,transcriber's ,note3 ,italic text is   
enclosed in underscores4 ,additional    
notes will be found near the end of this
 ebook4          ,,an ,,old ,,master    
,,and    ,,other ,,political ,,essays   
,,an ,,old ,,master                     
,,and                                   
,,other ,,political ,,essays            
,,by                                    
,,woodrow ,,wilson                      
,,professor ,,of ,,jurisprudence ,,in   
,,princeton ,,university                
,,author ,,of 8,,congressional          
,,government10 8,,division ,,and        
,,reunion10 ,,etc41 ,,etc4              
,,new ,,york                            
,,charles ,,scribner',s ,,sons          
#ahic                                   
,,copyright1 #ahic1 ,,by                
,,charles ,,scribner',s ,,sons          
,,trow ,,directory                      
,,printing ,,and ,,bookbinding ,,company
                                  ,,new 
,,york                                  
,,to                                    

,,robert ,,bridges                      
,,with ,,hearty ,,acknowledgment        
,,of ,,long ,,and ,,tried               
,,friendship          ,,contents        
,,page        ,i4 ,,an ,,old ,,master1  
#c       ,,ii4 ,,the ,,study ,,of       
,,politics1                             
#ca      ,,iii4 ,,political             
,,sovereignty1                          
#fa       ,,iv4 ,,character ,,of        
,,democracy ,,in ,,the ,,united         
,,states1      #ii        ,v4           
,,government ,,under ,,the              
,,constitution1               #ada      
,i4 and ,,ii4 republished from the ,new 
,princeton ,review1         ,,iv4 and   
,v4 from the ,atlantic ,monthly1 with   
the         kind permission of the      
publishers4          ,i    ,,an ,,old   
,,master      ,why has no one ever      
written on the art of academic lecturing
 and its  many notable triumphs8 ,in    
some quarters new educational canons    
have  spoken an emphatic condemnation of
 the college lecture1 and it would  seem

 to be high time to consider its value1 
as illustrative of an art  about to be  
lost1 if not as exemplary of forces to  
be retained1 even  if modified4 ,are not
 our college class-rooms1 in being      
robbed of the  old-time lecture1 and    
getting instead a science-brief of data 
and  bibliography1 being deprived also  
of that literary atmosphere which  once 
pervaded them8 ,we are unquestionably   
gaining in thoroughness2  but are we    
gaining in thoughtfulness8 ,we are      
giving to many youths an  insight1 it   
may be profound1 into specialties2 but  
are we giving any of  them a broad      
outlook8    ,there was too often a      
paralysis of dulness in the old lecture1
 or1  rather1 in the old lecturer2 and  
written lectures1 like history and      
fashion in dress1 have an inveterate    
tendency to repeat themselves2  but1 on 
the contrary1 there was often a wealth  
of power also in the  studied discourse 
of strong men4 ,masters bent upon       
instructing and  inspiring--and there   

were many such--had to penetrate that   
central  secret of literature and spoken
 utterance--the secret of style4 ,their 
only instrument of conquest was the     
sword of penetrating speech4  ,some of  
the subtlest and most lasting effects of
 genuine oratory  have gone forth from  
secluded lecture desks into the hearts  
of quiet  groups of students2 and it    
would seem to be good policy to endure  
much indifferent lecturing--watchful    
trustees might reduce it to a           
minimum--for the sake of leaving places 
open for the men who have in  them the  
inestimable force of chastened          
eloquence4 ,for one man who  can impart 
an undying impulse there are several    
score1 presupposing  the requisite      
training1 who can impart a method2 and  
here is the well  understood ground for 
the cumulating disfavor of college      
lecturing and  the rapid substitution of
 #8laboratory drill4' ,but will not     
higher  education be cut off from       
communion with the highest of all       

forces1 the  force of personal          
inspiration in the field of great themes
 of thought1  if you interdict the      
literary method in the class-room8    ,i
 am not inclined to consume very many   
words in insisting on this  point1 for  
,i believe that educators are now       
dealing more frankly with  themselves   
than ever before1 and that so obvious a 
point will by no  means escape full     
recognition before reformed methods of  
college and  university instruction take
 their final shape4 ,but it is very well
 to  be thinking explicitly about the   
matter meanwhile1 in order that the     
lecture may be got ready to come fully  
militant into the final battle  for     
territory4 ,the best way to compass this
 end would seem to be1 to  study the art
 of the old masters of learned          
discourse4 ,with ,lanfranc  one could   
get the infinite charm of the old       
monastic school life2  with ,abelard1   
the undying excitement of philosophical 
and religious  controversy2 with ,colet1

 the fire of reforming zeal2 with       
,blackstone1  the satisfactions of      
clarified learning4 ,but ,bee and ,paris
 and ,oxford  have by no means          
monopolized the masters of this art1 and
 ,i should  prefer1 for the nonce at    
least1 to choose an exemplar from       
,scotland1  and speak of ,adam ,smith4  
,it will1 no doubt1 be possible to speak
 of him  without going over again the   
well worn ground of the topics usually  
associated with his great fame4         
,there is much1 besides the contents of 
his published works1 to draw  to ,adam  
,smith the attention of those who are   
attracted by individual  power4         
,scotchmen have long been reputed strong
 in philosophic doctrine1  and he was a 
,scot of the ,scots4 ,but1 though       
,scotland is now renowned  for her      
philosophy1 that renown is not of       
immemorial origin2 it was not  till the 
last century was well advanced that she 
began to add great  speculative thinkers
 to her great preachers4 ,adam ,smith1  

consequently1  stands nearly at the     
opening of the greatest of the          
intellectual eras  of ,scotland4 ,yet by
 none of the great ,scotch names which  
men have  learned since his day has his 
name been eclipsed4 ,the charm about the
  man consists1 for those who do not    
regard him with the special interest  of
 the political economist1 in his        
literary method1 which exhibits  his    
personality so attractively and makes   
his works so thoroughly his  own1 rather
 than in any facts about his eminency   
among ,scotchmen4 ,you  bring away from 
your reading of ,adam ,smith a distinct 
and attractive  impression of the man   
himself1 such as you can get from the   
writings of  no other author in the same
 field1 and such as makes you wish to   
know  still more of him4 ,what was he   
like8 ,what was his daily life8         
,unhappily1 we know very little that is 
detailed of ,adam ,smith as a  man2 and 
it may be deplored1 without injustice to
 a respected name1  that we owe that    

little to ,dugald ,stewart1 who was too 
self-conscious  and too stately to serve
 another efficiently as biographer4     
,there  was no suitable place amid the  
formal spaces of his palatial style  for
 small illuminating details4 ,even from 
,dugald ,stewart1 however1  we get a    
picture of ,adam ,smith which must      
please every one who loves  simplicity  
and genuineness4 ,he was not1 perhaps1 a
 companionable man2  he was much too    
absent-minded to be companionable2 but  
he was1 in  the highest sense1          
interesting4 ,his absent-mindedness was 
of that  sort which indicates fulness of
 mind1 which marks a mind content1  much
 of the time1 to live within itself1    
indulging in those delights  of quiet   
contemplation which the riches of a full
 store of thought  can always command4  
,often he would open to his companions  
his mind's  fullest confidences1 and1   
with a rare versatility1 lavish a wealth
 of  information and illustration upon  
topics the most varied and diverse1     

always to the wondering delight of those
 who heard him4    ,all who met ,adam   
,smith in intimate intercourse are said 
to have been  struck chiefly by the     
gentleness and benignity of his         
manner--traits  which would naturally   
strike one in a ,scotchman2 for men of  
that  unbending race are not often      
distinguished by easiness of temper or  
suavity of manner1 but are generally    
both fortiter in re et fortiter  in     
modo4 ,his gentleness was1 possibly1    
only one phase of that timidity  which  
is natural to absent-minded men1 and    
which was always conspicuous  in him4   
,that timidity made it rare with him to 
talk much4 ,when he  did talk1 as ,i    
have said1 his hearers marvelled at the 
ingenuity of  his reasoning1 at the     
constructive power of his imagination1  
at the  comprehensiveness of his memory1
 at the fertility of all his resources2 
but his inclination was always to remain
 silent4 ,he was not1 however1          
disinclined to public discourse1 and it 

is chiefly to his unusual  gifts as a   
lecturer that he seems to have owed his 
advancement in the  literary1 or1       
rather1 in the university1 world4       
,acting upon the advice of ,lord ,kames1
 an eminent barrister and a man of  some
 standing in the history of philosophy1 
he volunteered a course of  lectures in 
,edinburgh almost immediately upon his  
return from ,oxford2  and the success of
 this course was hardly assured before  
he was elected  to the chair of ,logic  
in the ,university of ,glasgow4 ,in the 
following  year he had the honor of     
succeeding to the chair of ,moral       
,philosophy1  once occupied by the      
learned and ingenious ,hutcheson4 ,he   
seems to have  been at once successful  
in raising his new chair to a position  
of the  very highest consideration4 ,his
 immediate predecessor had been one     
,thomas ,craigie1 who has left behind   
him so shadowy a reputation that it  is 
doubtless safe to conclude that his     
department was1 at his death1  much in  

need of a fresh infusion of life4 ,this 
it received from ,adam  ,smith4 ,the    
breadth and variety of the topics upon  
which he chose to  lecture1 and the     
felicity1 strength1 and vitality of the 
exposition  he gave them 7we are told by
 one who had sat under him71 soon drew  
to ,glasgow 8a multitude of students    
from a great distance0 to hear  him4    
,his mastery of the art of academic     
lecturing was presently an  established 
fact4 ,it appears clear that his success
 was due to two  things3 the broad      
outlook of his treatment and the fine   
art of his  style4 ,his chair was ,moral
 ,philosophy2 and #8moral philosophy'   
seems  to have been the most inclusive  
of general terms in the university      
usage of ,scotland at that day1 and1    
indeed1 for many years afterward4       
,apparently it embraced all philosophy  
that did not directly concern the       
phenomena of the physical world1 and1   
accordingly1 allowed its doctors  to    
give very free play to their tastes in  

the choice of subjects4  ,adam ,smith1  
in ,glasgow1 could draw within the big  
family of this  large-hearted philosophy
 not only the science of mental         
phenomena1  but also the whole of the   
history and organization of society2    
just  as1 years afterwards1 ,john       
,wilson1 in ,edinburgh1 could insist    
upon the  adoption of something very    
like belles-lettres into the same       
generous  and unconventional family     
circle4    ,adam ,smith sought to cover 
the field he had chosen with a fourfold 
course of lectures4 ,first1 he unfolded 
the principles of natural  theology2    
second1 he illustrated the principles of
 ethics1 in a series  of lectures which 
were afterwards embodied in his         
published work on  the 8,theory of      
,moral ,sentiments20 third1 he          
discoursed on that branch  of morality  
which relates to the administration of  
justice2 and1 last1  coming out upon the
 field with which his name is now       
identified1 he  examined those political

 regulations which are founded1 not upon
  principles of justice1 but upon       
considerations of expediency1 and which 
are calculated to increase the riches1  
the power1 and the prosperity  of the   
,state4 ,his notes of his lectures he   
himself destroyed when he  felt death   
approaching1 and we are left to         
conjecture what the main  features of   
his treatment were1 from the recorded   
recollections of  his pupils and from   
those published works which remain as   
fragments  of the great plan4 ,these    
fragments consist of the 8,theory of    
,moral  ,sentiments10 the 8,wealth of   
,nations10 and 8,considerations         
,concerning  the ,first ,formation of   
,languages20 besides which there are1 to
 quote  another's enumeration1 8a very  
curious history of astronomy1 left      
imperfect1 and another fragment on the  
history of ancient physics1  which is a 
kind of sequel to that part of the      
history of astronomy  which relates to  
ancient astronomy2 then a similar essay 

on the ancient  logic and metaphysics2  
then another on the nature and          
development of  the fine1 or1 as he     
calls them1 the imitative1 arts1        
painting1 poetry1  and music1 in which  
was meant to have been included a       
history of the  theatre--all forming    
part1 his executors tell us1 #8of a plan
 he had  once formed for giving a       
connected history of the liberal and    
elegant  arts2'0 part1 that is 7to      
continue the quotation from ,mr4        
,bagehot71  of the 8immense design of   
showing the origin and development of   
cultivation and law1 or 444 of saying   
how1 from being a savage1 man  rose to  
be a ,scotchman40    ,the wideness of   
view and amazing variety of illustration
 that  characterized his treatment1 in  
developing the several parts of this    
vast plan1 can easily be inferred from  
an examination of the 8,wealth of       
,nations40    8,the #8,wealth of        
,nations1'0 declares ,mr4 ,buckle1 from 
whom1 for  obvious reasons1 ,i prefer to

 quote1 8displays a breadth of treatment
  which those who cannot sympathize     
with1 are very likely to ridicule4  ,the
 phenomena1 not only of wealth1 but also
 of society in general1  classified and 
arranged under their various forms2 the 
origin of  the division of labor1 and   
the consequences which that division has
  produced2 the circumstances which gave
 rise to the invention of money1  and to
 the subsequent changes in its value2   
the history of those  changes traced in 
different ages1 and the history of the  
relations  which the precious metals    
bear to each other2 an examination of   
the  connection between wages and       
profits1 and of the laws which govern   
the rise and fall of both2 another      
examination of the way in which  these  
are concerned1 on the one hand with the 
rent of land1 and1 on  the other hand1  
with the price of commodities2 an       
inquiry into the  reason why profits    
vary in different trades1 and at        
different times2  a succinct but        

comprehensive view of the progress of   
towns in ,europe  since the fall of the 
,roman ,empire2 the fluctuations1 during
 several  centuries1 in the prices of   
the food of the people1 and a statement 
of how it is1 that1 in different stages 
of society1 the relative cost  of meat  
and of land varies2 the history of      
corporation laws and of  municipal      
enactments1 and their bearing on the    
four great classes of  apprentices1     
manufacturers1 merchants1 and landlords2
 an account of  the immense power and   
riches formerly enjoyed by the clergy1  
and of  the manner in which1 as society 
advances1 they gradually lose their     
exclusive privileges2 the nature of     
religious dissent1 and the reason  why  
the clergy of the ,established ,church  
can never contend with it on  terms of  
equality1 and1 therefore1 call on the   
,state to help them1 and  wish to       
persecute when they cannot persuade2 why
 some sects profess  more ascetic       
principles1 and others more luxurious   

ones2 how it was1  that1 during the     
feudal times1 the nobles acquired their 
power1 and how  that power has1 ever    
since1 been gradually diminishing2 how  
the rights  of territorial jurisdiction 
originated1 and how they died away2 how 
the  sovereigns of ,europe obtained     
their revenue1 what the sources of it   
are1 and what classes are most heavily  
taxed in order to supply it2 the  cause 
of certain virtues1 such as hospitality1
 flourishing in barbarous  ages1 and    
decaying in civilized ones2 the         
influence of inventions and  discoveries
 in altering the distribution of power  
among the various  classes of society2 a
 bold and masterly sketch of the        
peculiar sort  of advantages which      
,europe derived from the discovery of   
,america and  of the passage round the  
,cape2 the origin of universities1 their
  degeneracy from the original plan1 the
 corruption which has gradually  crept  
over them1 and the reason why they are  
so unwilling to adopt  improvements1 and

