing the international duty of a great Power. But there are certain problems + which both of us have to solve, and as to which our standards should be the same. The + Englishman, the man of the British Isles, in his various homes across the seas, and + the American, both at home and abroad, are brought into contact with utterly alien + peoples, some with a civilization more ancient than our own, others still in, or + having but recently arisen from, the barbarism which our people left behind ages ago. + The problems <a id="Page_232" name="Page_232"></a>that arise are of well-nigh + inconceivable difficulty. They cannot be solved by the foolish sentimentality of + stay-at-home people, with little patent recipes, and those cut-and-dried theories of + the political nursery which have such limited applicability amid the crash of + elemental forces. Neither can they be solved by the raw brutality of the men who, + whether at home or on the rough frontier of civilization, adopt might as the only + standard of right in dealing with other men, and treat alien races only as subjects + for exploitation.</p> + <p>No hard-and-fast rule can be drawn as applying to all alien races, because they + differ from one another far more widely than some of them differ from us. But there + are one or two rules which must not be forgotten. In the long run there can be no + justification for one race managing or controlling another unless the management and + control are exercised in the interest and for the benefit of that other race. This is + what our peoples have in the main done, and must continue in the future in even + greater degree to do, in India, Egypt, and the Philippines alike. In the next place, + as regards every race, everywhere, at home or abroad, we cannot afford to deviate + from the great rule of righteousness which bids us treat <a id="Page_233" + name="Page_233"></a>each man on his worth as a man. He must not be sentimentally + favored because he belongs to a given race; he must not be given immunity in + wrong-doing or permitted to cumber the ground, or given other privileges which would + be denied to the vicious and unfit among ourselves. On the other hand, where he acts + in a way which would entitle him to respect and reward if he was one of our own + stock, he is just as entitled to that respect and reward if he comes of another + stock, even though that other stock produces a much smaller proportion of men of his + type than does our own. This has nothing to do with social intermingling, with what + is called social equality. It has to do merely with the question of doing to each man + and each woman that elementary justice which will permit him or her to gain from life + the reward which should always accompany thrift, sobriety, self-control, respect for + the rights of others, and hard and intelligent work to a given end. To more than such + just treatment no man is entitled, and less than such just treatment no man should + receive.</p> + <p>The other type of duty is the international duty, the duty owed by one nation to + another. I hold that the laws of morality which should <a id="Page_234" + name="Page_234"></a>govern individuals in their dealings one with the other, are just + as binding concerning nations in their dealings one with the other. The application + of the moral law must be different in the two cases, because in one case it has, and + in the other it has not, the sanction of a civil law with force behind it. The + individual can depend for his rights upon the courts, which themselves derive their + force from the police power of the State. The nation can depend upon nothing of the + kind; and therefore, as things are now, it is the highest duty of the most advanced + and freest peoples to keep themselves in such a state of readiness as to forbid to + any barbarism or despotism the hope of arresting the progress of the world by + striking down the nations that lead in that progress. It would be foolish indeed to + pay heed to the unwise persons who desire disarmament to be begun by the very peoples + who, of all others, should not be left helpless before any possible foe. But we must + reprobate quite as strongly both the leaders and the peoples who practise, or + encourage, or condone, aggression and iniquity by the strong at the expense of the + weak. We should tolerate lawlessness and wickedness neither by the weak nor by the + strong; and <a id="Page_235" name="Page_235"></a>both weak and strong we should in + return treat with scrupulous fairness. The foreign policy of a great and + self-respecting country should be conducted on exactly the same plane of honor, for + insistence upon one's own rights and of respect for the rights of others, that marks + the conduct of a brave and honorable man when dealing with his fellows. Permit me to + support this statement out of my own experience. For nearly eight years I was the + head of a great nation, and charged especially with the conduct of its foreign + policy; and during those years I took no action with reference to any other people on + the face of the earth that I would not have felt justified in taking as an individual + in dealing with other individuals.