,,independence ,,books ,,by ,,rudyard ,,kipling ,,actions ,,and ,,reactions ,,brushwood ,,boy1 ,,the ,,captains ,,courageous ,,collected ,,verse ,,day',s ,,work1 ,,the ,,departmental ,,ditties ,,and ,,ballads ,,and ,,barrack-,,room ,,ballads ,,diversity ,,of ,,creatures1 ,a ,,eyes ,,of ,,asia1 ,,the ,,feet ,,of ,,the ,,young ,,men1 ,,the ,,five ,,nations1 ,,the ,,france ,,at ,,war ,,fringes ,,of ,,the ,,fleet ,,from ,,sea ,,to ,,sea ,,history ,,of ,,england1 ,a ,,irish ,,guards ,,in ,,the ,,great ,,war1 ,,the ,,jungle ,,book1 ,,the ,,jungle ,,book1 ,,second ,,just ,,so ,,song ,,book ,,just ,,so ,,stories ,,kim ,,kipling ,,anthology1 ,a ,,prose ,,and ,,verse ,,kipling ,,calendar ,,kipling ,,stories ,,and ,,poems ,,every ,,child ,,should ,,know ,,kipling ,,birthday ,,book1 ,,the ,,land ,,and ,,sea ,,tales ,,letters ,,of ,,travel ,,life',s ,,handicap3 ,,being ,,stories ,,of ,,mine ,,own ,,people ,,light ,,that ,,failed1 ,,the ,,many ,,inventions ,,naulahka1 ,,the 7,with ,wolcott ,balestier7 ,,plain ,,tales ,,from ,,the ,,hills ,,puck ,,of ,,pook',s ,,hill ,,rewards ,,and ,,fairies ,,rudyard ,,kipling',s ,,verse3 ,inclusive ,edition1 #ahhe-aiah ,,sea ,,warfare ,,seven ,,seas1 ,,the ,,soldier ,,stories ,,soldiers ,,three1 ,,the ,,story ,,of ,,the ,,gadsbys1 ,,and ,,in ,,black ,,and ,,white ,,song ,,of ,,the ,,english1 ,a ,,songs ,,from ,,books ,,stalky ,,co4 ,,they ,,traffics ,,and ,,discoveries ,,under ,,the ,,deodars1 ,,the ,,phantom ',,rickshaw1 ,,and ,,wee ,,willie ,,winkie ,,with ,,the ,,night ,,mail ,,years ,,between1 ,,the ,,independence ,,rectorial ,,address ,,delivered ,,at ,,st4 ,,andrews ,,october #aj1 #aibc ,,by ,,rudyard ,,kipling ,illustration3 ,logo ,,garden ,,city ,,new ,,york ,,doubleday1 ,,page ,,company #aibd ,illustration3 ,rudyard ,kipling signature ,,copyright1 #aibc1 ,,by ,,rudyard ,,kipling ,,all ,,rights ,,reserved ,,printed ,,in ,,the ,,united ,,states ,,at ,,the ,,country ,,life ,,press1 ,,garden ,,city4 ,n4 ,y4 ,,independence ,the sole revenge that ,maturity can take upon ,youth for the sin of being young1 is to preach at it4 ,when ,i was young ,i sat and suffered under that dispensation4 ,now that ,i am older ,i purpose1 if you1 my constituents1 will permit me1 to hand on the ,sacred ,torch of ,boredom4 ,in the ,first ,volume1 then1 of the ,pickering ,edition of the works of the late ,robert ,burns1 on the #agast page1 you will find this stanza3 ,to catch ,dame ,fortune's golden smile1 ,assiduous wait upon her1 ,and gather gear by every wile ,that's justified by honour-- ,not for to hide it in a hedge1 ,nor for a train attendant1 ,but for the glorious privilege ,of being independent4 ,at first sight it may seem superfluous to speak of thrift and independence to men of your race1 and in a ,university that produced ,duncan of ,ruthwell and ,chalmers4 ,i admit it4 ,no man carries coals to ,newcastle--to sell2 but if he wishes to discuss coal in the abstract1 as the ,deacon of ,dumfries discussed love1 he will find ,newcastle knows something about it4 ,and so1 too1 with you here4 ,may ,i take it that you1 for the most part1 come1 as ,i did1 from households conversant with a certain strictness--let us call it a decent and wary economy--in domestic matters1 which has taught us to look at both sides of the family shilling2 that we belong to stock where present sacrifice for future ends 7our own education may have been among them7 was accepted1 in principle and practice1 as part of life8 ,i ask this1 because talking to people who for any cause have been denied these experiences is like trying to tell a neutral of our life between #aiad and #aiah4 ,independence means1 8,let every herring hang by its own head40 ,it signifies the blessed state of hanging on to as few persons and things as possible2 and it leads up to the singular privilege of a man owning himself4 ,the desire for independence has been1 up to the present1 an ineradicable human instinct1 antedating even the social instinct4 ,let us trace it back to its beginnings1 so that we may not be surprised at our own virtue to-day4 ,science tells us that ,man did not begin life on the ground1 but lived first among tree-tops--a platform which does not offer much room for large or democratic assemblies4 ,here he had to keep his individual balance on the branches1 under penalty of death or disablement if he lost it1 and here1 when his few wants were satisfied1 he had time to realize slowly that he was not altogether like the beasts1 but a person apart1 and therefore lonely4 ,not till he abandoned his family-tree1 and associated himself with his fellows on the flat1 for predatory or homicidal purposes1 did he sacrifice his personal