h he
has mingled his thought with his labor. The sailor, without control
of the wind and wave, knowing nothing or very little of the mysterious
currents and pulses of the sea, is superstitious. So also is the
agriculturist, whose prosperity depends upon something he cannot
control. But the mechanic, when a wheel refuses to turn, never thinks of
dropping on his knees and asking the assistance of some divine power.
He knows there is a reason. He knows that something is too large or too
small; that there is something wrong with his machine; and he goes to
work and he makes it larger or smaller, here or there, until the wheel
will turn. Now, just in proportion as man gets away from being, as it
were, the slave of his surroundings, the serf of the elements,--of the
heat, the frost, the snow, and the lightning,--just to the extent that
he has gotten control of his own destiny, just to the extent that he has
triumphed over the obstacles of nature, he has advanced physically and
intellectually. As man develops, he places a greater value upon his own
rights. Liberty becomes a grander and diviner thing. As he values his
own rights, he begins to value the rights of others. And when all men
give to all others all the rights they claim for themselves, this world
will be civilized.

A few years ago the people were afraid to question the king, afraid to
question the priest, afraid to investigate a creed, afraid to deny a
book, afraid to denounce a dogma, afraid to reason, afraid to think.
Before wealth they bowed to the very earth, and in the presence of
titles they became abject. All this is slowly but surely changing. We
no longer bow to men simply because they are rich. Our fathers worshiped
the golden calf. The worst you can say of an American now is, he
worships the gold of the calf. Even the calf is beginning to see this
distinction. It no longer satisfies the ambition of a great man to be
king or emperor. The last Napoleon was not satisfied with being the
emperor of the French. He was not satisfied with having a circlet of
gold about his head. He wanted some evidence that he had something of
value within his head. So he wrote the life of Julius Caesar, that he
might become a member of the French Academy. The emperors, the kings,
the popes, no longer tower above their fellows. Compare King William
with the philosopher Haeckel. The king is one of the anointed by the
most high, as they claim--one upon whose head has been poured th