The Portland daily press., 1881-11-07
National Ideals.


The Rev. Mr.. Dalton delivered the first of
his weekly lectures on National Ideals'' at St.
Stephens church Saturday afternoon.
The speaker considered, in the opening lee
ture the question How do nations become great
and grow great men? Nations become great
as individual men do. The choice of good
ideals as standards of life and conduct, and
adherence TO them, make successful man. A
mistake or failure here is fatal. Soof Nations.
An aimless nation or race, or one that lives
wandering life, depending on game, or subsist-
ing by the spoils of war, makes no progress. AS
conditions of growth, there must be first, set
tied habitation, and second, the cultivation of
the land, agriculture, followed by manufac-
lures and commerce. creating wealth or prop
erty in land and articles of exchangeable value
This is capital, which accumulates most rapid
ly under good and stable government. Such
a government, If free, will be favorable to pros
perity and the growth Of the highest type of
men, TO wit, freem en-. And freedom will be
greatly promoted and made secure by the diff
fusion of knowledge, or ge neral education.
Education will lay the foundations of litera-
ture and lead to the cultivation of science and
the arts.
However, there can be no real security or en-
during Fgreatness, unless culture. is diffused
among the masses, who else must be held in by
bit and bridlein the form of strong police and
standing armies. A high standard of morality
and religion will be necessary to complete the
edifce, the last in the ascending scale of i'm
portance in the elements of greatness, but log
ically and chronologically first, and lying at
the foundation. To the young, the material
elements which enter into the fabric of society
seem the fairest and first in Importance, but to
age and experience, the moral element is
known 10 be such, for without this the materl-
al cannot stand or suffice for the needs of soci-
ETY.. Society has all these things we have emu
merated as constituent elements, but the real
measure and test of the progress OF society, as
OF the general advancement of mankind. IS the
status Of woman. AS woman is elevated or de-
pressed, society is sound or rotten, refined and
purified, or debased, vulgariZed and brutallzed.
In conclusion, the lecturer showed that the
outcome or growth of each element of civiliZ-
ed society is great men, the highest and proper
product OF civilization itself. Thus, in time
agriculture produces the typical farmer like
Cincnnatus; wealth, merchant princes like
the Rothschilds of today and the still greater
Medici Of former times; art, an Angelo and
Raphael; literature, Shakespeare and Milton;
science, a Newton; society, typical women like
Madame Recamier; and religion, prophets,
apostles and martyrs. But perhaps the most
interesting and far reaching view OF the sub
iect is that which shows that human society,
even in its highest forms, is vitality connected
with the lowest forms OF animal and vegetable
life. For it is now known that infusoria or
auin,alcula, infinitesmal insects, which abound
in All malarial and many other places, furnish
the germs of those diseases which have bsffied
the skill of physicians and proved the most
prolific sources of physical disorders, disease
aud death
Next Saturdays lecture will treat of EN-
gland and English Ideas"