independence of action1 or cut into his large leisure of brooding abstraction necessary for the discovery of his relations to his world4 ,this is the period in our ,revered ,ancestor's progress through ,time that strikes me as immensely the most interesting and important4 ,no one knows how long it took to divide the human line of ascent from that of the larger apes2 but during that cleavage there may have been an epoch when ,man lay under the affliction of something very like human thought before he could have reached the relief of speech4 ,it is indeed conceivable that in that long inarticulate agony he may have traversed--dumb--the full round of personal experience and emotion4 ,and when1 at last1 speech was born1 what was the first practical use ,man made of it8 ,remember1 he was1 by that time1 past-master in all arts of camouflage known to the beasts4 ,he could hide near a water-hole1 and catch them as they came down to drink--which is the germ of war4 ,he could attract them by imitating their cries of distress or love--which is the genesis of most of the arts4 ,he could double back on his tracks and thus circumvent an acquaintance of his own kind who was stalking him--which is obviously the origin of most of our social amenities4 ,in short1 he could act1 to admiration1 any kind of lie then extant4 ,i submit1 therefore1 that the first use ,man made of his new power of expression was to tell a lie--a frigid and calculated lie4 ,imagine the wonder and delight of the ,first ,liar in the ,world when he found that the first lie overwhelmingly outdid every effect of his old mud-and-grass camouflages with no expenditure of energy6 ,conceive his pride1 his awestricken admiration of himself1 when he saw that1 by mere word of mouth1 he could send his simpler companions shinning up trees in search of fruit which he knew was not there1 and when they descended1 empty and angry1 he could persuade them that they1 and not he1 were in fault1 and could despatch them hopefully up another tree6 ,can you blame the ,creature for thinking himself a god8 ,the only thing that kept him within bounds must have been the discovery that this miracle-working was not confined to himself4 ,unfortunately--most unfortunately--we have no record of the meeting of the ,world's ,first ,liar with the ,world's ,second ,liar2 but from what we know of their descendants to-day1 they were probably of opposite sexes1 married at once1 and begat a numerous progeny4 ,for there is no doubt that ,mankind suffered much and early from this same vice of lying4 ,one sees that in the enormous value attached by the most primitive civilizations to the practice of telling the ,truth2 and the extravagant praise awarded1 mostly after death1 to individuals notorious for the practice4 ,now the amount of ,truth open to ,mankind has always been limited4 ,substantially1 it comes to no more than the axiom quoted by the ,fool in ,twelfth ,night1 on the authority of the witty ,hermit of ,prague1 8,that that is1 is40 ,conversely1 8,that that is not1 isn't40 ,but it is just this ,truth which ,man most bitterly resents being brought to his notice4 ,he will do1 suffer1 and permit anything rather than acknowledge it4 ,he desires that the waters which he has digged and canalized should run uphill by themselves when it suits him4 ,he desires that the numerals which he has himself counted on his fingers and christened 8two and two0 should make three and five according to his varying needs or moods4 ,why does he want this8 ,because1 subconsciously1 he still scales himself against his age-old companions1 the beasts1 who can only act lies4 ,man knows that1 at any moment1 he can tell a lie which1 for a while1 will delay or divert the workings of cause and effect4 ,being an animal who is still learning to reason1 he does not yet understand why with a little more1 or a little louder1 lying he should not be able permanently to break the chain of that law of cause and effect--the ,justice without the ,mercy--which he hates1 and to have everything both ways in every relation of his life4 ,in other words1 we want to be independent of facts1 and the younger we are1 the more intolerant are we of those who tell us that this is impossible4 ,when ,i wished to claim my independence and to express myself according to the latest lights of my age 7for there were lights even then71 it was disheartening to be told that ,i could not expect to be clothed1 fed1 taught1 amused1 and comforted--not to say preached at--by others1 and at the same time to practise towards them a savage and thorny independence4 ,i imagine that you1 perhaps1 may have assisted at domestic conferences on these lines2 