Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1910-05-13

mon for a common end, which the German
people have shown in such signal fashion
during the last half century. Moreover,
the things of the spirit even more inn
portant than the things of the body. We
can well do without the hard intolerance
and arid intellectual barrenness Of what
was worst in the theological systems of
the past, but there has never been greater
need of high and fine religious spirit than
at the present time. SO, while we can
laugh good humoredly at some of the pre-
tensions of modern philosophy in it's vari-
Gus branches, it would be worse than folly
on our part to ignore our need Of intel
lectual leadership Your own great Fred
erick once said that II he wished to punish
a province he would leave 1t to be gov
erned by philosophers; the sheer had in it
an element of justice; and yet no one bet
ter than the great Frederick knew the
value of philosophers. the value of men of
science, men of letters, men, of art. 1t
would he a bad thing indeed to accept
Tolstoy as guide in social and moral mat
tiers: but it would also be a bad thing not
to have Tolstoy not to profit by the lofty
| side Of his teachings.
Science and Mankind.
There are plenty OF scientific men whose
whose dogmatic intolerance put them on
a level with the bigoted medieval ecclesias-
ticism which they denounce. Yet our debt
| to scientific men is incaculable, and our
| civilization of today would have reft from
| 1t all that which most highly distinguishes
| 1t If the work of the great masters of
! science during the last four centuries We're
now urdone or forgotten. Never has
| philanthropy, humanitarianism, seen such
| development as now, and though we must
| all beware of the folly, and the vicious
ness no worse than folly. which marks
the believer in the perfectbility of man
| when his heart runs away with his head,
or when vanity usurps the place of con-
| science yet we must remember also that
] it is only by working along the lines laid
down by the philanthropists, by the lovers
| of mankind, that we can be sure of lifting
our civilization to a higher and more per-
manent plane of well-being than was ever
| attained by any preceding civilization. I'm
! just war is to be ,abhorred but woe TO the
nation that does not make ready to hold
it's own in time of need against all who
would harm it, and woe thrice over to the
| nation in which the average man loses the
| fighting edge, loses the power to serve
as a soldier If the day of need should
| arise
1T is no impossible dream to build up a
civilization in which morality, ethical de-
velopment, and a true feeling of brother
hood shall all alike be divorced from false
sentimentality and from the rancorous and
evil passions which, curously enough so
often accompany professions of sentimental
attachment to the rights of man; in which
a high material development in the things
of the body shall be achieved without sub
ordination OF the things of the soul; in
which there shall be a genuine desire for
peace ana justice without loss of those
virile qualities without which no love of
peace or justice shall avail any race; in
which the fullest development of scientific
research the great distinguishing feature
of our present civilization, shall yet not
imply a belief that intellect can ever take
the place of character-for, from the stand
point of the nation as of the individual, 1t
is character that is the one vital posses
sion.
Bring the World Together.
Finally, this world movement Of civil
ization. this movement which is now felt
throbblng in every corner of the globe,
should bind the nations of the world to-
gether while yet leaving unimpaired that
love Of country in the Individual citizen
which in the present stage of the worlds
progress is essential to the worlds we'll
being You, my hearers, and l who speak
TO you, belong to different nations Under
modern conditions the books we read, the
news sent by telegraph to our newspapers,
the stranger we meet, half Of the things
we hear and do each dag, all tend to bring
us into touch with other peoples Each
people can do justice to itself only If II
does justice to others but each people
can do its part in the world movement for
all only If it first does its duty within its
own household The good citizen must be
a good citizen of his own country first be-
fore he can with advantage be a citizen
OF the world at large. | wish you well.
believe in you and your future. I ad-
mire and wonder at The extraordinary
greatness and variety of your achieve
ments IN so many and such widely differ
ont fields, and my admiration and regard
are all the greater, and not the less be-
cause ! am so profound a believer in the
| institutions and the people OF my own
| land"
! Lincoln Man Meets Trouble.