</p> + <p>I believe that we of the great civilized nations of to-day have a right to feel + that long careers of achievement lie before our several countries. To each of us is + vouchsafed the honorable privilege of doing his part, however small, in that work. + Let us strive hardily for success even if by so doing we risk failure, spurning the + poorer souls of small endeavor who know neither failure nor success. Let us hope that + our own blood shall continue in the land, that our children and children's children + <a id="Page_236" name="Page_236"></a>to endless generations shall arise to take our + places and play a mighty and dominant part in the world. But whether this be denied + or granted by the years we shall not see, let at least the satisfaction be ours that + we have carried onward the lighted torch in our own day and generation. If we do + this, then, as our eyes close, and we go out into the darkness, and others' hands + grasp the torch, at least we can say that our part has been borne well and + valiantly.<a id="Page_237" name="Page_237"></a></p> + <hr class="full" /> + <h2>Appendix<a id="Page_238" name="Page_238"></a></h2> + <h2>CONVOCATION</h2> + <h3>JUNE 7, 1910</h3> + <h4>FOLLOWED BY THE DELIVERY OF</h4> + <h2>THE ROMANES LECTURE</h2> + <h4>BY</h4> + <h3>THE HON'BLE THEODORE ROOSEVELT</h3> + <h3>HON. D.C.L.</h3> + <h4>THE RIGHT HONOURABLE</h4> + <h3>LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTON</h3> + <h4>CHANCELLOR</h4> + <h4>PRESIDING</h4> + <hr class="full" /> + <h3><a id="Page_241" name="Page_241"></a><i>Convocation and the Romanes + Lecture,</i></h3> + <h4><i>June 7, 1910</i> <a id="FNanchor_16_16" name="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a + href="#Footnote_16_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a></h4> + <p>THE CHANCELLOR.<br /> + </p> + <p>Causa huius Convocationis est, Academici, ut, si vobis placuerit, in virum + Honorabilem Theodorum Roosevelt, Civitatum Foederatarum Americae Borealis olim + Praesidentem, Gradus Doctoris in Iure Civili conferatur honoris causa; ut Praelectio + exspectatissima ab eodem, Doctore in Universitate facto novissimo, coram vobis + pronuncietur; necnon ut alia peragantur, quae ad Venerabilem hanc Domum spectant.</p> + <p>Placetne igitur Venerabili huic Convocationi ut in virum Honorabilem Theodorum + Roosevelt Gradus Doctoris in Iure Civili conferatur honoris causa?</p> + <p>Placetne vobis, Domini Doctores? Placetne vobis, Magistri?<a id="Page_242" + name="Page_242"></a></p> + <hr /> + <p><i>To the Bedels.</i><br /> + </p> + <p>Ite, Bedelli! Petite Virum Honorabilem!</p> + <hr /> + <p><i>The Chancellor to the Vice-Chancellor, as Mr. Roosevelt takes his place for + presentation.</i><br /> + </p> + <p class="poem">Hic vir, hic est, tibi quem promitti saepius audis,<br /> + Cuius in adventum pavidi cessere cometae<br /> + Et septemgemini turbant trepida ostia Nili!</p> + <hr /> + <p class="ctr">PRESENTATION SPEECH by DR. HENRY GOUDY,<br /> + Regius Professor of Civil Law, Fellow of All Souls College.<br /> + </p> + <p>Insignissime Cancellarie!</p> + <p>Vosque Egregii Procuratores!</p> + <p>Saepenumero mihi et antea contigit plurimos e Republica illa illustri oriundos, + affines nostros, vobis praesentare gradum honorarium Doctoris in Iure Civili + accepturos, inter quos vel nomina praestantissimorum hominum citare in promptu esset. + Neque tamen quemquam vel suis ipsius meritis vel fama digniorem, qui hoc titulo + donaretur, salutavi quam hunc virum quem ad vos duco.</p> + <p>Batavorum antiqua stirpe ortus, sicut et nomen ipsius inclitum indicat, Americanae + patriae germanum civem sese praestitit; in qua nemo sane laudem maiorem Reipublicae + suae suorum iudicio contulisse creditur.</p> + <p>Tardius quidem ad Britannos fama nominis inclaruit, <a id="Page_243" + name="Page_243"></a>imprimis tum quum certamine inter Hispanos atque suos orto alae + Equitum praefectus rei militaris sese peritissimum ostentabat. Huic autem, omnia + scire ardenti, nulla pars humanitatis supervacua aut negligenda videbatur. Manifesto + quippe declaravit, ut cum poeta loquar:</p> + <p class="poem">"Non sibi sed toti genitum se credere mundo,"</p> + <p>atque exinde annales non tantum patriae suae sed totius terrarum orbis exemplo + virtutis implere.