xxiv NATURE-STUDY. 



books that stand the test of faithful use. You can never 

 tell where the ripples will reach, when you toss a pebble 

 into the water. The minister is dead long ago; but the 

 boy's books and papers are reaching, like the ripples, into 

 the unknown distance. 



And do we not in the affairs of the nation, make 

 patriots shout too much about ourselves? We are a 

 great nation, we raise so many crops, we have so many 

 manufactures, we are worth so much money, we have 

 such large battle ships, we have such impregnable forts, 

 guns of such huge calibre, and valiant men behind the 

 guns. We are a great nation, and while we welcome to 

 our shores the sons and daughters of all lands, yet on all 

 occasions where the stars and stripes are floating in the 

 breeze, we insist with much gesticulating oratory, that 

 you must not forget, that if your fathers and mothers, 

 your brothers and sisters, back there in the fatherland all 

 so dear to you, do not treat us just about right, we can 

 and we will make their blood run in little brooks along 

 the dry ground. We are the people. We are a mighty, 

 commercial, fighting people, and when we say "thus" and 

 "so" then "thus" and "so" it must be. In this way do 

 we make patriots,- — lovers of country? No, not all. 

 Down deep in the heart of each one there is a feeling, 

 strong and sure, that patriotism is a matter of the indi- 

 vidual, not of the masses. In spite of Fourth of July, 

 with orations accompanied by explosions and by blasts 

 of fire ; in spite of the fact that the records of our coun- 

 try's doings (even those records used in the schools under 

 the name of American History), devote more space to 

 war than peace ; down deep in your heart and in mine is 

 a feeling that this is not the true patriotism. For by and 

 by there comes some sensible peace-loving patriot, so 



