not make the world holier and better, and advance your country beyond the doors of the world's marketplaces? In the shade of these mountains and touched with the glory of this historic valley, what other sentiment could we feel than that exalted spirit which holds as small every feeling of material aggrandizement as compared with love of country?

It seems that the people of the mountains hold more jealously to the great primal faiths of our country. I know not why, but we of the mountains have a simpler faith and feel more deeply the impairment of these great principles than do the people of the plain. From these heights the vision is clearer, and it pierces the clouds whose shadows are over the rich plains and fertile valleys. In the history of freedom and religion, the mountains of the world have played a mighty part. They alone have looked upon the ineffable majesty of God. In the mountains Moses met God, and Nebo's stony sides trembled with the thunder of the stern command, "Get thee up into this mountain and die." Their silent fastnesses witnessed the agony of the temptation of our Lord. To the eyes of faith arise Hermon and Tabor and Carmel and Gilead and the hills of Galilee echoing with the footsteps of Prophet and Patriarch and King and Disciple. When religious and political freedom had no abiding-place, the song of the Huguenot swelled pure and triumphant amid the mountains of France. When the light grew faint in the Mother Country,

over the mountains of Scotland stood the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night. When from the plains of Po to the German Ocean the weary feet of freedom had no resting-place, it fled to the cliffs of the Alps and found there a home.

When in our own country liberty had almost despaired of triumph, the Father of his Country turned his despairing eyes to these mountains, here to plant the banner of freedom and maintain among this libertyloving people the contest for its existence. So to-night I would bid you to look above the glories of this material age and ascend the mountains on whose lofty sides dwells patriotism, whose life is infinitely more superior in importance to mankind than all of the teeming plenty in the plains beneath.

From these supreme heights sprung the men of Virginia whose lives are the loftiest contemplation for those who, during this momentous period, will control the destiny of our country. Surrounded by the majesty of nature, its influence broadened their every thought and elevated every principle of action. With the grandeur of mountain and tenderness of outline and color always before them, love of country was pre-eminent to all thought of self. Cari sunt parentes, cari liberi, cari familiares, propinqui; sed omnes omnium caritates una patria complexa est—“ Sweet are parents, sweet are children, sweet are friends and relations; but all affections of all men are embraced in country alone" was not merely the swelling period of the philosopher and

orator, but was to them the eternal truth whose verity they were full ready to prove by giving up all save country. From these exalted scenes rose the men, the like of whom the world has yet to see.

Partaking from their surroundings of that nobleness of spirit which loved truth because it was true and cared naught for wealth when weighed in the balance with love of country, ease and luxury and power were thrown aside without a sigh when country called them to its sacred sacrifice. This greatness of spirit, this contemplation of lofty ideals for themselves and country never lessened that effectiveness which in the world of thought, in the wide domain of government, and on the active theatre of life, wrought for mankind those mighty works whose life will march with time.

When the ancients wished to begin any important work, through the smoke of shrines lighted by anxious hands they summoned the gods from broad Olympus and wooded Ida. Here in the shadows of these mountains, mute but eternal witnesses of Virginia's toil and sacrifices, I would summon around you from the battle-field and council-chamber her mighty spirits whose holy influence may cause you to pluck from your hearts any love greater than that of country, to exalt with holy pride of patriotism your every aspiration and desire, and to so cherish your country's honor that from her stately portals she may walk among the nations with uplifted coun

tenance and hands unsullied. Here, in old Virginia's land, I would surround you with spirits more glorious than any worshipped in marble fane on Thessalian mountain-top. Here would I assemble your fathers, proud spirits of freedom, and, uplifted by their unseen presence, pray that the civilization erected by them should never be sullied by wrong. Where, in what land, can you touch such holy inspiration for love of country, and if, holding for naught their sacrifices and tears, with impious hands you should touch this temple of the world's hopes, where so deep a curse? With every swelling mountain a temple of memories, holy and sweet, and every valley a tented field where wait in rest the spectred hosts of Virginia's glorious dead, touched with the grace of such example, you can do naught of dishonor to your country's life. Proud Virginia, matchless mother of stately sons, self-immolated on freedom's altar, with thy bosom seamed and torn, yet with thy soul white and pure, thy sons greet thee, and touching hands around thy altar, they swear fealty to truth and honor. And oh, my country, above thy stately palaces, higher than the splendors of thy labor born from thy heart of endeavor, may thou erect a temple, enduring and glorious, which will be crowned with a citizenship matchless in its intelligence, unapproachable in its virtue, whose light shall touch with gladness and hope all the nations which on this earth do dwell!

VI

PATRIOTISM OF THE SOUTH'

Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen:

W

HEN your honored invitation came it carried

me in my thoughts to Virginia, to the Great Valley where I first saw the light. With the glamour of youth's enchantment lingering yet a little, I saw old Virginia's hills with the sunshine glorifying farm and village, mirroring itself in the bright waters, and clothing mountain and valley with wealth of green and gold. A vision came to me of the old Commonwealth as I remember it in my childhood. Again I saw her worn from battle-field and adversity, again I witnessed her sorrows, her sacrifices, her courage, her high honor, her glory, everything save dishonor.

This fair valley still reverberated with the thunderous tread of the angel of the spear and the sword. Never since Alaric harried Italy and Gaul, never since Alva ravaged the Low Countries has the hand of fate held for a people such hard conditions.

I wish to awaken no sad memories, for your faces are turned to the glory of the rising morning, not to the rays of the setting sun. Yet, in the pages of what

1 1An address delivered June 17, 1908, before the Literary Societies of Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va.

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