</p> + <p>Quippe bis Hercule! in locum amplissimum Praesulis Reipublicae suae electus + egregio illo in statu ita se gerebat ut laudes et nomen magni illius antecessoris, + Abraham Lincoln, vel aequipararet—quorum alter servitudinem, alter corruptionem + vicit. Unde et spem licet concipere ut viro bis summum civitatis honorem adepto + accedat et denuo idem ille honor terna vice, numero auspicatissimo, numerandus.</p> + <p>Fortem hospitis nostri animum et tenacem propositi novimus; felicitati et otio non + modo suorum sed etiam gentium exterarum consuluit: bellator ipse atque idem pacis + omnibus terrae gentibus firmandae auctor indefessus, sicut et exemplum illustre + praebuit nuper foedere icto post bellum inter Iapones et Scytharum populos gestuni. + Neque idem pacem veram esse iudicavit, nisi quae iustitiae et ipsa inniteretur; + quippe civitates laude dignas negavit quibus nee in se ipsis constaret fides et animi + magnitudo.</p> + <p>Venatoriam artem exercuit, historiae naturalis amator; post dimissum opus civicum + requiem in<a id="Page_244" name="Page_244"></a> Africae solitudinibus nuper quaesivit + ubi in feras terrae non minore animo, successu haud minore, ferrum exacuit quam in + malos saeculi mores saevire solitus est.</p> + <p>Iam tandem, laboribus functus, patriam suam repetiturus nobiscum paulum temporis + commoratur Ulysses ille alter, viarum pariter expertus et consiliorum largitor.</p> + <p>Neque praetermittendum est hospitem nostrum, dum varias artes colit, Musarum opus + non neglexisse, stilo non minus quam lingua facundus; quem nos, Academici, magnis de + rebus loquentem hodie audituri sumus.</p> + <p>Hunc igitur praesento</p> + <p>Theodorum Roosevelt,</p> + <p>ut admittatur ad gradum Doctoris in Iure Civili honoris causa.</p> + <hr /> + <p><i>The Chancellor to Mr. Roosevelt in admitting him to the Degree.</i><br /> + </p> + <p>Strenuissime, insignissime, civium toto orbe terrae hodie agentium, summum + ingentis rei publicae magistratum bis incorrupte gestum, ter forsitan gesture, + augustissimis regibus par, hominum domitor, beluarum ubique vastator, homo omnium + humanissime, nihil a te alienum, ne nigerrimum quidem, putans, ego auctoritate Mea et + totius Universitatis admitto te ad Gradum Doctoris in Iure Civili <i>honoris + causa</i>.<a id="Page_245" name="Page_245"></a></p> + <p><i>The Chancellor to the Bedels.</i><br /> + </p> + <p>Ite, Bedelli! Ducite Doctorem Honorabilem ad Pulpitum!</p> + <hr /> + <p><i>The Chancellor will then, in English, welcome Mr. Roosevelt to Oxford, and + invite him to deliver his Lecture.</i><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p class="ctr"><b>THE ROMANES LECTURE</b></p> + <hr /> + <p><i>At the close of the Lecture the Chancellor will direct the Vice-Chancellor to + dissolve the Convocation as follows:</i></p> + <p>Iamque tempus enim est, Insignissime mi Vice-Cancellarie, dissolve, quaeso, + Convocationem.</p> + <hr /> + <p><i>The Vice-Chancellor will dissolve the Convocation as follows:</i><br /> + </p> + <p>Celsissime Domine Cancellarie, iussu tuo dissolvimus hanc Convocationem.</p> + <p class="ctr">FINIS</p> + <hr /> + <h2><i>Convocation and the Romanes Lecture</i></h2> + <h4>TRANSLATION OF THE LATIN</h4> + <p>THE CHANCELLOR.<br /> + </p> + <p>The object of this Convocation is, that, if it be your pleasure, Gentlemen of the + University, the<a id="Page_246" name="Page_246"></a> Honorary Degree of Doctor of + Civil Law may be conferred on the Honorable Theodore Roosevelt, ex-President of the + United States of North America, that the long-expected Romanes Lecture may be + delivered by him, when he has been made the youngest Doctor in the University, and + that any other business should be transacted which may belong to this Venerable + House.</p> + <p>Is it the pleasure then of this Venerable House that the Honorary Degree of Doctor + of Civil Law should be conferred upon the Honorable Theodore Roosevelt? Is it your + pleasure, Reverend Doctors? Is it your pleasure, Masters of the University?</p> + <hr /> + <p>Go, Bedels, and bring in the Honorable gentleman!</p> + <hr /> + <p><i>The Chancellor to the Vice-Chancellor.</i><br /> + </p> + <p class="poem">Behold, Vice-Chancellor, the promised wight,<br /> + Before whose coming comets turned to flight,<br /> + And all the startled mouths of sevenfold Nile took fright!</p> + <hr /> + <p class="ctr">PRESENTATION SPEECH by DR. HENRY GOUDY.