As a child I used to think what a
wonderful moment that was when Man, the master, first appeared on face
of earth. How did the beasts and the seas and the winds feel about it,
I asked. Did they laugh at this fellow, the most helpless of all
things, setting out to conquer all things? Did the beasts pursue him
till he made bow and arrow and the seas defy him till he rafted their
waters and the winds blow his house down till he dovetailed his
timbers? That was the child's way of asking a very old question--Was
Man the sport of the elements, the plaything of all the cruel, blind
gods of chance?
Now, the position was reversed.
Now, I learned how the Man must have felt when he set about conquering
the elements, subduing land and sea and savagery. And in that lies the
Homeric greatness of this vast, fresh, New World of ours. Your Old
World victor takes up the unfinished work left by generations of men.
Your New World hero begins at the pristine task. I pray you, who are
born to the nobility of the New World, forget not the glory of your
heritage; for the place which God hath given you in the history of the
race is one which men must hold in envy when Roman patrician and Norman
conqueror and robber baron are as forgotten as the kingly lines of old
Egypt.
Pages:
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73