A Fleece of Gold | Page 5

later life of our country.
And there has been no time when the young man played so important a
rôle in human affairs as he does to-day in the dawn of the twentieth
century, when the heart and the mind, philanthropy and literature,
virtue and truth, science and art, capital and labor are the principal
factors in the world's progress. To refer to but a single instance in this
period of our national life, there is no greater statesman and patriot than
our beloved President, Theodore Roosevelt,--a young man to whom we
are proud to point as a true type of American greatness and American
manhood. Assuming control of the Nation at such a critical moment in
her history, when so many dangerous rocks lay in her course,
tremendous, indeed, was the responsibility thrust upon him. But by his
inherent principle of rule, his unquenchable patriotism, his indomitable
purpose, and the imperiousness of his will, founded on a rich
scholarship and a broad policy, he has spelled triumph out of difficulty,
and his name will go down in twentieth-century history an example of
illustrious young manhood.
The young man is emphatically the ruling element in politics to-day. It
is estimated that a sufficient number of young men come of age every
four years to control the issue of the Presidential election. Constituting
about one-half of the present voting population, they hold far more than
the balance of political power. It was Goethe who said that the destiny
of any nation at any given time depends on the opinions of the young
men who are under twenty-five years of age. And William E. Gladstone
affirmed that the sum of the characters of this element constitute the
character and strength of any country.
And when we consider the young man in his relation to all the aspects
of life--civic, commercial, industrial, and social--we must recognize
him as the ruling element. Like Jason, the young man of to-day is the
hero to invade the empire of thought and action in quest of the Fleece
of Gold.
"Lives of great men all remind us, We can make our lives sublime; And
departing leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time."

II
The Golden Quality

"They Passed Through."

To live content with small means: To seek elegance rather than luxury,
and Refinement rather than fashion; To be worthy, not respectable,
Wealthy, not rich; To study hard, think quietly, Talk gently, act frankly;
To listen to stars and birds, to Babes and sages, with open heart; To
bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, Await occasions, hurry never,-- In a
word, to let the spiritual, Unbidden and unconscious, Grow up through
the common-- This is to be my symphony.
--Channing.
Success
In every land and in every age since the curtain first rose on the world's
great drama men have been in quest of the Fleece of Gold. The onward
progress of the race since our rude forefathers from the leaves of the
tree formed their clothes, and in the somber depths of the primeval
forest constructed their habitation, is due to an insatiable desire to
possess the coveted prize. Hanging before man's gaze in the
consecrated borders of his existence, it has inspired him to greater
usefulness. He has built ships and traversed the seas, invented machines,
reared cities, and established laws. In science and art and literature he
has vied with his fellow-man and given a mighty impulse to civilization,
all for the Fleece of Gold--success.
The world worships at the shrine of success. It regards it as man's
greatest attribute. And whether we find it in secular affairs,
substantiated by material grandeur, or in the mysterious realms of the
inner life characterized by the serene consciousness of truth, it must
ever be the goal of human aspiration.
It is the thought of some day having their efforts crowned that causes
men hotly to pursue the phantom or the reality of their lives. This
aspiration keeps the torch of hope ablaze in the midnight darkness, and
the spirits buoyed under the noon-day glare, while men forge on to the
goal. The surging throngs of a great city, the active hands and brains in
the bee-hives of industry and the many places of business, the vast
army of seekers after knowledge in the schools and colleges throughout
the land, the men of fame in the halls of Congress molding the affairs
of the Nation, the countless army tilling the fields under the open sky,
the legions in the dark caves of earth searching for treasure--all are

seeking to enter the golden gate of success.
Said Mr. A. B. Farquhar in a baccalaureate address to the students of
McDonough College: "Success colors everything. It is the essence of
all excellencies, the latent power which compels the