pain and effort and risk, which in the long run Nature punishes more heavily than any other.  If we of the great republics, if we, the free people who claim to have emancipated ourselves from the thraldom of wrong and error, bring down on our heads the curse that comes upon the wilfully barren, then it will be an idle waste of breath to prattle of our achievements, to boast of all that we have done.  No refinement of life, no delicacy of taste, no material progress, no sordid heaping up of riches, no sensuous development of art and literature, can in any way compensate for the loss of the great fundamental virtues; and of these great fundamental virtues, the greatest is the race’s power to perpetuate the race.  Character must show itself in the man’s performance both of the duty he owes himself and of the duty he owes the State.  The man’s foremost duty is owed to himself and his family; and he can do this duty only by earning money, by providing what is essential to material well-being; it is only after this has been done that he can hope to build a higher superstructure on the solid material foundation; it is only after this has been done that he can help in movements for the general well-being.  He must pull his own weight first, and only after this can his surplus strength be of use to the general public.  It is not good to excite that bitter laughter which expresses contempt; and contempt is what we feel for the being whose enthusiasm to benefit mankind is such that he is a burden to those nearest him; who wishes to do great things for humanity in the abstract, but who cannot keep his wife in comfort or educate his children.

Neverthless, while laying all stress on this point, while not merely acknowledging but insisting upon the fact that there must be a basis of material well-being for the individual as for the nation, let us with equal emphasis insist that this material well-being represents nothing but the foundation, and that the foundation, though indispensable, is worthless unless upon it is raised the superstructure of a higher life.  That is why I decline to recognize the mere multi-millionaire, the man of mere wealth, as an asset of value to any country; and especially as not an asset to my own country.  If he has earned or uses his wealth in a way that makes him of real benefit, of real use,—­and such is often the case,—­why, then he does become an asset of worth.  But it is the way in which it has been earned or used, and not the mere fact of wealth, that entitles him to the credit.  There is need in business, as in most other forms of human activity, of the great guiding intelligences.  Their places cannot be supplied by any number of lesser intelligences.  It is a good thing that they should have ample recognition, ample reward.  But we must not transfer our admiration to the reward instead of to the deed rewarded; and if what should be the reward exists without the service having been rendered, then admiration will come only from those who are