I was putting on your brand.” And I answered: “Yes, my friend, and if you will steal for me then you will steal from me.”. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities – all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness. If the man works for evil, then the more successful he is the more they should be despised and condemned by all upright and far-seeing men. It is a mistake for any nation to merely copy another; but it is even a greater mistake, it is a proof of weakness in any nation, not to be anxious to learn from one another and willing and able to adapt that learning to the new national conditions and make it fruitful and productive therein. In the seething turmoil of the history of humanity certain nations stand out as possessing a peculiar power or charm, some special gift of beauty or wisdom of strength, which puts them among the immortals, which makes them rank forever with the leaders of mankind. Now, this does not mean in the least that a man should not wish to do good outside of his native land. They are right only if they lay all their emphasis upon the unrighteousness. Good citizenship is not good citizenship if only exhibited in the home. Now, the same principle which applies in private life applies also in public life. France is one of these nations. Moreover, the preacher of ideals must remember how sorry and contemptible is the figure which he will cut, how great the damage he will do, if he does not himself, in his own life, strive measurably to realize the ideals that he preaches for others. The citizen must have high ideals, and yet he must be able to achieve them in practical fashion. There is little place in active life for the timid good man. And now, my hosts, a word in parting. If a given scheme is proposed, look at it on its merits, and, in considering it, disregard formulas. They fell, and the prime factor in their fall was the fact that the parties tended to divide along the wealth from poverty. It is war-worn Hotspur, spent with hard fighting, he of the many errors and valiant end, over whose memory we love to linger, not over the memory of the young lord who “but for the vile guns would have been a valiant soldier.”. But this does not mean that we may not with great advantage adopt certain of the principles professed by some given set of men who happen to call themselves Socialists; to be afraid to do so would be to make a mark of weakness on our part. So far from patriotism being inconsistent with a proper regard for the rights of other nations, I hold that the true patriot, who is as jealous of national honor as a gentleman of his own honor, will be careful to see that the nations neither inflect nor suffer wrong, just as a gentleman scorns equally to wrong others or to suffer others to wrong him. The question must be, Is it right to prevail? There are well-meaning philosophers who declaim against the unrighteousness of war. It may be useful when developed to a very great degree, but only if accompanied and controlled by other qualities; and without such control the possessor tends to develop into one of the least attractive types produced by a modern industrial democracy. The need that the average man shall work is so obvious as hardly to warrant insistence. The children of their successors and supplanters, and then their children and their children and children’s children, change and develop with extraordinary rapidity. 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