of her life as completed. When the heart is full, it shows itself in
action as well as in speech. When the heart is empty, then life is no
longer worth while. The days pass and there is no pleasure in them. Let
us then fill our souls with noble ideals of knowledge, of art, of
action. "Let us lay up a stock of enthusiasms in our youth, lest we
reach the end of our journey with an empty heart, for we lose many of
them by the way."

We hear much in these days of the wickedness of power, of the evil
behavior of men in high places, of men in low places, and men whom the
people have been perforce obliged to trust. This is no new thing, though
the struggle against it, the combination of the forces of reform and
blackmail, of dreamers and highwaymen, is offering some new phases.

There is a kind of music popular with uncritical audiences and with
people who know no better, which answers to the name of "ragtime." It is
the music of those who do not know good music or who have not the moral
force to demand it. The spirit of ragtime is not confined to music:
graft is the ragtime of business, the spoils system the ragtime of
politics, adulteration the ragtime of manufacture. There is ragtime
science, ragtime literature, ragtime religion. You will know each of
these by its quick returns. The spirit of ragtime determines the six
best sellers, the most popular policeman, the favorite congressman, the
wealthiest corporation, the church which soonest rents its pews.

But it does not, control the man who thinks for himself. It has no lien
on the movements of history, its decrees avail nothing in the fixing of
truth. The movements of the stars pay it no tribute, neither do the
movements of humanity. The power of graft is a transient deception.
Emerson's parable of the illusions gives the clue to our time, to all