Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/302

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS

tised such doctrine — that is, a race that prac- tised race suicide — would thereby conclusively show that it was unfit to exist, and that it had better give place to people who had not forgot- ten the primary laws of their being.

To sum up, then, the whole matter is simple enough. If either a race or an individual pre- fers the pleasure of more effortless ease, of self- indulgence, to the infinitely deeper, the infinitely higher pleasures that come to those who know the toil and the weariness, but also the joy, of hard duty well done, why, that race or that individual must inevitably in the end pay the penalty of leading a life both vapid and ignoble. No man and no woman really worthy of the name can care for the life spent solely or chiefly in the avoidance of risk and trouble and labor. Save in exceptional cases the prizes worth having in life must be paid for, and the life worth living must be a life of work for a worthy end, and ordinarily of work more for others than for one's self.

The woman's task is not easy — no task worth doing is easy — but in doing it, and when she has done it, there shall come to her the highest and holiest joy kno\\Ti to mankind; and having done it, she shall have the reward prophesied in Scripture ; for her husband and her children, yes, and all people who realize that her work lies at the foundation of all national happiness and greatness, shall rise up and call her blessed.

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