lways recognized. When a citizen is in any way distinguished he
is preferred to the public service, not as a matter of privilege
but as a reward of merit. Neither is poverty a bar, but a man may
benefit his country whatever be the obscurity of his position.

"We are unrestrained in private intercourse, while a spirit of
reverence pervades our public acts. We are prevented from doing
wrong by respect for authority and for the laws, having an
especial regard for those ordained for the protection of the
injured, as well as to those unwritten laws which bring upon the
transgressor the reprobation of general sentiment.

"We are lovers of the beautiful, though simple in our tastes, and
we cultivate the mind without loss of manliness. An Athenian
citizen does not neglect the state because he takes care of his
own household, and even those engaged in business have a fair idea
of politics.

"The great impediment to right action is, in our opinion, not
discussion, but the want of that knowledge which may be gained by
discussion.

"We do good to our neighbors not upon a calculation of interest
but in the confidence of freedom and in a frank and fearless
spirit."
From the oration of Pericles, 450 B.C.,
as reported by Thucydides.

"Statesmen work in the dark until the idea of right towers above
expediency or wealth. The Spirit of Society, not any outward
institution, is the mighty power by which the hard lot of man is
to be ameliorated.

"Every line of history inspires a confidence that things mend.
This is the moral of all we learn; it warrants Hope, the prolific
mother of all reforms. Our part is plainly not to block
improvement or to sit until we are stone but to watch the uprise
of progressive mornings and to conspire with the new work of new
days."--EMERSON.

"Nations are the citizens of humanity as individuals are the
citizens of the nation. As any individual should strive to promote
the power and prosperity of his nation through the exercise of his
special function, so should every nation in performing its special
mission perform its part in promoting the prosperity and
progressive advance of humanity."--MAZZINI.

"Our country hath a gospel of her own
To preach and practise before all the world,--
The freedom and divinity of man,
The glorious claims of human brotherhood."