=People.=—­But his world would be incomplete without people, and here, again, he is free to choose.  And, since he wants people in his world who will be constant reminders to him of qualities that he himself would cultivate, he selects Ruth and Jephthah’s daughter to represent fidelity.  When temptation assails him he finds them ready to lead him back and up to the plane of high resolves.  To remind him of indomitable courage and perseverance he selects William the Silent, Christopher Columbus, and Moses.  When his courage is waning and he is becoming flaccid and indolent, their very presence is a rebuke, and a survey of their achievements restores him to himself.  As examples of patriotic thinking and action he invites into his world Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton.  They remind him that he is a product of the past and that it devolves upon him to pass on to posterity without spot or blemish the heritage that has come to him through the patriotic service and sacrifice of his progenitors.

=Influence of people.=—­That he may never lose sight of the fact that it is cowardly and degrading to recede from high ideals he opens the doors of his world for Milton, Beethoven, and Michael Angelo.  Their superb achievements, considered in connection with their afflictions and hardships, are a source of inspiration to him and keep him up to his best.  As a token of his appreciation of these exemplars he strives to excel himself, thus proving himself a worthy disciple.  They need not chide him, for in their presence he cannot do otherwise than hold fast to his ideals and struggle upward with a courage born of inspiration.  Living among such goodly people, he finds his world resplendent with the virtues that prove a halo to life.  With such people about him he can be neither lonely nor despondent.  If the cares of life fret him for the moment, he takes counsel with them and his equilibrium is restored.  In their company he finds life a joyous experience, for their very presence exhales the qualities that make life worth while.

As an inevitable result of all the influences that constitute his world he finds himself yearning for meliorism as the crownpiece.  Drinking from the fount of inspiration that gushes forth at the behest of all these wholesome influences, he longs for betterment.  Good as he finds the things about him, he feels that they are not yet good enough.  So he becomes the eloquent apostle of meliorism, proclaiming his gospel without abatement.  The roads are not good enough, and he would have better ones.  Our houses are not good enough, and he would have people design and build better ones.  Our music is not good enough as yet, and he would encourage men and women to write better.  Our books are not good enough, and he would incite people to write better ones.  Our conduct of civic affairs is not good enough, and he would stimulate society to strive for civic betterment.  Our municipal government is not good enough, and he proclaims the need to make improvement.  Our national government is not all that it might be, and he would have all people join in a benevolent conspiracy to make it better.