 to keep pace with the wants of the age2
 a comparison  between public and       
private education1 and an estimate of   
their relative  advantages2 these1 and a
 vast number of other subjects1         
respecting  the structure and           
development of society1 such as the     
feudal system1  slavery1 emancipation of
 serfs1 origin of standing armies and of
  mercenary troops1 effects produced by 
tithes1 laws of primogeniture1          
sumptuary laws1 international treaties  
concerning trade1 rise of  ,european    
banks1 national debts1 influence of     
dramatic representations  over opinions1
 colonies1 poor-laws--all topics of a   
miscellaneous  character1 and many of   
them diverging from each other--all are 
fused  into one great system1 and       
irradiated by the splendor of one great 
genius4 ,into that dense and disorderly 
mass1 did ,adam ,smith introduce        
symmetry1 method1 and law40    ,in fact1
 it is a book of                        
digressions--digressions characterized  

by more  order and method1 but by little
 more compunction1 than the wondrous    
digressions of ,tristram ,shandy4    ,it
 is interesting to note that even this  
vast miscellany of thought1  the        
8,wealth of ,nations10 systematized     
though it be1 was not meant to  stand   
alone as the exposition of a complete   
system2 it was only a  supplement to the
 8,theory of ,moral ,sentiments20 and   
the two together  constituted only      
chapters in that vast book of thought   
which their  author would have written4 
,adam ,smith would have grouped all     
things  that concern either the         
individual or the social life of man    
under the  several greater principles of
 motive and action observable in human  
conduct4 ,his method throughout is1     
therefore1 necessarily abstract  and    
deductive4 ,in the 8,wealth of          
,nations10 he ignores the operation  of 
love1 of benevolence1 of sympathy1 and  
of charity in filling life  with kindly 
influences1 and concentrates his        

attention exclusively upon  the         
operation of self-interest and          
expediency2 because he had reckoned     
with the altruistic motives in the      
8,theory of ,moral ,sentiments10 and  he
 would not confuse his view of the      
economic life of man by again  forcing  
these in where selfishness was          
unquestionably the predominant  force4  
8,the philosopher10 he held1 8is the man
 of speculation1 whose  trade is not to 
do anything1 but to observe everything20
 and certainly  he satisfied his own    
definition4 ,he does observe everything2
 and he  stores his volumes full with   
the sagest practical maxims1 fit to have
  fallen from the lips of the shrewdest 
of those ,glasgow merchants  in whose   
society he learned so much that might   
test the uses of his  theories4 ,but it 
is noticeable that none of the carefully
 noted facts  of experience which play  
so prominent a part on the stage of his 
argument speaks of any other principle  
than the simple and single one  which is

 the pivot of that part of his          
philosophy with which he is at  the     
moment dealing4 ,in the 8,wealth of     
,nations0 every apparent induction      
leads to self-interest1 and to          
self-interest alone4 ,in ,mr4 ,buckle's 
phrase1 his facts are subsequent to his 
argument2 they are not used for         
demonstration1 but for illustration4    
,his historical cases1 his fine         
generalizations1 everywhere broadening  
and strengthening his matter1  are only 
instances of the operation of the single
 abstract principle  meant to be set    
forth4    ,when he was considering that 
topic in his course which has not come  
down to us in any of the remaining      
fragments of his lectures--the          
principles of justice1 namely--although 
still always mindful of its  relative   
position in the general scheme of his   
abstract philosophy  of society1 his    
subject led him1 we are told1 to speak  
very much  in the modern historical     
spirit4 ,he followed upon this subject1 

says the pupil already quoted1 8the plan
 which seems to have been  suggested by 
,montesquieu2 endeavoring to trace the  
gradual progress  of jurisprudence1 both
 public and private1 from the rudest to 
the  most refined ages1 and to point out
 the effects of those arts which        
contribute to subsistence1 and to the   
accumulation of property1  in producing 
corresponding improvements or           
alterations in law and  government40 ,in
 following ,montesquieu1 he was1 of     
course1 following  one of the           
forerunners of that great school of     
philosophical students  of history which
 has done so much in our own time to    
clear away the  fogs that surround the  
earliest ages of mankind1 and to        
establish  something like the rudiments 
of a true philosophy of history4 ,and   
this  same spirit was hardly less       
discernible in those later lectures on  
the  8political institutions relating to
 commerce1 to finances1 and to the      
ecclesiastical and military             

establishments10 which formed the basis 
of  the 8,wealth of ,nations40          
,everywhere throughout his writings     
there is a  pervasive sense of the      
realities of fact and circumstance2 a   
luminous1  bracing1 work-a-day          
atmosphere4 ,but the conclusions are1   
first of all1  philosophical2 only      
secondarily practical4    ,it has been  
necessary to go over this somewhat      
familiar ground with  reference to the  
philosophical method of ,adam ,smith1 in
 order to come  at the proper point of  
view from which to consider his place   
among the  old masters of academic      
lecturing4 ,it has revealed the extent  
of his  outlook4 ,there yet remains     
something to be said of his literary    
method1  so that we may discern the     
qualities of that style which1 after    
proving  so effectual in imparting power
 to his spoken discourses1 has since1   
transferred to the printed page1        
preserved his fame so far beyond the    
lifetime of those who heard him4        

,adam ,smith took strong hold upon his  
hearers1 as he still takes strong  hold 
upon his readers1 by force1 partly1 of  
his native sagacity1 but  by virtue1    
principally1 of his consummate style4   
,the success of his  lectures was not   
altogether a triumph of natural gifts2  
it was1 in  great part1 a triumph of    
sedulously cultivated art4 ,with the    
true  instinct of the orator and        
teacher1 ,adam ,smith saw--what every   
one  must see who speaks not for the    
patient ear of the closeted student     
only1 but also to the often shallow ear 
of the pupil in the class-room1  and to 
the always callous ear of the great     
world outside1 which must  be tickled in
 order to be made attentive--that       
clearness1 force1 and  beauty of style  
are absolutely necessary to one who     
would draw men to  his way of thinking2 
nay1 to any one who would induce the    
great mass  of mankind to give so much  
as passing heed to what he has to say4  
,he  knew that wit was of no avail1     

without wit's proper words2 sagacity    
mean1 without sagacity's mellow measures
 of phrase4 ,he bestowed the  most      
painstaking care1 therefore1 not only   
upon what he was to say1  but also upon 
the way in which he was to say it4      
,dugald ,stewart speaks  of 8that       
flowing and apparently artless style1   
which he had studiously  cultivated1 but
 which1 after all his experience in     
composition1 he  adjusted1 with extreme 
difficulty1 to his own taste40 ,the     
results  were such as to offset entirely
 his rugged utterance and his awkward1  
angular action1 and to enable the timid 
talker to exercise the spells  of an    
orator4 ,the charm of his discourses    
consisted in the power of  statement    
which gave them life1 in the clear and  
facile processes  of proof which gave   
them speed1 and in the vigorous1 but    
chastened1  imagination which lent them 
illumination4 ,he constantly refreshed  
and  rewarded his hearers1 as he still  
constantly refreshes and rewards his    

readers1 by bringing them to those clear
 streams of practical wisdom  and happy 
illustration which everywhere irrigate  
his expositions4 ,his  counsel1 even on 
the highest themes1 was always          
undarkened4 ,there  were no clouds about
 his thoughts2 the least of these could 
be seen  without glasses through the    
transparent atmosphere of expression    
which  surrounded them4 ,he was a great 
thinker1--and that was much2 but he     
also made men recognize him as a great  
thinker1 because he was a great  master 
of style--which was more4 ,he did not   
put his candle under a  bushel1 but on a
 candlestick4    ,in ,doctor ,barnard's 
verses1 addressed to ,sir ,joshua       
,reynolds and his  literary friends1    
,adam ,smith is introduced as a peer    
amidst that  brilliant company3         
8,if ,i have thoughts and can't express 
'em1      ,gibbon shall teach me how to 
dress 'em          ,in words select and 
terse2      ,jones teach me modesty and 
,greek1      ,smith how to think1 ,burke

 how to speak1          ,and ,beauclerc 
to converse40    ,it is this power of   
teaching other men how to think that has
 given  to the works of ,adam ,smith an 
immortality of influence4 ,in his first 
university chair1 the chair of ,logic1  
he had given scant time to the          
investigation of the formal laws of     
reasoning1 and had insisted1  by        
preference1 upon the practical uses of  
discourse1 as the living  application of
 logic1 treating of style and of the    
arts of persuasion  and exposition2 and 
here in his other chair1 of ,moral      
,philosophy1  he was practically        
illustrating the vivifying power of the 
art he  had formerly sought to expound  
to his pupils4 8,when the subject of    
his work10 says ,dugald ,stewart1       
speaking of the 8,theory of ,moral      
,sentiments10 8when the subject of his  
work leads him to address  the          
imagination and the heart1 the variety  
and felicity of his  illustrations1 the 
richness and fluency of his eloquence1  

and the skill  with which he wins the   
attention and commands the passions of  
his  hearers1 leave him1 among our      
,english moralists1 without a rival40   
,such1 then1 were the matters which this
 great lecturer handled1 and  such was  
the form he gave them4 ,two personal    
characteristics stand out  in apparent  
contrast with what he accomplished3 he  
is said to have been  extremely         
unpractical in the management of his own
 affairs1 and yet he  fathered that     
science which tells how other people's  
affairs1 how the  world's affairs1 are  
managed2 he is known to have been shy   
and silent1  and yet he was the most    
acceptable lecturer of his university4  
,but it  is not uncommon for the man who
 is both profound and accurate in his   
observation of the universal and        
permanent forces operative in the life  
about him1 to be almost altogether      
wanting in that sagacity concerning  the
 local and temporary practical details  
upon which the hourly  facilitation and 

comfort of his own life depend2 nor need
 it surprise  any one to find the man   
who sits shy and taciturn in private1   
stand out  dominant and eloquent in     
public4 8,commonly1 indeed10 as ,mr4    
,bagehot has  said1 8the silent man1    
whoso brain is loaded with unexpressed  
ideas1  is more likely to be a          
successful public speaker than the      
brilliant  talker who daily exhausts    
himself in sharp sayings40 ,there are   
two  distinct kinds of observation3 that
 which makes a man alert and shrewd1    
cognizant of every trifle and quick with
 every trick of speech2 and  that which 
makes a man a philosopher1 conscious of 
the steady set of  affairs and ready in 
the use of all the substantial resources
 of wise  thought4 ,commend me to the   
former for a chat2 commend me to the    
latter  for a book4 ,the first will     
sparkle2 the other burns a steady flame4
    ,here1 then1 is the picture of this 
,old ,master3 a quiet1 awkward1         
forceful ,scotchman1 whose philosophy   

has entered everywhere into the  life of
 politics and become a world force in   
thought2 an impracticable  ,commissioner
 of ,customs1 who has left for the      
instruction of statesmen  a theory of   
taxation2 an unbusiness-like professor1 
who established  the science of         
business2 a man of books1 who is        
universally honored by  men of action2  
plain1 eccentric1 learned1 inspired4    
,the things that  strike us most about  
him are1 his boldness of conception and 
wideness  of outlook1 his breadth and   
comprehensiveness of treatment1 and his 
carefully clarified and beautified      
style4 ,he was no specialist1 except  in
 the relations of things4    ,of course1
 spreading his topics far and wide in   
the domain of history  and philosophy1  
he was at many points superficial4 ,he  
took most of his  materials at second   
hand2 and it has been said that he      
borrowed many of  his ideas from the    
,french4 ,but no matter who mined the   
gold1 he coined  it2 the image and      

superscription are his4 ,certain        
separate1 isolated  truths which served 
under him may have been doing           
individual1 guerilla  warfare elsewhere 
for the advancement of science2 but it  
was he who  marshalled them into drilled
 hosts for the conquering of the        
nations4  ,adam ,smith was doubtless    
indebted to the ,physiocrats1 but all   
the world  is indebted to ,adam ,smith4 
,education and the world of thought need
 men  who1 like this man1 will dare to  
know a multitude of things4 ,without    
them and their bold synthetic methods1  
all knowledge and all thought  would    
fall apart into a weak analysis4 ,their 
minds do not lack in  thoroughness2     
their thoroughness simply lacks in      
minuteness4 ,it is only  in their       
utterances that the mind finds the      
exhilaration and exaltation  that come  
with the free air that blows over broad 
uplands4 ,they excite  you with views of
 the large aspects of thought2 conduct  
you through  the noblest scenery of the 

mind's domain2 delight you with majesty 
of  outline and sweep of prospect4 ,in  
this day of narrow specialties1 our     
thinking needs such men to fuse its     
parts1 correlate its forces1 and  centre
 its results2 and our thinking needs    
them in its college stage1  in order    
that we may command horizons from our   
study windows in after  days4    ,the   
breadth and comprehensiveness of        
treatment characteristic of  the        
utterances of such a teacher are        
inseparable attributes of his  manner of
 thought4 ,he has the artist's eye4 ,for
 him things stand in  picturesque       
relations2 their great outlines fit into
 each other2 the  touch of his treatment
 is necessarily broad and strong4 ,the  
same  informing influence of artistic   
conception and combination gives to  his
 style its luminous and yet transparent 
qualities4 ,his sentences  cannot retain
 the stiff joints of logic2 it would be 
death to them  to wear the chains of    
formal statement2 they must take leave  

to deck  themselves with eloquence4 ,in 
a word1 such men must write literature1 
or nothing4 ,their minds quiver with    
those broad sympathies which  constitute
 the life of written speech4 ,their     
native catholicity makes  all minds     
receive them as kinsmen4 ,by reason of  
the very strength of  their humanity1   
they are enabled to say things long     
waiting to be said1  in such a way that 
all men may receive them4 ,they hold    
commissions  from the ,king of ,speech4 
,such men will not1 ,i am persuaded1    
always  seek in vain invitations to     
those academic platforms which are their
  best coignes of vantage4 ,but this is 
not just the time when they are  most   
appreciated1 or most freely encouraged  
to discover themselves2  and it cannot  
be amiss to turn back to another order  
of things1 and  remind ourselves how a  
master of academic inspiration1         
possessing1 in  a great power to impart 
intellectual impulse1 something higher  
than a  trained capacity to communicate 

method1 may sometimes be found even in  
a philosophical ,scotchman4             
,,ii    ,,the ,,study ,,of ,,politics   
,it has long been an open secret that   
there is war among the political        
economists4 ,john ,stuart ,mill no      
longer receives universal homage1  but  
has to bear much irreverent criticism2  
even ,adam ,smith might be  seriously   
cavilled at were not the habit of praise
 grown too old in his  case4 ,he is     
still #8the father of political         
economy2' but1 like other  fathers of   
his day1 he seems to us decidedly old   
fashioned4 ,the fact  is1 that these    
older writers1 who professed to point   
out the laws of  human business1 are    
accused of leaving out of view a full   
half of human  nature2 in insisting that
 men love gain1 they are said to have   
quite  forgotten that men sometimes love
 each other1 that they are not only     
prehensile1 but also a great many other 
things less aggressive and less         
selfish4    ,those who make these       

