508 MISCELLANEOUS RECOLLECTIONS -II 



will do me no good in the eyes of many who shall read 

 them. It will be said that I attempted too many things. 

 In mitigation of such a judgment I may say that the con 

 ditions of American life in the second half of the century 

 just closed have been very different from those in most 

 other countries. It has been a building period, a period 

 of reforms necessitated by the rapid growth of our nation 

 out of earlier conditions and limitations. Every thinking 

 man who has felt any responsibility has necessarily been 

 obliged to take part in many enterprises of various sorts : 

 necessary work has abounded and has been absolutely 

 forced upon him. It has been a period in which a man 

 could not well devote himself entirely to the dative case. 

 Besides this, so far as concerns myself, I had much practi 

 cal administrative work to do, was plunged into the midst 

 of it at two universities and at various posts in the diplo 

 matic service, to say nothing of many other duties, so that 

 my plans were constantly interfered with. Like many 

 others during the latter half of the nineteenth century, I 

 have been obliged to obey the injunction, &quot;Do the work 

 which lieth nearest thee.&quot; It has happened more than 

 once that when all has been ready for some work which I 

 greatly desired to do, and which I hoped might be of use, I 

 have been suddenly drawn off to official duties by virtually 

 an absolute command. Take two examples out of many : 

 I had brought my lectures on German history together, 

 had collected a mass of material for putting them into 

 final shape as a &quot;History of the Building of the New Ger 

 many, &quot; and had written two chapters, when suddenly 

 came the summons from President Cleveland to take part 

 in the Venezuela Commission, a summons which it was 

 impossible to decline. For a year this new work forbade 

 a continuance of the old; and just as I was again free 

 came the Bryan effort to capture the Presidency, which, 

 in my opinion, would have resulted in wide-spread misery 

 at home and in dishonor to the American name through 

 out the world. Most reluctantly then I threw down my 

 chosen work and devoted my time to what seemed to me 



