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diff --git a/9469.txt b/9469.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..16c77bd --- /dev/null +++ b/9469.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1558 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Call of the Twentieth Century, by David Starr Jordan + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Call of the Twentieth Century + An Address to Young Men + +Author: David Starr Jordan + +Posting Date: March 16, 2014 [EBook #9469] +Release Date: December, 2005 +First Posted: October 3, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CALL OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Marvin A. Hodges, and Project +Gutenbert Distributed Proofreaders. HTML version by Al +Haines. + + + + + + + + + + + + +THE CALL OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY + +An Address to Young Men + +By DAVID STARR JORDAN + +Chancellor of Leland Stanford Junior University + +1903 + + + + + + + +To Vernon Lyman Kellogg + + + + + _So + live that + your afterself-- + the man you ought + to be--may in his time + be possible and actual. Far + away in the twenties, the thirties + of the Twentieth Century, he is awaiting + his turn. His body, his brain, his soul are in + your boyish hands. He cannot help himself. What will + you leave for him? Will it be a brain unspoiled by lust or + dissipation, a mind trained to think and act, a nervous system + true as a dial in its response to the truth about you? Will you, + boy of the Twentieth Century, let him come as a man among men + in his time, or will you throw away his inheritance before + he has had the chance to touch it? Will you let him come, + taking your place, gaining through your experiences, + hallowed through your joys, building on them his + own, or will you fling his hope away, + decreeing, wanton-like, that the man + you might have been shall never + be?_ + + + + + + +The new century has come upon us with a rush of energy that no century has +shown before. Let us stand aside for a moment that we may see what kind of +a century it is to be, what is the work it has to do, and what manner of +men it will demand to do it. + +In most regards one century is like another. Just as men are men, so times +are times. In the Twentieth Century there will be the same joys, the same +sorrows, the same marrying and giving in marriage, the same round of work +and play, of wisdom and duty, of folly and distress which other centuries +have seen. Just as each individual man has the same organs, the same +passions, the same functions as all others, so it is with all the +centuries. But we know men not by their likenesses, which are many, but by +differences in emphasis, by individual traits which are slight and subtle, +but all-important in determining our likes and dislikes, our friendships, +loves, and hates. So with the centuries; we remember those which are past +not by the mass of common traits in history and development, but by the few +events or thoughts unnoticed at the time, but which stand out like mountain +peaks raised "above oblivion's sea," when the times are all gathered in and +the century begins to blend with the "infinite azure of the past." Not wars +and conquests mark a century. The hosts grow small in the vanishing +perspective, "the captains and the kings depart," but the thoughts of men, +their attitude toward their environment, their struggles toward +duty,--these are the things which endure. + +Compared with the centuries that are past, the Twentieth Century in its +broad outlines will be like the rest. It will be selfish, generous, +careless, devoted, fatuous, efficient. But three of its traits must stand +out above all others, each raised to a higher degree than any other century +has known. The Twentieth Century above all others will be _strenuous, +complex_, and _democratic_. Strenuous the century must be, of +course. This we can all see, and we have to thank the young man of the +Twentieth Century who gave us the watchword of "the strenuous life," and +who has raised the apt phrase to the dignity of a national purpose. Our +century has a host of things to do, bold things, noble things, tedious +things, difficult things, enduring things. It has only a hundred years to +do them in, and two of these years are gone already. We must be up and +bestir ourselves. If we are called to help in this work, there is no time +for an idle minute. Idle men and idle women no doubt will cumber our way, +for there are many who have never heard of the work to do, many who will +never know that there has been a new century. These the century will pass +by with the gentle tolerance she shows to clams and squirrels, but on those +of us she calls to her service she will lay heavy burdens of duty. "The +color of life is red." Already the fad of the drooping spirit, the +end-of-the-century pose, has given way to the rush of the strenuous life, +to the feeling that struggle brings its own reward. The men who are doing +ask no favor at the end. Life is repaid by the joy of living it. + +As the century is strenuous so will it be complex. The applications of +science have made the great world small, while every part of it has grown +insistent. As the earth has shrunk to come within our grasp, so has our own +world expanded to receive it. "My mind to me a kingdom is," and to this +kingdom all the other kingdoms of the earth now send their embassadors. The +complexity of life is shown by the extension of the necessity of choice. +Each of us has to render a decision, to say yes or no a hundred times when +our grandfathers were called upon a single time. We must say yes or no to +our neighbors' theories or plans or desires, and whoever has lived or lives +or may yet live in any land or on any island of the sea has become our +neighbor. Through modern civilization we are coming into our inheritance, +and this heirloom includes the best that any man has done or thought since +history and literature and art began. It includes, too, all the arts and +inventions by which any men of any time have separated truth from error. Of +one blood are all the people of the earth, and whatsoever is done to the +least of these little ones in some degree comes to me. We suffer from the +miasma of the Indian jungles; we starve with the savages of the harvestless +islands; we grow weak with the abused peasants of the Russian steppes, who +leave us the legacy of their grippe. The great volcano which buries far off +cities at its foot casts its pitying dust over us. It is said that through +the bonds of commerce, common trade, and common need, there is growing up +the fund of a great "bank of human kindness," no genuine draft on which is +ever left dishonored. Whoever is in need of help the world over, by that +token has a claim on us. + +In our material life we draw our resources from every land. Clothing, +spices, fruits, toys, household furniture,--we lay contributions on the +whole world for the most frugal meal, for the humblest dwelling. We need +the best work of every nation and every nation asks our best of us. The day +of home-brewed ale, of home-made bread, and home-spun clothing is already +past with us. Better than we can do, our neighbors send us, and we must +send our own best in return. With home-made garments also pass away +inherited politics and hereditary religion, with all the support of caste +and with all its barriers. We must work all this out for ourselves; we must +make our own place in society; we must frame our own creeds; we must live +our own religion; for no longer can one man's religion be taken +unquestionably by any other. As the world has been unified, so is the +individual unit exalted. With all this, the simplicity of life is passing +away. Our front doors are wide open as the trains go by. The caravan +traverses our front yard. We speak to millions, millions speak to us; and +we must cultivate the social tact, the gentleness, the adroitness, the +firmness necessary to carry out our own designs without thwarting those of +others. Time no longer flows on evenly. We must count our moments, so much +for ourselves, so much for the world we serve and which serves us in +return. We must be swift and accurate in the part we play in a drama so +mighty, so strenuous, and so complex. + +More than any of the others, the Twentieth Century will be democratic. The +greatest discovery of the Nineteenth Century was that of the reality of +external things. That of the Twentieth Century will be this axiom in social +geometry: "A straight line is the shortest distance between two points." If +something needs doing, do it; the more plainly, directly, honestly, the +better. + +The earlier centuries cared little for the life of a man. Hence they failed +to discriminate. In masses and mobs they needed kings and rulers but could +not choose them. Hence the device of selecting as ruler the elder son of +the last ruler, whatever his nature might be. A child, a lunatic, a +monster, a sage,--it was all the same to these unheeding centuries. The +people could not follow those they understood or who understood them. They +must trust all to the blind chance of heredity. Tyrant or figurehead, the +mob, which from its own indifference creates the pomp of royalty, threw up +its caps for the king, and blindly died for him in his courage or in his +folly with the same unquestioning loyalty. In like manner did the mob +fashion lords and princes, each in its own image. Not the man who would do +or think or help, but the eldest son of a former lord was chosen for its +homage. The result of it all was that no use was made of the forces of +nature, for those who might have learned to control them were hunted to +their death. The men who could think and act for themselves were in no +position to give their actions leverage. + +When a people really means to do something, it must resort to democracy. It +must value men as men, not as functions of a chain of conventionalities. +"America," says Emerson, "means opportunity;" opportunity for work, +opportunity for training, opportunity for influence. Democracy exalts the +individual. It realizes that of all the treasures of the nation, the talent +of its individual men is the most important. It realizes that its first +duty is to waste none of this. It cannot afford to leave its Miltons mute +and inglorious nor to let its village Hampdens waste their strength on +petty obstacles while it has great tasks for them to accomplish. In a +democracy, when work is to be done men rise to do it. No matter what the +origin of our Washingtons and Lincolns, our Grants and our Shermans, our +Clevelands or our Roosevelts, our Eliots, our Hadleys, or our Remsens, we +know that they are being made ready for every crisis which may need their +hand, for every work we would have them carry through. To give each man the +training he deserves is to bring the right man face to face with his own +opportunity. The straight line is the shortest distance between two points +in life as in geometry. For the work of a nation we may not call on Lord +This or Earl That, whose ancestors have lain on velvet for a thousand +years; we want the man who can do the work, who can face the dragon, or +carry the message to Garcia. A man whose nerves are not relaxed by +centuries of luxury will serve us best. Give him a fair chance to try; give +us a fair chance to try him. This is the meaning of democracy; not fuss and +feathers, pomp and gold lace, but accomplishment. + +Democracy does not mean equality--just the reverse of this, it means +individual responsibility, equality before the law, of course--equality of +opportunity, but no other equality save that won by faithful service. That +social system which bids men rise must also let them fall if they cannot +maintain themselves. To choose the right man means the dismissal of the +wrong. The weak, the incompetent, the untrained, the dissipated find no +growing welcome in the century which is coming. It will have no place for +unskilled laborers. A bucket of water and a basket of coal will do all that +the unskilled laborer can do if we have skilled men to direct them. The +unskilled laborer is no product of democracy. He exists in spite of +democracy. The children of the republic are entitled to something better. A +generous education, a well-directed education, should be the birthright of +each one of them. Democracy may even intensify natural inequalities. The +man who cannot say no to cheap and vulgar temptations falls all the lower +in the degree to which he is a free agent. In competition with men alert, +loyal, trained and creative, the dullard is condemned to a lifetime of hard +labor, through no direct fault of his own. Keep the capable man down and +you may level the incapable one up. But this the Twentieth Century will not +do. This democracy will not do; this it is not now doing, and this it never +will attempt. The social condition which would give all men equal reward, +equal enjoyment, equal responsibility, may be a condition to dream of. It +may be Utopia; it is not democracy. Sir Henry Maine describes the process +of civilization as the "movement from status to contract." This is the +movement from mass to man, from subservience to individualism, from +tradition to democracy, from pomp and circumstance of non-essentials to the +method of achievement. + +Owen Wister in "The Virginian" says: "All America is divided into two +classes,--the quality and the equality. The latter will always recognize +the former when mistaken for it. Both will be with us until our women bear +nothing but kings. It was through the Declaration of Independence that we +Americans acknowledged the _eternal inequality_ of man. For by it we +abolished a cut-and-dried aristocracy. We had seen little men artificially +held up in high places, and great men artificially held down in low places, +and our own justice-loving hearts abhorred this violence to human nature. +Therefore we decreed that every man should, thenceforth have equal liberty +to find his own level. By this very decree we acknowledged and gave freedom +to true aristocracy, saying, 'Let the best man win, whoever he is.' Let the +best man win! That is America's word. That is true democracy. And true +democracy and true aristocracy are one and the same thing. If anybody +cannot see this, so much the worse for his eyesight." + +_Paucis vivat humanum genus_: "for the few the race should live,"--this +is the discarded motto of another age. The few live for the many. +The clean and strong enrich the life of all with their wisdom, with their +conquests. It is to bring about the larger equalities of opportunity, or +purpose, that we exalt the talents of the few. + +This has not always been clear, even the history of the Republic. My own +great grandfather, John Elderkin Waldo, said at Tolland, Connecticut, more +than a century ago: "Times are hard with us in New England. They will never +be any better until each farm laborer in Connecticut is willing to work all +day for a sheep's head and pluck," just as they used to do before the red +schoolhouses on the hills began to preach their doctrines of sedition and +equality. There could never be good times again, so he thought, till the +many again lived for the few. + +It is in the saving of the few who serve the many that the progress of +civilization lies. In the march of the common man, and in the influence of +the man uncommon who rises freely from the ranks, we have all of history +that counts. + +In a picture gallery at Brussels there is a painting by Wiertz, most +cynical of artists, representing the man of the Future and the things of +the Past. A naturalist holds in his right hand a magnifying glass, and in +the other a handful of Napoleon and his marshals, guns, and +battle-flags,--tiny objects swelling with meaningless glory. He examines +these intensely, while a child at his side looks on in open-eyed wonder. +She cannot understand what a grown man can find in these curious trifles +that he should take the trouble to study them. + +This painting is a parable designed to show Napoleon's real place in +history. It was painted within a dozen miles of the field of Waterloo, and +not many years after the noise of its cannon had died away. It shows the +point of view of the man of the future. Save in the degradation of France, +through the impoverishment of its life-blood, there is little in human +civilization to recall the disastrous incident of Napoleon's existence. + +_Paucis vivat humanum genus_: "the many live for the few." This shall +be true no longer. The earth belongs to him who can use it and the only +force which lasts is that which is used to make men free. + +"Triumphant America," says George Horace Lorimer, "certainly does not mean +each and every one of our seventy-eight millions. For instance, it does not +include the admitted idiots and lunatics, the registered paupers and +parasites, the caged criminals, the six million illiterates. In a sense, it +includes the twenty-five to thirty million children, for they exert a +tremendous influence upon the grown people. But in no sense does it include +the whittlers on dry-goods boxes, the bar-room loafers, the fellows that +listen all day long for the whistle to blow, those who are the first to be +mentioned whenever there is talk of cutting down the force. It does not +include those of our statesmen who spend their time in promoting corrupt +jobs, or in hunting places for lazy heelers. It does not include the +doctors who reach their high-water mark for professional knowledge on the +day they graduate, or the lawyers who lie and cheat and procure injustice +for the sake of fees. + +"Most of these--even the idiots and criminals--do a little something +towards progress. This world is so happily ordered that it is impossible +for one man to do much harm or to avoid doing some good; and one of the +greatest forces for good is the power of a bad