He gave as a sentiment,
"Ambition, the greatest of the four social passions!" He admired it! It
was that which carried life onward and made youth able and strong; the
ambition for higher things, for higher life and higher opportunities.
It was that which brought this little band together--an ambition to
better social life; and it was this passion that would lead them
onwards through discords into a higher unity and harmony. But in the
present social order a misplaced ambition led men to do a thousand
wrongs; it produced war, misery and discord, but when placed on the
side of humanity it tended upwards towards God and the heavenly
accords. True ambition was the unsatisfied thing that never ends except
in something higher, nobler, grander.
Here let me explain again. The four social passions before named
correspond to the common, chord in music, but ambition corresponds to
the seventh note on which no music ever ends. It is always incomplete
without the eighth note, the first of the octave above; it runs into
it; it is restless, it must never be left alone, but always has an
object--the higher unity. Such is true ambition, and such are its
results in the natural order.
Applause followed Mr.
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