Page:The future of Africa.djvu/78

72 of nation with nation soften asperities and angularities of character, introduce the better and superior manners of each into the other, and cause the mutual communication and introduction of new, original, and noble ideas. Its bearing upon system, order, morals, is manifest. The Carthaginian and the Roman merchants were noted for their sterling honesty and their love of justice. People who arc uncommercial are given to dissimulation, fraud, and trickery. No class of men who have the true commercial spirit are so; for the more commercial they become, the more honest are they in their dealings, and the more exact and trustworthy.

And thus, from these few hints, we can easily see what a civilizer is commerce; how it binds men and nations to each other; how it promotes good-will, and builds up sterling character. And the consideration of the whole of this particular topic serves to show how, by the order of nature and the will of God, nations are bound to contribute to the well-being and civilization of the great family of man.

II. I pass, now, to the second topic into which my remarks are distributed, and shall attempt to answer the question,—"?" I could not stand here, and, with self-respect, tell this audience that the great powers of the earth wait, with deep concern and breathless expectation, our offerings and our gifts. Bombast such as this tends