<br /> + </p> + <p>It has been my privilege to present in former years many distinguished citizens of + the great American Republic for our honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, but none of + them have surpassed in merit or obtained such world-wide celebrity as he whom I now + present to you. Of ancient Dutch lineage, as his name indicates, but still a + genuine<a id="Page_247" name="Page_247"></a> American, he has long been an + outstanding figure among his fellow citizens. He first became known to us in England + during the Spanish-American War, when he commanded a regiment of cavalry and proved + himself a most capable military leader. Omnivorous in his quest of knowledge, nothing + in human affairs seemed to him superfluous or negligible. In the language of the + poet, one might say of him—"Non sibi sed toti genitum se credere mundo." Twice + has he been elevated to the position of President of the Republic, and in performing + the duties of that high office has acquired a title to be ranked with his great + predecessor Abraham Lincoln—"Quorum alter servitudinem, alter corruptionem + vicit." May we not presage that still a third time—most auspicious of + numbers—he may be called upon to take the reins of government?</p> + <p>With unrivalled energy and tenacity of purpose he has combined lofty ideals with a + sincere devotion to the practical needs not only of his fellow countrymen, but of + humanity at large. A sincere friend of peace among nations—who does not know of + his successful efforts to terminate the devastating war between Russia and + Japan?—he has also firmly held that Peace is only a good thing when combined + with justice and right. He has ever asserted that a nation can only hope to survive + if it be self-respecting and makes itself respected by others.</p> + <p>A noted sportsman and lover of Natural History, he has recently, after his arduous + labors as Head of the State, been seeking relaxation in distant Africa, where his + onslaughts on the wild beasts of the desert have been not less fierce nor less + successful <a id="Page_248" name="Page_248"></a>than over the many-headed hydra of + corruption in his own land.</p> + <p>Now, like another Ulysses, on his homeward way he has come to us for a brief + interval, after visiting many cities and discoursing on many themes.</p> + <p>Nor must I omit to remind you that our guest, amid his engrossing duties of State, + has not neglected the Muses. Not less facile with the pen than the tongue, he has + written on many topics, and this afternoon it will be our privilege to listen to him + discoursing on a lofty theme.</p> + <hr /> + <p><i>By the Chancellor.</i><br /> + </p> + <p>Most strenuous of men, most distinguished of citizens to-day playing a part on the + stage of the world, you who have twice administered with purity the first Magistracy + of the Great Republic (and may perhaps administer it a third time), peer of the most + august Kings, queller of men, destroyer of monsters wherever found, yet the most + human of mankind, deeming nothing indifferent to you, not even the blackest of the + black; I, by my authority and that of the whole University, admit you to the Degree + of Doctor of Civil Law, <i>honoris causa</i>.</p> + <hr /> + <p>Go, Bedels, conduct the Honorable Doctor to the Lectern!</p> + <hr /> + <p class="ctr"><i>Here follows the Chancellor's welcome, and the Romanes + Lecture.</i><a id="Page_249" name="Page_249"></a></p> + <hr /> + <p><i>After the Lecture, the Chancellor to the Vice-Chancellor.</i><br /> + </p> + <p>And now, my dear Vice-Chancellor—for it is time—be good enough to + dissolve the Convocation!</p> + <p><i>The Vice-Chancellor.</i></p> + <p>Exalted Lord Chancellor, at your bidding we dissolve the Convocation.</p> + <p class="ctr">FINIS</p> + <hr class="full" /> + <h3>FOOTNOTES</h3> + <div class="note"> + <p><a id="Footnote_1_1" name="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1">[1]</a> The + text of this lecture, which is the Romanes Lecture for 1910, is included in the + present volume under the courteous permission of the Vice-Chancellor of the + University of Oxford.</p> + </div> + <div class="note"> + <p><a id="Footnote_2_2" name="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2">[2]</a> The + American Mission at Khartum is under the auspices of the United Presbyterian Church + of America. The Rev. Dr. John Giffen introduced Mr. Roosevelt to the + assembly.—L.F.A.</p> + </div> + <div class="note"> + <p><a id="Footnote_3_3" name="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3">[3]</a> One + of the most distinguished officers of the Anglo-Egyptian Army whose well-known + book, <i>Fire and Sword in the Sudan</i>, gives a graphic picture of the conditions + England has had to deal with in the Sudan.—L.F.A.</p> + </div> + <div class="note"> + <p><a id="Footnote_4_4" name="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4">[4]</a> + Prince Fouad is the uncle of the Khedive, a Mohammedan gentleman of education and + enlightened views.