I would not for a minute keep you in suspense in the adopting of such a title as I have given, nor alarm you with the thought that the whole of this meeting is to be given to a discussion of things from their beginnings. In the choosing of this title I have had in mind certain subjects that are interesting to me, tussocks, so to speak, in the oozy swamps of human activities, which enable one to bound lightly over the intervals of time and arrive at a triumphant conclusion within forty-five minutes. I hope to be pardoned for the few allusions that I make to my native state in a discourse of this kind. It is much better for a person of my limited horizon to speak of things with which I am familiar rather than to adopt sounding phrases dealing with illimitable space.

If you will look in the dictionary as I have you will probably agree with me that the word "civilization" is the most unsatisfactory in the whole Webster concatenation. It bears very little relation to the word "civil" which precedes it and is even less satisfactory than the word "civilize" which follows it. Its definition contains no thought of charity, kindness, literature, music, nor goodness. It refers simply to advancement in the arts with a rather weak notion of refinement. Until it has been reorganized and rehabilitated it does not as a term deserve the respect of men. But grant that after this war is over it should be made to mean more, that some of the qualities which I have mentioned are included in its definition. Where should we look in the past for inspiration? The Egyptians were advanced in the arts but you would not seek it there, nor in Babylon, nor in Persia. Rome would give us little satisfaction and even Greece can

only inspire us with a few years of her history. Her wonderful literature, we are told by statisticians, was produced by some eighteen men only, nevertheless Greece was and is a satisfaction. In her architecture and in her sculpture the Greeks sought to make things more beautiful. It would have been impossible for a Greek to follow Rodin's example and depict "A man with a broken nose." True civilization was not found in the time of King John in spite of Magna Carta and all that meant to mankind. It was not much better after the introduction of the printed book, and in the times of Charles II. people were robbing each other and the government, and acting as if they were possessed of devils. Yet in the reign of the Merry Monarch a son was born to a distinguished man who was probably one of the worst grafters of his time, a child who was to become, in my humble opinion, the greatest contribution to civilization in the two hundred years that preceded and the two hundred years that followed that event. I allude to William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania.

His history is familiar to all of you. He is pictured in the beautiful series of paintings in the Pennsylvania Capitol as a student at Oxford where he had been sent to fit himself for the life of a courtier. He listens to the argument of the travelling Quaker and is impressed by the honesty and simplicity of his ways. Having adopted this faith he is driven from home by his irate father and is thrown into prison for his profane utterances. He is even shown writing tracts in his cell and upon his release visiting the prisoners and performing various kindnesses to the poor and neglected. Another picture shows him in the act of receiving the Charter for the