rble is clad with such loveliness that it seems almost a sacrilege to
touch it; and in addition I saw there ideas of books--books written
upon skins of wild beasts, books written upon shoulder-blades of sheep;
books written upon leaves, upon bark, up to the splendid volumes that
adorn the libraries of our time. When I think of libraries, I think of
the remark of Plato, "The house that has a library in it has a soul."

I saw there all these things, and also the implements of agriculture,
from a crooked stick up to the plow which makes it possible for a man
to cultivate the soil without being an ignoramus. I saw at the same
time a row of skulls, from the lowest skull that has ever been found;
skulls from the central portion of Africa, skulls from the bushmen of
Australia, up to the best skulls of the last generation.

And I notice that there was the same difference between those skulls
that there is between the products of those skulls. And I said to
myself: "It is all a question of intellectual development. It is a
question of brain and sinew." I noticed that there was the same
difference between those skulls that there was between that dug-out,
and that man-of-war and that steamship. That skull was low. It had
not a forehead a quarter of an inch high. But shortly after, the
skulls became doming and crowning, and getting higher and grander.
That skull was a den in which crawled the base and meaner instincts of
mankind, and this skull was a temple in which dwelt joy, liberty and
love. So said I: "This is all a question of brain, and anything that
tends to develop, intellectually, mankind, is the gospel we want."

Now I want to be honest with you. Honor bright! Nothing like it in
the world! No matter what I believe. Now, let us be honest. Suppose a
king, if there was a king at the time this gentleman floated in the
dugout and charmed his ears with the music of the tomtom; suppose the
king at that time, if there was one, and the priest, if there was one,
had said: "That dug-out is the best boat that ever can be built. The
pattern of that came from on high, and any man who says he can improve
it, by putting a log or a stick in the bottom of it, with a rag on the
end, is an infidel." Honor bright, what, in your judgment, would have
been the effect upon the circumnavigation of the globe? That is the
question. Suppose the king, if there was one, and the priest, if there
was one--and I presume there was, bec