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great soul the faults of both were lost." In his type, the ideal,
we may conceive the real.
The prestige which the espoused principles of a nation
have in the world's progress is of vital significance in lbs esti
mation of national life. To a political, religious and social
world ruled by caste and sect, the declaration that all men
were created equal was n glittering absutdity. The discov
ery of the paradox therein contained has revolutionized the
world and shaped the progress of the Nineteenth century.
The spirit of western liberty breathes upon France and the
French revolution prepares the way for the republic. The
cry oi "Liberty and Equality" nerves the sinewy frame of the
slave of San Domingo; he springs into the full stature of a
man and gives the commonwealth an impetus toward the
Haytian republic. Democracies rise in Mexico, in South
America, in Africa and in the islands of the sea. Greece
throws oil the yoke of Ottomun despotism and limits the im
perial power. The wonoer of to-day is Brazil, transformed
inn night. Portugal waves between caste, power and equal
rights. The masses of Europe, throbbing with the pulsations
oi nuerty ana sinews naruciiing ana Knotting tor me struggle.
Walt for the dawn of a brighter day,
To snnp the chain tho moment when thoy may.
The world voices the one experimental assertion, now
practically a demonstrated truth, all men arc created equal
not in natural abilities, but in the inalienable rights of life,
liberty, and the pursuits of happiness.
Superior to the revolutionary is the formative clement in
civilization. Frenzy and fanaticism may rebel and ovcrtlnow
as Robespierre in the French revolution; but sagacity and
statesmanship create and reform as the Puritan and the Cava
lier, immortalizing their formative forces in the development
of the United States. To this development the energies of
both have contributed. The Puritan has been the tower of
strength; the cavalier clement when antagonistic, like friction
in an electrical machine, has resisted and seemingly hindered
but all the while power was being accumulated. The influ
ence of the Cavalier may be less prominent on the formation
of our republic, but because two parts of hydrogen unite with
one of oxygen to form water, is oxygen, therefore, unneces
sary ? Our institutions are so deeply rooted in the perpetual that
two centuries of unrestricted immigration have not percept
ibly changed them. They appeal to the noblest qualities in
all nationalities: immigrants assimilate with the type most
congenial. Aided, therefore, from whatever sources, the en
ergies of both Puritan and Cavalier will continue to be the
vital forces in our national life. With such inherent energies
stimulating its very fibre, public sentiment is not content
merely to preserve, but seek reformation and perfection in
continued development. One by on the elements discordant
with perfect national unity are being eliminated. Significant
is the sorrow at the untimely death of Georgia's son. The
head lines read, "Henry W. Grady Deadk" but back of the
candid, loyal-hearted brother the North aees the New South.
That New South, pausing over the grave of her brilliant, de
voted son, beholds her resources, her possibilities, her privi
leges and duties herself, as an important factor of our na
tion. The New South is wiser than the Old. She is dis
criminating as regards her highest good. The inspiration of
northern industry courses through her veins. The hum of fac
tories and whirr of machinery rise like a New England hymn.
"There was a South of slavery and secession; that South is
dead. There is a South of union and freedom; tjiat South is
living, breathing, growing every hour." North and South,
universal education is elevating the masses; the dignity of
labor is becoming more prevalent, loyalty ahd patriotism,
which hold neither section in suspicion and estrangement,
are supplanting intolerance. The result is inevitable.
What of the republic? The energies and virtues of the
Puritan and the Cavalier are not dead. Head! They are
but straightened and strengthened by years of exertion and
antagonism. They are wove and knit in the same fabric of
our commonwealth. They permeate all the secret bonds of
society; throb in every pulse of our national life, charging it
with the tremendous meaning of an ideal republic. We, as a
people, standing on the vantage ground of incomparable
achievements, cannot bat recognize that man in society, con
science in religion, strength and dignity in government, and
the eternal permanence of individuality, emanated from the
Puritan and the Cavalier; and that public opinion, conserv
ing the wisdom and heeding the experience of the past, now
moves forward in the path of reform, conscious that our na
tional life must be perfected by interior development and
progress.
