Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 74.djvu/69

Rh illustration of my meaning furnished by Mr. Roosevelt. I remember a lady of exquisite perception saying that for twenty years and more she had lived near a great university and that she looked to see there in the future "a blaze of impulse." Has there been any one in our history who could kindle "a blaze of impulse" in a community of young men as Mr. Roosevelt could? As a psychologist has remarked, he is a born moralist. And the moral principles he preaches (the fact is often made a reproach to him) are not above the comprehension of everybody; they are what were called long ago "the great commonplaces of morality." He may regard the disdain of fastidious minds on this account with much equanimity. Life is indeed "a rediscovery of copybook maxims." The somewhat slender hold that born moralists for the most part have upon the young man is due to their not being rich in natural life and in the raw material of human nature. There is just a touch of the astringent about them; a taste of "moralic acid." In other words they are not quite the type that he spontaneously admires. The combination in Mr. Roosevelt, which for us and in its degree may fairly be called unique, is that of the moralist and the natural hero of average minds. It is something to have in one person the intense preacher and him of whom every boy would say (as the poet said of the "rough-hammered head—great eye, gross jaw and griped lips" of another) "What a man!" At all events the boy would say it if not prompted otherwise by having overheard the acidulous talk of alienated elders. The strong hold of such a leader on his college men would be maintained in part by addressing them. It is something to have a speaker who is also a doer. That he is without grave faults Mr. Roosevelt himself, I cannot help fancying, is the last one who would pretend. That his intention and his nature are not good no unentangled person who has watched him long and closely can easily be found to testify. The general verdict of such is that of Mr. John Morley: "A man and a good man." We have had hasty and crude statements from him on subjects where he was not at home; we have in general ceased to have them when be became at home on those subjects. We have had unduly heated language from him under intensely provoking circumstances; a conductor of heat has the defect of his quality. We have had plentiful charges against him of inaccuracy and worse. The statistics respecting charges of loose statement against responsible executives, if they could be gathered, would be interesting and to many surprising. Decision in each case is possible to no man without searching investigation. The statistics in regard to actual accuracy in general would perhaps in each case surprise none so much as the one they concerned. I would not condone looseness in such matters; much to the contrary; but I would remind