Builders

Abstract

The outward and visible sign of a healthy and prosperous nation is this, that no man, sunk in whatever lower pit of poverty he may be, can there die of hunger, or be classed as a criminal when the weight of years has bent him nearer to the tomb and further from his labour. The spiritual sign of a healthy and wise nation is this, that its great men, its poets, statesmen, warriors, and martyrs are patent and lively units in its civilization, living in the popular mind, not as legends, but as men who were once as we are, living, sentient, breathing men, who looked on the same mountains, fished in the same streams, walked on the same dales, played as children with the same abandon, paid court as lovers with the same ardour, loved their country with the same intensity, hated the common enemy with the same abhorrence, and went to the grave and beyond with the same peaceful hope as we, the issue of their blood, perform and will perform these natural and national functions.