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The Green caldron - University Library

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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Green</strong> Caldron<br />

<strong>The</strong> Majesty of Modern Man<br />

Nancy Lou Russell<br />

Rhetoric 101, Final Examination<br />

To Shakespeare, robes and crowns and jewels are the garments most<br />

appropriate to man because they are the fitting outward manifestation of his<br />

inward majesty, but to us they seem absurd because the man who bears them<br />

has, in our estimation, so pitifully shrunk.<br />

JOSEPH<br />

Joseph Wood Krutch<br />

WOOD KRUTCH ACCUSES MAN OF HAVING LOST<br />

all of his inner majesty and having shrunk to a pitiful spectre of the<br />

magnificent creature that he once was. How can he feel that this is<br />

so after looking at the men and women around him? Men with dreams<br />

are accomplishing the impossible every day. <strong>The</strong>re is the artist in Southern<br />

California who has fought all odds to prove that he can bring pleasure to<br />

the blind by teaching them how to paint. <strong>The</strong>re are doctors and therapists all<br />

over the world teaching the crippled to use their useless bodies again. <strong>The</strong>re<br />

are men like astronaut John Glenn who risk their lives to further the<br />

knowledge of mankind. <strong>The</strong>re are men like the late Dag Hammarskjold who<br />

did all that he could do to make this world a more peaceful, happier place<br />

to live. Don't these men have a kind of majesty?<br />

And what about the scientists of today ? What about men like Jonas Salk<br />

who worked so long to find a vaccine to save man from the ravages of polio ?<br />

What about the scientists who are devoting their lives to find a cure for<br />

cancer or heart disease? What about the scientists who are spending their<br />

time trying to harness the power of the atom so that it will be of service<br />

to their fellow men? Isn't there a mark of majesty on these men?<br />

And there is Albert Schweitzer with his vision of helping to better the lot<br />

of the people in Africa. <strong>The</strong>re are young men today like Tom Dooley who<br />

spent his short life helping the people of Southeast Asia. Even the men of<br />

big business help make this world a better place in which to live by supporting<br />

research through such organizations as the Ford Foundation. And the average<br />

citizen does his part, too, by giving his dollars to this cause or that one and<br />

by contributing his time as a volunteer worker in community benefit<br />

activities. Don't all of these actions have their touch of majesty?<br />

Yesterday, in a local newspaper, there was a story of a busy bus<br />

driver who stopped his bus at an intersection, got out, and took the time and<br />

trouble to help a blind man across the icy, slippery street before continuing

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