principles are contending in this world, egoism and humanity. We
meet selfishness by benevolence. The more thou servest others in love,
the freer art thou. The more thou givest of thyself, the richer art
thou. To every man we say, 'First free thyself from servitude.' Great
things in this world come from small beginnings. To every one of you
and to myself I say, 'Begin by abolishing slavery in thyself!' We have
all a slave within us, a slave to precedent, to inertia, to
obsequiousness. Free this slave within, and then wilt thou be worthy to
emancipate the slaves around thee. And now, my new brothers, consider
this. As the signs of intelligence which you have received are not
verbal, but visible, sensible motions, as our own mutual understanding
supersedes and transcends speech, so is it with the idea of our Order.
It is something older and broader than all single religious
associations. We seek repose and peace in labor and trade. To our
doctrine each may give his own private interpretation, as every man
speaks in his own peculiar voice, which can never be exactly imitated.
The deed alone, the free, righteous, noble deed, cannot be explained
away, cannot be misunderstood, cannot be affected by any individual.
Ours is a brotherhood of noble deeds."

Turning to Roland he said,--

"To you, my young brother, much has been given; and you must say with
your brother here, so rich in intellectual gifts, and this your other
brother, now armed for free labor, 'What I am, and what I have, I have
not _of_ myself, and so I have it not _for_ myself.' Self-sacrifice is
self-exaltation. Your own highest good is the good of the whole world.
What you do, do not with the hope of reward from another; but be
yourself your own reward. A revolution is now taking place in the minds
of men, such as there must have been wrought when they first learned
the fact of the motion of the planet on which we live. Mankind, who had
always known slavery, and believed that its continuance was right, were
long unable to conceive a different state of things; and it was thus
with the authors of that great sacred book. I say, mankind could not
conceive of labor as other than a disgrace, a curse pronounced upon the
race. But now, not by any new and external revelation, but through a
free and natural unfolding of knowledge, we are enabled to get beyond
this view. A new age is beginning. Labor is no longer a disgrace, but
an honor; no longer a curse, but a blessi