DOCTOR HOPKINS, THE PUBLIC SERVANT 



By DAVID KINLEY 



Acting President, University of Illinois 



THE common test of greatness is power. When the world 

 records its estimate of a man's greatness it has usually, 

 whether expressly or by implication, whether consciously or 

 unconsciously, sought an answer to its question by asking a 

 second question What was the extent of his authority or 

 power? 



Look thru the pages of history, as history is usually 

 written, for the names of those who in the past have been 

 esteemed great and you will find a record of conquerors and 

 slaves and devastators ; of men who have built up great per- 

 sonal power on the basis of force which in some way or other 

 has come under their command. It is the conquering kings 

 of Assyria and Babylonia and Egypt ; it is Darius and Xerxes 

 and Alexander ; Caesar, Napoleon, and Marlborough and their 

 like whose names are written in large letters on the records of 

 mankind as making up the category of the great. We have 

 measured their greatness by the number of people whose lives 

 and actions they could control, by the territory they conquered, 

 by the number of those whose lives they were able to direct, 

 and, indeed, to destroy. It is true that many of these so-called 

 great, in exercising their power and establishing their author- 

 ity over their fellowmen, have been inspired by beneficent pur- 

 poses and have actually accomplished beneficent results. Yet 

 it is only in moments of repose or pleasant rumination that 

 we think of the beneficent results of their actions as the cause 

 or evidence of their greatness instead of the extent of their 

 authority. We class Alexander and Caesar among the great, 

 but we do not class with them certainly not in the same 

 sense Aristides or Pasteur. We admit, of course, that they 

 were great men, but only in the sense that they were dis- 

 tinguished men. The word "great" in cases like theirs has no 



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