322 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



tion that we have a wholesome respect 

 for our trade. We like to think of it as 

 a high and noble calling. We like to think 

 that our army of men and women is do- 

 ing a good work, making the world bet- 

 ter, advancing civilization. It is a most 

 exacting work, so exacting that at times 

 we feel like the prisoner of Zenda, whose 

 watchful guards never let him fall asleep, 

 even for a moment. 



Though exacting, it is fascinating — 

 fascinating because each one of us sees 

 the relation of his individual work to the 

 work of every other one in the system 

 and the essential relation of the whole to 

 all other activities which, together with it. 

 make up the work of the great pulsating 

 world. 



Last — and this is the end — it is satis- 

 fying. It is satisfying because through 

 it all there is the spirit of service, than 

 which there is nothing more inspiring 

 and uplifting, because it is manifestly and 

 preeminently of distinct and definite value 

 to mankind, a factor in the advancement 

 of civilization — breaking down the bar- 

 riers of local prejudice everywhere and 

 spreading mutual understanding, peace, 

 and brotherhood throughout the world. 



ADDRESS OF HON. JOSEPHUS DANIELS, 

 SECRETARY OF THE NAVY 



While we live in a day when there are 

 some things yet to be righted in the world 

 and some problems yet to solve, it is 

 nevertheless a privilege of men of this 

 generation that we live at a time when 

 the dreams of poets, seers, and prophets 

 have been translated into realities. 



The finest things in the world are 

 dreams. "Where no vision is the people 

 perish," wrote one of the old seers, and 

 another, whose vision seemed to overleap 

 centuries and even millenniums and focus 

 itself upon our own times, said: "Many 

 shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall 

 be increased." 



It is indeed wonderful what some of 

 those ancient wise men foresaw. Did 

 Nahum get a foreglimpse of automo- 

 biles when he wrote : "The chariots shall 

 rage in the streets. They shall jostle one 

 against another in the broad ways ; they 

 shall seem like torches ; they shall run 

 like the lightnings." 



PROPHECY FUEFIEEED 



Coming down the ages to some of the 

 later men and women of vision, did 

 Mother Shipton foresee railroad trains, 

 automobiles, wireless telegraphy, subma- 

 rines, and flying machines when in 1481 

 she wrote : 



"Carriages without horses shall go; 

 Accidents fill the world with woe. 

 Around the earth thoughts shall fly, 

 In the twinkling of an eye. 

 This world upside down shall be, 

 And gold be found at the root of a tree. 

 Through hills man shall ride, 

 And no horses be at his side. 

 Under water man shall walk. 

 Shall ride, shall sleep, shall talk. 

 In the air man shall be seen. 

 In black, in white, in green." 



Did old Jeremiah get a foreglimpse of 

 the aeroplane as an army scout when he 

 wrote (Ch. 48: 41) : "Behold he shall fly 

 as an eagle and shall spread his wings 

 over Moab. Kerioth is taken, and the 

 strongholds are surprised." 



But there can be no doubt as 'to what 

 Tennyson was prophesying when he said : 



"Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies 



of magic sails. 

 Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down 



the costly bales ; 

 Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and 



there rain'd a ghastly dew, 

 From the nations' airy navies grappling in the 



central blue." 



Jules V^rne a few years ago stimulated 

 the imagination when he permitted his 

 fancies to run riot and thrilled us with 

 what seemed stories of the impossible in 

 his "Twenty Thousand Leagues under 

 the Sea." What royal fiction it was and 

 how we reveled as he gave us eyes to see 

 ships anchoring upon coral reefs and 

 speeding on their missions without mak- 

 ing a ripple upon the surface of the 

 ocean ! 



New discoveries and twentieth century 

 genius have translated Verne's dream 

 into the most deadly instruments of de- 

 struction. 



In the "Lay of the Last Minstrel," 

 Walter Scott sang of another wizard: 



"In these far climes it was my lot 

 To meet the wondrous Michael Scott, 

 A wizard of such dreaded fame 

 That when, in Salamanca's cave, 

 Him list his magic wand to wave, 

 The bells would ring in Notre Dame !" 



