u to will. It is for such choice that will is developed.
Say what we may about the limitations of the life of man, they are
largely self-limitations. Hemmed in is human life by the force of the
Fates; but the will of man is one of the Fates, and can take its place
by the side of the rest of them. The man who can will is a factor in
the universe. Only the man who can will can serve the Lord at all, and
by the same token, hoping for no reward.

Likewise is love a factor in the universe. Power is not strength of
body or mind alone. One who is poor in all else, may be rich in
sympathy and responsiveness. "They also serve who only stand and wait."

In a recent number of The Dial, Mr. W. P. Reeves tells us the tale,
half-humorous, half-allegorical, of the decadence of a scholar.
According to this story, one Thomson was a college graduate, full of
high notions of the significance of life and the duties and privileges
of the scholar. With these ideals he went to Germany, that he might
strengthen them and use them for the benefit of his fellow-men. He
spent some years in Germany, filling his mind with all that German
philosophy could give. Then he came home, to turn his philosophy into
action. To do this, he sought a college professorship.

This he found it was not easy to secure. Nobody cared for him or his
message. The authority of "wise and sober Germany" was not recognized
in the institutions of America, and he found that college
professorships were no longer "plums to be picked" by whomsoever should
ask for them. The reverence the German professor commands is unknown
in America. In Germany, the authority of wise men is supreme. Their
words, when they speak, are heard with reverence and attention. In
America, wisdom is not wisdom till the common man has examined it and
pronounced it to be such. The conclusions of the scholar are revised
by the daily newspaper. The readers of these papers care little for
messages from Utopia.

No college opened its doors to Thomson, and he saw with dismay that the
life before him was one of discomfort and insignificance, his ideals
having no exchangeable value in luxuries or comforts. Meanwhile,
Thomson's early associates seemed to get on somehow. The world wanted
their cheap achievements, though it did not care for him.

Among these associates was one Wilcox, who became a politician, and,
though small in abilities and poor in virtues, his influence among men
seemed