but ,i maintain that we are not the unthinking asses that our elders called us4 ,our self-expression may have been a trifle crude1 but the instinct that prompted it was that primal instinct of independence which antedates the social one1 and makes the young at times a little difficult4 ,it comes down from the dumb and dreadful epoch when all that ,man knew was that he was himself1 and not another1 and therefore the loneliest of created beings2 and you know that there is no loneliness to equal the loneliness of youth at war with its surroundings in a world that does not care4 ,i can give you no great comfort in your war1 but1 if you will allow me1 ,i will give you a scientific parallel that may bear on the situation4 ,not once upon a time1 but at many different times in different places and ages1 it came over some one ,primitive ,man that he desired1 above everything1 to escape for a while from the sight and sound and the smell of his ,tribe4 ,it may have been an excellent ,tribe1 or it may have been an abominable one1 but whichever it was he had had enough of it for a time4 ,knowing no more than the psychology of his age 7whereas we1 of course1 know the psychology of all the ages71 he referred his impulse to the direct orders1 guidance1 or leading of his ,totem1 his ,guardian ,spirit1 his ,disembodied ,ancestor1 or other ,private ,god1 who had appeared to him in a dream and inspired his action4 ,herein our ancestor was as logical as a man taking his ,degree on the eve of a professional career--not to say as practical as a ,scot4 ,he accepted ,spirits and ,manifestations of all kinds as part of his highly organized life1 which had its roots in the immemorial past2 but1 outside that1 the amount of truth open to him was limited4 ,he only knew that if he did not provide himself with rations in advance1 for his proposed excursion away from the ,tribe1 he would surely starve4 ,consequently1 he took some pains and practised a certain amount of self-denial to get and prepare these rations4 ,he may have wished to go forth on some utterly useless diversion1 such as hacking down a tree or piling up stones1 but whatever his object was1 he intended to undertake it without the advice1 interference1 or even the privity of his ,tribe4 ,he might appreciate the dear creatures much better on his return2 he might hatch out wonderful schemes for their advantage during his absence4 ,but that would be a side-issue4 ,the power that possessed him was the desire to own himself for a while1 even as his ancestors1 whose spirits had1 he believed1 laid this upon him1 had owned themselves1 before the ,tribal idea had been evolved4 ,morally his action was unassailable2 his personal ,god had dictated it4 ,materially1 his justification for his departure from the normal was the greasy1 inconspicuous packet of iron rations on his shoulder1 the trouble he had taken to get them1 and the extent to which he was prepared not to break into them except as a last resort4 ,for1 without that material1 backed by those purposes1 his visions of his ,totem1 ,spirit1 or ,god would have melted back into the ruck of unstable1 unfulfilled dreams2 and his own weariness of his ,tribe would have returned upon himself in barrenness of mind and bitterness of soul4 ,because if a man has not his rations in advance1 for any excursion of any kind that he proposes to himself1 he must stay with his ,tribe4 ,he may swear at it aloud or under his breath4 ,he may tell himself and his friends what splendid things he would do were he his own master1 but as his ,tribe goes so must he go--for his belly's sake4 ,when and as it lies1 so must he lie4 ,its people must be his people1 and its ,god must be his ,god4 ,some men may accept this dispensation2 some may question it4 ,it is to the latter that ,i would speak4 ,remember always that1 except for the appliances we make1 the rates at which we move ourselves and our possessions through space1 and the words which we use1 nothing in life changes4 ,the utmost any generation can do is to rebaptize each spiritual or emotional rebirth in its own tongue4 ,then it goes to its grave hot and bothered1 because no new birth has been vouchsafed for its salvation1 or even its relief4 ,and your generation succeeds to an unpromising and dishevelled heritage4 ,in addition to your own sins1 which will be numerous but quite normal1 you have to carry the extra handicap of the sins of your fathers4 ,this1 it is possible that many of you have already made clear to your immediate circle4 ,but the point you probably omitted 7as our generation did1 when we used to deliver our magnificent1 unpublished orations ,de ,juventute7 is that no shortcomings