; and, since
it is the end of your triumphal journey to Latin America, may it add, in
your great career as a statesman, fresh fame to your labor and glory to
your illustrious name.

MR. ROOT'S REPLY

I am highly appreciative of the very great honor which you have now
conferred upon me. It is all the more grateful to me that in the
ceremony which makes me an associate of this distinguished body, so
prominent a part should be taken by a gentleman who, as the
representative of Mexico in the capital of the United States, has not
only taught me to admire his rare intellectual ability, but has won from
me, by the grace and purity of his character, the warmth of friendship
which adds especial pleasure to every new association with him into
which I can enter. I feel, sir, that the compliment which you have paid
to this little work of mine, produced without any idea that it should
receive so distinguished an honor or find its way so far from home, I
must ascribe rather to friendship than to any intrinsic merit of the
work; but I thank you, and I am most appreciative of the honor that you
do me in causing it to be translated into Spanish and making it the
subject of your resolution.

Circumstances have not permitted, and do not permit, that I should
present to the Academy any thesis or discussion adequate to be
associated with the admirable and well-considered papers which have been
read by Mr. Casasus and yourself. I wish, however, in addition to
expressing my thanks, to indicate in a few words the special
significance which this academy and my new association with it seem to
me to have. We are passing, undoubtedly, into a new era of international
communication. We have turned our backs upon the old days of armed
invasion, and the people of every civilized country are constantly
engaged in the peaceable invasion of every other civilized country. The
sciences, the literature, the customs, the lessons of experience, the
skill, the spirit of every country, exercise an influence upon every
other. In this peaceful interchange of the products of the intellect, in
this constant passing to and fro of the people of different countries of
the civilized world, we find in each land a system of law peculiar to
the country itself, and answering to what I believe to be a just
description of all laws which regulate the relations of individuals to
each other, in being a formulation of the custom of the civil
community. These systems of law