The Strenuous Life 9 



tion, there is, of course, always danger that we may 

 not solve it aright; but to refuse to undertake the 

 solution simply renders it certain that we can not 

 possibly solve it aright. The timid man, the lazy 

 "man, the man who distrusts his country, the over- 

 civilized man, who has lost the great righting, mas 

 terful virtues, the ignorant man, and the man of dull 

 mind, whose soul is incapable of feeling the mighty 

 lift that thrills "stern men with empires in their 

 brains" all these, of course, shrink from seeing the 

 nation undertake its new duties ; shrink from seeing 

 us build a navy and an army adequate to our needs ; 

 shrink from seeing us do our share of the world's 

 work, by bringing order out of chaos in the great, 

 fair tropic islands from which the valor of our sol 

 diers and sailors has driven the Spanish flag. These 

 are the men who fear the strenuous life, who fear the 

 only national life which is really worth leading. 

 They believe in that cloistered life which saps the 

 hardy virtues in a nation, as it saps them in the in 

 dividual ; or else they are wedded to that base spirit 

 of gain and greed which recognizes in commercial 

 ism the be-all and end-all of national life, instead 

 of realizing that, though an indispensable element, 

 it is, after all, but one of the many elements that go 

 to make up true national greatness. No country 

 can long endure if its foundations are not laid deep 

 in the material prosperity which comes from thrift, 