charges want to leave nothing human out 
of their  reckonings2 they want to know 
#8all the facts1' and are ready1 if     
necessary1 to reduce every              
generalization of the older writers to  
the  state--the wholly exceptional      
state--of a rule in ,german grammar4    
,their protest is significant1 their    
purpose heroic1 beyond a doubt2 and     
what interesting questions are not      
raised by their programme6 ,how is  the 
world to contain the writings1          
statistical1 historical1 critical1      
which must be accumulated ere this      
enormous diagnosis of trade and         
manufacture shall be completed in its   
details8 ,and after it shall have  been 
completed in detail who is to be born   
great enough in genius and  patience to 
reduce the mass to a system             
comprehensible by ordinary  mortals8    
,moreover1 who is going surety that     
these new economists will  not be       
dreadful defaulters before they get     
through handling these  immense assets  

of human nature1 which ,mill confessed  
himself unable  to handle without       
wrecking his bookkeeping8 ,are they     
assured of the  eventual collaboration  
of some ,shakespeare who will set before
 the  world all the standard types of   
economic character8 ,let the world hope 
so4 ,even those who cannot answer the   
questions ,i have broached ought to  bid
 such sturdy workers #8,god speed6'     
,the most interesting reflection        
suggested by the situation is1 that     
political economists are being harassed 
by the same discipline of  experience   
that1 one day or another1 sobers all    
constructors of  systems4 ,they cannot  
build in the air and then escape chagrin
 because  men only gaze at their        
structures1 and will not live in them4  
,closet  students of politics are       
constantly undergoing new drill in the  
same  lesson3 the world is an inexorable
 schoolmaster2 it will have none  of any
 thought which does not recognize it4   
,sometimes theorists like  ,rousseau1   

being near enough the truth to deceive  
even those who know  something of it1   
are so unfortunate as to induce men to  
rear fabrics of  government after their 
aerial patterns out of earth's stuffs1  
with the  result of bringing every      
affair of weight crashing about their   
ears1 to  the shaking of the world4 ,but
 there are not many such coincidences as
  ,rousseau and his times1 happily2 and 
other closet politicians1 more  commonly
 cast and more ordinarily placed than   
he1 have had no such  perilous          
successes4    ,there is every reason to 
believe that in countries where men vote
 as  well as write books1 political     
writers at any rate give an honest      
recognition of act to these facts4 ,they
 do not vote their opinions1  they vote 
their party tickets2 and they are the   
better citizens by far  for doing so4   
,inside their libraries they go with    
their masters in  thought--mayhap go    
great lengths with ,adolph ,wagner1 or  
hold stiffly  back1 8man versus the     

state10 with ,spencer2 outside their    
libraries  they #8go with their party4' 
,in a word1 like sensible men1 they     
frankly  recognize the difference       
between what is possible in thought and 
what  is practicable in action4    ,but 
the trouble is1 that when they turn from
 voting to writing they  call many of   
their abstract reflections on government
 studies of  politics1 and thereby lose 
the benefit of some very wholesome aids 
to just thought4 ,even when they draw   
near the actual life of living          
governments1 as they frequently do1 and 
read and compare statutes  and          
constitutions1 they stop short of asking
 and ascertaining what  the men of the  
street think and say of institutions and
 laws2 what  little1 as well as what    
big1 influences brought particular laws 
into  existence2 how much of each law   
actually lives in the regulation of     
public function or private activity1 how
 much of it has degenerated  into #8dead
 letter2' in brief1 just what things it 

is--what methods1  what habits1 what    
human characteristics and social        
conditions--that  make the appearance of
 politics outside the library so        
different from  its appearance inside   
that quiet retreat2 what it is that     
constitutes  #8practical politics' a    
peculiar province4 ,and yet these are   
the  questions most necessary to be     
answered in order to reach the heart of 
their study4    ,every one who has read 
great treatises on government which were
 not  merely speculative in their method
 must have been struck by their         
exhaustive knowledge of statutes1 of    
judicial precedents1 and of legal  and  
constitutional history2 and equally by  
their tacit ignorance of  anything more 
than this gaunt skeleton of             
institutions4 ,their best  pages are    
often those on which a modest asterisk1 
an unobtrusive  numeral1 or a tiny      
dagger sticking high in the stately     
text1 carries  the eye down to a        
foot-note1 packed close in small print1 

in which some  hint is let drop of the  
fact that institutions have a daily as  
well  as an epochal life1 from which the
 student might #8learn something to  his
 advantage4'    ,the inherent weakness  
of such a method is shown by the        
readiness with  which it is discredited 
when once a better one is put beside it4
 ,what  modern writer on political      
institutions has not felt1 either       
directly  or indirectly1 the influence  
of de ,tocqueville and ,bagehot8 ,both  
these  inimitable writers were men of   
extraordinary genius1 and1 whatever they
  might have written about1 their       
writings would have been admiringly     
preserved1 if only for the wonder of    
their luminous qualities4 ,but  their   
political works live1 not only as models
 of effective style1  but also as       
standards of stimulating wisdom2 because
 ,bagehot and de  ,tocqueville were not 
merely students1 but also men of the    
world1 for  whom the only acceptable    
philosophy of politics was a            

generalization  from actual daily       
observation of men and things4 ,they    
could see  institutions writ small in   
the most trivial turns of politics1 and 
read  constitutions more clearly in a   
biography than in a statute-book4 ,they 
were men who1 had they written history1 
would have written the history  of      
peoples1 and not of courts or           
parliaments merely4 ,their methods      
have1 therefore1 because of their       
essential sanity1 gone far toward       
discrediting all others2 they have      
leavened the whole mass of political    
literature4 ,was it not ,bagehot1 for   
instance1 who made it necessary for     
,professor ,dicey to entitle his recent 
admirable work 8,the ,law of the        
,constitution10 that no one might think 
he mistook it for the ,life of  the     
,constitution8    ,who has not wished   
that ,burke had fused the permanent     
thoughts of  his splendid sentences of  
wisdom together into a noble whole1 an  
incomparable treatise whereby every mind

 that loved liberty might be            
strengthened and fertilized8 ,he had    
handled affairs1 and could pluck  out   
the heart of their mystery with a skill 
that seldom blundered2  he spoke hardly 
a word of mere hearsay or speculation4  
,he1 it would  seem1 better than any    
other1 could have shown writers on      
politics the  difference between        
knowledge and insight1 between an       
acquaintance with  public law and a real
 mastery of the principles of           
government4    ,not that all #8practical
 politicians' would be the best         
instructors in  the deep--though they   
might be in the hidden--things of       
politics4 ,far  from it4 ,they are too  
thickly crowded by daily detail to see  
permanent  outlines1 too much pushed    
about by a thousand little influences to
  detect accurately the force or the    
direction of the big and lasting        
influences4 ,they #8cannot see the      
forest for the trees4' ,they are no     
more fitted to be instructors because   

they are practical politicians  than    
lawyers are fitted to fill law-school   
chairs because they are  active         
practitioners4 ,they must be something  
else besides to qualify  them for the   
high function of teaching1 and must be  
that something  else in so masterful a  
fashion that no distraction of active   
politics  can for a moment withdraw     
their vision from the great and         
continuous  principles of their calling4
    ,the active statesman is often an   
incomparable teacher1 however1 when  he 
is himself least conscious that he is   
teaching at all1 when he has  no thought
 of being didactic1 but has simply a    
heart full of the high  purpose of      
leading his fellow-countrymen to do     
those things which he  conceives to be  
right4 ,read the purposes of men like   
,patrick ,henry  and ,abraham ,lincoln1 
men untutored of the schools--read their
 words  of leadership1 and say whether  
there be anything wiser than their      
home-made wisdom4    ,it is such        

reflections as these--whether my        
examples be well chosen or  not--which  
seem to me to lead directly to the right
 principle of study  for every one who  
would go beyond the law and know the    
life of ,states4  ,not every ,state lets
 statutes die by mere disuse1 as        
,scotland once  did2 and if you are     
going to read constitutions with only   
lawyers for  your guides1 be they never 
so learned1 you must risk knowing only  
the  anatomy of institutions1 never     
learning anything of their biology4     
8,men of letters and of thought10 says  
,mr4 ,sidney ,colvin1 where one  would  
least expect to find such a remark--in a
 8,life of ,walter ,savage  ,landor0--  
8,men of letters and of thought are     
habitually too much given to            
declaiming at their ease against the    
delinquencies of men of      action and 
affairs4 ,the inevitable friction of    
practical politics      generates heat  
enough already1 and the office of the   
thinker and      critic should be to    

supply not heat1 but light4 ,the        
difficulties      which attend his own  
unmolested task1 the task of seeking    
after and      proclaiming salutary     
truths1 should teach him to make        
allowance for      the still more urgent
 difficulties which beset the           
politician--the      man obliged1 amidst
 the clash of interests and temptations1
 to      practise from hand to mouth1   
and at his peril1 the most uncertain    
and at the same time the most           
indispensable of the experimental       
arts40    ,excellent6 ,but why stop     
there8 ,must the man of letters and of  
thought  observe the friction of        
politics only to make due allowance for 
the  practical politician1 only to keep 
his own placid conclusions free  from   
any taint of scorn or cavil at men whose
 lives are thrown amidst  affairs to    
endure the buffetings of interest and   
resist the tugs of  temptation8 ,is not 
a just understanding of the conditions  
of practical  politics also an          

indispensable prerequisite to the       
discovery and  audible proclamation of  
his own 8salutary truths80 ,no truth    
which  does not on all its sides touch  
human life can ever reach the heart  of 
politics2 and men of #8unmolested       
tasks1' of mere library calm1  simply   
cannot think the thoughts which will    
tell amidst the noise of  affairs4 ,an  
alert and sympathetic perception of the 
infinite shifts  of circumstance and    
play of motive which control the actual 
conduct  of government ought to permeate
 the thinking1 as well as check the     
criticisms1 of writers on politics4     
,in a word1 ought not the #8man of the  
world' and the #8man of books'  to be   
merged in each other in the student of  
politics8 ,was not ,john  ,stuart ,mill 
the better student for having served the
 ,east ,india ,company  and sat in the  
,house of ,commons8 ,are not ,professor 
,bryce and ,mr4 ,john  ,morley more to  
be trusted in their books because they  
have proved  themselves worthy to be    

trusted in the ,cabinet8    ,the success
 of great popular preachers contains a  
lesson for students  of politics who    
would themselves convert men to a saving
 doctrine4 ,the  preacher has1 indeed1  
an incalculable advantage over the      
student of  politics in having as his   
text-book that ,bible which speaks of   
the  human heart with a ,maker's        
knowledge of the thing ,he has made2 by 
knowing his book he knows the deepest   
things of daily life4 ,but the  great   
preacher reaches the heart of his       
hearers not by knowledge1 but  by       
sympathy--by showing himself a          
brother-man to his fellow-men4 ,and     
this is just the principle which the    
student of politics must heed4  ,he must
 frequent the street1 the               
counting-house1 the drawing-room1  the  
club-house1 the administrative offices1 
the halls--yes1 and the  lobbies--of    
legislatures4 ,he must cross-examine the
 experience of  government officials2 he
 must hear the din of conventions1 and  

see  their intrigues2 he must witness   
the scenes of election day4 ,he must    
know how men who are not students regard
 government and its affairs4  ,he will  
get many valuable suggestions from such 
men on occasion2  better than that1 he  
will learn the available approaches to  
such men's  thoughts4 ,government is    
meant for the good of ordinary people1  
and it  is for ordinary people that the 
student should elucidate its problems2  
let him be anxious to keep within       
earshot of such4    ,this is not to     
commend the writer on politics to narrow
 #8practical'  views and petty comment2 
it is not to ask him to find a          
philosophy of  government which will fit
 the understanding and please the taste 
of the  #8ward politician3' it is only  
to ask him to keep his generalizations  
firmly bottomed on fact and experience4 
,his philosophy will not  overshoot the 
hearts of men because it is feathered   
with high thought1  unless it be        
deliberately shot in air4 ,thoughts do  

not fail of  acceptance because they are
 not commonplace enough1 but because    
they  are not true enough2 and1 in the  
sort of writing about which we are  here
 speaking1 truth is a thing which can be
 detected better by the man  who knows  
life than by the man who knows only     
logic4 ,you cannot lift  truth so high  
that men cannot reach it2 the only      
caution to be observed  is1 that you do 
not ask them to climb where they cannot 
go without  leaving terra firma4    ,nor
 is the student1 who naturally and      
properly loves books1 to leave  books   
and sit all his time in wiseacre        
observation amidst busy men4 ,his  books
 are his balance--or1 rather1 his       
ballast4 ,and of course the men  of his 
own day are not the only men from whom  
he can learn politics4  ,government is  
as old as man2 men have always been     
politicians2 the  men of to-day are only
 politicians of a particular school2 the
 past  furnishes examples of politicians
 of every other school1 and there  is as

 much to be learned about government    
from them as from their  successors4    
,carlyle had the sort of eye for which  
one should pray when seeking to  find   
men alive and things actual in the      
records left of them4 ,who has  not     
profited by his humorous familiarity    
with the foibles and personal  habits of
 the men who lived about the court of   
the ,hohenzollerns8  ,who has not       
learned more than any other man could   
have told him of  ,prussian             
administration under its first great    
organizer by looking with  ,carlyle into
 the sociable informalities of          
,frederick ,william's #8tobacco         
parliament8' ,carlyle knew these men    
well enough to joke with and rail  at   
them4 ,he twitted them with their family
 secrets1 and1 knowing what  clay they  
were of1 was not awed by their state    
ceremonials4 ,yet he saw  them1 as he   
himself bitterly complains1 only through
 the medium of  crabbed documents and   
dry-as-dust books1 with no seer like    

himself to  help him in his             
interpretations4 ,it was hard straining 
of the eyes to  see so far back through 
the dense and murky atmosphere of formal
 record  and set history2 but he saw1   
nevertheless1 because he did not need to
  be told all in order to know all2 the 
dryest of historians could hardly  avoid
 dropping some hint which would suffice 
,carlyle more than would  tomes of      
#8profane history4'    ,if you know what
 you are looking for and are not        
expecting to find it  advertised in the 
newspapers1 but lying somewhere beneath 
the surface  of things1 the dullest fool
 may often help you to its discovery4   
,it  needs a good nose to do the thing1 
but look how excellent is the game  to  
which a casual scent may bring you in   
such a domain as the study of  politics4
 ,there are whole worlds of fact waiting
 to be discovered by  inference4 ,do not
 expect to find the life of             
constitutions painted in  the great     
#8standard authorities1' but1 following 

with becoming patience  their legal     
anatomy of institutions1 watch their    
slightest movement  toward an           
illustrative foot-note1 and try to find 
under that the scent  you are in quest  
of4 ,if they cite an instance1 seek the 
recital of the  same case elsewhere1    
where it is told with a different       
purpose2 if it  promise well there1 hunt
 it further still1 and make sure you    
catch  every glimpse it affords of men's
 actual dealings with government4 ,if   
your text mention names of consequence1 
seek them out in biographies1  and scan 
there the personal relations of men with
 affairs1 for hints  of the methods by  
which governments are operated from day 
to day4 ,you  will not need any         
incentive to read all their gossip1 in  
letters and  journals1 and so see       
governors as men2 but do more3 endure   
official  interviews and sessions of    
,parliament with them2 collate their    
private  letters and their public       
despatches--there's no telling when or  