INDIVIDUALISM IN SOCIETY.
Mu.roiin II. LYON, Iowa State University, Iowa City, la.
The development of society is directly dependent upon
the advancement of its individual members. Slowly has the
world accepted this vital truth. Slowly indeed has society
learned the secret of its own existence, that govcrment, relig
ion, arls, sciences all, arc but agencies to build a man.
Under the ancient theory of government the interests of
the many were sacrificed to advance the interests of
the few; individual welfare was subordinate to national great
ncss; the state was everything, the man nothing. True,
the age of Pericles and the age of the Caesars produced
illustrious men, but the masses were kept in ignorance
Hence, individual devclopcmcnt was hindered, social progress,
was limited and their glorious civilization was doomed to
tlccav. That the state is made for man, not man for the state,
is the basis of modem social philosophy. The welfare of the
individual must often be subjected to the weal of society but
only tha' in the more perfect social condition thus attained
the bounds of individualism may be extended. Lexington
and Gettysburg proclaim the grand sacrifice of the citizen for
the nation, but only that the priceless heritage of liberty
might be transmitted to posterity.
It is on the recognition of the value of individu
alism that the new civilization can base its claims to per
petuity. When it dawned upon the world that
it should not strive to make all men of one mind,
but should allow the faculties of each to unfold them
selves, that by diversity of characters, not by simlarity is
society benefitted, then began the true era of piogression. Its
results arc already apparent; degradation has given away to
development, cmpiics have become republics, the divine right
of kings has yielded to the divine rights of man. Under the
old regime the current of thought flowed in a common stream.
Here and thcic luxuriant vegetation lined its banks, but avast
desert extended faraway on cither side. Under the new dis
pensation, impelled by the mighty power of individualism,
the current of thought is flowing in ten thousand channels,
transforming the arid wastes to fertile fields, beauteous with
flowers and rich with golden harvests. To such a civilization
no boundaries cp.n be applied boundless as the universe are
its possibilities. We look back across the centuries and vainly
strive to discern the first beginning of man's evolution; future
ages in turn will behold in us and our boasted culture but
the crude and imperfect attainments of their scmi-barbarou
ancestry.
As social progress is proportionate to the growth of indi
vidual character, so the growth of character itself is propor
tionate to the cultivation of its two chief elements: personal
is, the Jikcness; individuality, the difference between men.
Throughout all human life is a strain of similarity. Feelings
and aspirations common to all mankind inspire cveiy heart
and make the whole world kin. These universal qualities
form the nucleus of individual character and constitute its per
sonality. Enveloping this inner life, as the veil of mist cncii
clcd the Grecian goddess, are the peculiar characteristics of
the individual, the qualities which make you what you arc as
distinct from any other. Were it not for this individuality of '
being all life might have been centered in a single soul.
Personality creates a bond of common feeling of mu
tual sympathy between man and man, and makes so
ciety possible. Individuality produces differentiation
in their character and makes society valuable. PeTSonaJity
draws men's attention to the same object; individuality from
different directions. The cultivation of personality increases
this common feeling among men, and strengthens the
social tics; the cultivation of individuality brings out orig
inality, opens up new fields of thought and widens societies'
boundaries. In the proper development of the individual is
included the cultivation of both these qualities.
It is within the seclusion of its own individuality that the
soul retires to learn those lessons from itself which associat
ion cannot give. Here angelic messengers whisper truths
unknown before, and the soul emerges from its secret dwel
ling to give the world the riches of its inner life, the riches of
originality. It is not as a storehouse of knowledge that the
mind of man attains its greatest usefulness, not as a factory
where the old is merely changed in form, but as a fertile soii
wherein is implanted the thought and experience of centuries,
and out of the decomposition of this seed, nour
ished by onginal investigation, there springs into existenre
new thoughts and methods greater and grander than the
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