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Beveridge, Albert Jeremiah, 1862-1927

"The Young Man and the World"

In either
case you need not fear him. "He will never set the world afire."
I am assuming that you are man enough to be a man--not a mere machine
of selfishness on the one hand, or an anemic imitation of masculinity
on the other hand. I am assuming that you think--and, what is more
important, feel--that Nature knows what she is about; that "God is not
mocked"; and that therefore you propose to live in harmony with
universal law.
Therefore, I am assuming that you have established, or will establish,
the new home in place of the old home. I am assuming that you will do
this before there is a gray hair in your head or a wrinkle under your
eye. These new homes which young Americans are building will be the
sources of all the power and righteousness of this Republic to-morrow,
just as the lack of them will be the source of such weakness as our
future develops.
Within these new homes which young Americans are to build, the altar
must be raised again on which the sacred fire of American ideals must
be kept burning, just as it was kept burning in the old homes which
these young Americans have left. And precisely to the extent that
these new homes are not erected will American ideals pale, and finally
perish.


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