where  you shall strike fresh trails of 
the game you seek4 ,interview judges    
off the bench1 courtiers away from      
court1 officers off duty4 ,go to        
,france and live next door a prefect in 
the provinces2 go to ,london  and try to
 find out how things of weight are      
talked about in the  smoking-room of the
 ,house of ,commons4    ,such excursions
 must1 of course1 lead the student far  
afield2 he will  often get quite out of 
sight of his starting-point1 the        
#8standard  authority2' but he will not 
on that account be lost4 ,the fact is1  
that all literature teems with          
suggestions on this topic of politics4  
,just as the chance news item1 the      
unstudied traveller's reminiscence1  the
 passing social or financial scandal1,a 
and every hint of any  present contact  
of men with law or authority1           
illuminates directly1  or by inference1 
the institutions of our own day1 similar
 random rays  thrown across the pages of
 old books by the unpremeditated words  

of  writers quite guiltless of such     
instructive intent may light up1 for    
those who are alert to see such things1 
the most intimate secrets of  state4 ,if
 it be beyond hoping for to find a whole
 ,greville for every  age of government1
 there may be found ,grevillian scraps1 
at least1 in  the literature of almost  
every time4 ,from men as far back and as
 well  remembered as ,cicero1 down to   
men as recent and as easily forgotten   
as several who might be named1          
politicians have loved to explain to    
posterity the part they took in         
conspicuous affairs2 and that portion   
of posterity which studies politics by  
inference ought to be profoundly        
thankful to them for yielding to the    
taste4        ,a ,did not the ,dilke    
trial in ,london1 for instance1 help us 
to          understand at least one     
influence that may sometimes make a     
lawyer ,home ,secretary8    ,approach   
the life of ,states by such avenues1 and
 you shall be convinced  of the organic 

nature of political society4 ,view      
society from what  point you will1 you  
always catch sight of some part of      
government2 man  is so truly a          
#8political animal' that you cannot     
examine him at all  without seeing the  
points--points of his very              
structure--whereat he  touches and      
depends upon1 or upholds1 the ,state4   
,in #ahej1 while ,governor-,general of  
,canada1 ,lord ,elgin writes to ,lord   
,grey3        8,our ,reciprocity measure
 was pressed by us in ,washington last  
session1 just as a railway bill1 in     
#ahde or #ahdf1 would have been         
passed in ,parliament4 ,there was no    
,government to deal with1 444      it   
was all a matter of canvassing this     
member of ,congress or the              
other40,b        ,b ,letters and        
,journals of ,lord ,elgin1 p4 #aba4     
,what8 8,no ,government to deal with80  
,here's a central truth to be  found in 
none of the #8standard authorities1' and
 yet to be seen by a  practised         

diplomatist all the way from ,canada4   
,about the same date  ,m4 ,bacourt came 
to this country to represent the ,french
 ,government  and be made wretched by   
the crude deportment of the ,americans4 
,his  chief concern was to get away to  
some country where people were less     
unconventionally at their ease in       
drawing-rooms2 but he turned1 when      
necessary1 to the business of his       
legation2 and whenever he did so  he    
found that 8here diplomatic affairs are 
not treated as everywhere  else1 where  
we communicate with the ,minister of    
,foreign ,affairs and  arrange the      
matter with him alone40 ,he must        
#8arrange' the matter with  several     
committees of ,congress4 ,he must go to 
see ,mrs4 ,kennedy and ,mrs4  ,winthrop1
 whose 8husbands are members of the     
,house of ,representatives1  and on the 
committee having charge of commercial   
affairs1 in which0  he 8is interested10 
for 8they say that these gentlemen are  
very  particular about visits from      

foreign ministers to their wives40,c    
,just  ,lord ,elgin's testimony4 ,again 
the #8standard authorities' are added   
to1 and that in a quarter where we      
should least expect to find them        
supplemented4 ,we need despair of no    
source4        ,c ,souvenirs of a       
,diplomat1 pp4 #ahi1 #bha4    ,these are
 only near and easily recognized        
illustrations of the errant  mode of    
study ,i am expounding and advocating4  
,other systems besides our  own receive 
similar chance illumination in the odd  
corners of all sorts  of books4 ,now and
 again you strike mines like the        
8,mmoires of ,madame  de ,rmusat10 the  
8,letters0 of ,walpole1 or the 8,diary0 
of a ,pepys or an  ,evelyn2 at other    
periods you must be content to find only
 slender veins  of the ore of familiar  
observation and intimate knowledge of   
affairs  for which you are delving2 but 
your search will seldom be altogether   
futile4 ,some newly opened archive      
office may offer cahiers1 such as       

revealed to de ,tocqueville1 more than  
all other records1 the ancien  rgime4   
,some elder ,hamerton may tell you of   
the significant things  to be seen      
#8round his house4' ,all correspondence 
and autobiography  will repay perusal1  
even when not so soaked in affairs as   
the letters  of ,cromwell1 or so        
reminiscent of politics as the 8,memoirs
 of ,samuel  ,romilly40    ,politics is 
the life of the ,state1 and nothing     
which illustrates that  life1 nothing   
which reveals any habit contracted by   
man as a political  animal1 comes amiss 
in the study of politics4 ,public law is
 the formal  basis of the political life
 of society1 but it is not always an    
expression of its vital principle4 ,we  
are inclined1 oftentimes1 to take  laws 
and constitutions too seriously1 to put 
implicit faith in their  professions    
without examining their conduct4 ,do    
they affect to advance  liberty1 for    
instance8 ,we ought to go1 in person or 
in imagination1  amongst the people whom

 they command1 and see for ourselves    
whether  those people enjoy liberty4    
,with reference to laws and             
constitutions of  our own day1 we can   
learn such things best by supplementing 
books and  study by travel and          
observation4 ,the best-taught class in  
modern public  law would be a travelling
 class4 ,other times than our own we    
must  perforce be content to see through
 other men's eyes4    ,in other words1  
statute books and legal commentaries are
 all very well  in the study of         
politics1 if only you quite thoroughly  
understand that  they furnish only the  
crude body-colors for your picture of   
the ,state's  life1 upon which all your 
finer luminous and atmospheric effects  
are  afterwards to be worked4 ,it is    
high time to recognize the fact that    
politics can be effectually expounded   
only by means of the highest  literary  
methods4 ,only master workers in        
language and in the grouping  and       
interpretation of heterogeneous         

materials can achieve the highest       
success in making real in words the     
complex life of ,states4 ,if ,i  might  
act as the interpreter of the new-school
 economists of whom ,i  have already    
spoken1 ,i trust with due reverence1 ,i 
should say that this  is the thought    
which1 despite their too frequent       
practical contempt  for artistic        
literary form1 is possessing them4 ,john
 ,stuart ,mill and  ,ricardo made a sort
 of logic of political economy2 in order
 to simplify  their processes1 they     
deliberately stripped man of all motives
 save  self-interest alone1 and the     
result was evidently #8doctrinaire'--was
  not a picture of life1 but a theorem  
of trade4 ,hence 8the most dismal  of   
all sciences20 hence ,sidney ,smith's   
exhortation to his friend not  to touch 
the hard1 unnatural thing4 ,the         
new-school economists revolt1  and say  
they want 8a more scientific method40   
,what they really want  is a higher     
literary method4 ,they want to take     

account of how a man's  wife affects his
 trade1 how his children stiffen his    
prudence1 how  his prejudices condition 
his enterprise1 how his lack of         
imagination  limits his market1 how     
strongly love of home holds him back    
from the  good wages that might be had  
by emigration1 how despotically the     
opinion of his neighbors forbids his    
insisting upon a cash business1  how his
 position in local society prescribes   
the commodities he is  not to deal in2  
in brief1 how men actually do labor1    
plan1 and get  gain4 ,they are1         
therefore1 portentously busy amassing   
particulars about  the occupations1 the 
habits1 the earnings1 the whole economic
 life of  all classes and conditions of 
men4 ,but these things are only the raw 
material of poetry and the literary art1
 and without the intervention  of       
literary art must remain raw material4  
,to make anything of them1 the          
economist must become a literary artist 
and bring his discoveries home  to our  

imaginations--make these innumerable    
details of his pour in a  concentrated  
fire upon the central citadels of men's 
understandings4 ,a  single step or two  
would then bring him within full sight  
of the longed  for time when political  
economy is to dominate legislation4     
,it has fallen out that1 by turning its 
thoughts toward becoming a  science1    
politics1 like political economy1 has   
joined its literature  to those books of
 natural science which boast a brief    
authority1 and  then make way for what  
is #8latest4' ,unless it be of the      
constitution  of those rare books which 
mark an epoch in scientific thought1 a  
#8scientific work' may not expect to    
outlive the prevailing fashion in       
ladies' wraps4 ,but books on politics   
are in the wrong company when  they     
associate with works among which so high
 a rate of mortality  obtains4 ,the     
#8science' proper to them1 as           
distinguished from that  which is proper
 to the company they now affect1 is a   

science whose  very expositions are as  
deathless as itself4 ,it is the science 
of the  life of man in society4 ,nothing
 which elucidates that life ought  to be
 reckoned foreign to its art2 and no    
true picture of that life  can ever     
perish out of literature4 ,ripe         
scholarship in history and              
jurisprudence is not more indispensable 
to the student of politics  than are a  
constructive imagination and a poet's   
eye for the detail of  human incident4  
,the heart of his task is insight and   
interpretation2 no  literary power that 
he can bring to bear upon it will be    
greater than  he needs4 ,arthur ,young's
 way of observing1 ,bagehot's way of    
writing1  and ,burke's way of           
philosophizing would make an ideal      
combination for  the work he has to do4 
,his materials are often of the most    
illusive  sort1 the problems which he   
has to solve are always of the most     
confounding magnitude and variety4      
,it is easy for him to say1 for         

instance1 that the political            
institutions of one country will not    
suit another country2 but how           
infinitely difficult is it to answer the
 monosyllables ,how8 and ,why8 ,to      
reply to the ,why he must make out all  
the contrasts in the histories  of the  
two countries4 ,but it depends entirely 
upon what sort of eye he  has whether   
those contrasts will contain for him    
vital causes of the  effect he is       
seeking to expound4 ,he may let some    
anecdote escape him  which gleams with  
the very spark needed to kindle his     
exposition4 ,in  looking only for grave 
political facts he may overlook some    
apparently  trivial outlying detail     
which contains the very secret he would 
guess4  ,he may neglect to notice what  
men are most talked about by the people2
  whose photographs are most frequently 
to be seen on the walls of  peasant     
cottages2 what books are oftenest on    
their shelves4 ,intent  upon intrigue   
and legislation1 he may pass over with  

only a laugh some  piquant gossip about 
legislator or courtier without the least
 suspicion  that it epitomizes a whole  
scheme of government4 ,he may admire    
self-government so much as to forget    
that it is a very coarse1 homely  thing 
when alive1 and so may really never know
 anything valuable about  it4 ,the man  
who thinks the polls disagreeable and   
uninteresting places  has no business   
taking up a pen to write about          
government4 ,the man who  despises the  
sheriff because he is coarse and        
uncouth1 and who studies  the sheriff's 
functions only from the drawing-room or 
the library1  will realize the life of  
government no better than he realizes   
the  vanity of #8good form4'    ,if     
politics were to be studied as a great  
department of human conduct1  not to be 
understood by a scholar who is not also 
a man of the  world1 its literature     
might be made as imperishable as that of
 the  imagination4 ,there might then    
enter into it that individuality which  

is immortality4 ,that personal equation 
which constitutes the power of  all     
books which have aught of force in them 
would then rescue books on  politics    
from the dismal category of             
#8treatises1' and exalt them to  the    
patriciate of literature4 ,the needed   
reaction against the still  #8orthodox' 
methods of discoursing upon laws and    
constitutions1 like  that already set   
afoot against the #8orthodox' political 
economists1  should be a #8literary     
movement'--a movement from formalism to 
life4  ,in order really to know anything
 about government1 you must see it      
alive2 and the object of the writer on  
politics should be nothing less  than   
this1 to paint government to the life1  
to make it live again upon  his page4   
,,iii    ,,political ,,sovereignty      
,the conception of political sovereignty
 is one of those interesting  portions  
of doctrine which belong in common to   
several distinct  branches of study4 ,no
 systematic discussion of any part of   

the science  of politics can advance    
very far without it2 and it is even more
  indispensable to the student of legal 
systems than to the student of          
politics4 ,it is a question central to  
the life of states and to the  validity 
of law4    ,and it is rendered the more 
interesting by the fact that it is a    
critical question1 used by all schools  
alike as a capital test of  orthodoxy4  
,no man who cares a whit about his      
standing among students of  law or of   
politics can afford to approach it      
lightly4 ,whatever he says  about it he 
must needs say with a profound sense of 
responsibility4 ,he  must undertake the 
discussion of it with the same sort of  
gravity1  with the same deep sense of   
personal risk1 that the political       
economist  evinces when he ventures an  
opinion about ,value or hazards a theory
  of ,distribution4 ,when once he has   
committed himself to an opinion         
concerning it1 he may be sure that with 
a large and influential number  of his  

fellow-students he can never thereafter 
pass for a man of  undoubted scholarship
 or unclouded sense4    ,if it is       
awkward1 under such circumstances1 that 
the conception should  be so            
indispensable1 it doubtless has the     
advantage of forcing boldness  upon us4 
,if for nothing else than for the sake  
of a modus vivendi1 we  must out with   
whatever notion it is that we have      
accepted or invented  with reference to 
the nature and lodgement of sovereignty4
 ,it is1 on  the whole1 safer to be     
explicit than to hedge4    ,and yet it  
is not easy to be explicit2 for there   
are no suitable terms  to be explicit   
with4 ,one no sooner begins to examine  
the field and  the matter of controversy
 than he begins to suspect that it is   
all a  question of terminology4 ,after  
being hurried in bewilderment through   
one of ,browning's short poems without  
being permitted to be quite sure  at any
 point of the full meaning1 we are led  
in our disappointment  to wonder1 with  

