Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/19

Rh and responsibilities of to-day. The eternal truth in the conception of Jefferson, the truth that the presentday and future conditions place in ever increasing vitality of relation to national welfare, is that of the dominion of mind in anticipating and disposing power over events and in directing the course of progress. In essaying this project of exploration Jefferson was not only promoting that which was in vital relation with his largest and most cherished life purposes, he was at the same time, in the large measure in which he had the prophet's vision true, marking out the central and enduring process of progress in civilization. It now rests with this generation to respond to the deeper designs of Jefferson bound up with his project of exploration. After a century of growth and achievement and moving westward we seem just ready to take note of the higher planes of community life and effort to which his prophet's call directs.

There is a special reason while dealing at this time with this event, in the centennial year of its culmination in a successful penetration of the continent, for a transition from cold history to panegyric; provided, always, the truth is fully adhered to. The mind of a people in reviewing its past, in conceiving of the process of its evolution, and in developing its traditions, poises itself upon epochal events as points of departure or relays for its ideas. From one of these resting places transition in thought is made to the next in order. The collective mind thus develops "perchings and flights," in its conceptions of its past, much as does the consciousness of the individual in cognizing the world about him or in organizing his thought material. Thus, in both the stream of history as conceived by a peo-