Moreover, these associations are
no stronger in the men of English stock than in those who are not. My
people have been for eight generations in America; but in one thing I
am like the Americans of to-morrow, rather than like many of the
Americans of to-day; for I have in my veins the blood of men who came
from many different European races. The ethnic make-up of our people
is slowly changing, so that constantly the race tends to become more
and more akin to that of those Americans who like myself are of the
old stock but not mainly of English stock. Yet I think that as time
goes by, mutual respect, understanding, and sympathy among the
English-speaking peoples grow greater and not less. Any of my
ancestors, Hollander or Huguenot, Scotchman or Irishman, who had come
to Oxford in "the spacious days of great Elizabeth," would have felt
far more alien than I, their descendant, now feel. Common heirship in
the things of the spirit makes a closer bond than common heirship in
the things of the body.
More than ever before in the world's history we of to-day seek to
penetrate the causes of the mysteries that surround not only mankind
but all life, both in the present and the past. We search, we peer, we
see things dimly; here and there we get a ray of clear vision, as we
look before and after.
Pages:
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178