But a disused organ is very likely to become a seat of disease and to thus enfeeble or destroy the whole body.  And this disease effects the most complete ruin when its seat is in the highest organs.  Dyspepsia is bad enough, but mania or idiocy is infinitely worse.  And our moral powers are always enfeebled, and often diseased, from lack of strong exercise.  And some blind guides, seeing only the disease, cry out for the extirpation of the whole faculty, as some physicians are said to propose the removal of the vermiform appendage in children.  Similarly might the drunkard argue against the value of brain, because it aches after a debauch.  Our work is hard labor, and we gain no enjoyment in the use of our mental powers; for the enjoyment of any activity is proportional to the height and glory of the purpose for which it is employed.  As long as we are content to use only our lower mental faculties and to gain low ends, our use of even these will be feeble and ineffectual, and our lives will be poor, weak, and unhappy.

But future man will subordinate these lower powers to the higher.  He will utilize all that there is in him.  And his efficiency must be vastly greater than ours.  And finally, and most important, these men will be all-powerful, because they have so conformed to environment that all its forces combine to work with them.

England under Elizabeth seemed to rise above itself.  Think of Holland, under William the Silent, defying all the power of Spain.  Look at Bohemia, under Ziska, a handful of peasants joining battle with and defeating Germany and Austria combined.  Think of Cromwell and his Ironsides, before whom Europe trembled.  These men were not merely giants, they were heroes.  And the essence of heroism is self-forgetfulness.  The last thought of William the Silent was not for himself, but for his “poor people.”  And those rugged Ironsides, “fighting with their hands and praying with their hearts,” smote with light good-will and irresistibly, because they struck for truth and freedom, for right and God.  These are motives of incalculable strength, and they transfigure a man and raise him above his surroundings and even himself.  The man becomes heroic and godlike, and when possessed by these motives he has clasped hands with God.  He is inspired and infused with the divine power and life.  Such a man has no time nor care to think of himself.  To him it matters little whether he lives to see the triumph of his cause, provided he can hasten it.  Though victory be in the future, it is sure; and the joy of battle for so sure and grand a triumph is present reward enough.  His very faith removes mountains and turns to night armies of the aliens.  For heroism begets faith, just as surely as faith begets heroism.

“Where there is no vision the people perish.”  When the member of Congress can see nothing higher than spoils of office, nothing larger than a silver dollar, you should not criticise the poor man if his oratorical efforts do not move an audience like the sayings of Webster, Lincoln, or Phillips.