,mr4 ,birrell1 if it can be the         
punctuation4 ,in what  we read of       
sovereignty we are led to wonder if it  
can be the words  that confuse us4 ,it  
must be evident to every one who has not
 been  sophisticated by the terms       
themselves1 or committed beyond         
retrieval by  the controversial use of  
them1 that when1 for example1 the people
 of  the ,united ,states and the ,czar  
of ,russia are put together in the same 
class as sovereigns1 language has been  
forced to a very artificial use1  and   
one term made to cover radically        
different things4 ,there is clearly  a  
striking contrast between these two     
sovereigns1 in character1 in  method1   
and in power4 ,doubtless an excellent   
way by which to enter our  subject would
 be through an examination of this      
difference4 ,but another  way is more   
direct4    ,let us begin with an        
accepted definition of sovereignty4 ,it 
is  both decent and convenient to take  
that of ,austin1 that celebrated        

definition which he received through    
,bentham from ,hobbes4 ,austin          
conceived a sovereign very concretely1  
as a person or body of persons  existing
 in an independent political society and
 accorded the habitual  obedience of the
 bulk of the members of that society1   
while itself  subordinate to no         
political superior4 ,law he defined to  
be the explicit  or implicit command of 
such a person or body of persons1       
addressed to  the members of the        
community1 its inferiors or subjects4   
,he took it for  granted that in every  
independent community supreme political 
authority  did actually vest in some    
such determinate sovereign person or    
body of  persons4    ,by the very term  
used to describe it1 moreover1 this     
sovereignty  is supremacy--is subject to
 no limitation4 ,every law is a command1
  not only1 but the command of a supreme
 authority2 and it would be a  singular 
contradiction in terms to speak of this 
supreme power as  limited by law4 ,how  

can the supreme author of law within a  
state  himself be subject to law3 how   
can the creature bind the creator8  ,how
 can one refrain from smiling at the    
logical incapacity of those  who speak  
of limitations to sovereignty1 or1 more 
absurdly still1 of  divisions of        
sovereignty8 ,is there a hierarchy of   
supremacies3 can  there be a            
co-ordination of creators8    ,austin   
had studied in ,bonn while it was the   
residence of such men as  ,niebuhr1     
,schlegel1 ,arndt1 ,welcher1 ,mackeldey1
 and ,heffter1 and at a  period when    
controversy touching some of the        
fundamental questions  concerning the   
province and method of jurisprudence was
 in its keen  youth4 ,his thought was   
mature1 indeed1 before he went abroad1  
and  nature had very imperatively       
commanded of what sort that thought     
should be by giving him a mind framed   
for abstract conception and  sharp      
logical processes2 but contact with     
,german thinking contributed  many      

important elements to his mental        
equipment4 ,thibaut became  scarcely    
less his master than ,bentham4 ,it was  
inevitable that it  should be ,thibaut  
rather than ,savigny4 ,savigny believed 
that all  law was rooted in old habit1  
and that legislation could modify law   
successfully and beneficially only by   
consenting to the secondary  rle of     
supplementing1 formulating1 or at most  
guiding custom4 ,he  was at weapons     
drawn with the school of ,thibaut1 which
 proposed to  lay legislative hands on  
the entire body of ,german law1 make a  
code  which should be common to all the 
,german ,states1 and so help to make    
,germany a national unit4 ,to attempt   
thus to systematize law1 where by       
natural development it was unsystematic1
 seemed to ,savigny a deliberate  effort
 to render it artificial4 ,law1 he      
maintained1 did not often  grow into a  
logical system1 but was the product of  
daily accretions  of habit and sluggish 
formations of thought1 which followed no

 system  of philosophy4 ,it was not the 
business of legal science to force it   
into logical categories2 it was its     
function1 rather1 to give a clear       
explanation of the principles and order 
of its life and a satisfactory  working 
analysis of its several parts and       
conceptions4 ,thibaut1 on the  other    
hand1 believed it to be the legitimate  
function of the jurist to  make         
piecemeal law up into organic wholes1   
rendering it clear where it  had been   
obscure1 correcting its inconsistencies1
 trimming away its  irregularities1     
reducing the number of its exceptional  
provisions1  discovering and filling in 
its gaps1 running it through with       
threads  of system1 giving it elegance  
of style and completeness of method4    
,he thought it possible to change law   
from a system of habits into a  system  
of commands4 ,these were1 of course1 the
 ideas which were most  attractive1 most
 congenial1 to the mind of ,austin4     
,but1 however natural such conceptions  

may have been to ,austin1 it  must      
certainly be regarded as singular that1 
although rejected on  the ,continent1   
where sovereignty had throughout the    
most important  formative periods of    
,european history been quite            
unequivocally lodged  in unmistakable   
sovereigns1 these notions should have   
been accepted in  ,england1 the land    
where law had been least subject to     
doctrine1 most  observant of times and  
circumstances1 most piecemeal in its    
manner of  construction1 least like a   
set of commands1 and most like a set of 
habits and conventions4 ,doubtless we   
are to remember1 however1 that  the     
feudal theory of law had long been held 
with perfect confidence by  ,english    
lawyers in calm despite of fact4        
,probably it is true that the  ,english 
mind 7our own71 with its practical      
habit1 likes nice systems  well enough  
because of their appearance of          
completeness1 has a sense of  order     
which enjoys logic1 without having any  

curiosity or capacity for  the          
examination of premises4 ,the           
,englishman has always been found ready 
to accept1 from those who had the       
leisure to amuse themselves in that     
way1 interesting explanations of his    
institutions which did not at all  fit  
the actual facts4 ,it has caused him no 
inconvenience1 for he has  not perceived
 the lack of adjustment between his     
actual transactions  and the theory he  
has accepted concerning them4 ,he has1  
of course1 not  troubled himself to     
alter his institutions to suit his      
philosophy4 ,that  philosophy satisfied 
his thought and inconvenienced neither  
,parliament  nor the law courts4 ,and so
 he had no doubt ,austin was right4     
,austin's logic is unrelenting1 and the 
loyalty of his followers  unflinching4  
,sir ,henry ,maine having shown that    
throughout the greater  part of history 
the world has been full of independent  
political  societies possessing no      
law-making sovereign at all1 and it     

having  become notorious that           
legislation has everywhere played a late
 and  comparatively subordinate part in 
the production of law1 the latest       
writers of the ,austinian school have   
reduced jurisprudence to a merely       
formal science1 professing to care      
nothing for the actual manner in  which 
law may originate1 nothing even for most
 of the motives which  induce men to    
obey law1 provided you will but concede 
that there is1  among a great many other
 imperative motives1 one which is       
universally  operative1 namely1 the fear
 of the compulsion of physical force1   
and  that there is at least one         
sovereign function1 namely1 the         
application  of that physical force in  
the carrying out of the law4 ,they ask  
to be  allowed to confine themselves to 
such a definition of positive law as    
will limit it to 8rules which are       
enforced by a political superior in  his
 capacity as such40 ,they take for their
 province only a systematic  description

 of the forms and method 8of the        
influence of government  upon human     
conduct0 through the operation of law4  
,they thus virtually  abandon the       
attempt to find any universal doctrines 
respecting the  rle of government as a  
maker of laws4 ,for them government is  
not  a creative agent1 but only an      
instrumentality for the effectuation of 
legal rules already in existence4 ,so   
hard is the principle of life  to get at
 that they give over all attempts to    
find it1 and1 turning  away from the    
larger topics of the biology1 restrict  
themselves to the  morphology1 of law4  
,when it came to pointing out the body  
of persons with which sovereignty  was  
lodged in particular states of complex  
constitutional structure1  ,austin was  
sometimes very unsatisfactory4          
,sovereignty is lodged in  ,england1 he 
says1 in the king1 the peers1 and--not  
the ,house of  ,commons1 but--the       
electorate4 ,for he holds the ,house of 
,commons to be  merely a trustee of the 

electors1 notwithstanding the fact that 
the  electors exercise their right of   
franchise under laws which ,parliament  
itself enacted and may change4 ,in the  
,united ,states he 8believes0 it to  be 
lodged 8in the ,states' governments1 as 
forming an aggregate body20  and he     
explains that by the government of a    
,state he does not mean its  8ordinary  
legislature1 but the body of its        
citizens which appoints  its ordinary   
legislature1 and which1 the ,union      
apart1 is properly  sovereign therein40 
,apparently he is led thus to go back of
 the ,house  of ,commons and the        
legislatures of our ,states to the      
electorates by  which they are chosen1  
because of his conception of sovereignty
 as  unlimited4 ,if he stopped short of 
the electors1 some part of his          
sovereign body would be subject to      
political superiors4 ,if he were to  go 
beyond the electors1 to the larger body 
of the people--to the women  and the    
children and the men who cannot vote--he

 would come upon1 not a  8determinate10 
but an indeterminate body of persons4   
,our own writers1 however1 having made  
bold to embrace the dogma of  popular   
sovereignty with a certain fervor of    
patriotism1 have no  hesitation about   
taking the additional step4 ,they       
maintain1 with  ,lieber1 that 8according
 to the views of free men10 sovereignty 
8can  dwell with society1 the nation1   
only40 ,writers like the late ,judge    
,jameson1 of ,chicago1 declare that they
 have very definite ideas of what  this 
means4 ,they think that ,mr4 ,bryce     
expounded the doctrine when he  wrote   
his chapter on 8,government by ,public  
,opinion40 8,when the true  sovereign   
has spoken10 says ,judge ,jameson1 8at  
public meetings1 by the  press1 or by   
personal argument or solicitation1 the  
electorate1 when  it acts1 either       
registers the behests of the people or  
ceases betimes  further to represent    
them40 8,the pressure of public opinion 
consciously  brought to bear upon the   

electorate10 he declares to be1 even    
when  8inarticulate0 7whatever          
inarticulate pressure may be71 8a clear 
and  legitimate exercise of sovereign   
power20 and he thinks that ,mr4 ,herbert
  ,spencer meant the same thing when he 
declared that 8that which1 from  hour to
 hour1 in every country1 governed       
despotically or otherwise1  produces the
 obedience making political action      
possible1 is the  accumulated and       
organized sentiment felt towards        
inherited institutions  made sacred by  
tradition10 inasmuch as ,mr4 ,spencer   
proceeds to say  with all plainness1    
8,hence it is undeniable that1 taken in 
its widest  acceptation1 the feeling of 
the community is the sole source of     
political power2 in those communities1  
at least1 which are not under  foreign  
domination4 ,it is so at the outset of  
social life1 and it still  continues    
substantially so40 ,and yet1 if ,mr4    
,spencer means the same  thing that     
,judge ,jameson means1 what are we to   

think of the present  fraternization of 
,france and ,russia8 ,if the people be  
sovereign  in ,france and the ,czar     
sovereign in ,russia1 it is doubtless   
quite  conceivable that one sovereign   
should love another2 but if it be true1 
as ,judge ,jameson makes ,mr4 ,spencer  
say1 that it is the people1 even  in    
,russia1 who are after all sovereign1   
what are we to think of the  fondness of
 the ,french sovereign for a government 
which is holding the  ,russian sovereign
 in subjection8 ,if this be correct     
thinking1 it puts  us into awkward      
quandaries1 troubling our logic as well 
as condemning  our lives4    ,apply this
 doctrine of our masters in ,american   
law to our actual  political conditions1
 and see how far it simplifies the      
matter4  ,in the ,united ,states 7so    
runs the orthodox creed7 the ,people is 
sovereign4--the verb is singular because
 the people1 under this  doctrine1      
constitute a unit4 ,and yet it is       
notorious that they never  have acted as

 a unit1 nor ever can act as a unit     
under our existing  constitution4 ,they 
have always acted1 and must always act1 
in state  groups4 ,and in state groups  
what action do they take8 ,they assent  
to  constitutional provisions1 or refuse
 to assent to them2 and they  select    
certain persons to act as law-makers1 as
 judges1 or as executive  officers of   
government4 ,do they choose policies8   
,no4 ,do they frame  constitutional     
provisions8 ,certainly not2 they only   
accept or reject  them4 ,in the only    
case in which they speak directly       
concerning specific  provisions of law1 
they neither command nor originate4     
,they receive  or decline what is       
offered them4 ,they must wait until they
 are asked4  ,they have neither         
initiative nor opportunity to construct4
 ,they must be  consulted concerning    
government1 but they do not conduct it4 
,nor is it otherwise1 upon last         
analysis1 in ,switzerland1 where the    
,referendum exists1 where1 that is1 the 

people vote upon specific  measures of  
ordinary legislation not only1 but where
 they are also  provided with means of  
imperative initiative in legislation4   
,by  petitions bearing a certain large  
number of signatures they can propose   
definite legislation1 compel action upon
 the matter of their petitions  by their
 legislatures1 and an ultimate          
submission of the question to  popular  
vote4 ,but see what this is1 when       
examined4 ,the eyes of the  community1  
the men of observation and progress1 get
 up a petition2  that is1 an            
indeterminate body and a minority demand
 that certain laws  be formulated and   
put to the vote4 ,the thing is done1 but
 the measure  defeated1 let us suppose1 
at the polls4 ,the eyes of the community
 have  desired certain things1 have     
offered them to the slow digestive      
organs1  and they have been rejected4   
,are the digestive organs1 then1        
sovereign1  and not the initiative      
parts1 the eyes and the reason8 ,is it  

sovereign  to stomach a thing1 and not  
sovereign to purpose a thing8    ,but   
turn the chase in another direction1 if 
peradventure we may yet run  the        
sovereign people to cover4 ,the more    
absolute democratic theorists  decline  
to restrict the sovereign body to the   
electorate1 to those who  have formal   
votes4 ,voters are simply the agents of 
the community1 they  say4 ,the press and
 the pulpit1 the private argument and   
the curtain  lecture1 command--voters1  
if they are faithful1 obey4 ,others1 no 
less  democratic1 but more precise1 seek
 for a more determinate body1 content   
themselves with the qualified voters1   
and think with relief that all          
difficulties are removed4 ,the          
electorate is sovereign4    ,but is the 
electorate a more determinate body than 
the population8  ,does registration     
afford us any more certain results than 
the census  yields8 ,do the electors act
 in determinate numbers8 ,is there a    
quorum8  ,have they any choice but to   

act under the forms and within the      
limits  assigned by law8 ,can they      
command without invitation1 or assent   
without  suggestion8 ,are not the       
agencies which ,judge ,jameson calls    
sovereign  after all more active1 more  
self-directed1 freer to criticise1 to   
suggest1 to insist8 ,the newspapers1 the
 clergymen1 the mass-meeting  orators1  
the urgent friends1 the restless1       
ambitious wives1 the pert  and forward  
children can at any rate keep on talking
 in the intervals1  when the electors   
are reduced to silence1 patiently       
awaiting an  opportunity to vote4       
,certainly1 if we can accept this       
miscellaneous  sovereign of             
men-women-and-children1 the history of  
sovereignty is much  simplified4 ,this  
determinate body of persons1 the free   
population1 is  always present1 and     
always has been present1 under all      
constitutions4  ,all that we have to    
inquire is1 ,what means had they for    
expressing  their will8 ,how were their 

dispositions and judgments made to tell 
upon  the consciousness of those who    
framed the laws8 ,true1 this sovereign  
body has its points of resemblance to   
the god ,baal4 ,those who call upon  it 
call in vain1 if it be not the season   
appointed for voting2 there is  no      
voice1 nor any that answer1 nor any that
 regardeth4 ,no fire consumes  the      
sacrifice4 ,perhaps the ,people is      
talking1 or is pursuing1 or is in  a    
journey1 or peradventure it sleepeth1   
and must be awaked4    ,surely this is a
 singular undertaking1 this mad pursuit 
of a sovereign  amidst the obvious      
phenomena of politics6 ,if laws be      
indeed commands1  the commands of a     
determinate person or body of persons1  
it ought to  be possible to discover    
this determinate source of authority    
without  much curious research4 ,and yet
 it would seem that it demands ingenious
  analysis4 ,look how uneasily ,mr4     
,sidgwick casts about in the last       
chapter of his recent 8,elements of     