on the part of others can save us from the consequences of our own shortcomings4 ,it is also true that you were brought into this world without being consulted4 ,but even this disability1 from which1 by the way1 ,adam suffered1 though it may justify our adopting a critical attitude towards ,first ,causes1 will not in the long run nourish our physical or mental needs4 ,there seems1 moreover1 to be an unscientific objection on the part of ,first ,causes against being enquired of4 ,for you who follow on the heels of the ,great ,war are affected1 as you are bound to be1 by a demoralization not unlike that which overtakes a household where there has been long and severe illness1 followed by a relaxation of domestic ritual1 and accompanied by loud self-pity and large recriminations4 ,nor is this all your load4 ,the past few years have so immensely quickened and emphasized all means of communication1 visible and invisible1 in every direction that our world--which is only another name for the ,tribe--is not merely 8too much with us10 but moves1 shouts1 and moralizes about our path and our bed1 through every hour of our days and nights4 ,even a normal world might become confusing on these terms2 and ours is far from being normal4 ,one-sixth of its area has passed bodily out of civilization2 and much of the remainder appears to be divided1 with no consciousness of sin1 between an earnest intention to make ,earth ,hell as soon as possible1 and an equally earnest intention1 with no consciousness of presumption1 to make it ,heaven on or before the same date4 ,but you have ample opportunities of observing this for yourselves4 ,the broad and immediate result is1 partly through a recent necessity for thinking and acting in large masses1 partly through the instinct of mankind to draw together and cry out when calamity hits them1 and very largely through the quickening of communications1 the power of the ,tribe over the individual has become more extended1 particular1 pontifical1 and1 using the word in both senses1 impertinent1 than it has been for many generations4 ,some men accept this omnipresence of crowds2 some may resent it4 ,it is to the latter that ,i am speaking4 ,the independence which was a 8glorious privilege0 in ,robert ,burns's day1 is now more difficult to achieve than when one had merely to overcome a few material obstacles1 and the rest followed almost automatically4 ,nowadays1 to own oneself in any decent measure1 one has to run counter to a gospel1 and to fight against its atmosphere2 and an atmosphere1 as long as it can be kept up1 is rather cloying4 ,even so1 there is no need for the individual who intends to own himself to be too pessimistic4 ,let us1 as our forefathers used1 count our blessings4 ,you1 my constituents1 enjoy three special ones4 ,first1 thanks to the continuity of self-denial on the part of your own forbears1 the bulk of you will enter professions and callings in which you will be free men--free to be paid what your work is worth in the open market1 irrespective of your alleged merits or your needs4 ,free1 moreover1 to work without physical molestation of yourself or your family as long and as closely as you please--free to exploit your own powers and your own health to the uttermost for your own ends4 ,your second blessing is that you carry in your land's history and in your hearts the strongest instinct of inherited continuity1 which expresses itself in your passionate interest in your own folk1 your own race and all its values4 ,history shows that1 from remote ages1 the ,scots would descend from their heather and associate together on the flat for predatory purposes2 these now take the form of raiding the world in all departments of life--and governments4 ,but at intervals your race1 more than others1 feel the necessity for owning itself4 ,therefore it returns1 in groups1 to its heather1 where1 under camouflage of 8games0 and 8gatherings10 it fortifies itself with the rites1 incantations1 pass-words1 raiment1 dances1 food and drink of its ancestors1 and re-initiates itself into its primal individualism4 ,these ceremonies1 as the ,southern races know to their cost1 give its members fresh strength for renewed forays4 ,and that same strength is your third and chief blessing4 ,i have already touched on the privilege of being broken by birth1 custom1 precept and example to doing without things4 ,this is where the sons of the small houses who have borne the yoke in their youth hold a cumulative advantage over those who have been accustomed to life with broad margins4 ,such men can and do accommodate themselves to straitened circumstances at a pinch1 and for an object2 but they