The peroration of his final speech, spoken in a tone of voice that seemed
not only to reach every ear but, in fact, to touch every heart, was as
follows:

We have begun a fight that, it may be, will take many a generation to
complete, the fight against privilege; but you know that men are not
put into this world to go the path of ease. They are put into this
world to go the path of pain and struggle. No man would wish to sit
idly by and lose the opportunity to take part in such a struggle. All
through the centuries there has been this slow, painful struggle
forward, forward, up, up, a little at a time, along the entire
incline, the interminable way which leads to the perfection of force,
to the real seat of justice and honour.

There are men who have fallen by the way; blood without stint has been
shed; men have sacrificed everything in this sometimes blind, but
always instinctive and constant struggle, and America has undertaken
to lead the way; America has undertaken to be the haven of hope, the
opportunity for all men.

Don't look forward too much. Don't look at the road ahead of you in
dismay. Look at the road behind you. Don't you see how far up the hill
we have come? Don't you see what those low and damp miasmatic levels
were from which we have slowly led the way? Don't you see the rows of
men come, not upon the lower level, but upon the upper, like the rays
of the rising sun? Don't you see the light starting and don't you see
the light illuminating all nations?

Don't you know that you are coming more and more into the beauty of