in physical strength, and — true to the rare elasticity of his nature - he reacted upon it and set about correcting his defects. His parents and all his older friends had realized his bodily disability before he did. And all the world now looks back upon his weak, suffering childhood with pity and wonder, pity for him as he seemed so poorly equipped for the struggle of life, and wonder that he so transformed his weakness into strength.

He accomplished this by the persistent exercise of his most unique gift, - an indomitable will. Other qualities he had which counted in his mastery of life, but his will was marvelous, almost miraculous. If he had been born two thousand years or more ago, in Greece, in Sparta, his infant fate would have been to be exposed to lingering death on Mount Tagytus, with other Spartan defectives. His capacity for survival and helpful citizenship would have been considered slender and negligible. But the record of his sheltered early life not only suggests the high distance which the human race has come, as indicated by its care for the weak and helpless members of society, but it proclaims also the miracle which an indomitable human spirit can accomplish, in its mastery of its body.

His father, always wise and sympathetic, encouraged the boy to enter into such sports and pastimes as would develop such slender physical

powers as he had. And the walking, sparring, riding, rowing, and other sports which he took up he continued throughout his life. That nearsightedness which was so evident during his entire career became known to him when he was thirteen years of age. Before that time, like most children similarly handicapped, he had not realized-nor had his relatives and friends his defects of sight. But spectacles for his eyes were promptly provided, and a new world stood revealed before him.

Many people have expressed surprise that with his poor eyesight he could yet attain such proficiency in "nature study." But the spectacles largely remedied his visual defects; and, mentally, he was keenly observant. Then, too, his hearing was always acute, and this was a great asset in his study of birds; he caught their calls and songs usually before he identified their plumage and

movements.

One point may here be noted, as we recall the several kinds of pastimes which he entered into as a boy. These were the rowing and sailing on the waters of Long Island Sound. Most boys are eager for boats, but most boys pass on from rowboats to sailboats. They soon prefer the latter kind. But Roosevelt was unique in that he always preferred rowing to sailing. And just here, in this preference, we discover one of his striking char

acteristics. Evidently he preferred the rowing because it gave him something to do. He was incessantly active. And, naturally, he preferred using his strength on the oars to sitting listlessly at a tiller or a wheel.

This stage of our survey may properly be the one where attention is called to the fact that Roosevelt was essentially a "self-made" man. That term has been applied to many men, especially in this land of comparatively free development and unrestricted opportunity. But, usually, if those men's careers are closely examined, it will be found that their advance, their "rise," has been brought about more by their alteration of their environment and by their seizing opportunities, than by their conscious alteration of their own characters.

Thus, strictly speaking, they have not been selfmade, or remade, in any marked degree. But, in Roosevelt's case, there was a conscious, determined remaking of his mental qualities. He was by nature shy and self-distrustful, but in his mature and public life - let me say, with a smile- those qualities were never attributed to him. He eliminated them. And by nature he was timid. He records this, with all frankness, of himself. But he also records his method of correcting that defect. He says, "I read a passage, in one of the novelist Marryat's books, where the hero explains

how to acquire the quality of fearlessness. 'A man should keep such a grip on himself that he can act as if he were unafraid. And, in time, he will become unafraid.""

This, analyzed, is of course "Will." And this was possessed by Roosevelt in an exceptional measure. He put it forth upon his emotional nature, and he became fearless, - physically, mentally, and morally. This was done consciously. He tells us, "I trained myself painfully and laboriously, not only as regards my body but as regards my soul and spirit."

Roosevelt's will, recognized by him and developed by him, simply supplemented and directed a natural activity which was his always, even back in those pinafore days when he made a somewhat mordant attack upon his child-sister, and was duly chastised, after pursuit and capture by his inexorable father. He was easily the leader in all games among his young relatives. He started the family "Museum of Natural History." He was not content to observe and wonder and feel delight at the novel objects which he found about him. He was enterprising, resourceful, original. And the "Museum" resulted.

Although the boy Theodore's most pronounced intellectual bent was toward natural science, other studies had not been neglected. His feeble

physique, through his earliest years, made of him a "home boy", and he was not put through the usual public-school course of instruction. But his Aunt Anna, as a member of the household, guided him through the intricacies of "the three R's", and at one time a French governess lived with the family. This first-hand instruction in French gave the boy a familiarity with the language which he retained throughout his life.

The earlier of the two trips abroad which he made as a boy appears, on his own statement, to have given him but little. At ten years of age, a boy cannot get much more in Europe than in the United States. The charms of its history and art elude him. But, four years later, in the winter of 1872 and 1873, he sailed again, with his family, across the Atlantic. And on this trip he went as far as Egypt. His general reading had prepared him for the picturesque remains of the Nile's ancient cities, and he greatly enjoyed what he saw. Yet it must be noted that even on this journey, as on the first one, the naturalist spirit dominated. On the Nile he was above all else a collector of birds. Indeed, before the party had set forth from their native land, Theodore had provided himself with a supply of pink-colored "Roosevelt Museum labels" for use on this "adventurous trip", as it seemed to him.