,politics10 to find ,supreme ,political 
,power--which is his name for           
sovereignty4 ,he has been looking       
forward  to this inquiry1 not without   
nervousness1 throughout the chapters    
which  precede4 ,political power is     
exercised1 he perceives1 through some   
organ  of government2 but he cannot     
conceive that the power of this organ   
is its own power4 ,he engages in a study
 of dynamics4 ,what moves this  organ3  
whence does it derive its power8 ,how is
 it influenced8 ,is it  itself          
commanded1 overawed1 constrained from   
any quarter8 ,this is a  door to the    
metaphysics of government4 ,taking a    
prince as a simple and  normal organ of 
government1 he analyzes the subjection  
of princes to  their ministers1 to      
priests1 to mistresses1 to the violent  
protests  of an insubordinate people4   
,no influence that the prince can throw 
off without losing his own authority1 he
 thinks1 can be a sovereign  influence2 
but any influence which can threaten his

 power if he resists  is a sovereign    
influence1 the true depository of       
supreme political  power4 ,sovereignty  
thus becomes a catalogue of influences4 
,can we accept these singular processes8
 ,if a physicist were to discard  all   
the separate laws1 all the differential 
analysis of his science1  and were to   
reduce its entire body of principles to 
some general  statement of the          
correlation of forces1 he would hardly  
be conceived to  have done physics a    
service4 ,if in our study of anatomy we 
should turn  away from structural       
adjustment and functional force to take 
account  of the thousand and one        
influences which in individual cases    
affect  the organs from without1 we     
should obviously be abandoning the      
science  itself4 ,it seems to me that we
 do a very like thing if1 in studying   
the structural forces and organic       
actions of society1 its organs of       
origination and command1 its organs of  
execution1 its superior and  its        

subordinate authorities1 its habitual   
modes of structural life1  we abandon   
all attempts at differentiation1 throw  
all analysis into  hotch-potch1 and     
reduce everything to terms of the       
general forces  which mould and govern  
society as a whole4 ,we confuse our     
thought  in our effort to simplify it4  
,we lose1 we do not gain1 by putting    
powers of radically different sorts     
together into the same categories1  and 
driving them abreast1 as if they pulled 
together1 in the same  propositions4    
,there is no unlimited power1 except the
 sum of all powers4 ,our legal          
theorists have sought unlimited         
sovereignty by a process of summation2  
have made it consist in the combined    
forces of the community4  ,sovereignty1 
if it be a definite and separable thing 
at all1 is not  unlimited power2 is not 
identical with the powers of the        
community4  ,it is not the general      
vitality of the organism1 but the       
specific  originative power of certain  

organs4 ,sovereigns have always been    
subject in greater or less degree to the
 community2 have always been  organs of 
the ,state2 have never been the ,state  
itself4 ,but they have  been sovereigns 
none the less2 they1 and not the        
community over which  they presided4    
,it is necessary1 if there is to be any 
clear thinking at all upon this         
subject1 to distinguish very sharply two
 radically different things2  namely1   
the powers and processes of governing1  
on the one hand1 from  the relations of 
the people to those powers and          
processes1 on the  other4 ,those        
relations are relations of assent and   
obedience2 and the  degree of assent and
 obedience marks in every case the      
limits1 that  is1 the sphere1 of        
sovereignty4 ,sovereignty is the daily  
operative  power of framing and giving  
efficacy to laws4 ,it is the            
originative1  directive1 governing      
power4 ,it lives2 it plans2 it executes4
 ,it is  the organic origination by the 

,state of its law and policy2 and the   
sovereign power is the highest          
originative organ of the ,state4 ,it is 
none the less sovereign because it must 
be observant of the preferences  of     
those whom it governs4 ,the obedience of
 the subject has always  limited the    
power of the sovereign4 8,the ,eastern  
politicians never do  anything10 says   
,burke1 8without the opinion of the     
astrologers on the  fortunate moment4444
 ,statesmen of a more judicious         
prescience look for  the fortunate      
moment too2 but they seek it1 not in the
 conjunctions  and oppositions of       
planets1 but in the conjunctions and    
oppositions  of men and things40 ,this  
is the covert admission of the          
,austinian  definition itself3 the      
sovereign power is that to which 8the   
bulk of  the community is habitually    
obedient40 ,when we discuss1 with ,mr4  
,sidgwick1 the influences which tell    
upon the action of the originative      
organs of the ,state1 we are not        

discussing sovereignty1 but the  natural
 and universal limitations of           
sovereignty1 the structural checks  and 
balances of the organism4 ,there is no  
hope for theory if we neglect  these    
obvious distinctions4    ,at all times  
and under all systems there have been   
two sets of  phenomena visible in       
government3 the phenomena of command and
 the  phenomena of obedience1 the       
phenomena of governing and the phenomena
  of being governed4 ,obedience1        
moreover1 is not always an automatic or 
unconscious thing4 ,it is a submission  
of the will--an acquiescence  which is  
either the product of choice1 of        
necessity1 or of habit4 ,this  has been 
observed from the first2 was observed by
 ,bodin1 from whom we  get our word     
sovereignty1 and much of our conception 
of the thing1  sovereignty4 ,he         
perceived that the supremacy of the     
sovereign--even of  the medival ,french 
sovereign before his eyes--was in fact  
limited1 the  frontiers of sovereignty  

being marked by certain antecedent      
rights1 by  divers established          
prerogatives of property and vested     
privilege--not a  scientific1 but a     
natural frontier1 lying along the old   
mountains of  habit1 the well-known     
rivers of precedent4    ,we know that   
the history of politics has been the    
history of liberty2  a history of the   
enlargement of the sphere of independent
 individual  action at the expense of   
the sphere of dictatorial authority4 ,it
 has  revealed a process of             
differentiation4 ,certain freedoms of   
opinion  and utterance1 of choice of    
occupation and of allegiance1 of fair   
trial and equitable condemnation1 have  
been blocked out as inviolable          
territories1 lying quite beyond the     
jurisdiction of political  sovereignty4 
,beginning with that singular and       
interesting order of  the classical     
states of the ancient world1 under which
 the individual  was merged in the      
community and liberty became identical  

with a share  in the exercise of the    
public power1 we witness something like 
a  gradual disintegration1 a resolution 
of the ,state into its constituent      
elements1 until at length those who     
govern and those who are governed  are  
no longer one and the same1 but stand   
face to face treating with  one another1
 agreeing upon terms of command and     
obedience1 as at  ,runnymede4           
,conditions of submission have been     
contested1 and1 as  liberty has gained  
upon authority1 have been jealously     
formulated4 ,the  procedure and the     
prerogatives of authority have been     
agreed upon2  liberty has encroached    
upon sovereignty and set bounds to it4  
,the  process is old2 only some of its  
results are new4 ,what both political   
philosophers and political              
revolutionists have sought for time out 
of mind has been a final definition for 
that part of the ,austinian  conception 
which concerns the habitual obedience of
 the community4  ,these definitions1 in 

their practical shape as institutions1  
we now  call constitutions4 ,at last    
peoples have become conscious of their  
relations to the highest powers of the  
,state1 and have sought to give         
permanence and certainty to those       
relations by setting the conditions  of 
their subordination fast in stubborn    
practices or in the solemn  covenants of
 written documents4 ,a constitution     
government has always  had2 but not     
until this latest age these deliberate  
formulations of  principle and practice 
which determine the whole organization  
and  action of the ,state1 the domain of
 authority1 the neutral territory of    
liberty1 the postulates of obedience4   
,constitutions are definitive rather    
than creative4 ,they sum up             
experiences4 ,they register consents4   
,assuredly ,mr4 ,spencer is right  when 
he declares that that which in every    
country1 under whatever  system         
governed1 8produces the obedience making
 political action  possible1 is the     

accumulated and organized sentiment of  
the community  towards inherited        
institutions10 and that 8the feeling of 
the community  is the sole source of    
political power40 ,but this does not    
mean what  ,judge ,jameson reads into   
it1 that sovereignty and the feeling of 
the community are one and the same      
thing2 that the conditions of           
sovereignty and the exercise of         
sovereignty are identical4 ,sovereignty 
has at all times and under all systems  
of government been dependent  upon the  
temper and disposition of the people4   
,the will of the  community1 the        
inclinations and desires of the body    
politic as a whole1  are always1 in the 
last analysis1 the foundation1 as they  
are also  in many instances the direct  
and immediate source1 of law4 ,but these
  preferences of the general body are   
exercised by way of approval or         
disapproval1 acquiescence or resistance2
 they are not agencies of  initial      
choice4 ,the sanctioning judgments of a 

people are passive1  dormant1 waiting to
 have things put to them1 unable        
themselves to  suggest anything1 because
 without organs of utterance or         
suggestion4 ,i  cannot predicate        
sovereignty of my physical parts1 but   
must ascribe it  to my will1            
notwithstanding the fact that my        
physical parts must assent  to the      
purposes of my will1 and that my will is
 dependent upon their  obedience4 ,the  
organism unquestionably dominates the   
organs2 but there  are organs1          
nevertheless1 organs of origination1    
which direct and rule  with a sovereign 
presidency4    ,a written constitution  
adopted by popular vote affords1        
perhaps1 some  of the nicest tests of   
theory4 ,here we have the most specific 
form  of popular assent4 ,in such a     
document the powers of the government   
are explicitly set forth and            
specifically lodged2 and the means by   
which they may be differently           
constituted or bestowed are definitively

  determined4 ,now we know that these   
documents are the result of  experience1
 the outcome of a contest of forces1 the
 fruits of struggle4  ,nations have     
taken knowledge of despotism4 ,they have
 seen authority  abused and have refused
 to submit2 have perceived justice to be
  arbitrary and hidden away in secret   
tribunals1 and have insisted  that it be
 made uniform and open2 have seen       
ministers chosen from  among favorites1 
and have demanded that they be taken    
from among  representatives of the      
people2 have found legislation regardful
 of  classes1 and have clamored to have 
laws made by men selected without       
regard to class2 have felt obedience    
irksome because government was          
disordered in form and confused in      
respect of responsibility1 and have     
insisted that responsibility be fixed   
and forms of order and publicity        
observed4 ,sometimes only a steady      
practice has accomplished all this2     
sometimes documentary securities have   

been demanded4 ,these documentary       
securities are written constitutions4   
,it is easy1 as it is also impressive1  
to believe that a written  constitution 
proceeds from the people1 and           
constitutes their sovereign  behest     
concerning government4 ,but of course it
 does not4 ,it proceeds  always either  
from some ordinary or from some         
extraordinary organ of  the state2 its  
provisions are the fruit of the debated 
determinations  of a comparatively small
 deliberative body1 acting usually under
  some form of legal commission4 ,it is 
accepted as a whole and without         
discrimination by the diffused1         
undeliberative body of voters4    ,what 
confuses our view is the fact that these
 formal documentary  statements of the  
kinds and degrees of obedience to which 
the people  assent1 the methods of power
 to which they submit1 the sort of      
responsibility upon which they insist1  
have become1 from the very  necessity of
 their nature1 a distinct and superior  

sort of precise and  positive law4 ,we  
seek the sovereign who utters them4 ,but
 they are not  the utterances of a      
sovereign4 ,they are the covenants of a 
community4  ,time out of mind           
communities have made covenants with    
their sovereigns4  ,when despotism in   
,france was #8tempered by epigram1' the 
sharp tongues  of the wits spoke1 after 
a sort1 the constitution of the         
country1--a  positive law whose sanction
 was ridicule4 ,but the wits were not   
sovereign2 the salons did not conduct   
government4 ,our written  constitutions 
are only very formal statements of the  
standards to which  the people1 upon    
whom government depends for support1    
will hold those  who exercise the       
sovereign power4    ,i do not1 of       
course1 deny the power of the people4   
,ultimately they  condition the action  
of those who govern2 and it is salutary 
that it  should be so4 ,it is wise also1
 if it be not indispensable1 that the   
extent and manner of their control      

should be explicitly set forth  and     
definitively agreed upon in documents of
 unmistakable tenor4 ,i  say simply that
 such control is no new thing4 ,it is   
only the precise  formulation of it that
 is new4    ,if it seem to be after all 
a question of words1 a little closer    
scrutiny will disclose the fact that it 
is much more than that4 ,mr4  ,ritchie1 
of ,oxford ,university1 in an able      
article on 8,the ,conception  of        
,sovereignty10 contributed to the       
,annals of the ,american ,academy of    
,political and ,social ,science         
7,january1 #ahia71 perceiving some part 
of the distinction that ,i have pointed 
out1 and wishing to realize  it in his  
thought1 proposes to distinguish three  
several kinds of  sovereigns3 viz4 a    
nominal sovereign--the ,english queen1  
for example2  a legal sovereign--the    
law-making body2 and a political        
sovereign--the  voters1 whom we might   
call the sovereign of appeal4 ,but why  
not confine  ourselves to substantives1 

if we may1 and avoid the quicksands of  
adjectives8 ,sovereignty is something   
quite definite2 so also is power2  so   
also is control4 ,sovereignty is the    
highest political power in  the state1  
lodged in active organs1 for the        
purposes of governing4  ,sovereign power
 is a positive thing2 control a negative
 thing4 ,power  belongs to government1  
is lodged in organs of initiative2      
control  belongs to the community1 is   
lodged with the voters4 ,to call these  
two  things by the same name is simply  
to impoverish language by making one    
word serve for a variety of meanings4   
,it is never easy to point out in our   
complex modern governments the  exact   
organs in which sovereignty is lodged4  
,on the whole1 however1 it  is always   
safe to ascribe sovereignty to the      
highest originative or  law-making body 
of the state1--the body by whose        
determinations both  the tasks to be    
carried out by the ,administration and  
the rules to be  applied by the courts  

are fixed and warranted4 ,even where the
 courts  utter authoritative            
interpretations of what we call the     
fundamental  law--the law that is       
embodied in constitutions--they are     
rather the  organs through which the    
limitations of sovereignty are          
determined  than organs of sovereignty  
itself4 ,they declare the principles of 
that  higher1 constituent law which is  
set above sovereignty1 which expresses  
the restrictions set about the exercise 
of sovereign authority4  ,such          
restrictions exist in all states1 but   
they are given definite  formulation    
only in some4 ,as for the ,executive1   
that is the agent1 not  the organ1 of   
sovereignty4    ,but1 even if it be     
comparatively easy thus to fix upon the 
organs of  sovereignty in a unitary     
state1 what shall we say of a federal   
state8  ,how apply our analysis to that8
 ,one is tempted to declare1 with ,dr4  
,merkel1 of ,strassburg1 that federal   
states give direct contradiction  of    

fact to prevailing theories respecting  
the necessity for unity  of power1      
indivisibility of sovereignty4 ,here1 as
 he says1 we have  organs and           
authorities in possession of powers     
exclusively their own1  for the         
furtherance of functions necessary to   
the ends of the state  as a whole1      
existing side by side with organs also  
in full possession  of powers           
exclusively their own1 for the          
furtherance of the local  and special   
functions of the member states4 ,we     
know1 moreover1 that  these two sets of 
organs are in fact co-ordinate2 that the
 powers of  the states were not derived 
from the federal authority1 were even   
antecedent to the powers of the federal 
government1 and historically  quite     
independent of them4 ,and yet no one who
 ponders either the life  or the formal 
structure of a federal state can fail to
 perceive that  there is1 after all1 an 
essential unity in it1 the virtual      
creation of  a central sovereignty4 ,the