example. Still it is not our +bad examples that make us get on and earn us these smothers of flowery +compliment. + +"Some of us are tall and others short, some straight and others crooked, +some strong, others feeble; some of us run, others walk, others snail it. +But all, all have their feet upon the same level of the common earth. And +America's worst enemy is he--or she--who by word or look encourages another +to think otherwise. Head as high as you please; but feet always upon the +common ground, never upon anybody's shoulders or neck, even though he be +weak or willing." + +So in this strenuous and complex age, this age of "fierce democracy," what +have we to do, and with what manner of men shall we work? Young men of the +Twentieth Century, will your times find place for you? There is plenty to +do in every direction. That is plain enough. All the pages in this little +book, or in a very large one, would be filled by a mere enumeration. In +agriculture a whole great empire is yet to be won in the arid west, and the +west that is not arid and the east that was never so must be turned into +one vast market-garden. The Twentieth Century will treat a farm as a +friend, and it will yield rich returns for such friendship. In the +Twentieth Century vast regions will be fitted to civilization, not by +imperialism, which blasts, but by permeation, which reclaims. + +The table-lands of Mexico, the plains of Manchuria, the Pampas of +Argentine, the moors of Northern Japan, all these regions in our own +temperate zone offer a welcome to the Anglo-Saxon farmer. The great tropics +are less hopeful, but they have never had a fair trial. The northern +nations have tried to exploit them in haste, and then to get away, never to +stay with them and work patiently to find out their best. Some day the +possibilities of the Torrid Zone may come to us as a great discovery. + +There is need of men in forestry; for we must win back the trees we have +slain with such ruthless hand. The lumberman of the future will pick ripe +trees and save the rest as carefully as the herdsman selects his stock. In +engineering, in mining, in invention, there are endless possibilities. +Every man who masters what is already known in any one branch of applied +science, makes his own fortune. He who can add a little, save a little, do +something better or something cheaper, makes the fortune of a hundred +others. "There is always room for a man of force, and he makes room for +many." + +Andrew Carnegie once said that the foundation of his fortune lay in the +employment of trained chemists, while other men made steel by rule of +thumb. Trained chemists made better steel, just a little. They devised ways +to make it cheaper, just a little, and they found means to utilize the +slag. All this means hundreds of millions of dollars, if done on a large +enough scale. + +There is no limit to the demands of engineering. A million waterfalls dash +down the slopes of the Sierras. The patient sun has hauled the water up +from the sea and spread it in snow over the mountains. The same sun will +melt the snow, and as the water falls back to the sea it will yield again +the force it cost to bring it to its heights. Thus sunshine and falling +water can be transmuted into power. This power already lights the cities of +California, and some day it may be changed into the heat which moves a +thousand factories. All these are the problems of the Electrical Engineer. +Equally rich are the opportunities in other forms of engineering. There is +no need to be in haste, perhaps, but the Twentieth Century is eager in its +quest for gold. The mother lode runs along the foothills from Bering +Straits to Cape Horn. From end to end of the continent the Twentieth +Century will bring this gold to light, and carry it all away. The Mining +Engineer who knows the mountains best finds his fortune ready to his hand. +Civil Engineers, Steam Engineers, Naval Engineers, whoever knows how to +manage things or men, even Social Engineers, Labor Engineers, all find an +eager welcome. There are never too many of those who know how; but the day +of the rule of thumb has long since past. The Engineer of to-day must +create, not imitate. And to him who can create, this last century we call +the Twentieth is yet part of the first day of Creation. + +In commerce the field is always open for young men. The world's trade is +barely yet begun. We hear people whining over the spread of the commercial +spirit, but what they mean is not the spirit of commerce. It is persistence +of provincial selfishness, a spirit which has been with us since the fall +of Adam, and which the centuries of whitening sails has as yet not +eradicated. The spirit of fair commerce is a noble spirit. Through commerce +the world is unified. Through commerce grows tolerance, and through +tolerance, peace and solidarity. Commerce is world-wide barter, each nation +giving what it can best produce for what is best among others. Freedom +breeds commerce as commerce demands freedom. Only free men can buy and +sell; for without selling no man nor nation has means to buy. When China is +a nation, her people will be no longer a "yellow peril." It is poverty, +slavery, misery, which makes men dangerous. In the words of "Joss +Chinchingoss," the Kipling of Singapore, we have only to give the Chinaman + + "The chance at home that he makes for himself elsewhere, + And the star of the Jelly-fish nation mid others shall shine as fair." + +Since the day, twenty-three years ago, on which I first passed through the +Golden Gate of California, I have seen the steady increase of the shipping +which enters that channel. There are ten vessels to-day passing in and out +to one in 1880. Another twenty-five years will see a hundred times as many. +We have discovered the Orient, and even more, the Orient has discovered us. +We may not rule it by force of arms; for that counts nothing in trade or +civilization. Commerce follows the flag only when the flag flies on +merchant ships. It has no interest in following the flag to see a fight. +Commerce follows fair play and mutual service. Through the centuries of war +men have only played at commerce. The Twentieth Century will take it +seriously, and it will call for men to do its work. It will call more +loudly than war has ever done, but it will ask its men not to die bravely, +but to live wisely, and above all truthfully to watch their accounts. + +The Twentieth Century will find room for pure science as well as for +applied science and ingenious invention. Each Helmholtz of the future will +give rise to a thousand Edisons. Exact knowledge must precede any form of +applications. The reward of pure science will be, in the future as in the +past, of its own kind, not fame nor money, but the joy of finding truth. To +this joy no favor of fortune can add. The student of nature in all the ages +has taken the vow of poverty. To him money, his own or others, means only +the power to do more or better work. + +The Twentieth Century will have its share in literature and art. Most of +the books it will print will not be literature, for idle books are written +for idle people, and many idle people are left over from less insistent +times. The books sold by the hundred thousands to men and women not trained +to make time count, will be forgotten before the century is half over. The +books it saves will be books of its own kind, plain, straightforward, +clear-cut, marked by that "fanaticism for veracity" which means everything +else that is good in the intellectual and moral development of man. The +literature of form is giving way already to the literature of power. We +care less and less for the surprises and scintillations of clever fellows; +we care more and more for the real thoughts of real men. We find that the +deepest thoughts can be expressed in the simplest language. "A straight +line is the shortest distance between two points" in literature as well as +in mechanics. "In simplicity is strength," as Watt said of machinery, and +it is true in art as well as in mechanics. + +In medicine, the field of action is growing infinitely broader, now that +its training is securely based on science, and the divining rod no longer +stands first among its implements of precision. Not long ago, it is said, a +young medical student in New York committed suicide, leaving behind this +touching sentence: "I die because there is room for no more doctors." And +this just now, when for the first time it is worth while to be a doctor. +Room for no more doctors, no doubt, of the kind to which he belonged--men +who know nothing and care nothing for science and its methods, who choose +the medical school which will turn them loose most quickly and cheaply, who +have no feeling for their patients, and whose prescriptions are given with +no more conscience than goes into the fabrication of an electric belt or +the compounding of a patent medicine. Room for no more doctors whose +highest conception is to