use I consider myself of
importance, but because it seems to me from my case a great lesson may
be drawn."

He paused to let his eye run over the concourse. Bob felt the gaze,
impersonal, impassive, scrutinizing, cold, rest on him the barest
appreciable flicker of a moment, and then pass on. He experienced a
faint shock, as though his defences had been tapped against.

"My father," went on the nasal voice, "came to this country in the
'sixties. It was a new country in the hands of a lazy people. It needed
development, so my father was happy felling the trees, damming the
streams, building the roads, getting possession of the land. That was
his job in life, and he did it well, because the country needed it. He
didn't bother his head with why he was doing it; he just thought he was
making money. As a matter of fact, he didn't make money; he died nearly
bankrupt."

The orator bowed his head for a moment.

"I might have done the same thing. It's all legitimate business. But I
couldn't. The country is being developed by its inhabitants: work of
that kind couldn't satisfy me. Why, friends? _Because now it would be
selfish work_. My father didn't know it, but the reason he was happy was
because the work he was doing for himself was also work for other
people. You can see that. He didn't know it, but he was helping develop
the country. But it wouldn't have been quite so with me. The country is
developed in that way. If I did that kind of work, I'd be working for
myself and nobody else at all. That turns out all right for most people,
because they don't see it: they do their duty as citizens and good
business men and fathers and husbands, and that ends it. But I saw it. I
felt I had to do a work that would support me in the world--but it must
be a work that helped humanity too. That is why, friends, I am what I
am. That a certain prominence is inevitable to my position is incidental
rather than gratifying.

"So, I think, the lesson to be drawn is that each of us should make his
life help humanity, should conduct his business in such a way as to help
humanity. Then he'll be happy."

He stood for a moment, then turned away. The tall, ungainly man with the
outstanding ears and the buffoon's face stepped forward and whispered
eagerly in his ear. He listened gravely, but shook his head. The tall
man whispered yet more vehemently, at great length. Finally the orator
stepped back to his place.

"We are here for a complete rest