THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 43 



Once he thought that greiit personages made history. Alexan- 

 der, Richard, Wolfe, Wellington, did not these mould the affairs 

 of man.'' Now in the knowledge of wider vison he observes 

 how time, custon, thought, the pressure of a thousand forces, 

 have affected men, and he murmurs, " Ah, I see. Circum- 

 stances make men. With such antecedents and environment 

 his personality is but a feather, and the freedom of the will a 

 chimera!" He is ready now to plunge into sheer fatalism and 

 regard man as a mere creature of circumstance, so weak and 

 helpless as to be utterly irresponsible in the part which he thinks 

 he plays. Tabulated statistics show him that so many murders, 

 suicides and other crimes may be expected in a year, and is not 

 that proof of a " reign of law " in history completely disposing of 

 the force of personality ? But further study leads him to observe 

 that neither in public life nor private station are all men and 

 women the puppets of circumstance. To judge from what we 

 have seen does not prove that men were compelled to play the 

 parts they did. Were all men as some men statisticians would 

 have no crimes to tabulate. The science of history broadly 

 considered, does not warrant us in concluding that one may 

 know a given man's action under given circumstances, or in 

 supposing that in the struggle between environment and the 

 individual the force of the latter is reduced to zero. The student 

 must see that even the force of heredity can be turned in an 

 opposite direction, and tiiat resolute souls have changed the 

 character of history by laying conquering hands on circumstan- 

 ces. William, Prince of Orange, might easily have failed in 

 the crisis which placed him on England's throne, and every 

 great reform that has honored the English speaking race has 

 been achieved by determined resistance to environment. It 

 does not minister to the pride of the Anglo-Saxon race to reflect 

 that against every effort to rescue children or Africans from 

 slavery, has been arrayed the weight of position and wealth. 

 Yet against these, brave men and gifted women have opposed 

 undaunted courage and love of mankind, and have taught the 

 TV^orld never to consider anything settled until it is settled right. 

 Circumstances do indeed make men, by affording ground 