 constituent act--the manner in which   
the  government was created--can1 ,i    
conceive1 have nothing to do with our   
analysis in this matter4 ,the way in    
which the federal state came into       
existence is immaterial to the question 
of sovereignty within it after  it has  
been created4 ,originative life and     
action1 the characteristic  attributes  
of sovereignty1 come after that4        
,character and choice are  postponed to 
birth1 sovereignty to the creation of   
the body politic4  ,the constituent act 
creates a thing capable of exercising   
sovereignty4  ,after the creative law   
has done its part1 by whatever process1 
then the  functions of independent life 
begin4 ,thereafter1 in all federal      
states1  even the amendment of the      
fundamental law becomes an organic act1 
depending1 practically without          
exception1 upon the initiative of the   
chief originative organ of the federal  
state4 ,confederations are here  out of 
the question4 ,they are1 of course1     

associations of sovereigns4  ,in the    
federal state self-determination with   
respect to their law as  a whole has    
been lost by the member states4 ,they   
cannot extend1 they  cannot even        
determine1 their own powers conclusively
 without appeal to  the federal         
authorities4 ,they are unquestionably   
subject to a political  superior4 ,they 
are fused1 subordinated1 dominated4     
,though they do not  exercise their     
powers by virtue of delegation1 though  
their powers are  indeed inherent and in
 a very important sense independent1    
they are  yet inferior to a body whose  
own powers are in reality               
self-determined1  however much that     
self-determination may be hedged about  
and clogged  by the forms of the        
fundamental federal law4 ,they are still
 states1  because their powers are      
original and inherent1 not derivative2  
because  their political rights are not 
also legal duties2 and because they  can
 apply to their commands the full       

imperative sanctions of law4  ,but their
 sphere is limited by the presiding and 
sovereign powers  of a state            
superordinated to them1 the extent of   
whose authority is  determined1 under   
constitutional forms and guarantees1 by 
itself4 ,they  have dominion2 but it has
 sovereignty4 ,for with the federal     
state lie  the highest powers of        
originative legal determination1 the    
ultimate  authority to warrant change   
and sanction jurisdiction4    ,our      
thought is embarrassed throughout such  
an analysis by the very  fact which     
invalidates the ,austinian conception   
and makes a fresh  analysis necessary4  
,very little law literally originates in
 command1  though its formulation and   
enforcement must unquestionably be      
effected  through the commanding        
authorities of the state4 ,it is their  
function  to direct1 to lead1 rather    
than to command4 ,they originate forms1 
but they do not discover principles4 ,in
 a very profound sense law  proceeds    

from the community4 ,it is the result of
 its undeliberate  as well as of its    
deliberate developments1 of its         
struggles1 class  against class1        
interest against interest1 and of its   
compromises and  adjustments of opinion4
 ,it follows1 slowly1 its ethical       
judgments1 more  promptly its material  
necessities4 ,but law issues thus from  
the body  of the community only in vague
 and inchoate form4 ,it must be taken   
out of the sphere of voluntary and      
uncertain action and made precise  and  
invariable4 ,it becomes positive law by 
receiving definition and  being backed  
by an active and recognized power within
 the state4 ,the  sovereign organ of a  
state is1 therefore1 very properly said 
to be  its law-making organ4 ,it        
transmutes selected tendencies into     
stiff  and urgent rules4 ,it exercises a
 sovereign choice in so doing4 ,it      
determines which tendencies shall be    
accepted1 which checked and denied      
efficacy4 ,it forms the purposes of the 

state1 avoiding revolution if  it form  
them wisely and with a true insight4    
,this is sovereignty3--to  sit at the   
helm and steer1 marking out such free   
courses for the  stanch craft as wind   
and weather will permit4 ,this is the   
only sort of  sovereignty that can be   
exercised in human affairs4 ,but the    
pilot is  sovereign1 and not the        
weather4          ,,iv    ,,character   
,,of ,,democracy ,,in ,,the ,,united    
,,states      ,everything apprises us of
 the fact that we are not the same      
nation  now that we were when the       
government was formed4 ,in looking back 
to  that time1 the impression is        
inevitable that we started with sundry  
wrong ideas about ourselves4 ,we deemed 
ourselves rank democrats1  whereas we   
were in fact only progressive           
,englishmen4 ,turn the leaves  of that  
sage manual of constitutional           
interpretation and advocacy1 the        
,federalist1 and note the perverse      
tendency of its writers to refer  to    

,greece and ,rome for precedents1--that 
,greece and ,rome which haunted  all our
 earlier and even some of our more      
mature years4 ,recall1 too1  that       
familiar story of ,daniel ,webster which
 tells of his coming home  exhausted    
from an interview with the first        
,president-elect ,harrison1  whose      
,secretary of ,state he was to be1 and  
explaining that he had been  obliged in 
the course of the conference1 which     
concerned the inaugural  address about  
to be delivered1 to kill nine ,roman    
consuls whom it had  been the intention 
of the good conqueror of ,tippecanoe    
publicly to take  into office with him4 
,the truth is that we long imagined     
ourselves  related in some unexplained  
way to all ancient republicans4         
,strangely  enough1 too1 we at the same 
time accepted the quite incompatible    
theory  that we were related also to the
 ,french philosophical radicals4 ,we    
claimed kinship with democrats          
everywhere1--with all democrats4 ,we can

  now scarcely realize the atmosphere of
 such thoughts4 ,we are no longer  wont 
to refer to the ancients or to the      
,french for sanction of what we  do4 ,we
 have had abundant experience of our own
 by which to reckon4    8,hardly any    
fact in history10 says ,mr4 ,bagehot1   
writing about the  middle of the        
century1 8is so incredible as that forty
 and a few  years ago ,england was ruled
 by ,mr4 ,perceval4 ,it seems almost the
 same  as being ruled by the ,record    
newspaper40 7,mr4 ,bagehot would now    
probably say the ,standard newspaper47  
8,he had the same poorness  of thought1 
the same petty conservatism1 the same   
dark and narrow  superstition40 8,the   
mere fact of such a premier being       
endured shows  how deeply the whole     
national spirit and interest was        
absorbed in the  contest with ,napoleon1
 how little we understood the sort of   
man who  should regulate its            
conduct1--#8in the crisis of ,europe1'  
as ,sydney  ,smith said1 #8he safely    

brought the ,curates' ,salaries         
,improvement ,bill  to a hearing2' and  
it still more shows the horror of all   
innovation  which the recent events of  
,french history had impressed on our    
wealthy  and comfortable classes4 ,they 
were afraid of catching revolution1 as  
old women of catching cold4 ,sir        
,archibald ,alison to this day holds    
that  revolution is an infectious       
disease1 beginning no one knows how1 and
  going on no one knows where4 ,there is
 but one rule of escape1 explains  the  
great historian3 #8,stay still2 don't   
move2 do what you have been  accustomed 
to do2 and consult your grandmother on  
everything4'0    ,almost equally        
incredible to us is the ardor of        
revolution that filled  the world in    
those first days of our national        
life1--the fact that one  of the rulers 
of the world's mind in that generation  
was ,rousseau1 the  apostle of all that 
is fanciful1 unreal1 and misleading in  
politics4  ,to be ruled by him was like 

taking an account of life from ,mr4     
,rider  ,haggard4 ,and yet there is     
still much sympathy in this timid world 
for the dull people who felt safe in the
 hands of ,mr4 ,perceval1 and1  happily1
 much sympathy also1 though little      
justification1 for such as  caught a    
generous elevation of spirit from the   
speculative enthusiasm  of ,rousseau4   
,for us who stand in the dusty          
matter-of-fact world of to-day1 there   
is a touch of pathos in recollections of
 the ardor for democratic  liberty that 
filled the air of ,europe and ,america a
 century ago with  such quickening      
influences4 ,we may sometimes catch     
ourselves regretting  that the          
inoculations of experience have closed  
our systems against the  infections of  
hopeful revolution4        8,bliss was  
it in that dawn to be alive1      ,but  
to be young was very heaven6 ,o times   
,in which the meagre1 stale1 forbidding 
ways      ,of custom1 law1 and statute  
took at once      ,the attraction of a  

country in romance6      ,when ,reason  
seemed the most to assert her rights1   
,when most intent on making of herself  
,a prime ,enchantress1 to assist the    
work      ,which then was going forward 
in her name6      ,not favored spots    
alone1 but the whole earth1      ,the   
beauty wore of promise1 that which sets 
7,as at some moment might not be unfelt 
,among the bowers of paradise itself7   
,the budding rose above the rose full   
blown40    ,such was the inspiration    
which not ,wordsworth alone1 but        
,coleridge  also1 and many another      
generous spirit whom we love1 caught in 
that day  of hope4    ,it is common to  
say1 in explanation of our regret that  
the dawn and  youth of democracy's day  
are past1 that our principles are cooler
 now  and more circumspect1 with the    
coolness and circumspection of advanced 
years4 ,it seems to some that our       
enthusiasms have become tamer and  more 
decorous because our sinews have        
hardened2 that as experience  has grown 

idealism has declined4 ,but to speak    
thus is to speak with  the old          
self-deception as to the character of   
our politics4 ,if we are  suffering     
disappointment1 it is the disappointment
 of an awakening3  we were dreaming4    
,for we never had any business          
hearkening to ,rousseau  or consorting  
with ,europe in revolutionary sentiment4
 ,the government  which we founded one  
hundred years ago was no type of an     
experiment in  advanced democracy1 as we
 allowed ,europe and even ourselves to  
suppose2  it was simply an adaptation of
 ,english constitutional government4 ,if
  we suffered ,europe to study our      
institutions as instances in point      
touching experimentation in politics1   
she was the more deceived4 ,if  we began
 the first century of our national      
existence under a similar  impression   
ourselves1 there is the greater reason  
why we should start  out upon a new     
century of national life with more      
accurate conceptions4    ,to this end it

 is important that the following1 among 
other things1  should be kept           
prominently in mind3--    7#a47 ,that   
there are certain influences astir in   
this century which  make for democracy  
the world over1 and that these          
influences owe their  origin in part to 
the radical thought of the last century2
 but that it  was not such forces that  
made us democratic1 nor are we          
responsible  for them4    7#b47 ,that1  
so far from owing our governments to    
these general  influences1 we began1 not
 by carrying out any theory1 but by     
simply  carrying out a                  
history1--inventing nothing1 only       
establishing a  specialized species of  
,english government2 that we founded1   
not  democracy1 but constitutional      
government in ,america4    7#c47 ,that  
the government which we thus set up in a
 perfectly normal  manner has           
nevertheless changed greatly under our  
hands1 by reason both  of growth and of 
the operation of the general democratic 

forces1--the  ,european1 or rather      
worldwide1 democratic forces of which ,i
 have spoken4    7#d47 ,that two things1
 the great size to which our            
governmental organism  has attained1    
and1 still more1 this recent exposure of
 its character  and purposes to the     
common democratic forces of the age of  
steam and  electricity1 have created new
 problems of organization1 which it     
behooves us to meet in the old spirit1  
but with new measures4      ,i4         
,first1 then1 for the forces which are  
bringing in democratic temper  and      
method the world over4 ,it is matter of 
familiar knowledge what  these forces   
are1 but it will be profitable to our   
thought to pass them  once more in      
review4 ,they are freedom of thought and
 the diffusion of  enlightenment among  
the people4 ,steam and electricity have 
co-operated  with systematic popular    
education to accomplish this diffusion4 
,the  progress of popular education and 
the progress of democracy have been     

inseparable4 ,the publication of their  
great encyclopdia by ,diderot and  his  
associates in ,france in the last       
century1 was the sure sign of the       
change that was setting in4 ,learning   
was turning its face away from the      
studious few towards the curious many4  
,the intellectual movement of the       
modern time was emerging from the narrow
 courses of scholastic thought1  and    
beginning to spread itself abroad over  
the extended1 if shallow1  levels of the
 common mind4 ,the serious forces of    
democracy will be  found1 upon analysis1
 to reside1 not in the disturbing       
doctrines of  eloquent revolutionary    
writers1 not in the turbulent discontent
 of  the pauperized and oppressed1 so   
much as in the educational forces of    
the last hundred and fifty years1 which 
have elevated the masses in  many       
countries to a plane of understanding   
and of orderly1 intelligent  purpose    
more nearly on a level with the average 
man of the classes that  have hitherto  

been permitted to govern4 ,the movements
 towards democracy  which have mastered 
all the other political tendencies of   
our day are  not older than the middle  
of the last century2 and that is just   
the age  of the now ascendant movement  
toward systematic popular education4    
,yet organized popular education is only
 one of the quickening  influences that 
have been producing the general         
enlightenment which  is everywhere      
becoming the promise of general liberty4
 ,rather1 it is  only part of a great   
whole1 vastly larger than itself4       
,schools are but  separated seed-beds1  
in which the staple thoughts of the     
steady and  stay-at-home people are     
prepared and nursed4 ,not much of the   
world1  moreover1 goes to school in the 
school house4 ,but through the mighty   
influences of commerce and the press the
 world itself has become a  school4 ,the
 air is alive with the multitudinous    
voices of information4  ,steady trade   
winds of intercommunication have sprung 

up which carry the  seeds of education  
and enlightenment1 wheresoever planted1 
to every  quarter of the globe4 ,no     
scrap of new thought can escape being   
borne  away from its place of birth by  
these all-absorbing currents4 ,no idea  
can be kept exclusively at home1 but is 
taken up by the trader1 the  reporter1  
the traveller1 the missionary1 the      
explorer1 and is given to  all the      
world1 in the newspaper1 the novel1 the 
memoir1 the poem1 the  treatise1 till   
every community may know1 not only      
itself1 but all the  world as well1 for 
the small price of learning to read and 
keeping its  ears open4 ,all the world1 
so far as its news and its most         
insistent  thoughts are concerned1 is   
fast being made every man's neighbor4   
,carlyle unquestionably touched one of  
the obvious truths concerning  modern   
democracy when he declared it to be the 
result of printing4 ,in  the newspaper  
press a whole population is made critic 
of all human  affairs2 democracy is     

8virtually extant10 and 8democracy      
virtually  extant will insist on        
becoming palpably extant40 ,looked at in
 the  large1 the newspaper press is a   
type of democracy1 bringing all men     
without distinction under comment made  
by any man without distinction2  every  
topic is reduced to a common standard of
 news2 everything is  noted and argued  
about by everybody4 ,nothing could give 
surer promise  of popular power than the
 activity and alertness of thought which
 are  made through such agencies to     
accompany the training of the public    
schools4 ,the activity may often be     
misdirected or unwholesome1 may         
sometimes be only feverish and          
mischievous1 a grievous product of      
narrow information and hasty conclusion2
 but it is none the less a  stirring and
 potent activity4 ,it at least marks the
 initial stages of  effective thought4  
,it makes men conscious of the existence
 and interest  of affairs lying outside 
the dull round of their own daily lives4

