ery brooks give forth a
merry sound. Growth leads us through Wonderland. It touches the germs
lying in darkness, and the myriad forms of life spring to view; the
mists are lifted from the valleys, and flowers bloom and shed fragrance
through the air. Only the growing--those who each moment are becoming
something more than they were--feel the worth and joyousness of life.
Upon the youth nothing palls, for he is himself day by day rising into
higher and wider worlds. To grow is to have faith, hope, courage.

The boy who has become able to do what a while ago was impossible to
him, easily believes that nothing is impossible; and as his powers
unfold, his self-confidence is nourished; he exults in the consciousness
of increasing strength, and cannot in any way be made to understand the
doubts and faint-heartedness of men who have ceased to grow. Each hour
he puts off some impotence, and why shall he not have faith in his
destiny, and feel that he shall yet grow to be poet, orator, hero, or
what you will that is great and noble? And as he delights in life, we
take delight in him.

In the same way a young race of people possesses a magic charm. Homer's
heroes are barbarians; but they are inspiring, because they belong to a
growing race, and we see in them the budding promise of the day when
Alexander's sword shall conquer the world; when Plato shall teach the
philosophy which all men who think must know; and when Pericles shall
bid the arts blossom in a perfection which is the despair of succeeding
generations. And so in the Middle Ages there is barbarism enough, with
its lawlessness and ignorance; but there is also faith, courage,
strength, which tell of youth, and point to a time of mature faculty and
high achievement. There is the rich purple dawn which shall grow into
the full day of our modern life.

Here in this New World we are the new people, in whose growth what
highest hopes, what heavenly promises lie! All the nations which are
moving forward, are moving in directions in which we have gone before
them,--to larger political and religious liberty; to wider and more
general education; to the destroying of privilege and the
disestablishment of churches; to the recognition of the equal rights not
only of all men, but of all men and women.

We also lead the way in the revolution which has been set in motion by
the application of science to mechanical purposes, one of the results
of which is seen in the industrial and