8 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis 



mean devotion to nictlioils. It docs not im])ly a certain 

 nuiJiber ol" liours a dav. It docs not sui^i^cst a content- 

 nient witli the doing of a daily stint in a manner wliich 

 calls I'or nciliu'r commendation iioi' criticism, hcvotioii 

 to v.'ork means work Ijccausc one must work, and, I'ai'cd 

 by sucli a spirit, seeminicly insurmountal)le ol)stacles are 

 s\voi)t away alonir with other trivial factors of hirth and 

 race and station. 



JUit work itself is not cnouirh. The second inj^redient 

 in our stren.<j;'th of character is unsellishness : the desire 

 to sliare the joys and the sorrows of life with others; the 

 accomplishment of the friendly act for its own sake: the 

 appreciation of a bond of jirojier sympathy of man for 

 man. The man wlio works with an unsellish devotion 

 ever searches for that which shall iiring his neig-hbor to 

 a higher level of doing and thinking and living. A great 

 man must indeetl be unsellish and take a i)ri(le in the 

 Dierit which his talent may lend to others. 



And in the search for truth, even in the little things of 

 life, our great man interjirets that wliich he finds and is 

 ever threading the beads of fact into some ])atteni of a 

 worldly ])hiloso])hy. I^'aithfulness to truth is after all 

 but a faithfulness to the little things and our great man 

 achieves merit in his respect for that which is known and 

 tliat which is unknown, liecause of his consciousness of 

 his own limitations and because of his r(>spect for truth, 

 the great man is huinbli'. 



AVe have been misinformed in our ideas of great men. 

 AVe have been misled into looking for magniliceTice and 

 for vain-glorious trapjtings in which our fancy would 

 clothe an imf)ortant person. Imlecd llie hunibh^ sini- 

 ])licity (d' the truly great man disarms us (juite com- 

 pletelv and we crane the neck to overlook exactiv that 

 which we seek. 



