PUBLIC SPIRIT 



a very positive tradition of free manhood 

 which hailed from the German forest. 



Just so touching other elements of our 

 civilization. Little of it is new save in 

 setting. The roots run back through the 

 ages. We have the doctrine of human 

 brotherhood from Jesus Christ, systematic 

 education and esthetics from Greece, eccle- 

 siastical organization and the best parts of 

 our municipal law from secular Rome, in- 

 ternational law from the papacy, navigation 

 partly from the Phoenicians, partly from the 

 Norsemen, rhyme and the pointed arch per- 

 haps from the Arabs, the brick from 

 Assyria, and the barrel from Phoenicia. 

 Thus has humanity swept onward, every 

 people and century contributing its peculiar 

 product to make us what we are today. 



From this point of view it is easier than 

 when we began to understand the truth that 

 the present social body is no individual's 

 work; that in bringing it into being men 

 have for the most part wrought as instru- 

 ments, like coral insects building their reefs, 



329 



