SUMMER MEETING. 69 



•our people, over two and a half million in number, our subject grows 

 very large indeed. Its influence may be legion for weal or for woe. 



Oar two common and well-known methods of gaining information 

 ■can be successfully applied to the investigation of our subject, viz : 

 First, that of observation ; second, that of study. 



Whatever method we may pursue, if we would advance we must 

 be familiar with our conditions and surroundings, and then draw 

 conclusions of what our future possibilities may be. 



Let us proceed, first, to itotice the method of gaining Tinowledge 



BY OBSERVATION. 



It happens frequently as we jog along on our weary way through 

 life that we accidentally meet with objects of interest, hear a stirring 

 song, or read a pen picture that gives us new ideas, or makes more 

 practical those which we already have. 



To illustrate, the art of gaining ideas by observation I point you to 

 people from our states who take trips across the American desert, or 

 into the Eocky mountains, or even to the Pacific coast. Here they come 

 in contact, without much exertion on their part, with a world they had 

 never met with before, and have had opened up to them in the space 

 of a few days scenery and characters both strange and real. This 

 affords them new pleasure and new impulses and new ideas gleaned 

 in new fields of observation, and thus serves the purpose of aiding 

 them to separate the fanciful and imaginary in their own minds from 

 things as they really are. 



The traveler has opportunity to observe the rude customs of the 

 uneducated and uncultured man in the person of the western Indian. 

 Then he can grasp better the idea of the onward march of the ages 

 that lie between them and the cultured and intelligent races that have 

 improved their opportunities. 



STUDY AND THOUGHT. 



As a rule men gather the^najor portion of their best ideas by con- 

 tinued and persistent research in the world of books, gleaning from 

 the motives and acts and thoughts of other men, and then, by the art 

 of experience and practice, set them beautifully in the characters they 

 bear. 



This was the method employed by our forefathers. They looked 

 at their own condition and then out to what it might be in the future. 

 They were convinced of existing wrongs, of relics of cruel and hate- 

 ful monarchies hanging over them, and as men of strong convictions. 



