Manhood and Statehood 211 



cessors fit to do the deeds they did. It will of neces 

 sity find a different expression now, but the quality 

 itself remains just as necessary as ever. Surely you 

 men of the West, you men who with stout heart, 

 cool head, and ready hand have wrought out your 

 own success and built up these great new common 

 wealths, surely you need no reminder of the fact that 

 if either man or nation wishes to play a great part 

 in the world there must be no dallying with the life 

 of lazy ease. In the abounding energy and intensity 

 of existence in our mighty democratic Republic there 

 is small space indeed for the idler, for the luxury- 

 loving man who prizes ease more than hard, tri 

 umph-crowned effort. 



We hold work not as a curse but as a blessing, and 

 we regard the idler with scornful pity. It would be 

 in the highest degree undesirable that we should all 

 work in the same way or at the same things, and for 

 the sake of the real greatness of the nation we 

 should in the fullest and most cordial way recognize 

 the fact that some of the most needed work must, 

 from its very nature, be unremunerative in a mate 

 rial sense. Each man must choose so far as the con 

 ditions allow him the path to which he is bidden by 

 his own peculiar powers and inclinations. But if he 

 is a man he must in some way or shape do a man's 

 work. If, after making all the effort that his strength 

 of body and of mind permits, he yet honorably fails, 



