ion to
all who in any way are distinguished from the crowd? And is this the
explanation of the blight which falls upon the imagination and the
hearts of the young?

Ah! surely, we who have faith in human nature, who believe in freedom
and in popular government, can never doubt what answer must be given to
all these questions. A society which inevitably represses what is
highest in the best sort of men is an evil society. A civilization which
destroys faith in genius, in heroism, in sanctity, is the forerunner of
barbarism. Individuality is man's noblest triumph over fate, his most
heavenly assertion of the freedom of the soul; and a world in which
individuality is made impossible is a slavish world. There man dwindles,
becomes one of a multitude, the impersonal product of a general law;
and all his godlike strength and beauty are lost. Is not one true poet
more precious than a whole generation of millionaires; one philosopher
of more worth than ten thousand members of Congress; one man who sees
and loves God dearer than an army of able editors?

The greater our control of Nature becomes, the more its treasures are
explored and utilized, the greater the need of strong personality to
counteract the fatal force of matter. Just as men in tropical countries
are overwhelmed and dwarfed by Nature's rich profusion, so in this age,
in which industry and science have produced resources far beyond the
power of unassisted Nature, only strong characters, marked
individualities, can resist the influence of wealth and machinery, which
tend to make man of less importance than that which he eats and
wears,--to make him subordinate to the tools he uses.

From many sides personality, which is the fountain-head of worth,
genius, and power, is menaced. The spirit of the time would deny that
God is a Person, and holds man's personality in slight esteem, as not
rooted in the soul, but in aggregated atoms. The whole social network,
in whose meshes we are all caught, cripples and paralyzes individuality.
We must belong to a party, to a society, to a ring, to a clique, and
deliver up our living thought to these soulless entities. Or, if we
remain aloof from such affiliation, we must have no honest conviction,
no fixed principles, but fit our words to business and professional
interests, and conform to the exigencies of the prevailing whim. The
minister is hired to preach not what he believes, but what the people
wish to hear; the congressman