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door life. He had rare powers of insight; and he could almost foresee coming events. A consistent man he seemed to me, too, despite the changes in his views which have sometimes misled people's judgments of him. He grew steadily, all through his career; that growth explained his changes in opinion. His transparent honesty and sincerity was a winning quality. To this quality — and a physical and moral courage which could never be questioned he added a large intelligence and a rare power of combining ideas into cohesive thought. Lincoln and Washington were his ideals."

When I mentioned the Progressive Party, with Roosevelt as its leader, Mr. Rhodes shook his head. "I doubt if Roosevelt acted wisely in that," said he.

I responded cheerfully that I believed that he had done exactly the brave though partly unsuccessful thing which needed to be done.

CHAPTER XVI

VALIANT FOR TRUTH

I come now to the last chapter of this interpretation of the character of Theodore Roosevelt. And, as I glance back over the pages already written, I see that I am ending where Virgil began: it is arma virumque cano; and would that I had the inspired pen to chant, in rhythmic strophes, the epic of his dauntless, consecrated life. He was armor-clad, sword in hand, a "Happy Warrior." He was an ethical idealist, - not in words, merely, but in daring deeds and sustained industry, enduring privations and accepting vicissitudes. Dauntless in the face of danger, generous in the hour of victory.

Roosevelt's moral idealism, attested by his every deed, is what most commands my admiration and devotion. This element in a great leader's character is what determines his lasting fame before that mighty court-supreme over all other courts World Opinion. The world may be dazzled for a time by the unscrupulous meteor-like career of a Napoleon Bonaparte or a Frederick the Great;

but it places in its permanent Pantheon of exaltation only such steadfast, star-like idealists as Abraham Lincoln, Chinese Gordon, Francis of Assisi, Georges Clemenceau and Theodore Roosevelt.

As I pass and repass over the incidents of his life, shaping and reshaping my conceptions of him, I hold all to be true of him that I have previously affirmed; but now, nearing the end, I exclaim: "How wonderfully and ceaselessly this man developed under the schooling of life!" No one preeminent quality in him made him great. He had the ordinary faculties possessed by his fellow men — will, memory, insight, patience, courage only he had them in an extraordinary degree, each highly developed, none rudimentary, an assemblage of qualities essentially human but so fully developed in him that he was not merely "Man"; but as Oscar Straus declared to me, with conviction and repetition, "He was superman."

His chosen field of study, in college days as afterward, was not political economy or sociology or government, but it was a cross-section of all these which we might call "Applied Morals”, morality applied to life, worked out in individuals and groups. No abstractions pleased him; but righteousness in terms of tenement houses, sweatshops, corporations, courts, criminals, wages,

trusts,

all these problems, with their human interest, called upon his insight and judgment and courage. And among these conditions and forces, as on a battlefield among cohorts and battalions, he fought joyously, gloriously, and life to him was a boon and a blessing.

It might seem that at this point in his life, having filled acceptably such high public offices and having made such a triumphal tour abroad, he would find few interests left him during his waning years. Indeed, he said this very thing to me, at Sagamore Hill one day: "I am through, I fancy, with the active part of my life. Henceforth the place for a man of my age is the hearth-side and with the grandchildren." But his eyes were bright, even as he said this, and his expression was playful, and I knew that the lion in him would rouse easily and instantly, on challenge.

This playful plea of my strenuous classmate was only the merest pretence. He knew himself well and knew that "the call of the wild" would be potent over him to the end of his days. Theodore Roosevelt, with his frank, direct nature, was very unlike the "Wily Odysseus" of ancient Greek tradition. But he had many points in common with Tennyson's "Ulysses." As I read that poem, I come to the line,

"I cannot rest from travel. I will drink

Life to the lees. . .

And I am reminded of our illustrious, active American. He was eager to explore new regions of the earth; he desired to experience every human emotion. Hence, in 1913, when the opportunity came to travel into the wilderness of South America, he accepted it. It was an expedition fraught with perils and privations, at its best; and, in his case, it exhausted him and took years from his life. This he knew well and admitted, on his return. And thousands of saddened friends, in 1918, said to one another, "But for that deadly trip into the wilds of Brazil, our 'Greatest American' could become our President in 1920.”

The original object of the expedition was the securing of flora and fauna from the central plateau of Brazil. Roosevelt's great interest in natural history made this prospect extremely attractive. But, at Rio Janeiro, the Brazilian Minister suggested that Colonel Roosevelt join in with the plans of Colonel Rondon, an experienced Brazilian explorer, and trace the course of a slightly known river, the Rio da Duvida (River of Doubt). This plan was carried out.

A detailed account of the vicissitudes of this deadly trip has been written out by Roosevelt in a book, "Through the Brazilian Wilderness." The

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