CYRIL GEORGE HOPKINS 



nomic and political conditions have changed, the emphasis has 

 been thrown from one point of view to another. Today we 

 are throwing the emphasis from the point of view of the in- 

 dividualistic philosophy of the nineteenth century to that of 

 the philosophy of greater interdependence and the necessity of 

 greater mutual service. For there is an eternal conflict be- 

 tween individual selfishness and duty to one's fellow men. We 

 have been long accustomed to think that we were serving our 

 fellow men by pushing forward our own personal ambitions. 

 In a sense, this is true, but there is a limit to the truth of the 

 statement. It is also true, and under the conditions that obtain 

 in the world today it is truer, that each of us will gain, or at 

 least is more likely to gain, our greatest individual success in 

 proportion as we contribute largely to the general welfare. In 

 other words, the motto on which we must lay our emphasis 

 today is "Success thru service." The teacher, the investigator, 

 the lawyer, the merchant, the farmer, the doctor, and the 

 preacher must all recognize the necessity of giving their best 

 efforts and their greatest service to their communities if they 

 are to reap the richest rewards in individual fortune, individual 

 distinction, and individual esteem. 



The spirit of Hopkins, then, is the spirit that the problems 

 of the day are calling on us to show. The time of the sway 

 of the legal phrase "Let the buyer beware" must pass away 

 and be succeeded by the time in which each bargainer and 

 each worker in common shall recognize it as his duty and as 

 the path to his highest individual fortune and distinction to 

 contribute as largely as he can to the common weal. It may 

 be only by honest work of an ordinary kind. It may be by the 

 exercise of unusual talent and the contribution of some new 

 idea or matter or method to human progress, as in the case of 

 Hopkins. However our contribution is made, it must be first 

 of all a contribution that promotes the interest of all, and our 

 share of the welfare will be greater the greater the measure of 

 our contribution. 



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