are as aware of their efforts afterwards as an untrained man is aware of his muscles on the second morning of a walking tour2 and when they have won through what they consider hardship they are apt to waste good time and place by subconsciously approving1 or even remembering1 their own efforts4 ,on the other hand1 the man who has been used to shaving1 let us say1 in cold water at seven o'clock the year round1 takes what one may call the minor damnabilities of life in his stride1 without either making a song about them or writing home about them4 ,and that is the chief reason why the untrained man always has to pay more for the privilege of owning himself than the man trained to the little things4 ,it is the little things1 in microbes or morale1 that make us1 as it is the little things that break us4 ,also1 men in any walk of life who have been taught not to waste or muddle material under their hand are less given to muddle or mishandle moral1 intellectual1 and emotional issues than men whose wastage has never been checked1 or who look to have their wastage made good by others4 ,the proof is plain4 ,among the generations that have preceded you at this ,university were men of your own blood--many and many--who did their work on the traditional sack of peasemeal or oatmeal behind the door--weighed out and measured with their own hands against the cravings of their natural appetites4 ,these were men who intended to own themselves1 in obedience to some dream1 leading1 or word which had come to them4 ,they knew that it would be a hard and long task1 so they set about it with their own iron rations on their own backs1 and they walked along the sands here to pick up driftwood to keep the fire going in their lodgings4 ,now1 what in this ,world1 or the next1 can the ,world1 or any ,tribe in it1 do with or to people of this temper8 ,bribe them by good dinners to take larger views on life8 ,they would probably see their hosts under the table first and argue their heads off afterwards4 ,offer 'em money to shed a conviction or two8 ,a man doesn't lightly sell what he has paid for with his hide4 ,stampede them1 or coax them1 or threaten them into countenancing the issue of false weights and measures8 ,it is a little hard to liberalize persons who have done their own weighing and measuring with broken teacups by the light of tallow candles4 ,no6 ,those thrifty souls must have been a narrow and an anfractuous breed to handle2 but1 by their ,god1 in whose ,word they walked1 they owned themselves6 ,and their ownership was based upon the truth that if you have not your own rations you must feed out of your ,tribe's hands--with all that that implies4 ,should any of you care to own yourselves on these lines1 your insurances ought to be effected in those first ten years of a young man's life when he is neither seen nor heard4 ,this is the period--one mostly spends it in lodgings1 alone--that corresponds to the time when ,man in the making began to realize that he was himself and not another4 ,the post-war world which discusses so fluently and frankly the universality and cogency of ,sex as the dominant factor of life1 has adopted a reserved and modest attitude in its handling of the imperious and inevitable details of mere living and working4 ,i will respect that attitude4 ,the initial payments on the policy of one's independence1 then1 must be financed1 by no means for publication1 but as a guarantee of good faith towards oneself1 primarily out of the drinks that one does not too continuously take2 the maidens in whom one does not too extravagantly rejoice2 the entertainments that one does not too systematically attend or conduct2 the transportation one does not too magnificently employ2 the bets one does not too generally place1 and the objects of beauty and desire that one does not too generously buy4 ,secondarily1 those revenues can be added to by extra work undertaken at hours before or after one's regular work1 when one would infinitely rather rest or play4 ,that involves the question of how far you can drive yourself without breaking down1 and if you do break down1 how soon you can recover and carry on again4 ,this is for you to judge1 and to act accordingly4 ,no one regrets--no one has regretted--more than ,i that these should be the terms of the policy4 ,it would better suit the spirit of the age if personal independence could be guaranteed for all by some form of co-ordinated action combined with public assistance and so forth4 ,unfortunately there are still a few things in this world that a man must manage for himself3 his own independence is one of them2 and the obscure1 repeated shifts and contrivances and