The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-06-08

D
sumed thirty or forty minutes had they
been delivered. From the first word to
the last his voice was clear and audible.
| 1t failed a little toward the end, but the
| speaker seemed to suffer as little as
any one. The lecture was heartily ap-
plauded
Lord Curzon. then relapsing to the
comedy vein, as he returned to Latin,
said: And now, my dear vice chancel-
lor, for it is time. be good enough to
dissolve the convocatioq," to which the
vice chancellor replied:
''ExaKed chancellor at your bidding we
dissolve the convoeation.
Mr.. Roosevelt meanwhile had been con-
Quoted to the chancellor and they shook
hands. Then they walked out together
| before a long array of doctors.
Besides his speech at the town hall and
at the American Club, Mr.. Roosevelt
spoke before lunch at the Ciarendo Press.
where he was presented with a copy Of
his lectures bound in blue leather. Mrs.
Roosevelt received a commemoration of
her visit printed on blue silk in the ira
ditionai manner.
Mr.. and Mrs. Roosevelt also visited
the Bodleian Library, inspecting some of
! its treasures After the legislature, they
took tea at Magdalen College with the
vice chancellor, and attended receptions
at Trinity and Wadham colleges. Mr.
| Roosevelt receives a fee of % guineas for
the Romanes lecture.
Lesson in Fall of Rome.
Col. Roosevelt, taking as the subject of
his lecture Biological Anaiogies in His
| tory" said:
Rome fell from attack from without
only because the ills within her own bor-
ders had grown intolerable That is true
/ OF your country. 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 passions and follies.
Free people can escape being mas
| tered by others only by being able to
master themselves. We Americans. and
you people Of the British Isles alike,
need ever to keep in mind that. among
the many qualities indispensable to the
success of great democracy, and Sec
ond only to a high and stern sense of
duty or moral obligation, are self-knowl
edge and seif-mastery You, my hosts,
and I may not agree in all our views;
some of You would think me a very rad
lcal demOcrat-as for the matter of that.
am; and my theory Of imperialism
would probably suit the anti-imperialists
as little as il would suit a certain type
OF forcibls-feeble imperiallst.
Points of Agreement
But there are some points on which
we must all agree If we think soundly
The precise form of government, demo-
l Or 10 or of &c ka Inc
the tool with which TO work It is i'm
portant to have a good tool. But, even
If ii is the best possible, it is only a tool
No implement can ever take the place OF
the guiding intelligence that yields it.
very bad tool will ruin the work or
the best craftsman; but a good tool in
bad hands is no better. In the last analy-
sis the ail-important factor in national
greatness in national character.
There are questions that we Of the
great civilized nations are ever tempted
to ask of the future Is our time OF
growth drawing to an end? Are we as
nations soon % come under the rule OF
that great law of death which is itself
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 appreherded are at work
all around us. both for good and for
evil. The growth in luxury, in love of
ease, in taste for vapid and frivolous ex-
element is both evident and unhealthy
Following Birth Rate.
The most ominoHs sign Is the dimi-
mutton in the birth rate and the rate Of
natural increase, now to a larger or
lesser degree shared by most of the civ
ilized nations of Central and Western
Europe, of America, and Australia: a
diminutiOn so great that if it continues
for the next century at the rate which
has obtained for the last twenty-five
years. all the more highly civilized peo-
pies viii be stationary or else have begun
to be backward in population. while
many of them will have already gone
very far backward.
There Is much that should give us con-
cerE for the future. But there is much
also which should give US hope No man
Is more apt 10 be mistaken than the
prophet of evil After the French revo-
luton, in 1890, N!ebuhr hazarded the
guess that all civilization was about to
go down with a crash; that we were all
about TO share the fan of third and
fourth century ROme-a respectable but
painfully overworked comparison. The
fears once expressed by the followers of
Nautilus as to the future of the world
have proved groundless as regards the
civilized portion of the world. It is
strange, indeed, 10 look back at CarIyle's
prophecies Of some seventy years ago
and then think of the TEEN life of
achievement. the life of conquest OF every
kind. and of noble effort crowned by sue
cess which has been ours for two gener-
ations since he. complained to high
heaven that all the tales had been told
and all the songs sung, and that all the
deeds really worth doing had been DONE
Great Future Remains.
81 believe with all my heart that a
great future remains for us; but whether
1t does or does not, our duty is not alter
ed. However the battle may go, the SOL
der worthy Of the name will with utmost
visor do his allotted task. and bear him
self as valiantly in defeat as in victory
Come what will. we belong to peoples
who have not yielded to the craven fear
of being great. In the ages that have
gone by the great pations-the nations
that have expanded and that have played
mighty part in the world--have in the
end grown old and weakened and van
ished; but so have the nations whose only
thought was to avoid all danger, ali eff
fort who would risk nothing and who
therefore gained nothing. In the end the
same fate may overwhelm all alike; but
the memory OF the one type perishes with
it. while the other leaves its mark deep
on the history of all the future of man
kind
"A nation that seemingly dies may be
born again, and even though in the ply
steal sense il die utterly, it may yet hand
down a history OF heroic achievement,
and for all time to come may profoundly
influence the nations that arise in its
place by the impress OF what it has done
THIRTY-FIVE GET AK.