with the hard facts of nature, it will be found that the "Virtues" which
the Romans made into gods contain in them the essence of true religion,
that in them lies the special characteristic which distinguishes human
beings from the rest of animated things. Every other creature exists for
itself, and cares for its own preservation. Nothing larger or better is
expected from it or possible to it. To man it is said, you do not live for
yourself. If you live for yourself you shall come to nothing. Be brave, be
just, be pure, be true in word and deed; care not for your enjoyment, care
not for your life; care only for what is right. So, and not otherwise, it
shall be well with you. So the Maker of you has ordered, whom you will
disobey at your peril.

Thus and thus only are nations formed which are destined to endure; and as
habits based on such convictions are slow in growing, so when grown to
maturity they survive extraordinary trials. But nations are made up of
many persons in circumstances of endless variety. In country districts,
where the routine of life continues simple, the type of character remains
unaffected; generation follows on generation exposed to the same
influences and treading in the same steps. But the morality of habit,
though the most important element in human conduct, is still but a part of
it. Moral habits grow under given conditions. They correspond to a given
degree of temptation. When men are removed into situations where the use
and wont of their fathers no longer meets their necessities; where new
opportunities are offered to them; where their opinions are broken in upon
by new ideas; where pleasures tempt them on every side, and they have but
to stretch out their hand to take them--moral habits yield under the
strain, and they have no other resource to fall back upon. Intellectual
cultivation brings with it rational interests. Knowledge, which looks
before and after, acts as a restraining power, to help conscience when it
flags. The sober and wholesome manners of life among the early Romans had