As part of the kid's curriculum, they need to do copywork. Basically, just copying word for word a beautifully written piece of work. This term their copywork is coming from an old book co-compiled by one of my newest favorite authors, Emma Serl. The book is American Ideals. I found it while searching the internet via Google Books for good literature. This was a compilation of written works by many authors dealing with the subject of Patriotism and was written so that "somehow (they might) get a clear idea of what love of country implies in the patriot's soul and should lead to in the patriot's conduct"*.
In this book is an abridged version of a written work by George W. Doane entitled "The Men to Make a State".
The Men to Make a State must be intelligent men. The right of suffrage is a fearful thing. It calls for wisdom, and discretion, and intelligence, of no ordinary interests of all the nation. It takes in, at every exercise, the interest of all the nation. Its results reach forward through time into eternity. Who will go to it blindly? Who will go to it passionately? Who will go to it as a sycophant, a tool, a slave? How many do! These are not the men to make a state.
The Men to Make a State MUST BE HONEST MEN. I mean men with a single face. I mean men with a single eye. I mean men with a single tongue. I mean men that consider always what is right, and do it at whatever the cost. I mean men whom no king on earth can buy.
Men who are in the market for the highest bidder; men that make politics their trade, and look to office for a living; men that will crawl, where they cannot climb, - these are not the men to make a state.
The Men to Make a State MUST BE BRAVE MEN. I mean the men that do, but do not talk. I mean the men that dare to stand alone. I mean the men that are to-day where they were yesterday, and will be to-morrow. I mean men that can stand still and take the storm. I mean the men that are afraid to kill, but not afraid to die.
The man that calls hard names and uses threats; the man that stabs in secret with his tongue or with his pen; the man that moves a mob to deeds of violence and self-destruction; the man that freely offers his last drop of blood, but never sheds the first, - these are not the men to make a state.
I appreciate the books of old that challenge a child's heart; the books that make them think so that when they copy these words, it is like they are engraving them on their heart and hopefully as they grow older they will rise up to a higher standard than that around them.
So I wonder, what happened to these kind of books today?
**written in the introduction of the book by Charles W. Eliot, President Emeritus, Harvard University
