90 THE LAWS OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY 



community, as those of their predecessors, by the remem- 

 brance of whose deeds they are stimulated. Thus death 

 becomes the source of life nations revive again. 



Owing to the imperfect state of our present civilization, 

 the intellectual and moral powers of our nature are un- 

 folded only in a few of our fellow-men, and these few, pre- 

 eminent for high station and brilliant attainments, are 

 being all the time brought before our notice. These 

 privileged and favored individuals attract universal atten- 

 tion, and in the excess of our admiration we are apt to 

 imagine a great gulf fixed between them and the rest of 

 their race. But it not unfrequently happens that these 

 great men, so conspicuous and illustrious, have had, from 

 the very first start in life, every advantage of education 

 and elevated social position. If so, properly regarded, 

 they should unite us more closely to the multitude of men ; 

 for the light which shines in them, shows clearly powers 

 and capabilities now slumbering in thousands around us, 

 awaiting but the influence of favoring circumstances to 

 become manifest. 



The starveling shoot only requires sunshine and sap to 

 become a powerful branch ; and every poor merchant and 

 tradesman feels his want of capital, and how he could push 

 and extend his business, if he only had the means to do so. 

 How frequently amongst the trees of a forest, does it hap- 

 pen that a powerful branch, rich in sap and sunlight, with 

 its numberless branchlets and leaves all at work in the air, 

 is swept away by a storm, and then the current of sap which 

 it monopolized goes to the starveling shoots ; some of them, 

 under its influence, become branches as powerful and luxu- 

 riant as that which was removed, and the injury done the 

 tree is thus completely effaced. 



It is precisely the same in the social world. Persons 

 now in easy circumstances, well remember the time when 

 they were starveling shoots. Did you not for years bravely 

 battle with the world under every possible disadvantage ? 

 You gathered energy and nerve from repeated conflicts, 

 and at last a chance presented itself; and then, in the 

 popular but expressive language of the day, you went 