—L.F.A.</p> + </div> + <div class="note"> + <p><a id="Footnote_5_5" name="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5">[5]</a> The + great Moslem University of Cairo, in which 9000 students study chiefly the Koran in + mediæval fashion.—L.F.A.</p> + </div> + <div class="note"> + <p><a id="Footnote_6_6" name="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6">[6]</a> + This bit of Arabic, admirably pronounced by Mr. Roosevelt, surprised and pleased + the audience as much as his acquaintance with the life and works of Ibn Batutu + surprised and pleased the sheiks at the Moslem University two days before. Both Mr. + Roosevelt's use of the Arabic tongue and his application of the proverb were + greeted with prolonged applause.—L.F.A.</p> + </div> + <div class="note"> + <p><a id="Footnote_7_7" name="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7">[7]</a> + Awarded to Mr. Roosevelt for his acts as mediator between Russia and Japan which + resulted in the Treaty of Portsmouth and the ending of the Russo-Japanese + war.—L.F.A.</p> + </div> + <div class="note"> + <p><a id="Footnote_8_8" name="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8">[8]</a> See + the Introduction.—L.F.A.</p> + </div> + <div class="note"> + <p><a id="Footnote_9_9" name="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9">[9]</a> In + the Romanes Lecture at Oxford.—L.F.A.</p> + </div> + <div class="note"> + <p><a id="Footnote_10_10" name="Footnote_10_10"></a><a + href="#FNanchor_10_10">[10]</a> The Cambridge Union is the home of the well-known + debating society of the undergraduates of Cambridge University. To the + Vice-President, a member of Emmanuel College, the college of John Harvard who + founded Harvard University, was appropriately assigned the duty of proposing the + resolution admitting Mr. Roosevelt to honorary membership in the Union Society. In + supporting the resolution the Vice-President referred to the peculiar relation + which unites the English Cambridge and the American Cambridge in a common bond and + touched upon Mr. Roosevelt's African exploits by jocosely expressing anxiety for + the safety of "the crest of my own college, the Emmanuel Lion, which I see before + me well within range." There had just appeared in <i>Punch</i>, at the time of Mr. + Roosevelt's arrival in England, a full-page cartoon showing the lions of the Nelson + Monument in Trafalgar Square guarded by policemen and protected by a placard + announcing that "these lions are not to be shot." The Secretary, in seconding the + resolution, humorously alluded to the doctor's gown, hood, and cap, in which Mr. + Roosevelt received his degree, as a possible example of what America sometimes + regards as the gilded trappings of a feudal and reactionary + Europe.—L.F.A.</p> + </div> + <div class="note"> + <p><a id="Footnote_11_11" name="Footnote_11_11"></a><a + href="#FNanchor_11_11">[11]</a> The occasion of this address was the ceremony in + the Guildhall in which Mr. Roosevelt was presented by the Corporation of the City + of London (the oldest corporation in the world), with the Freedom of the City. Sir + Joseph Dimsdale, on behalf of the Lord Mayor and the Corporation, made the address + of presentation.—L.F.A.</p> + </div> + <div class="note"> + <p><a id="Footnote_12_12" name="Footnote_12_12"></a><a + href="#FNanchor_12_12">[12]</a> Sir Reginald Wingate, who at the time of this + address was both Sirdar of the Anglo-Egyptian Army and Governor-General of the + Sudan.—L.F.A.</p> + </div> + <div class="note"> + <p><a id="Footnote_13_13" name="Footnote_13_13"></a><a + href="#FNanchor_13_13">[13]</a> In the Introduction will be found Mr. Roosevelt's + differentiation of sentimentality from sentiment.—L.F.A.</p> + </div> + <div class="note"> + <p><a id="Footnote_14_14" name="Footnote_14_14"></a><a + href="#FNanchor_14_14">[14]</a> Compare the address at the University of + Cairo.—L.F.A.</p> + </div> + <div class="note"> + <p><a id="Footnote_15_15" name="Footnote_15_15"></a><a + href="#FNanchor_15_15">[15]</a> The text of this Lecture, which is the Romanes + Lecture for 1910, is included in the present volume under the courteous permission + of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford.—L.F.A.</p> + </div> + <div class="note"> + <p><a id="Footnote_16_16" name="Footnote_16_16"></a><a + href="#FNanchor_16_16">[16]</a> An artistically printed pamphlet, containing, with + text in Latin and in English, the programme and ritual here given, was placed by + the University authorities in the hands of each member of the + audience.—L.F.A.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13930 ***</div> +</body> +</html> |