abstentions necessary to the manufacture of it are too personal and intimate to expose to the inspection of any ,department1 however sympathetic4 ,if you have a temperament that can accommodate itself to cramping your style while you are thus saving1 you are lucky4 ,but1 any way1 you will be more or less uncomfortable until it presently dawns on you that you have put enough by to give you food and housing for1 say1 one week ahead4 ,it is both sedative and anti-spasmodic--it makes for calm in the individual and forbearance towards the ,tribe--to know that you hold even seven days' potential independence in reserve--and owed to no man4 ,one is led on to stretch that painfully extorted time to one month if possible2 and as one sees that this is possible1 the possibilities grow4 ,bit by bit1 one builds up and digs oneself into a base whence one can move in any direction1 and fall back upon in any need4 ,the need may be merely to sit still and consider1 as did our first ancestors1 what manner of animal we are2 or it may be to cut loose at a minute's notice from a situation which has become intolerable or unworthy2 but1 whatever it may be1 it is one's own need1 and the opportunity of meeting it has been made by one's own self4 ,after all1 yourself is the only person you can by no possibility get away from in this life1 and1 may be1 in another4 ,it is worth a little pains and money to do good to him4 ,for it is he1 and not our derivatively educated minds or our induced emotions1 who preserves in us the undefeated senior instinct of independence4 ,you can test this by promising yourself not to do a thing1 and noticing the scandalous amount of special pleading that you have to go through with yourself if you break your promise4 ,a man does not always remember1 or follow up1 the great things which he has promised himself or his friends to do2 but he rarely forgets or forgives when he has promised himself not to do even a little thing4 ,this is because ,man has lived with himself as an individual1 vastly longer than he has lived with himself under tribal conditions4 ,consequently1 facts about his noble solitary self and his earliest achievements had time to get well fixed in his memory4 ,he knew he was not altogether one with the beasts4 ,his amazing experiences with his first lie had shown him that he was something of a magician1 if not a miracle-worker2 and his first impulse towards self-denial1 for ends not immediately in sight1 must have been a revelation of himself to himself as stupendous as a belief in a future life1 which it was possibly intended to herald4 ,it is only natural1 then1 that individuals who first practised this apparently insane and purposeless exercise came later to bulk in the legends of their ,tribe as demigods1 who went forth and bearded the gods themselves for gifts--for fire1 wisdom1 or knowledge of the arts4 ,but one thing that stands outside exaggeration or belittlement--through all changes in shapes of things and the sounds of words--is the bidding1 the guidance1 that drives a man to own himself and upholds him through his steps on that road4 ,that bidding comes1 direct as a beam of light1 from that ,past when man had grown into his present shape1 which ,past1 could we question it1 would probably refer us to a ,past immeasurably remoter still1 whose ,creature1 not yet ,man1 felt within him that it was not well for him to jackal round another brute's kill1 even if he went hungry for a while4 ,it is not such a far cry from that ,creature1 howling over his empty stomach in the dark1 to the ,heir of all the ,ages counting over his coppers in front of a cookshop1 to see if they will run to a full meal--as some few here have had to do2 and the principle is the same3 8,at any price that ,i can pay1 let me own myself40 ,and the price is worth paying if you keep what you have bought4 ,for the eternal question still is whether the profit of any concession that a man makes to his ,tribe1 against the ,light that is in him1 outweighs or justifies his disregard of that ,light4 ,a man may apply his independence to what is called worldly advantage1 and discover too late that he laboriously has made himself dependent on a mass of external conditions1 for the maintenance of which he has sacrificed himself4 ,so he may be festooned with the whole haberdashery of success1 and go to his grave a castaway4 ,some men hold that this risk is worth taking4 ,others do not4 ,it is to these that ,i have spoken4 8,let the council of thy own heart stand1 for there is no man more faithful unto thee than it4 ,for a man's mind is sometime wont to show him more than seven watchmen who sit above in a high tower40