These illustrious ones, who before their thirtieth year had written their names on the immortal banner of their country, are only a few which adorn the pages of our early history. Others of like purport might be added indefinitely both from the early and the later life of our country. And there has been no time when the young man played so important a rôle in human affairs as he does to-day in the dawn of the twentieth century, when the heart and the mind, philanthropy and literature, virtue and truth, science and art, capital and labor are the principal factors in the world's progress. To refer to but a single instance in this period of our national life, there is no greater statesman and patriot than our beloved President, Theodore Roosevelt,--a young man to whom we are proud to point as a true type of American greatness and American manhood. Assuming control of the Nation at such a critical moment in her history, when so many dangerous rocks lay in her course, tremendous, indeed, was the responsibility thrust upon him. But by his inherent principle of rule, his unquenchable patriotism, his indomitable purpose, and the imperiousness of his will, founded on a rich scholarship and a broad policy, he has spelled triumph out of difficulty, and his name will go down in twentieth-century history an example of illustrious young manhood.
The young man is emphatically the ruling element in politics to-day. It is estimated that a sufficient number of young men come of age every four years to control the issue of the Presidential election. Constituting about one-half of the present voting population, they hold far more than the balance of political power. It was Goethe who said that the destiny of any nation at any given time depends on the opinions of the young men who are under twenty-five years of age. And William E. Gladstone affirmed that the sum of the characters of this element constitute the character and strength of any country.
And when we consider the young man in his relation to all the aspects of life--civic, commercial, industrial, and social--we must recognize him as the ruling element. Like Jason, the young man of to-day is the hero to invade the empire of thought and action in quest of the Fleece of Gold.
"Lives of great men all remind us,
We can make our lives sublime;
And departing leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time."
II
The Golden Quality
"They Passed Through."
To live content with small means:
To seek elegance rather than luxury, and
Refinement rather than fashion;
To be worthy, not respectable,
Wealthy, not rich;
To study hard, think quietly,
Talk gently, act frankly;
To listen to stars and birds, to
Babes and sages, with open heart;
To bear all cheerfully, do all bravely,
Await occasions, hurry never,--
In a word, to let the spiritual,
Unbidden and unconscious,
Grow up through the common--
This is to be my symphony.
--Channing.