Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1910-04-29

stand second to certain other things.
There is need Of a sound body, and
| even more need of a sound mind. Out
above mind and above body stands
character, the sum of those qualities
which we mean when we speak of a
mans force and courage, of his good
faith and sense &c honor. / believe in
exercise of the body. always provided
hat we keep il mind that physical
development is a can and o an
end. / believe, of course, in giving to
all the people a good education. But
the education must contain much be-
sides book-learning in order to be
really good. We must yer remember
that no keenness, and subtleness Of
intellect, no polish, no cleverness in
any way make up of the lack of great
solid qualities-self-restraint, se1fmas-
terry, common sense. the power of ac-
cepting individual responsibility and
yet, Of acting in conjunction with
others. Courage and resolution; these
are the qualities which mark a mas
terful people. Without them no peo-
pie car control itself or save itself
from being controlled from The out
side. I speak to a brilliant assemblage;
| speak in a great university which
represents the flower of the highest
intellectual development; / pay all
homage to intellect, and to elaborate
and specialized training of the intel
lect; and yet | know / shall have the
assent Of all you present when l add
that more important still are the com
monplace, everyday qualities and vir-
tues.
The Evils of SteriIity.
In the next place the good man
should be both a strong and a brave
man; that is, he should be able to
fight, he should be able to serve
his country as a soldier if the need
arises. There are well-meaning phil
osophers who declaim against the I'M
righteousness Of war. They are right.
only they lay all their emphasis upon
the unrlghteOuSneSS. War is a dread
full things, and unjust; war is a crime
against humanity. But it is such a
crime because 1t is unjust, not because
1t is war. The choice must ever be in
favor of righteousness. and this
whether the alternative be peace or
whether the alternative be war. The
AOOOSAOA NV OO hS1S1y, As there
to be peace or war? The question
must be, is the right to prevail? Are
the great laws Of righteousness once
more to be fulfilled? And the answer
from a strong and virile people must
be, Yes" whatever the cost. Every
honorable effort should always be
made by the individual in private life
to keep out Of a brawl, to keep out
OF trouble; but no s~elf-respecting indi-
v1dual, no self-respecting nation, can
or ought to submit to wrong.
Finally, even more important than
ability to work, even more important
than ability to fight at need, is it to
remember that the chief of blessings
for any nation is that it shall leave it's
seed to inherit the land. It was the
crown of blessings in Biblical times,
and it is the crown of blessings now.
The greatest Of all curses is the curse
Of sterility, and the severest of all
concentrations should be that visited
upon willful sterility. The first es-
sential in any civilization Is that the
man and the woman shall be father
and mother Of healthy children. so
that the race shall increase and not
decrease. II this is not so, If through
no fault Of society there is failure to
increase, 1t is a great misfortune. If
the failure is due to deliberate and
willful fault, then it is not merely a
misfortune, it is n of those crimes
of ease and self-indulgence, of shrink
ing from pain and effort and risk,
which in the long run nature Furnishes
more heavily tina any other.
Idle Achievements.
If we of the great republics. If we
the free people who claim to have
emancipated ourselves from the thral
dom of wrong and error, bring down
on u heads the curse thai comes
upon the willfully barren, Their it will
be an idle waste of breath to prattle
Of u achievements, to boast of all
that we have done. No refinement OF
life, no delicacy of taste, no material
progress, no sordid heaping up OF
riches, no s%ensuous development of art
and literature, can in any way com.
penSate for b loss of the great
fundamental virtues; and of the great
fundamental virtues, the greatest is
the races power to perpetuate the
race.
But If a mans eff ciency is not guild.
ed and regulated by a moral sense
then the more efficient he is the worse
he is, the more dangerous to the body
polite. Courage, intellect, all the mas
terful qualities, serve but to make a
man evil If they are used merely
for that mans own advancement
with brutal Indifference to the rights
of others. 1t speaks i'll for the com
munity If the community worships
these qualities and treats their pos
SCISSORS as heroes regardless of vheth
err the qualities are used rightly OIL
wrongly 1t makes no dfnerence as tr