eration above,
namely, progress in government and law, in language and literature, in
science and philosophy, in art and refinement, we for ourselves have
thought to be best promoted by means of the higher education, and
accordingly we have had the great satisfaction of putting such sums as
we could into various forms of education in our own and in foreign
lands--and education not merely along the lines of disseminating more
generally the known, but quite as much, and perhaps even more, in
promoting original investigation. An individual institution of
learning can have only a narrow sphere. It can reach only a limited
number of people. But every new fact discovered, every widening of the
boundaries of human knowledge by research, becomes universally known
to all institutions of learning, and becomes a benefaction at once to
the whole race.

Quite as interesting as any phase of the work have been the new lines
entered upon by our committee. We have not been satisfied with giving
to causes which have appealed to us. We have felt that the mere fact
that this or the other cause makes its appeal is no reason why we
should give to it any more than to a thousand other causes, perhaps
more worthy, which do not happen to have come under our eye. The mere
fact of a personal appeal creates no claim which did not exist before,
and no preference over other causes more worthy which may not have
made their appeal. So this little committee of ours has not been
content to let the benevolences drift into the channels of mere
convenience--to give to the institutions which have sought aid and to
neglect others. This department has studied the field of human
progress, and sought to contribute to each of those elements which we
believe tend most to promote it. Where it has not found organizations
ready to its hand for such purpose, the members of the committee have
sought to create them. We are still working on new, and, I hope,
expanding lines, which make large demands on one's intelligence and
study.

The so-called betterment work which has always been to me a source of
great interest had a great influence on my life, and I refer to it
here because I wish to urge in this connection the great importance of
a father's keeping in close touch with his children, taking into his
confidence the girls as well as the boys, who in this way learn by
seeing and doing, and have their part in the family responsibilities.
As my father taught me, so I