MB. ROOSEVELT'S OPPORTUNITY 65 



illustration of my meaning furnished by Mr. Eoosevelt. I remember 

 a lady of exquisite perception saying that for twenty years and more 

 she had lived near a great university and that she looked to see there 

 in the future " a blaze of impulse." Has there been any one in our 

 history who could kindle " a blaze of impulse " in a community of 

 young men as Mr. Eoosevelt could? As a psychologist has remarked, 

 he is a born moralist. And the moral principles he preaches (the fact 

 is often made a reproach to him) are not above the comprehension of 

 everybody ; they are what were called long ago " the great commonplaces 

 of morality." He may regard the disdain of fastidious minds on this 

 account with much equanimity. Life is indeed " a rediscovery of copy- 

 book maxims." The somewhat slender hold that born moralists for 

 the most part have upon the young man is due to their not being rich 

 in natural life and in the raw material of human nature. There is 

 just a touch of the astringent about them ; a taste of " moralic acid." 

 In other words they are not quite the type that he spontaneously ad- 

 mires. The combination in Mr. Eoosevelt, which for us and in its 

 degree may fairly be called unique, is that of the moralist and the 

 natural hero of average minds. It is something to have in one person 

 the intense preacher and him of whom every boy would say (as 

 the poet said of the " rough-hammered head — great eye, gross jaw 

 and griped lips " of another) " What a man ! " At all events the 

 boy would say it if not prompted otherwise by having overheard the 

 acidulous talk of alienated elders. The strong hold of such a leader 

 on his college men would be maintained in part by addressing them. 

 It is something to have a speaker who is also a doer. That he is without 

 grave faults Mr. Eoosevelt himself, I cannot help fancying, is the last 

 one who would pretend. That his intention and his nature are not 

 good no unentangled person who has watched him long and closely 

 can easily be found to testify. The general verdict of such is that of 

 Mr. John Morley: "A man and a good man." We have had hasty 

 and crude statements from him on subjects where he was not at home; 

 we have in general ceased to have them when be became at home on those 

 subjects. We have had unduly heated language from him under in- 

 tensely provoking circumstances; a conductor of heat has the defect 

 of his quality. We have had plentiful charges against him of in- 

 accuracy and worse. The statistics respecting charges of loose state- 

 ment against responsible executives, if they could be gathered, would 

 be interesting and to many surprising. Decision in each case is pos- 

 sible to no man without searching investigation. The statistics in 

 regard to actual accuracy in general would perhaps in each case sur- 

 prise none so much as the one they concerned. I would not condone 

 looseness in such matters; much to the contrary; but I would remind 



VOL. LXXIV. — 5. 



