326 An American Fruit-Farm 



the rare and exceptional spirits who at intervals 

 of long centuries visit this earth, they can do as 

 the mighty have done, or, unable to do, shall live 

 miserable ever after. Inspiration is not imitation ; 

 its coals of fire are original. The old pioneer, dying 

 in his home, amidst the work of his hands for 

 quite fourscore years, has done his work as well, 

 in its kind, as did the foremost man of all this 

 world. Let there be a hundred elements in the 

 visible universe, one is as important as another, so 

 far as we know; radium is no more important than 

 nitrogen. Be there a million trees in the forest, so 

 far as we know one tree is as important as another. 

 The most popular notion abroad in America, '*A11 

 men are created equal, " might seem to hint that 

 the fruit-farmer is as important as the President, 

 so far as we know, and that 



" Each thing in its place is best, 

 And what seems but idle show 

 Strengthens and supports the rest.** 



True, Shakespeare does not sing the equality of 

 men; nor does Plato, nor Aristotle, Zeno, Cicero, 

 Bacon, nor Spencer. Grotius affirmed the equal- 

 ity of sovereigns, and Rousseau and Jefferson 

 straightway carried it over among men of all sorts 

 and conditions. Equality is the most popular 

 doctrine the world has ever known. True or false, 

 this doctrine must now and forever be reckoned 

 with. All shades of interpretation of the doctrine 

 have been made, and they agree that the man him- 



