Culture and Women's Clubs 107 



that a successful republic is an intellectual achievement ; 

 and that in the great game, even though a leading part 

 may be denied us, yet are we, every one of us, playing 

 for our very LIVES! 



Now over against this first peril, born, as I think, of 

 misconception of real values, of overestimate of indus- 

 trialism as a universal, all-sufficient social basis, we may 

 set as one corrective at least, the practicality of culture, 

 the pursuit of genuine culture, the joys of intellectual 

 life, the program of Sorosis, the dream, the effort, of a 

 thousand women's clubs. This will surely help some- 

 what ; it is for us now to answer, how ? 



There are wide fields of knowledge which lead not to 

 action at all, but which fascinate nevertheless ; afford us 

 pleasure; which need only presentation to be loved; 

 which lead to peace, to joy, to the unseen sweets of life ; 

 to judgment, to reason; to values accumulating in the 

 hidden chambers of the soul, even as the wealth of Minne- 

 sota harvests gathers beneath the silent summer sun in 

 the fields of ripening grain. 



Shall I illustrate? I am very bold; I go to antiquity 

 and take the remotest illustration I can find. I have 

 here in my hand a small tablet of clay. As we look at 

 it, we see that it bears some strange engravure. On this 

 side and on that are delicate etchings, curious lines, uni- 

 form yet curiously arranged. Evidently a legend, some- 

 thing to be read. By dint of much study, by long com- 

 parison, at length the student makes the message plain. 

 Here is a deed to real estate, a conveyance, if you please. 



It tells how a farmer once conveyed to another a bit 

 of the Acadian plain, with running water, water for ir- 



