Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-06-14
ROOSEVELT AT OXFORD.
Former President Discusses Biological
AnaIoqies In History.

Former President Discusses Biological
Analosies In History.
Former President Roosevelt had the
honor Of delivering what is known as
the Romanes lecture at the great Uni
versity of oxford, England, on June I.
The lecture was a strong and instruc-
tive one and has come in for much
praise. The text of it is as follows:
Rome fell by attack from without,
only because the ills within her own
borders had grown incurable. What is
true of your ountry, my hearers, is
true of my own: while we should be
vigilant against foes from without, yet
we need never really fear them so long
as we safeguard ourselves against the
enemies within our own households;
and these enemies are our own pas
siOns and follfes. Free peoples can es-
cape being mastered by others only by
being able to master themselves. We
Americans, and you people Of the Brit
sh Isles, alike need ever to keep in
mind that among the many qualities
indispensable to the success of a great
democracy, and second only to high
and stern sense of duty, of moral OBJ
iigation, are selfknowledge and self
mastery. You, my hosts, and | may
not agree in all our views: some of
you would think me n very radical
democrat-as, for the matter of that,
am; and my theory Of Imperialism
would probably suit the ti-imperial-
lists as little as 1t would suit n certain
type of forcible- feeble imperialist. But
there are some points on which we
must all agree If we think soundly.
The precise form Of government, DEM
ocratic or otherwise, is the instrument,
the tool, with which we work. 1t is
important to have a good tool; but
even If it Is the best possible 1t is only
a tool No implement can ever take
the place of the guiding intelligence
that wields it. A very bad tool will
ruin the work Of the best craftsman;
but a good tool in bad hands Is no bet
ter. In the last analysis the all-im-
portant factor in national greatness is
character
There are questions that we of the
great civilized nations are ever tempt
ed to ask of the future. Is our time Of
growth drawing to an end? Are we as
nations soon to come under the rule Of
that great law of death which is it
self but part of the great law Of life?
None can tell. Forces that we can see
and other forces that are hidden, or
that can but dimly be apprehended,
are at work all around us. both for
good and for evil The growth in lux
ury, in love of ease, in taste for vapid
and frivolous excitement, Is both evil
dent and unhealthy. The most om-
inous sign is the diminution in the
birth rate and the rate of natural in
crease, now to a large or lesser de-
gree shared by most Of the civilized
nations Of central and western Eu-
rope, of America and Australia; di-
minution so great that If 1t continues
for the next century at the rate which
has obtained for the last twenty-five
years, all the more highly civilized
peoples will be stationary or else have
begun to go backward in population,
while many Of them will have already
gone very far backward.
Hope For the Future.
There is much that should give us
concern for the future. But there is
much also which should give us hope.
No man is more apt to be mistaken
than the prophet of evil. After the
French revolution in 1880 Niebuhr ha-
zarded the guess that all civilization
was about to go down with q crash.
that we were all about to share the
fall of third and fourth century Rome
"a respectable but painfully over
worked comparison. The fears once
expressed by the followers of Nautilus
as to the future of the world have
proved grOundless as regards the CIV
ilized portion of the world; 1t Is
strange indeed to look back at Car
lyles prophecies of some seventy years