look wise, take his chances, and pocket the fee. +Room for no more doctors just now, when the knowledge of human anatomy and +physiology has shown the way to a thousand uses of preventive surgery. Room +for no more doctors, when the knowledge of the microbes and their germs has +given the hope of successful warfare against all contagious diseases; room +for no more doctors, when antiseptics and anaesthetics have proved their +value in a thousand pain-saving ways. Room for no more doctors now, when +the doctor must be an honest man, with a sound knowledge of the human body +and a mastery of the methods of the sciences on which this knowledge +depends. Room for no more doctors of the incompetent class, because the +wiser times demand a better service. + +What is true in medicine applies also to the profession of law. The +pettifogger must give place to the jurist. The law is not a device for +getting around the statutes. It is the science and art of equity. The +lawyers of the future will not be mere pleaders before juries. They will +save their clients from need of judge or jury. In every civilized nation +the lawyers must be the law-givers. The sword has given place to the green +bag. The demands of the Twentieth Century will be that the statutes +coincide with equity. This condition educated lawyers can bring about. To +know equity is to be its defender. + +In politics the demand for serious service must grow. As we have to do with +wise and clean men, statesmen, instead of vote-manipulators, we shall feel +more and more the need for them. We shall demand not only men who can lead +in action, but men who can prevent unwise action. Often the policy which +seems most attractive to the majority is full of danger for the future. We +need men who can face popular opinion, and, if need be, to face it down. +The best citizen is one not afraid to cast his vote away by voting with the +minority. + +As we look at it in the rough, the political outlook of democracy often +seems discouraging. A great, rich, busy nation cannot stop to see who grabs +its pennies. We are plundered by the rich, we are robbed by the poor, and +trusts and unions play the tyrant over both. But all these evils are +temporary. The men that have solved greater problems in the past will not +be balked by these. Whatever is won for the cause of equity and decency is +never lost again. "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," and in this +Twentieth Century there are always plenty who are awake. One by one +political reforms take their place on our statute books, and each one comes +to stay. + +In all this, the journalist of the future may find an honorable place. He +will learn to temper enterprise with justice, audacity with fidelity, +omniscience with truthfulness. When he does this he will become a natural +leader of men because he will be their real servant. To mould public +opinion, to furnish a truthful picture of the times from day to day, either +of these ideals in journalism gives ample room for the play of the highest +manly energy. + +The need of the teacher will not grow less as the century goes on. The +history of the future is written in the schools of to-day, and the reform +which gives us better schools is the greatest of reforms. It is said that +the teacher's noblest work is to lead the child to his inheritance. This is +the inheritance he would win; the truth that men have tested in the past, +and the means by which they were led to know that it was truth. "Free +should the scholar be--free and brave," and to such as these the Twentieth +Century will bring the reward of the scholar. + +The Twentieth Century will need its preachers and leaders in religion. Some +say, idly, that religion is losing her hold in these strenuous days. But +she is not. She is simply changing her grip. The religion of this century +will be more practical, more real. It will deal with the days of the week +as well as with the Sabbath. It will be as patent in the marts of trade as +in the walls of a cathedral, for a man's religion is his working hypothesis +of life, not of life in some future world, but of life right here to-day, +the only day we have in which to build a life. It will not look backward +exclusively to "a dead fact stranded on the shore of the oblivious years," +nor will its rewards be found alone in the life to come. The world of +to-day will not be a "vale of tears" through which sinful men are to walk +unhappily toward final reward. It will be a world of light and color and +joy, a world in which each of us may have a noble though a humble +part,--the work of the "holy life of action." It will find religion in love +and wisdom and virtue, not in bloodless asceticism, philosophical +disputation, the maintenance of withered creeds, the cultivation of +fruitless emotion, or the recrudescence of forms from which the life has +gone out. It is possible, Thoreau tells us, for us to "walk in hallowed +cathedrals," and this in our every-day lives of profession or trade. It is +the loyalty to duty, the love of God through the love of men, which may +transform the workshop to a cathedral, and the life of to-day may be divine +none the less because it is strenuous and complex. It may be all the more +so because it is democratic, even the Sabbath and its duties being no +longer exalted above the other holy days. + +What sort of men does the century need for all this work it has to do? We +may be sure that it will choose its own, and those who cannot serve it will +be cast aside unpityingly. Those it can use it will pay generously, each +after its kind, some with money, some with fame, some with the sense of +power, some with the joy of service. Some will work hard in spite of vast +wealth, some only after taking the vow of poverty. + +Those not needed you can find any day. They lean against lamp-posts in +platoons, they crowd the saloons, they stand about railway stations all day +long to see trains go by. They dally on the lounges of fashionable clubs. +They may be had tied in bundles by the employers of menial labor. Their +women work at the wash-tubs, and crowd the sweat shops of great cities; or, +idle rich, they may dawdle in the various ways in which men and women +dispose of time, yielding nothing in return for it. You, whom the century +wants, belong to none of these classes. Yours must be the spirit of the +times, strenuous, complex, democratic. + +A young man is a mighty reservoir of unused power. "Give me health and a +day and I will put the pomp of emperors to shame." If I save my strength +and make the most of it, there is scarcely a limit to what I may do. The +right kind of men using their strength rightly, far outrun their own +ambitions, not as to wealth and fame and position, but as to actual +accomplishment. "I never dreamed that I should do so much," is the frequent +saying of a successful man; for all men are ready to help him who throws +his whole soul into the service. + +Men of training the century must demand. It is impossible to drop into +greatness. "There is always room at the top." so the Chicago merchant said +to his son, "but the elevator is not running." You must walk up the stairs +on your own feet. It is as easy to do great things as small, if you only +know how. The only way to learn to do great things is to do small things +well, patiently, loyally. If your ambitions run high, it will take a long +time in preparation. There is no hurry. No wise man begrudges any of the +time spent in the preparation for life, so long as it is actually making +ready. + +"Profligacy," says Emerson, "consists not in spending, but in spending off +the line of your career. The crime which bankrupts men and nations is that +of turning aside from one's main purpose to serve a job here and there." + +The value of the college training of to-day cannot be too strongly +emphasized. You cannot save time nor money by omitting it, whatever the +profession on which you enter. The college is becoming a part of life. For +a long time the American college was swayed by the traditions of the +English aristocracy. Its purpose was to certify to a man's personal +culture. The young man was sent to college that he might be a member of a +gentler caste. His degree was his badge that in his youth he had done the +proper thing for a gentleman to do. It attested not that he was wise or +good or competent to serve, but that he was bred a gentleman among +gentlemen. + +So long as the title of academic bachelor had this significance, the man of +action passed it by. It had no meaning to him, and the fine edge of +accuracy in thought and perception, which only the college can give, was +wanting in his work. The college education did not seem to disclose the +secret of power, and the man of affairs would have none of it. + +A higher ideal came from Germany,--that of erudition. The German scholar +knows some one thing thoroughly. He may be rude or uncultured, he may not +know how to use his knowledge, but whatever