276 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



dislike drill and discipline ; and we heartily wish that things 

 were so ordered that we might have what we want without 

 fighting for it. But the world is not framed and managed 

 to suit our wishes in this respect. We need not join in the 

 apotheosis of strength. We know that might does not make 

 right, and yet we must recognize the truth, that there are 

 rights which belong to strength and do not belong to weakness. 



There is a foundation in justice for that seemingly harsh 

 law, that "unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he 

 shall have abundance : but from him that hath not shall be 

 taken away even that which he hath." Neither individual man 

 or classes of men have any title to opportunities and privi- 

 leges which they have not proved their ability to hold and 

 use. If left in unworthy or incapable hands, a wrong is done 

 not only to those who could and would use what they but 

 listlessly hold, but also to the great interests of humanity, 

 for which all powers are to be used and all privileges exer- 

 cised. The law of the "survival of the fittest," harsh as 

 some of its operations may seem, is not inconsistent with the 

 law of love. Both spring from the same Divine Source, and 

 love can find scope to work only as power is lodged in fit 

 and capable hands. 



Suppose for a moment that the resources of the world were 

 lodged permanently in incompetent hands. Suppose that 

 this continent had been left to the Indians, as some senti- 

 mentalists would seem to think should have been done. 

 Suppose that everywhere incapacity had been allowed to 

 hold the key to earth's resources, refusing or neglecting to 

 perform for humanity the service of unlocking these resources, 

 and preventing others, able, ready and willing, from render- 

 ing this service The wrong, the evil, the shame of such a 

 situation would have cried from earth to heaven, and com- 

 pelled a change. Limitations are defined by opposing forces, 

 reaching at length a condition of equilibrium. This is true 

 when nature is inanimate and force is blind ; tnie also of all 

 forms of life and consciousness ; true of nations and true of 

 smaller groups ; true of individuals. Room to grow and 

 scope to work belong to those who can fill the room and do 

 the work. The prizes of life, in all its walks — in business, 

 in literature, in science, in oratory — belong to those who, 



