Excerpt from Ethical Addresses: Lectures Given Before the American Ethical Societies Now what is all this but saying that Democracy, that America, one hundred years ago, meant Opportunity? That was what our greatest idealist said it meant. Ralph Waldo Emerson was born just as the century began - in 1803; and I like to remember that his life was overlapped by at least a single year, by that of the greatest philoso pher, the greatest thinker of modern times, whose key word (as Emerson's was Opportunity) was Obligation, was Duty. Immanuel Kant died one year after Emerson was born; and mv hope for democracy has basis, it has confidence and wings, just when I believe that the sense of obligation, for which Kant stands, always overlaps the vision of Opportunity, which Emerson had. Opportunity is what America has meant. The problem of Democracy now is whether democracy, with its opportunity and vis ion and sentiment. Will rise to a definite sense of duty; and whether this immense new power shall be used for the upbuilding of democracy itself, and for the progress and upbuilding of the world. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.