this knowledge is, it is sound +and genuine. Thoroughness of knowledge gives the scholar self-respect; it +makes possible a broad horizon and clear perspective. From these sources, +English and German, the American University is developing its own essential +idea,--that of personal effectiveness. The American University of to-day +seeks neither culture nor erudition as its final end. It values both as +means to greater ends. It looks forward to work in life. Its triumphs in +these regards the century will see clearly. It will value culture and +treasure erudition, but it will use both as helps toward doing things. It +will find its inspiration in the needs of the world as it is, and it is +through such effort that the world that is to be shall be made a reality. A +great work demands full preparation. It takes larger provision for a cruise +to the Cape of Good Hope than for a trip to the Isle of Dogs. For this +reason the century will ask its men to take a college education. + +It will ask much more than that,--a college education where the work is +done in earnest, students and teachers realizing its serious value, and +besides all this, it will demand the best special training which its best +universities can give. For the Twentieth Century will not be satisfied with +the universities of the fifteenth or seventeenth centuries. It will create +its own, and the young man who does the century's work will be a product of +its university system. Of this we may be sure, the training for strenuous +life is not in academic idleness. The development of living ideals is not +in an atmosphere of cynicism. The blase, lukewarm, fin-de-siecle young man +of the clubs will not represent university culture, nor, on the other hand, +will culture be dominated by a cheap utilitarianism. + +"You will hear every day around you," said Emerson to the divinity students +of Harvard, "the maxims of a low prudence. You will hear that your first +duty is to get land and money, place and fame. 'What is this truth you +seek? What is this beauty?' men will ask in derision. If, nevertheless, God +have called any of you to explain truth and beauty, be bold, be firm, be +true. When you shall say, 'As others do, so will I; I renounce, I am sorry +for it--my early visions; I must eat the good of the land, and let learning +and romantic speculations go until some more favorable season,' then dies +the man in you; then once more perish the buds of art and poetry and +science, as they have died already in a hundred thousand men. The hour of +that choice is the crisis in your history." + +The age will demand steady headed men, men whose feet stand on the ground, +men who can see things as they really are, and act accordingly. "The +resolute facing of the world as it is, with all the garments of +make-believe thrown off,"--this, according to Huxley, is the sole cure for +the evils which beset men and nations. The only philosophy of life is that +derived from its science. We know right from wrong because the destruction +is plain in human experience. Right action brings abundance of life. Wrong +action brings narrowness, decay, and degeneration. A man must have +principles of life above all questions of the mere opportunities of to-day, +but these principles are themselves derived from experience. They belong to +the higher opportunism, the consideration of what is best in the long run. +The man who is controlled by an arbitrary system without reference to +conditions, is ineffective. He becomes a crank, a fanatic, a man whose aims +are out of all proportion to results. This is because he is dealing with an +imaginary world, not with the world as it is. We may admire the valiant +knight who displays a noble chivalry in fighting wind-mills, but we do not +call on a wind-mill warrior when we have some plain, real work to +accomplish. All progress, large or small, is the resultant of many forces. +We cannot single out any one of these as of dominant value, and ignore or +despise the others. In moving through the solar system, the earth is +falling toward the sun as well as flying away from it. In human society, +egoism is coexistent with altruism, competition with co-operation, mutual +struggle with mutual aid. Each is as old as the other and each as +important; for the one could not exist without the other. Not in air-built +Utopias, but in flesh and blood, wood and stone and iron, will the movement +of humanity find its realization. + +Don't count on gambling as a means of success. Gambling rests on the desire +to get something for nothing. So does burglary and larceny. "The love of +money is the root of all evil." This was said long ago, and it is not +exactly what the wise man meant. He was speaking of unearned money. Money +is power, and to save up power is thrift. On thrift civilization is +builded. The root of all evil is the desire to get money without earning +it. To get something for nothing demoralizes all effort. The man who gets a +windfall spends his days watching the wind. The man who wins in a lottery +buys more lottery tickets. Whoever receives bad money, soon throws good +money after bad. He will throw that of others when his own is gone. No firm +or corporation is rich enough to afford to keep gamblers as clerks. + +The age will demand men of good taste who care for the best they know. +Vulgarity is satisfaction with mean things. That is vulgar which is poor of +its kind. There is a kind of music called rag-time,--vulgar music, with +catchy tunes--catchy to those who do not know nor care for things better. +There are men satisfied with rag-time music, with rag-time theatres, with +rag-time politics, rag-time knowledge, rag-time religion. "It was my duty +to have loved the highest." The highest of one man may be low for another, +but no one can afford to look downward for his enjoyments. The corrosion of +vulgarity spreads everywhere. Its poison enters every home. The billboards +of our cities bear evidence to it; our newspapers reek with it, our story +books are filled with it; we cannot keep it out of our churches or our +colleges. The man who succeeds must shun, vulgarity. To be satisfied with +poor things in one line will tarnish his ideals in the direction of his +best efforts. One great source of failure in life is satisfaction with mean +things. It is easier to be almost right than to be right. It is less trying +to wish than to do. There are many things that glitter as well as gold and +which can be had more cheaply. Illusion is always in the market and can be +had on easy terms. Realities do not lie on the bargain counters. Happiness +is based on reality. It must be earned before we can come into its +possession. Happiness is not a state. It is the accompaniment of action. It +comes from the exercise of natural functions, from doing, thinking, +planning, fighting, overcoming, loving. It is positive and strengthening. +It is the signal "all is well," passed from one nerve cell to another. It +does not burn out as it glows. It makes room for more happiness. Loving, +too, is a positive word. It is related to happiness as an impulse to +action. The love that does not work itself out in helping acts as mere +torture of the mind. The primal impulse of vice and sin is a short cut to +happiness. It promises pleasure without earning it. And this pleasure is +always an illusion. Its final legacy is weakness and pain. Pain is not a +punishment, but a warning of harm done to the body. The unearned pleasures +provoke this warning. They leave a "dark brown taste in the mouth." Their +recollection is "different in the morning." Such pleasures, Robert Burns +who had tried many of them says, are "like poppies spread," or "like the +snow-falls on the river." But it is not true that they pass and leave no +trace. Their touch is blasting. But true happiness leaves no reaction. To +do strengthens a man for more doing; to love makes room for more loving. + +The second power of vulgarity is obscenity, and this vice is like the +pestilence. All inane vulgarity tends to become obscene. From obscenity +rather than drink comes the helplessness of the ordinary tramp. + +Another form of vulgarity is profanity. The habit of swearing is not a mark +of manliness. It is the sign of a dull, coarse, unrefined nature, a lack of +verbal initiative. Sometimes, perhaps, profanity seems picturesque and +effective. I have known it so in Arizona once or twice, in old Mexico and +perhaps in Wyoming, but never in the home, or the street, or the ordinary +affairs of life. It is not that blasphemy is offensive to God. He is used +to it, perhaps, for he has met it under many conditions. But it is +offensive to man, insulting to the atmosphere, and destructive of him who +uses it. Profanity and bluster are not signs of courage. The bravest men +are quiet of speech and modest in demeanor. + +The man who is successful will not be a dreamer. He will have but one dream +and that will work itself out as a purpose. Dreaming wanes into +sentimentalism, and sentimentalism is fatal to action. The man of purpose +says no to all lesser calls, all minor opportunities. He does not abandon +his college education because a hundred dollar position is offered him +outside. He does not turn from one profession because there is money in +another. He has his claim staked out, and with time he will only fill in +the detail of its boundaries. + +"Now that you are through college, what are you going to do?" asked a +friend of a wise young man. + +"I shall study medicine," was the grave reply. + +"But isn't that profession already overcrowded?" asked the friend. + +"Possibly it is," said the youth, "but I purpose to study medicine all the +same. Those who are already in the profession must take their chances." + +In this joke of the newspapers there is a sound philosophy. Men of purpose +never overcrowd. The crowd is around the foot of the staircase waiting for +the elevator. + +The old traveller, Rafinesque, tells us that when he was a boy he read the +voyages of Captain Cook, Le Vaillant, Pallas, and Bougainville, and "my +soul was fired to be a great traveller like them, and so I became such," he +adds shortly. + +If you say to yourself: "I will be a traveller, a statesman, an engineer;" +if you never unsay it; if you bend all your powers in that direction; if +you take advantage of all helps that come in your way and reject all that +do not, you will sometime reach your goal. For the world turns aside to let +any man pass who knows whither he is going. + +"Why should we call ourselves men," said Mirabeau, "unless it be to succeed +in everything, everywhere. Say of nothing: 'This is beneath me,' nor feel +that anything is beyond your power, for nothing is impossible to the man +who can will." + +Do not say that I am expecting too much of the effects of a firm +resolution, that I give advice which would lead to failure. For the man who +will fail will never take a resolution. Those among you whom fate has cut +out to be nobodies are the ones who will never try! + +Even harmless pleasures hurt if they win you from your purpose. Lorimer's +old merchant writes to his son at Harvard: "You will meet fools enough in +the day without hunting up the main herd at night." This plain business +man's advice is worth every young man's attention. + +The Twentieth Century will ask for men of instant decision, men whose +mental equipment is all in order, ready to be used on the instant. Yes and +no, right and wrong, we must have them labelled and ready to pack to go +anywhere, to do anything at any time, or to know why we refuse to do it, if +it is something we will not do. Ethelred the Unready died helpless a +thousand years ago. The unready are still with us, but the strenuous +century will grant them but short shrift. + +The man of the Twentieth Century will be a hopeful man. He will love the +world and the world will love him. "There is no hope for you," Thoreau once +said, "unless this bit of sod under your feet is the sweetest for you in +the world--in any world." The effective man takes his reward as he goes +along. Nowhere is the sky so blue, the grass so green, the opportunities so +choice as now, here, to-day, the time, the place where his work must be +done. + +"To-day is your day and mine," I have said on another occasion; "the only +day we have, the day in which we play our part; what our part may signify +in the great whole we may not understand, but we are here to play it, and +now is the time. This we know: it is a part of action, not of whining. It +is a part of love, not cynicism. It is for us to express love in terms of +human helpfulness." + +Whatever feeling is worthy and real will express itself in action, and the +glow that surrounds worthy action we call happiness. + +He will be a loyal man, considering always the best interests of him he +serves, ready to lay down his life, if need be, for duty, ready to abandon +whatever conflicts with higher loyalty, with higher duty. + +In the economic struggles of to-day, well-meaning men are making two huge +mistakes, which in time will undo whatever of good their efforts may +accomplish. One of these is the struggle against education, the effort to +limit the number of skilled laborers, and this in a free country where each +man's birthright is the development of his skill. The other is the effort +to destroy the feeling of personal loyalty on the part of the laborer. Half +the value of any man's service lies in his willingness, his devotion to the +man or the work. This old-fashioned virtue of loyalty must not be +cheapened. The man whose service is worth paying for, gives more than his +labor. He believes that what he does is right, and when anything goes wrong +he will turn in and make it right. In the long run the laborer can get no +more than he deserves, and disloyal labor is paving the way for its own +subjugation. Unwilling service is a form of slavery, and unwilling +employment is a slavery of the employer. + +More than all this, the man in the Twentieth Century needs must be a man of +character. It was said of Abraham Lincoln that he was a man "too simply +great to scheme for his proper self." The man who schemes for his own +advancement soon forfeits the support of others. He may lay pipes and pull +wires, seeming for a little to succeed. "God consents, but only for a +time." Sooner or later, if he lives to meet his fate, he finds his end in +utter failure. And this failure is final: for those who have suffered will +not help him again. Even rats desert a sinking ship. To be successful a man +need take no heed for his own particular future. He will find his place in +the future of his work. + +In the ordinary business of life the smart man has had his day. He gives +place to the man who can bring about results. Whatever the present menace +of trust and monopoly, the business of the future must be conducted on +large lines. The profits of the future will be the legitimate reward of +economy, organization, and boldness of conception. To this end absolute +honesty is essential to success. The merchant selling poor goods at high +prices, an article which looks as good as the real thing but is something +else, must give place to a larger system, with specialized service on a +basis of absolute truthfulness. Business of a large scale must finally +demand publicity and equity. Sooner or later even monopolies must grant +this, whether we insist on it by statute or not. It is necessary for their +own protection; for large structures cannot long stand on insecure +foundations. In the long run trade is honest; for dishonest trade cuts its +own throat. + +Above all, because including all, the century will ask for men of sober +mind. The finest piece of mechanism in all the universe is the brain of man +and the mind which is its manifestation. What mind is, or how it is related +to brain cells, we cannot say, but this we know, that as the brain is, so +is the mind; whatever injury comes to the one is shown in the other. In +this complex structure, with its millions of connecting cells, we are able +to form images of the external world, truthful so far as they go, to retain +these images, to compare them, to infer relations of cause and effect, to +induce thought from sensation, and to translate thought into action. In +proportion to the exactness of these operations is the soundness, the +effectiveness of the man. The man is the mind, and everything else is +accessory. The sober man is the one who protects his brain from all that +would do it harm. Vice is our name for self-inflicted injury, and the +purpose of vice is to secure a temporary feeling of pleasure through injury +to the brain. Real happiness does not come through vice. You will know that +which is genuine because it makes room for more happiness. The pleasures of +vice are mere illusions, tricks of the nervous system, and each time these +tricks are played it is more and more difficult for the mind to tell the +truth. Such deceptions come through drunkenness and narcotism. In greater +or less degree all nerve-affecting drugs produce it; alcohol, nicotine, +caffeine, opium, cocaine, and the rest, strong or weak. Habitual use of any +of these is a physical vice. A physical vice becomes a moral vice, and all +vice leaves its record on the nervous system. To cultivate vice is to +render the actual machinery of our mind incapable of normal action. + +It is the brain's business to perceive, to think, to will, to act. All +these functions taken together we call the mind. The brain is hidden in +darkness, sheltered within a box of bone. All that it knows comes to it +from the nerves of sense. All that it can do in this world is to act on the +muscles it controls through its nerves of motion. The final purpose of +knowledge is action. Our senses tell us what lies about us, that we may +move and act, and do this wisely and safely. The sense-organs are the +brain's only teachers so far as we know, the muscles are its only servants. +But