VICARIOUS LIVES AS INSTRUMENTS OF SOCIAL PROGRESS.




"Only he that uses shall even so much as keep. Unemployed strength
steadily diminishes. The sluggard's arm grows soft and flabby. So,
even in this lowest sphere, the law is inexorable. Having is using.
Not using is losing. Idleness is paralysis. New triumphs must only
dictate new struggles. If it be Alexander of Macedon, the Orontes must
suggest the Euphrates, and the Euphrates the Indus. Always it must be
on and on. One night of rioting in Babylon may arrest the conquering
march. Genius is essentially athletic, resolute, aggressive,
persistent. Possession is grip, that tightens more and more. Ceasing
to gain, we begin to lose. Ceasing to advance, we begin to retrograde.
Brief was the interval between Roman conquest of Barbarians, and
Barbarian conquest of Rome. Blessed is the man who keeps out of the
hospital and holds his place in the ranks. Blessed the man, the last
twang of whose bow-string is as sharp as any that went before, sending
its arrow as surely to the mark."--_Roswell W. Hitchcock_.




CHAPTER IV.

VICARIOUS LIVES AS INSTRUMENTS OF SOCIAL PROGRESS.

The eleventh chapter of Hebrews has been called the picture-gallery of
heroes. These patriots and martyrs who won our first battles for