unimpaired. And I say also to those persons here, to whom I now make
my appeal: wealthy men, men of light and leading have never been all
on one side in our country. There have always been men of power and
position who have sacrificed and exerted themselves in the popular
cause; and that is why there is so little class-hatred here, in spite
of all the squalor and misery which we see around us. There,
gentlemen, lies the true evolution of democracy. That is how we have
preserved the golden thread of historical continuity, when so many
other nations have lost it for ever. That is the only way in which
your island life as you know it, and love it, can be preserved in all
its grace and in all its freedom--can be elevated, expanded, and
illumined for those who will occupy our places when our share in the
world's work is done.

And I appeal to the leaders of industry and of learning in this city
to range themselves on the side of a policy which will vigilantly seek
the welfare of the masses, and which will strictly refuse to profit
through their detriment; and, in spite of the violence of extremists,
in spite of the harshness of controversy which hard conditions
produce, in spite of many forces which may seem to those gentlemen
ungrateful, I ask them to pursue and persevere in their crusade--for
it is a crusade--of social progress and advance.

Cologne Cathedral took 600 years to build. Generations of architects
and builders lived and died while the work was in progress. Still the
work went on. Sometimes a generation built wrongly, and the next
generation had to unbuild, and the next generation had to build again.
Still the work went on through all the centuries, till at last there
stood forth to the world a mighty monument of beauty and of truth to
command the admiration and inspire the reverence of mankind. So let it