there are many orders which may be issued to these servants. Out of the +many sensations, memories, imaginations, how shall the brain choose? + +The power of attention fixes the mind on those sensations or impressions of +most worth, pushing the others into the background. Past impressions, +memory-pictures, linger in the brain, and these, bidden or unbidden, crowd +with the others. To know the relation of all these, to distinguish present +impressions from memories, realities from dreams,--this is mental sanity. +The sane brain performs its appointed task. The mind is clear, the will is +strong, the attention persistent, and all is well in the world. But the +machinery of the brain may fail. The mind grows confused. It mistakes +memories for realities. It loses the power of attention. A fixed idea may +take possession of it, or it may be filled by a thousand vagrant +impressions, wandering memories, in as many seconds. In this case the +response of the muscles becomes uncertain. The acts are governed not by the +demands of external conditions but by internal whims. This is a condition +of mania or mental irresponsibility. Some phase of mental unsoundness is +produced by any of the drugs which affect the nerves, whether stimulants or +narcotics. They may help to borrow from our future store of energy, but +they borrow at compound interest and never repay the loan. They give an +impression of joy, of rest, of activity, without giving the fact; one and +all, their function is to force the nervous system to lie. Each indulgence +in any of them makes it harder to tell the truth. One and all, their +supposed pleasures are followed by reactions, subjective pains as unreal as +the joys which they follow. Each of them, if used persistently, brings +incapacity, insanity, and death. With each of them use creates appetite. To +yield once it is easier to yield again. The harm of some of them is slight. +Tea, coffee, beer, claret, in moderate quantities, do but moderate harm, +but all of them are without other effect on the nerves save to work them +injury. White lies at the best are falsehoods. These are the white lies of +physiology. In regard to each of these, the young man must count the cost. +Count all the cost and be prepared to pay. The song of Ulrich von Huetten, +when he gave his life for religious freedom, is worth applying to all other +costly things. He sang:-- + + "'Ich habe gewagt mit Sinnen + Und trage des noch kein Reu.'" + + "With open eyes have I dared it, + and cherish no regret." + +For all indulgence in wine and coffee and tobacco you will have a bill to +pay. Perhaps not a heavy bill. The indulgence may be worth the while, but +if so, find out for yourself beforehand whether others have found it so. If +you dare, dare with open eyes and cherish no regrets. For regret is the +most profitless thing to cherish. There is nothing more distressing than +remorse without will. The only hope in the world is to stop, and by the +time that the inebriate comes to realize where he is, it is too late to +stop. + +"There is joy in life," says Sullivan, the pugilist, "but it is known only +to the man who has a few jolts of liquor under his belt." To know this kind +of joy is to put one's self beyond the reach of all others. + +The joy of the blue sky, the bright sunshine, the rushing torrent, the +songs of birds, "sweet as children's prattle is," the breath of the +meadows, the glow of effort, the beauty of poetry, the achievement of +thought, the thousand and thousand real pleasures of life, are inaccessible +to him "who has a few jolts of liquor under his belt," while the sorrows he +feels, or thinks he feels, are as unreal as his joys, and as unworthy of a +life worth living. + +There was once, I am told, a man who came into his office smacking his +lips, and said to his clerk, "The world looks very different to the man who +has had a good glass of brandy and soda in the morning." "Yes," said the +clerk, "and the man looks different to the world." + +And this is natural and inevitable, for the pleasure, which exists only in +the imagination, leads to action which has likewise nothing to do with the +demands of life. The mind is confused, and may be delighted with the +confusion, but the confused muscles tremble and halt. The tongue is +loosened and utters unfinished sentences; the hand is loosened and the +handwriting is shaky; the muscles of the eyes are unharnessed, and the two +eyes move independently and see double; the legs are loosened, and the +confusion of the brain shows itself in the confused walk. And if this +confusion is long continued, the mental deterioration shows itself in +external things,--the shabby hat and seedy clothing, and the gradual drop +of the man from stratum to stratum of society, till he brings up some night +in the ditch. As the world looks more and more different to him, so does he +look more and more different to the world. + +A prominent lawyer of Boston once told me that the great impulse to total +abstinence came to him when a young man, from hearing his fellow lawyers +talking over their cups. The most vital secrets of their clients' business +were made public property when their tongues were loosened by wine; and +this led him to the firm resolution that nothing should go into his mouth +which would prevent him from keeping it closed unless he wanted to open it. +The time will come when the only opening for the ambitious man of +intemperate habits will be in politics. It is rapidly becoming so now. +Private employers dare not trust their business to the man who drinks. The +great corporations dare not. He is not wanted on the railroads. The +steamship lines have long since cast him off. The banks dare not use him. +He cannot keep accounts. Only the people, long-suffering and generous, +remain as his resource. For this reason municipal government is his +specialty; and while this patience of the people lasts, our cities will +breed scandals as naturally as our swamps breed malaria. Already the +business of the century recognizes the truth of all this. The bonding +companies ask, before they sign a contract, whether the official in +question uses liquor, what kind of liquor, whether he smokes, gambles, or +in other ways so conducts himself that in five years he will be less of a +man than he is now. + +The great corporations ask the same questions as to all their employees. +Even these organizations called "soulless" know the value of men, and that +the vices of to-day must be reckoned at compound interest and charged +against their estimate of the young man's future. The Twentieth Century +must be temperate; for only sober men can bear the strain of its +enterprises. + +Equally dangerous is the search for the joys of love by those who would +shirk all love's responsibilities. Just as honest love is the most powerful +influence that can enter into a man's life, so is love's counterfeit the +most disintegrating. Happiness cannot spring from the ashes of lust. Love +looks toward the future. Its glory is its altruism. To shirk responsibility +is to destroy the home. The equal marriage demands equal purity of heart, +equal chastity of intention. Open vice brings with certainty disease and +degradation. Secret lust comes to the same end, but all the more surely +because the folly of lying is added to other sources of decay. That society +is so severe in its condemnation of "the double life" is an expression of +the bitterness of its experience. The real character of a man is measured +by the truth he shows to women. His ideal of womankind is gauged by the +character of the woman he seeks. + +In general, the sinner is not the man who sets out in life to be wicked. +Few men are born wicked; many are born weak. False ideas of manliness; +false conceptions of good fellowship, which false ideas of the relationship +of men and women give, wreck many a young man of otherwise good intentions. +The sinner is the man who cannot say no. The fall through vice to sin is a +matter of slow transition. One virtue after another is yielded up as the +strain on the will becomes too great. In Kipling's fable of Parenness, the +demon appears before the clerk in the Indian service, who has been too long +a good fellow among the boys. It asks him to surrender three things in +succession: his trust in man, his faith in woman, then the hopes and +ambitions of his childhood. When these are given up, as they must be in the +life of dissipation, the demon leaves him in exchange a little crust of dry +bread. Bare existence without joy or hope is all that the demon can give +when the forces of life are burned out. + +In our colleges, the one ethical principle kept before the athlete by his +associates is this: Never break training rules. The pitcher who smokes a +cigarette throws away his game. The punter who spends the night at a dance +loses his one chance of making a goal. The sprinter who takes the glass of +convivial beer breaks no record. His record breaks him. Some