coming to the fields, to the mines, to the factories, to commerce, to all the material interests of South America. Mr. Minister, this is but a part of a great world movement on a wider field. It is no idle dream that the world grows better day by day. We cannot mark its progress by days or by years or by generations; but marking the changes by the centuries mankind advances steadily from brute force, from the rule of selfishness and greed toward respect for human rights, toward desire for human happiness, toward the rule of law and the rule of love among men. My own country has become great materially because it has felt the influence of that majestic progress of civilization. South America is becoming great materially because it, too, is feeling the influence that is making humanity more human. We can do but little in our day. We live our short lives and pass away and are forgotten. All the wealth, prosperity, and luxury with which we can surround ourselves is of but little benefit and little satisfaction; but if we--if you and I--in our offices and each one of us in his influence upon the public affairs of his day, can contribute ever so little, but something, toward the tendency of our countries, the tendency of our race, away from greed and force and selfishness and wrong, toward the rule of order and love--if we can do something to contribute to that tendency which countless millions are working out, we shall not have lived in vain. You were kind enough to refer to an incident in the diplomatic history of the United States and Peru, when my own country recognized its error in regard to the Lobos Islands and returned them freely and cheerfully to their rightful owner. I would rather have the record of such acts of justice for my country's fair name than the story of any battle fought and won by her military heroes. We cannot fail to ask ourselves sometimes the question, What will be the end of our civilization? Will some future generation say of us, in the words of the Persian poet, "The lion and the lizard keep the courts where Jamshýd gloried and drank deep"? Will the palaces we build be the problem of the antiquarians in some future century? Will all that we do come to naught? If not--if our civilization is not to meet the fate of all that have gone before--it will be because we have builded upon a firm foundation, a foundation of the great body of the plain, the common people, and upon a character formed on the principles of justice, of liberty, and of brotherly love. Our one hope for the perpetuity of our civilization is that quality in which it differs from all civilizations that have gone before--its substantial basis. I find that here in Peru you are building upon that firm rock. I find that here individual character is being developed so that the people of Peru are collectively developing the necessary and essential national character.