John
Milton and John Bunyan were not publishers' hacks; nor were John
Hampden, John Bright, or Samuel Adams under pay as walking-delegates of
reform.
No man was hired to find out that the world was round, or that the
valleys are worn down by water, or that the stars are suns. No man was
paid to burn at the stake or die on the cross that other men might be
free to live. The sane, strong, brave, heroic souls of all ages were
the men who, in the natural order of things, have lived above all
considerations of pay or glory. They have served not as slaves hoping
for reward, but as gods who would take no reward. Men could not reward
Shakespeare, or Darwin, or Newton, or Helmholtz for their services any
more than we could pay the Lord for the use of His sunshine. From the
same inexhaustible divine reservoir it all comes--the service of the
great man and the sunshine of God.
"Twice have I molded an image,
And thrice outstretched my hand;
Made one of day and one of night,
And one of the salt sea strand
One in a Judean manger,
And one by Avon's stream;
One over against the mouths of Nile,
And one in the Academe."
And in such image are men made every day, not only in Bethlehem or in
Stratford, not alone on the banks of the Nile or the Arno; but on the
Columbia, or the Sacramento, or the San Francisquito, it may be, as
well.
Pages:
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233