The Prescott daily news., 1910-06-07

and frivolous excitement, Is both evident and unhealthy. The most ominous sign is the dininution in the birth-rate. in the rate of natural increase, now to larger or lesser degree shared by most of the civilized nations of central and western Europe. of America and Australia; dln- mutton so great that if it continues for the next century at the rate which mas oo- tained for the last 25 years all the more highly civilized people will be stationary or else have begun to go backward in population. while many of them will have already gone very far backward.
 There is much that should give us con cern for the future. But there is much also which should give us hope. No man is more apt to be mistaken than tEe prophet of evil. I believe with all my heart that a great future remains for us; but whether it does or does not, our duty is not altered. However the bat tie may go, the soldier worthy or the name will with utmost vigor do his al loted task, and bear himself as valiant ly in defeat as in victory. Come what will. we belong to peoples who have not yielded to the craven fear of being great. Tn the ages that have gone by, the great nations. the nations that have ex- banded and that have played 6 mighty part in the world, have in the end grown old and weakened and vanished;
  thought was to avoid all danger, all 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 IL while the other lea Ses 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 physical sense 1t die utterly, it may yet hand down a history of heroic achieve ment and for all time to come may pro foundly influence the nations that arise In its place by the impress of what 1t has done. Best of all Is 1t to do our part well, and at the same time to see our blood live young and vital in men and women fit to take up the task as we lay 1t down; for so shall our seed inherit the earth. But if this which Is best Is denied us. then at least it is ours to remember that If we choose we can be torch bearers, as our fathers were before us. The torch has been handed on from nation to nation, from civilization to civilization through out all recorded time, from the dim years before history dawned. down to the bla- zing splendor of this teeming century of ours. It Is dropped from the hand of the coward and the sluggard. of the man wrapped in luxury or love of ease, the man whose soul was eaten away by self indulgence. It has been kept alight only by those who were mighty of heart and cunning of hand. What they worked at providing it was worth doing at all, was of no less matter than how they worked whether in the realm of the mind or the realm of the body. If their work was good, if what they achieved was of sub stance then high success was really theirs
 Strength With Morality.
 In the first part of this lecture I drew certain analogies between what had oc- cured to forms of animal life through the procession of the ages on this planet. and what has occurred and is occurring to the great artificial civilizations which have gradually spread over the world 8 surface during the thousands of years that have elapsed since cities of temples and palaces first rose beside the Nile and the Euphrates. and the harbors of Minoan Crete brstled with the masts of the Aegean craft But of course the parallel ia true only in the toughest and most general way. Moreover. even between the civilizations of today and the civilizations of ancient times there are differences so profound that we must be cautious in drawing any conclusions for the present based on what has hap pened in the past. While freely admit ting all of our follies and weaknesses of today 1t Is yet mere perversity to refuse tO realize the incredible advance that has been made in ethical standards. 1 dc not believe that there is the slightest nee I essary connection between any weaken ing of virile force and this advance ir the moral standard. this growth of the sense of obligation to ones neishbor and of reluctance to do that neighbor wrong We need have scant patience with that silly cynicsm which insists that lindli. ness of character only accompanies weakness of character On the contrary f'--t s 'N 'ffA rnanv of mar