strenuously determined
to realize a worthy ambition; one who has both microscopic and
telescopic capacity, able to look into the minutest details and sweep a
broad range with clear vision; and one (slightly changing a potent
phrase) whose "reach upward is ever exceeding his grasp." Added to this
the Negro scholar above all must be one who makes himself a reforming
force for the world's betterment. Here is the Negro's opportunity--to
combine in himself those characteristics Mr. Austin mentioned not long
ago--the purely scholarly qualities of the German, the statesmanlike
qualities of the English and then to be a _propagandist_.

The Negro who is an educated man must be a practical man, and zealous in
getting to work to show that thinking and doing go together. If the
world needs such men from the white race, so much the more are educated
Negroes needed. Educated men are the ones to take a place in affairs,
national and municipal, aiding to solve great problems, cure great evils
and guide the destinies of a people. What else can it mean when we see
such a scholar as President Seth Low step from the administration of
college affairs to the administration of the affairs of a great city in
a righteous endeavor to help cleanse a corrupt government? Again,
President Roosevelt takes up the reins for the entire nation after
active service in literature, in camp, on field and in the executive
chair of a great state. Still again we instance Dr. Gladden who has
shown in the west what a scholar's service may and should be to his
city, when he chose to sit in its council. These examples can be
multiplied many times to show that the educated man has taken for his
motto that highest one--"Ich dien"--I serve--a service by leading and
made both necessary and fitting by attainments and worth.

This idea of service to the race is peculiarly the mission of the
educated Negro. In no other way can higher education be justified for
the race; and Dr. Mayo has well denominated the field before him as a
"high plateau of opportunity."

It is a part of his mission to take up the leadership of the race. The
day for ignorant Negro leaders is rapidly passing. One of the first
services to be rendered along this line is to insist that _seeming_
shall no longer be allowed to pass for _being_. No matter where it
strikes or whom it strikes, he must help strip away pretense from the
vain and shallow, unveil those who masquerade under borrowed, empty,
hi