282 
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
spirit, ir the people of Persia, of search 
for knowledge ended with the old Per- 
sians. No ! It is due to this same spirit 
of desire for the knowledge of the pres- 
ent times that we find the Persians of 
today seeking with the utmost humility 
the highest things of modern civilization. 
Yea, it is this spirit which has compelled 
them to kneel before the principles of 
the grept fathers of western liberty, and 
eagerly absorb those liberal ideas, which 
has enabled them, not in the course of a 
century, not in the course of fifty years, 
but in the course of six years, to estab- 
lish amongst themselves a free form of 
government which has commanded the 
respect, the sympathy, and the admiration 
of the liberty-loving and truth-seeking 
nations of the world. 
There was a time in the world's his- 
tory, my friends, when peace, in a uni- 
versal sense, was the furthest point 
from the mind of man. We see that in 
about seven or eight hundred years be- 
fore Christ the wisest among the Greek 
philosophers, called Thales, would boast 
of the fact and pray to the gods that he 
was born a "Greek" and not a "bar- 
"barian." They were so set in their ideas, 
those ancients, that they glorified in a 
magnificent aloofness from the rest of 
the world. 
Today, on the contrary, the highest 
thinkers and exponents of the moral en- 
ergy of humanity advocate the brother- 
hood of men. Such earnest advocates 
are not fanciful dreamers, but they are 
the great law-givers, law-makers, and 
executives of the human race. Among 
those great executives you people of this 
great country are to be especially con- 
gratulated, because among the noted 
executives of the world the great Presi- 
dent of the greatest republic the world 
has ever seen is the chief exponent and 
standard bearer of the cause of interna- 
tional arbitration. Not only an inter- 
national arbitration in the sense that the 
ancients understood it, to wit, that two 
strong nations would come together and 
become friends in order to crush their 
weaker brother, not at all in the sense 
of the survival of the strongest, by which 
"the strongest" was often meant the one 
who could further weaken his weak 
brother, but in the sense of the lordly 
man whose strength lay in his ability 
to strengthen his weaker brother into 
higher strength. 
It is for this positive nature of your 
activity that you and your great Presi- 
dent are exalted and praised among the 
people of this world, for you are the 
standard bearers of that noble cause, 
which is the chief aim of this enlightened 
century. I thank you. 
the; toastmaster, dr. bijll 
A message from one of our most dis- 
tinguished members. President Taft. 
The President had intended to be with 
us this evening, but owing to the very 
inclement weather and a lingering cold 
his physician has forbidden him to go 
out. He wishes the Society continued 
success in its splendid work, and exceed- 
ingly regrets not being able to be with 
us. President Taft has honored the So 
ciety by attending three of our gather- 
ings since he became President of the 
United States, and our disappointment is 
great that we cannot again welcome him 
tonight. 
As we cannot afford much time for 
introductory speeches, I shall merely say 
that our next speaker is one who is 
abundantly able to speak for himself. 
I must confess that it is with some fear 
and trembling that I venture to introduce 
Doctor Harvey W. Wiley. However he 
may comment on our dinner and the 
pure food ofifered for our consumption, 
let me assure Doctor Wiley in all seri- 
ousness that we look upon him as one 
of the great benefactors of our country. 
DOCTOR harve;y w. wile;y 
Mr. SymposiarcJi, Your Excellency the 
British Ambassador, Ministers of For- 
eign Countries and Angels of Grace of 
Washington: I can assure you, Mr. 
Toastmaster, that your fear and trem- 
bling was by no means equal to mine. 
This I may say is my debut as a speaker 
on geographic subjects. I rely upon 
that great rule of oratory, ignorance, 
which has always been such a "present 
help" to the orator. Just in proportion 
as our knowledge increases our eloquence 
diminishes, and I am ambitious, in so 