day we shall +realize that the game of life is more than the game of foot-ball. We have +work every day more intricate than pitching curves, more strenuous than +punting the ball. We must keep in trim for it. We must hold ourselves in +repair. We must remember training rules. When this is done, we shall win +not only games and races, but the great prizes of life. Almost half the +strength of the men of America is now wasted in dissipation, gross or +petty, in drink or smoke. This strength would be saved could we remember +training rules. Through the training rules of our fathers we have come to +consider as part of our inheritance the Puritan Conscience. As the success +of our nation is built upon this conscience, so in like fashion depends +upon it the success of our daily life. + +I had a friend once, a mining man of some education, who made his fortune +in bonanza days in Nevada, and who drank up what he had made with the boys +who have long since passed away. As a hopeless sot he visited the gold cure +at Los Gatos. Not finding much relief, he walked over to Palo Alto to +borrow of me his fare to San Francisco. He said that he was going to pawn +his goods for a fare to Nevada, where he meant to kill himself. Whether he +did so or not, I do not know; for ten years have gone by and I have never +heard of him again. + +As he sat in my room, haggard, bloodshot, ragged, gin-flavored, a little +boy who had then never known sin, came in, and being no respecter of +persons, took him for a man and offered him his hand. + +Being taken for a man, brought him back his manhood for a moment. The +visions of evil left him, and from Dickens' poem of "The Children" he +repeated almost to himself these words:-- + + "'I know now how Jesus could liken The Kingdom of God to a child.'" + +The old scene came back to him. When the Master was teaching, the children +crowded about him, and there were those who would send them away. But the +Master said, "No, let the little children come unto me, and do not forbid +them; for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." And again he said, "The +Kingdom of Heaven is within you." And again those whose services the Lord +of the centuries could use, he likened to little children. + +And of the many ways in which this likeness can be used this is one. The +child is born with brain and nervous system adequate to its many purposes +in life, if it is suffered to grow naturally, to become what God meant it +to be. There are not many children of sin not made so by vice, +intemperance, lust, and obscenity. They are victims of their elders' folly, +of our carelessness as to their environment. Half the troubles of men of +our race come through self-inflicted injury to the nervous system. We are +tormented by the "fool-killer." If we could revert to the child's simple +purity, the free movement of its machinery of life, we should find +ourselves in a new heaven on a new earth. We could understand for ourselves +part of what the Master meant. We should know now how Jesus could liken the +Kingdom of God to a child. + +All forms of subjective enjoyment, all pleasures that begin and end with +self, unrelated to external things, are insane and unwholesome, destructive +alike to rational enjoyment and to effectiveness in life. And this is true +of spurious emotions alike, whether the pious ecstasies of a half-starved +monk, the neurotic imaginings of a sentimental woman, or the riots of a +debauchee. He is the wise man who for all his life can keep mind and soul +and body clean. + +"I know of no more encouraging fact," says Thoreau, "than the ability of a +man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor. It is something to paint a +particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so make a few objects +beautiful. It is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere +and medium through which we look. This morally we can do." + +If it were ever my fortune in speaking to young men to become eloquent, +with the only real eloquence there is, the plain speaking of a living +truth, this I would say:-- + +Your first duty in life is toward your after-self. So live that your +after-self--the man you ought to be--may in his time be possible and +actual. Far away in the twenties, the thirties, of the Twentieth Century he +is awaiting his turn. His body, his brain, his soul are in your boyish +hands. He cannot help himself. What will you leave for him? Will it be a +brain unspoiled by lust or dissipation, a mind trained to think and act, a +nervous system true as a dial in its response to the truth about you? Will +you, boy of the Twentieth Century, let him come as a man among men in his +time, or will you throw away his inheritance before he has had the chance +to touch it? Will you turn over to him a brain distorted, a mind diseased, +a will untrained to action, a spinal cord grown through and through with +the devil grass of that vile harvest we call wild oats? Will you let him +come, taking your place, gaining through your experiences, hallowed through +your joys, building on them his own, or will you fling his hope away, +decreeing wanton-like that the man you might have been shall never be? + +This is your problem in life, the problem of more importance to you than +any or all others. How will you solve it? Will you meet it as a man or as a +fool? When you answer this, we shall know what use the Twentieth Century +can make of you. + +"Death is a thing cleaner than Vice," Owen Wister tells us, and in the long +run it is more profitable. + +Charles R. Brown tells us of the old physician showing the physical effects +of vice in the Museum of Pathology. "Almighty God writes a very plain +hand." This is what he said. In every failure as in every success in the +Twentieth Century, this plain hand can be plainly traced. "By their long +memories the gods are known." This is an older form of the very same great +lesson, the "goodness and severity of God." + +Those who control the spiritual thought of the Twentieth Century will be +religious men. They will not be religious in the fashion of monks, +ascetics, mystic dreamers, or emotional enthusiasts. They will not be +active in debating societies, discussing the intricacies of creeds. Neither +will they be sticklers as to details in religious millinery. They will be +simple, earnest, God-fearing, because they have known the God that makes +for righteousness. Their religion of the Twentieth Century will be its +working theory of life. It will be expressed in simple terms or it may not +be expressed at all, but it will be deep graven in the heart. In wise and +helpful life it will find ample justification. It will deal with the world +as it is in the service of "the God of things as they are." It will find +this world not "a vale of tears," a sink of iniquity, but a working +paradise in which the rewards of right doing are instant and constant. It +will find indeed that "His service is perfect freedom," for all things +large or small within the reach of human effort are done in His way and in +His way only. + +Whittier tells us of the story of the day in Connecticut in 1780, when the +horror of great darkness came over the land, and all men feared the dreaded +Day of Judgment had come at last. + +The Legislature of Connecticut, "dim as ghosts" in the old State House, +wished to adjourn to put themselves in condition for the great assizes. +Meanwhile, Abraham Davenport, representative from Stamford rose to +say:-- + + "This may well be + The Day of Judgment for which the world awaits; + But be it so or not, I only know + My present duty and my Lord's command + To occupy till He come. + So at the Post where He hath set me in His Providence, + I choose for one to meet Him face to face. + Let God do His work. We will see to ours." + +Then he took up a discussion of an act relating to the fisheries of alewife +and shad, speaking to men who felt them obliged to stand by their duty, +though never expecting to see shad, or alewife, or even Connecticut again. + + "Glad did I live and gladly die, + And I lay me down with a will." + +This was Stevenson's word. "Let God do His work; we will see to ours." And +in whatever part of God's Kingdom we men of the Twentieth Century may find +ourselves, we shall know that we are at home. For the same hand that made +the world and the ages created also the men in whose hands the final +outcome of the wayward centuries finds its place within the Kingdom of +Heaven. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Call of the Twentieth Century, by +David Starr Jordan + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CALL OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY *** + +***** This file should be named 9469.txt or 9469.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/4/6/9469/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Marvin A. Hodges, and Project +Gutenbert Distributed Proofreaders. 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