Know, then, to begin with, they are not accomplishments but necessaries.  And, to end with, you are old enough, and have found the time to succeed in nearly making a fine art of—­Betrayal, and a science of—­Graft.  Know that you are as old as the race.  That each man among you had in him the accumulated power of the race, ready at hand for use, in the right way, when he shall conclude it better to think straight and hence act straight rather than, as now, to act crooked and pretend to be straight.  Know that the test, plain, simple honesty (and you all know, every man of you knows, exactly what that means) is always at your hand.

Know that as all complex manifestations have a simple basis of origin, so the vast complexity of your national unrest, ill health, inability to think clearly and accurately concerning simple things, really vital things, is easily traceable to the single, actual, active cause—­Dishonesty; and that this points with unescapable logic and in just measure to each individual man!

    The remedy;—­individual honesty.

To the objection that this is too simple a solution, Mr. Sullivan retorts that all great solutions are simple, that the basic things of the universe are those which the heart of a child might comprehend.  “Honesty stands in the universe of Human Thought and Action, as its very Centre of Gravity, and is our human mask-word behind which abides all the power of Nature’s Integrity, the profoundest fact which modern thinking has persuaded Life to reveal.”

If, on the other hand, the reader complains, “All this is above our heads,” Mr. Sullivan is equally ready with an answer: 

    No, it is not. It is close beside your hand! and therein
    lies its power.

    Again you say, “How can honesty be enforced?”

    It cannot be enforced!

    “Then how will the remedy go into effect?”

    It cannot go into effect.  It can only come into effect.

    “Then how can it come?”

    Ask Nature.

    “And what will Nature say?”

    Nature is always saying:  “I centre at each man, woman and
    child.  I knock at the door of each heart, and I wait.  I wait
    in patience—­ready to enter with my gifts.”

    “And is that all that Nature says?”

    That is all.

    “Then how shall we receive Nature?”

    By opening wide your minds!  For your greatest crime against
    yourselves is that you have locked the door and thrown away
    the key!

Thus, by a long detour, Mr. Sullivan returns to his initial proposition, that the falsity of our architecture can be corrected only by integrity of thought.  “Thought is the fine and powerful instrument.  Therefore, have thought for the integrity of your own thought.”