I am not excited. I have not lost my head. (Yes, I still have a head, and hands and feet. If I should try to live out here without hands and feet, the adjustment to that unaccustomed condition would have a reactionary effect upon my head. I am not experimenting in the elimination of my members.) You see a country now, Russia, that is making the experiment of living without its head. No nation can continue as a nation without a head, and a level one. Even the most extremely republican, democratic, socialistic, or any other kind of a nation must have a head. A completely anarchistic aggregation of people could not be called a nation. Its land would be only a geographical section populated with units, and such units unrelated to other units might as well be ciphers. Do not be impatient because I write seldom at present. I am rather busy. I shall always come when I have something that must be said. A change is coming in America. Quite a change has already come about, has it not?[2] This country is great, this country is strong, this country is adaptable. It can adjust itself to change. The people of this country have not been slaves for a long time. The people of Russia have been so many kinds of slaves that their reaction to freedom is unexpected by a free world. Wait! Do not lose your heads about this matter. I do not object to there being a few persons who know that I am writing with you again. They cannot affect me, save to encourage me with their interest. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 2: It was about this time, if I remember rightly, that many of our wealthy men began working for the government at one dollar a year.] LETTER XIII TREES AND BRICK WALLS _May 16, 1917._ YOU fear lest the dismal prophecies of world-disaster, of cataclysm, of the destruction of half the human race which you hear from many sources, may tend to discourage the world. Remember that hope springs eternal in the human breast. And if the minds of men are familiar with the idea of cataclysm, they will more readily adjust themselves to lesser changes. Read the Old Testament. The most dismal prophecies were not verified, but changes came. Some of the “independent ministers” of America are more violent than Jeremiah. But they help indirectly--in accustoming the minds of men to the idea of change. If panics come--and they may--refuse to be panic-stricken. If violence comes--and it may--refuse to be violent. If discouragements come--and they will--refuse to be discouraged. When your brains become over-heated, look steadily at the trees. They will quiet you. If there are no trees in your neighborhood--why, look at a brick wall in moments of excitement. A brick wall is a soothing spectacle. It stands steady, unless moved from without. LETTER XIV INVISIBLE ARMIES