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suggestion and oi'igin to imitation is a point which has never beeiii 

 fully considered." The first canoe was made in imitation of a rotten log- 

 which had served as a ferry boat. The first pillar was constructed in 

 the likeness of an erect tree, and the gothic arch was made to represent 

 the overarching boughs in a forest glade, suggestive of how the imitation 

 of the objects in nature underlies all the various arts and products of 

 human labor. Now the absence of this faculty of imitation would 

 produce a stagnation in human society, because each man and each 

 generation of men would derive no benefit fi'om what their forefathers 

 had learned. The presence of no other principle of life must and does 

 equally produce stagnation. A really healthy and progressive state of 

 society is only consistent with free thought and effort. It is difficult in 

 this nineteenth century to realize a society which is really stationary, 

 with our greedy appetite for new ideas, new things, reforms and im- 

 provements. We can scarcely credit that a great part of the human 

 race knows none of these, and feels no such appetite, that it has gone 

 on for centuries in the same way as it goes on to-day, and that it 

 regards any attempt to introduce new thought or new modes of life, not 

 merely as an impertinence but an impiety. 



But with all our development and progress, we must be warned by 

 the fate of Egypt, Greece, Rome and all other great nations of the past, 

 lest on reaching the zenith of our fame and prosperity, we relapse into- 

 a state of apathy, indifference and luxury, and commit that most fatal 

 error of living on the reputation we have gained and the successes we- 

 have achieved. When most obstacles have been overcome, and when 

 the struggle for existence and greatness has been triumphantly con- ' 

 eluded, nations are apt to give way to a longing for rest, the accuuiula- 

 tion of wealth, and the enjoyment of luxury. Politics and commerce 

 doubtless rule, to a great extent, the destiny of nations, but there are 

 other influences as well, and chief among these are the social conditions 

 of the people. The two great examples of the Roman empire and the 

 French monarchy stand out in history as a warning, the social conditions 

 of the people in both cases being the downfall of each. What facts 

 attest, the people cannot afford to despise, and a timely warning may 

 avert many a danger threatening the public welf.ire. 



