Racial Experience 



interest to forget or stifle or fail to hear the 

 claims of God and duty. They are often un- 

 conventional and inconvenient articles of mental 

 furniture. We may prefer to think or talk of 

 them as little as possible. 



These sometimes inconvenient and disagree- 

 able conceptions which are not axiomatic, but 

 which are so interwoven with the fibers and 

 stuff of my brain that I cannot tear them out, 

 are what I will call convictions. They are In- 

 herited results of racial experience. They have 

 stood the test of life, and have won the favor- 

 able verdict of biological history. They have 

 made man what he is. If we are to progress 

 they must dominate our minds. If our civiliza- 

 tion survives It will be because It Is the most 

 adequate and complete expression of these con- 

 ceptions. They are our most priceless heritage. 



Wealth and social Institutions are Instruments 

 for their use and spread. Intellect and learning 

 tell us how their ruling motives may best find 

 expression and how their ends may be attained. 

 They alone can give any unity to the life which 

 they must permeate. Without them the energies 

 of life dissipate like steam from an open vessel. 

 They never fail us. When in the storms of life 

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