There are problems ahead of us at home and problems
abroad, because such problems are incident to the working out
of a great national career. We do not shrink from them. Scant
is our patience with those who preach the gospel of craven
weakness. No nation under the sun ever yet played a part
worth playing if it feared its fate overmuch--if it did not
have the courage to be great. We of America, we, the sons of
a nation yet in the pride of its lusty youth, spurn the
teachings of distrust, spurn the creed of failure and
despair. We know that the future is ours if we have in us the
manhood to grasp it, and we enter the new century girding our
loins for the contest before us, rejoicing in the struggle,
and resolute so to bear ourselves that the nation's future
shall even surpass her glorious past.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT at Philadelphia, 1902

Grave times always make men look into the future. All acts are judged
and justified after they are performed. All progress depends upon this
straining the vision into the darkness of the yet-to-be. Upon the eve
of great struggles anticipation is always uppermost in men's minds. In
the midst of the strife it is man's hope. In the next extract, only
one sentence glances backward.

For us there is but one choice. We have made it. Woe be to
the man or group of men that seeks to stand in our way in
this day of high resolution when every principle we hold
dearest is to be vindicated and made secure for the
salvation of the nations. We are ready to plead at the bar
of history, and our flag shall wear a new luster. Once more
we shall make good with our lives and fortunes the great
faith to which we were born, and a new glory shall shine in
the face of our people.

WOODROW WILSON: _Flag Day Address_, 1917

Retrospective and Anticipatory Conclusion. While it does not occur so
frequently as the two kinds just illustrated it is possible for a
conclusion to be both retrospective and anticipatory--to look both
backward and forward. The conclusion may enforce what the speech has
declared or proved, then using this position as a safe starting point
for a new departure, look forward and indicate what may follow or what
should be done. The only danger in such an attempt is that the dual
aspect may be difficult to make effective. Either one may neutralize
the other. Still, a careful thinker and m