Several of his friends have recorded their impressions of Roosevelt's devotion to the church and the Bible, and his religious life in general. None of them are better than that remark of the hardy backwoodsman, honest, generous-hearted Bill Sewall, who accompanied him so often into the solitudes of nature:

"I think he read the Bible a great deal. I never saw him in formal prayer, but as prayer is the desire of the heart, I think he prayed without ceasing, for the desire of his heart was always to do right."

I have mentioned all these experiences, and I could mention scores of others, because out of them grew my philosophy-perhaps they were in part caused by my philosophy—of bodily vigor as a method of getting that vigor of soul without which vigor of the body counts for nothing.

-THE VIGOR OF LIFE.

CHAPTER IV

A VIGOROUS CODE

At the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865, the nation found itself exhausted. By degrees, however, natural resources of greater and greater value were discovered; young men of vigor and vision pushed to the front; and industrial and commercial ventures of a magnitude never before thought possible began to be undertaken. Accumulations of wealth and power bred disregard of fundamental honesty, until, at the time of Roosevelt's graduation from college in 1880, personal honor and regard for the civil and moral law had been replaced by greed for gain and selfish striving for commanding position. These alarming conditions which threatened greater disruption to the state than had the Civil War, strange as it now appears in the light of the Roosevelt Crusade, had

not been recognized by national leaders. At all events, if those set to govern did recognize the insidious peril they lacked the ability and daring to attack it.

It is a very remarkable thing, and one of the most notable features in the history of great Americans, that Theodore Roosevelt, immediately on being elected a member of the New York legislature, should have gone to the root of the iniquity. He was a young man of twenty-three. His traditions were of the aristocracy. He had a promising career as a naturalist or as an author. Instead of following either, he threw in his fortunes with a calling that in his day in New York savored of deepseated corruption and all sorts of double dealing. The fact was freely admitted that an easy conscience was indispensable to political preferment. Theodore Roosevelt went in with his eyes open, kept his conscience clear and his mind elevated, and emerged with a prestige for honesty second to none. It was an astonishing achievement, and must not be passed unnoted. The singularly honest career of Roosevelt

proves once more that those win in the battle who fight unhampered by subterfuge and a troublesome conscience.

At the outset of his career, he adopted a few policies to which he persistently adhered throughout his life. One of these may best be expressed in his own words, "Speak softly and carry a big stick," a phrase he used while speaking before a Chicago audience, April 2, 1903: "There is a homely old adage which runs, 'Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.""

A person of great common sense, he knew that the political game was a rough-and-tumble affair, a contest in which the weakling succumbed. Zealous moralist and upholder of high ideals, his faith was of the Gideon kind. Victory was for those who met the rough element with fighting tactics as aggressive as their own.

Theodore Roosevelt introduced into Christian conduct the militant spirit which it had long wanted. There was no place in his program for undeserved pity or that meek resig