THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



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and for the benediction which unselfish 

 labor for others will give to this old 

 world, which will be born again. 



But how will this miracle be accom- 

 plished? Men living in the new day we 

 visualize will not reach this high plane by 

 some new revelation or by being trans- 

 formed into angels. They will find their 

 inspiration and their stimulus in what 

 their fellow-mortals before them have 

 done. The miracle will be performed 

 when the whole people study the lives of 

 the three most eminent naval explorers — 

 Wilkes, Perry, and Maury — and trans- 

 late the actions of this triumvirate of 

 heroes into world-wide practice. 



universal history the history otf the 

 world's great men 



"Universal history," says Carlyle, "the 

 history of what man has accomplished in 

 this world, is at bottom the history of the 

 great men who have worked here. They 

 were the leaders of men, these great 

 ones ; the modelers, patterns, and in a 

 wide sense creators, of whatsoever the 

 general mass of men continued to do or 

 attain; all things that we see standing 

 accomplished in the world are properly 

 the outer material result, the practical 

 realization and embodiment, of thoughts 

 that dwelt in the great men sent into the 

 world; the soul of the whole world's his- 

 tory, it may justly be considered, were 

 the history of these." 



With full understanding of the truth 

 expressed by the Sage of Craigenput- 

 tock, I invite a contemplation of the les- 

 sons in the lives of Wilkes and Perry and 

 Maury as the beacons that will guide us 

 into the larger and nobler world I dare 

 believe we are to live in and make us 

 worthy of these heroic souls. 



"We cannot look, however imperfectly, 

 upon a great man," declares Carlyle, 

 "without gaining something by him. He 

 is the living light-fountain, which it is 

 good and pleasant to be near. The light 

 which enlightens, which has enlightened 

 the darkness of the world; and this not 

 as a kindled lamp only, but rather as a 

 natural luminary shining by the gift of 

 Heaven — a flowing light-fountain, as I 

 say, of native original insight, of man- 

 hood and heroic nobleness, in whose 



radiance all souls feel it is well with 

 them." 



GREAT MEN WILL CALL US TO "CARRY Ox" 



The heroic naval figures, which beckon 

 us as students of geography and lovers 

 of our fellows, were men whose scien- 

 tific and diplomatic achievements were 

 equaled only by their spirit of adventure, 

 their love of the open sea, their quest for 

 the unknown, and their intrepid daring 

 in seeking new continents and new ex- 

 periences and new discoveries. 



Youth is ever attracted by the careers 

 of those who blazed new paths. No 

 young man is a "standpatter" or a recluse 

 or a stay-at-home. The quest of new 

 worlds is his ideal of a life worth while. 

 It is because of this that the story of 

 Charles Wilkes has all the fascination of 

 romance. 



"It affords me much gratification to 

 report that we have discovered a large 

 body of land within the Antarctic Circle, 

 which I have named the Antarctic Con- 

 tinent," was the terse, sailor-like state- 

 ment with which Wilkes announced the 

 result of an expedition which had cruised 

 completely around the world, discovered 

 a new continent, now called Wilkes 

 Land; determined the position of the 

 South Magnetic Pole, and had charted 

 500 islands and atolls, together with 100 

 harbors, accompanying them with sailing 

 directions and observations of tides and 

 currents, and charts which are still used 

 by navigators — the results of a voyage of 

 six years, from 1838 to 1844. 



It has been said that no other single 

 American expedition ever contributed so 

 much to the world's knowledge of foreign 

 geography. Wilkes received the gold 

 medal of the Royal Geographical Society 

 and is one of the patron saints of the 

 National Geographic Society. 



EEW ACCIDENTS IN THE WORLD OE 

 DISCOVERY 



There are few accidents in the world 

 of adventure and discovery. Wilkes was 

 selected to command the exploring ex- 

 pedition by reason of his energy and his 

 scientific attainments. He had served as 

 head of the Chart Depot, in the Navy De- 

 partment, where he set up the first fixed 