 ,it  gives them nations1 instead of    
neighborhoods1 to look upon and think   
about4 ,they catch glimpses of the      
international connections of their      
trades1 of the universal application of 
law1 of the endless variety  of life1 of
 diversities of race1 of a world teeming
 with men like  themselves1 and yet full
 of strange customs1 puzzled by dim     
omens1  stained by crime1 ringing with  
voices familiar and unfamiliar4    ,and 
all this a man can nowadays get without 
stirring from home1 by  merely spelling 
out the print that covers every piece of
 paper about  him4 ,if men are thrown1  
for any reason1 into the swift and easy 
currents of travel1 they find themselves
 brought daily face to face  with       
persons native of every clime1 with     
practices suggestive of whole           
histories1 with a thousand things which 
challenge curiosity1 inevitably         
provoking inquiries such as enlarge     
knowledge of life and shake the  mind   
imperatively loose from old             

preconceptions4    ,these are the forces
 which have established the drift       
towards  democracy4 ,when all sources of
 information are accessible to all men  
alike1 when the world's thought and the 
world's news are scattered  broadcast   
where the poorest may find them1 the    
non-democratic forms  of government must
 find life a desperate venture4         
,exclusive privilege  needs privacy1 but
 cannot have it4 ,kingship of the elder 
patterns needs  sanctity1 but can find  
it nowhere obtainable in a world of news
 items  and satisfied curiosity4 ,the   
many will no longer receive submissively
  the thought of a ruling few1 but      
insist upon having opinions of their    
own4 ,the reaches of public opinion have
 been infinitely extended2 the  number  
of voices that must be heeded in        
legislation and in executive  policy has
 been infinitely multiplied4 ,modern    
influences have inclined  every man to  
clear his throat for a word in the      
world's debates4 ,they  have popularized

 everything they have touched4    ,in   
the newspapers1 it is true1 there is    
very little concert between the         
writers2 little but piecemeal opinion is
 created by their comment and  argument2
 there is no common voice amidst their  
counsellings4 ,but the  aggregate voice 
thunders with tremendous volume2 and    
that aggregate  voice is #8public       
opinion4' ,popular education and cheap  
printing and  travel vastly thicken the 
ranks of thinkers everywhere that their 
influence is felt1 and by rousing the   
multitude to take knowledge of  the     
affairs of government prepare the time  
when the multitude will1 so  far as     
possible1 take charge of the affairs of 
government1--the time  when1 to repeat  
,carlyle's phrase1 democracy will become
 palpably extant4    ,but1 mighty as    
such forces are1 democratic as they are1
 no one can fail  to perceive that they 
are inadequate to produce of themselves 
such a  government as ours4 ,there is   
little in them of constructive efficacy4

  ,they could not of themselves build   
any government at all4 ,they are        
critical1 analytical1 questioning1      
quizzing forces2 not architectural1  not
 powers that devise and build4 ,the     
influences of popular education1  of the
 press1 of travel1 of commerce1 of the  
innumerable agencies which  nowadays    
send knowledge and thought in quick     
pulsations through every  part and      
member of society1 do not necessarily   
mould men for effective  endeavor4 ,they
 may only confuse and paralyze the mind 
with their myriad  stinging lashes of   
excitement4 ,they may only strengthen   
the impression  that 8the world's a     
stage10 and that no one need do more    
than sit  and look on through his ready 
glass1 the newspaper4 ,they overwhelm   
one with impressions1 but do they give  
stalwartness to his manhood8  ,do they  
make his hand any steadier on the       
plough1 or his purpose any  clearer with
 reference to the duties of the moment8 
,they stream light  about him1 it may   

be1 but do they clear his vision8 ,is he
 better able  to see because they give  
him countless things to look at8 ,is he 
better  able to judge because they fill 
him with a delusive sense of knowing    
everything8 ,activity of mind is not    
necessarily strength of mind4 ,it  may  
manifest itself in mere dumb show2 it   
may run into jigs as well as  into      
strenuous work at noble tasks4 ,a man's 
farm does not yield its  fruits the more
 abundantly in their season because he  
reads the world's  news in the papers4  
,a merchant's shipments do not multiply 
because he  studies history4 ,banking is
 none the less hazardous to the banker's
  capital and taxing to his powers      
because the best writing of the best    
essayists is to be bought cheap4        
,,ii4    ,very different were the forces
 behind us4 ,nothing establishes the    
republican state save trained capacity  
for self-government1 practical  aptitude
 for public affairs1 habitual soberness 
and temperateness  of united action4    

,when we look back to the moderate      
sagacity and  steadfast1 self-contained 
habit in self-government of the men to  
whom  we owe the establishment of our   
institutions in the ,united ,states1  we
 are at once made aware that there is no
 communion between their  democracy and 
the radical thought and restless spirit 
called by that  name in ,europe4 ,there 
is almost nothing in common between     
popular  outbreaks such as took place in
 ,france at her great ,revolution and   
the establishment of a government like  
our own4 ,our memories of the  year     
#aghi are as far as possible removed    
from the memories which  ,europe retains
 of that pregnant year4 ,we manifested  
one hundred  years ago what ,europe     
lost1 namely1 self-command1             
self-possession4  ,democracy in ,europe1
 outside of closeted ,switzerland1 has  
acted always  in rebellion1 as a        
destructive force3 it can scarcely be   
said to  have had1 even yet1 any period 
of organic development4 ,it has built   

such temporary governments as it has had
 opportunity to erect on the  old       
foundations and out of the discredited  
materials of centralized  rule1         
elevating the people's representatives  
for a season to the  throne1 but        
securing almost as little as ever of    
that every-day local  self-government   
which lies so near to the heart of      
liberty4 ,democracy  in ,america1 on the
 other hand1 and in the ,english        
colonies has had1  almost from the      
first1 a truly organic growth4 ,there   
was nothing  revolutionary in its       
movements2 it had not to overthrow other
 polities2  it had only to organize     
itself4 ,it had not to create1 but only 
to  expand1 self-government4 ,it did not
 need to spread propaganda3 it  needed  
nothing but to methodize its ways of    
living4    ,in brief1 we were doing     
nothing essentially new a century ago4  
,our  strength and our facility alike   
inhered in our traditions2 those        
traditions made our character and shaped

 our institutions4 ,liberty  is not     
something that can be created by a      
document2 neither is it  something      
which1 when created1 can be laid away in
 a document1 a  completed work4 ,it is  
an organic principle1--a principle of   
life1  renewing and being renewed4      
,democratic institutions are never done2
  they are like living tissue1 always   
a-making4 ,it is a strenuous thing1     
this of living the life of a free       
people2 and our success in it depends   
upon training1 not upon clever          
invention4    ,our democracy1 plainly1  
was not a body of doctrine2 it was a    
stage of  development4 ,our democratic  
state was not a piece of developed      
theory1  but a piece of developed habit4
 ,it was not created by mere aspirations
  or by new faith2 it was built up by   
slow custom4 ,its process was           
experience1 its basis old wont1 its     
meaning national organic oneness  and   
effective life4 ,it came1 like manhood1 
as the fruit of youth4 ,an  immature    

people could not have had it1 and the   
maturity to which it  was vouchsafed was
 the maturity of freedom and            
self-control4 ,such  government as ours 
is a form of conduct1 and its only      
stable foundation  is character4 ,a     
particular form of government may no    
more be adopted  than a particular type 
of character maybe adopted3 both        
institutions  and character must be     
developed by conscious effort and       
through  transmitted aptitudes4         
,governments such as ours are founded   
upon discussion1 and government  by     
discussion comes as late in political as
 scientific thought in  intellectual    
development4 ,it is a habit of state    
life created by  long-established       
circumstance1 and is possible for a     
nation only in the  adult age of its    
political life4 ,the people who         
successfully maintain  such a government
 must have gone through a period of     
political training  which shall have    
prepared them by gradual steps of       

acquired privilege  for assuming the    
entire control of their affairs4 ,long  
and slowly  widening experience in local
 self-direction must have prepared them 
for  national self-direction4 ,they must
 have acquired adult self-reliance1     
self-knowledge1 and self-control1 adult 
soberness and deliberateness of         
judgment1 adult sagacity in             
self-government1 adult vigilance of     
thought  and quickness of insight4 ,when
 practised1 not by small communities1   
but  by wide nations1 democracy1 far    
from being a crude form of government1  
is possible only amongst peoples of the 
highest and steadiest political  habit4 
,it is the heritage of races purged     
alike of hasty barbaric  passions and of
 patient servility to rulers1 and       
schooled in temperate  common counsel4  
,it is an institution of political      
noonday1 not of the  half-light of      
political dawn4 ,it can never be made to
 sit easily or  safely on first         
generations1 but strengthens through    

long heredity4 ,it  is poison to the    
infant1 but tonic to the man4           
,monarchies may be made1  but           
democracies must grow4    ,it is a      
deeply significant fact1 therefore1     
again and again to be  called to mind1  
that only in the ,united ,states1 in a  
few other  governments begotten of the  
,english race1 and in ,switzerland1     
where  old ,teutonic habit has had the  
same persistency as in ,england1 have   
examples yet been furnished of          
successful democracy of the modern type4
  ,england herself is close upon        
democracy4 ,her backwardness in entering
  upon its full practice is no less     
instructive as to the conditions        
prerequisite to democracy than is the   
forwardness of her offspring4  ,she sent
 out to all her colonies which escaped  
the luckless beginning  of being made   
penal settlements1 comparatively small1 
homogeneous  populations of pioneers1   
with strong instincts of                
self-government1 and  with no social    

materials out of which to build         
government otherwise  than              
democratically4 ,she herself1 meanwhile1
 retained masses of  population never   
habituated to participation in          
government1 untaught in  political      
principle either by the teachers of the 
hustings or of the  school house4 ,she  
has had to approach democracy1          
therefore1 by slow  and cautious        
extensions of the franchise to those    
prepared for it2  while her better      
colonies1 born into democracy1 have had 
to receive all  comers within their     
pale4 ,she has been paring down         
exclusive privileges  and levelling     
classes2 the colonies have from the     
first been asylums of  civil equality4  
,they have assimilated new while she has
 prepared old  populations4             
,erroneous as it is to represent        
government as only a commonplace  sort  
of business1 little elevated in method  
above merchandising1 and  to be         
regulated by counting-house principles1 

the favor easily won  for such views    
among our own people is very            
significant4 ,it means  self-reliance in
 government4 ,it gives voice to the     
eminently modern  democratic feeling    
that government is no hidden cult1 to be
 left to a  few specially prepared      
individuals1 but a common1 every-day    
concern of  life1 even if the biggest   
such concern4 ,it is this               
self-confidence1 in  many cases         
mistaken1 no doubt1 which is gradually  
spreading among other  peoples1 less    
justified in it than are our own4       
,one cannot help marvelling that facts  
so obvious as these should have  escaped
 the perception of some of the sagest   
thinkers and most thorough  historical  
scholars of our day4 ,yet so it is4 ,sir
 ,henry ,maine1 even1  the great        
interpreter to ,englishmen of the       
historical forces operative  in law and 
social institutions1 has utterly failed1
 in his plausible  work on ,popular     
,government1 to distinguish the         

democracy1 or rather  the popular       
government1 of the ,english race1 which 
is bred by slow  circumstance and       
founded upon habit1 from the democracy  
of other  peoples1 which is bred by     
discontent and founded upon revolution4 
,he has missed that most obvious        
teaching of events1 that successful     
democracy differs from unsuccessful in  
being a product of history1--a  product 
of forces not suddenly become operative1
 but slowly working  upon whole peoples 
for generations together4 ,the level of 
democracy is  the level of every-day    
habit1 the level of common national     
experiences1  and lies far below the    
elevations of ecstasy to which the      
revolutionist  climbs4      ,,iii4      
,while there can be no doubt about the  
derivation of our government from  habit
 rather than from doctrine1 from        
,english experience rather than  from   
,european thought2 while it is evident  
that our institutions were  originally  
but products of a long1 unbroken1       

unperverted constitutional  history2 and
 certain that we shall preserve our     
institutions in their  integrity and    
efficiency only so long as we keep true 
in our practice  to the traditions from 
which our first strength was derived1   
there  is1 nevertheless1 little doubt   
that the forces peculiar to the new     
civilization of our day1 and not only   
these1 but also the restless  forces of 
,european democratic thought and        
anarchic turbulence brought  to us in   
such alarming volume by immigration1    
have deeply affected and  may deeply    
modify the forms and habits of our      
politics4    ,all vital governments--and
 by vital governments ,i mean those     
which have  life in their outlying      
members as well as life in their        
heads--all  systems in which            
self-government lives and retains its   
self-possession1  must be governments by
 neighbors1 by peoples not only         
homogeneous1 but  characterized within  
by the existence among their members of 

a quick  sympathy and an easy neighborly
 knowledge of each other4 ,not          
foreseeing  steam and electricity or the
 diffusion of news and knowledge which  
we have witnessed1 our fathers were     
right in thinking it impossible  for the
 government which they had founded to   
spread without strain or  break over the
 whole of the continent4 ,were not      
,california now as near  neighbor to the
 ,atlantic ,states as ,massachusetts    
then was to ,new ,york1  national       
self-government on our present scale    
would assuredly hardly  be possible1 or 
conceivable even4 ,modern science1      
scarcely less than  our pliancy and     
steadiness in political habit1 may be   
said to have  created the ,united       
,states of to-day4    ,upon some aspects
 of this growth it is very pleasant to  
dwell1 and very  profitable4 ,it is     
significant of a strength which it is   
inspiring to  contemplate4 ,the         
advantages of bigness accompanied by    
abounding life  are many and invaluable4

 ,it is impossible among us to hatch in 
a corner  any plot which will affect    
more than a corner4 ,with life          
everywhere  throughout the continent1 it
 is impossible to seize illicit power   
over  the whole people by seizing any   
central offices4 ,to hold ,washington   
would be as useless to a usurper as to  
hold ,duluth4 ,self-government  cannot  
be usurped4    ,a ,french writer has    
said that the autocratic ascendency of  
,andrew  ,jackson illustrated anew the  
long-credited tendency of democracies to
  give themselves over to one hero4 ,the
 country is older now than it was  when 
,andrew ,jackson delighted in his power1
 and few can believe that  it would     
again approve or applaud childish       
arrogance and ignorant  arbitrariness   
like his2 but even in his case1 striking
 and ominous as  it was1 it must not be 
overlooked that he was suffered only to 
strain  the ,constitution1 not to break 
it4 ,he held his office by orderly      
election2 he exercised its functions    

within the letter of the law2  he could 
silence not one word of hostile         
criticism2 and1 his second  term        
expired1 he passed into private life as 
harmlessly as did ,james  ,monroe4 ,a   
nation that can quietly reabsorb a vast 
victorious army is  no more safely free 
and healthy than is a nation that could 
reabsorb  such a ,president as ,andrew  
,jackson1 sending him into seclusion at 
the  ,hermitage to live without power1  
and die almost forgotten4    ,a huge1   
stalwart body politic like ours1 with   
quick life in every  individual town and
 county1 is apt1 too1 to have the       
strength of  variety of judgment4       
,thoughts which in one quarter kindle   
enthusiasm  may in another meet coolness
 or arouse antagonism4 ,events which are
  fuel to the passions of one section   
may be but as a passing wind to  another
 section4 ,no single moment of          
indiscretion1 surely1 can easily  betray
 the whole country at once4 ,there will 
be entire populations  still cool1      

self-possessed1 unaffected4 ,generous   
emotions sometimes  sweep whole peoples1
 but1 happily1 evil passions1 sinister  
views1  base purposes1 do not and       
cannot4 ,sedition cannot surge through  
the  hearts of a wakeful nation as      
patriotism can4 ,in such organisms      
poisons  diffuse themselves slowly2 only
 healthful life has unbroken course4    
,the  sweep of agitations set afoot for 
purposes unfamiliar or uncongenial  to  
the customary popular thought is broken 
by a thousand obstacles4  ,it may be    
easy to reawaken old enthusiasms1 but it
 must be infinitely  hard to create new 
ones1 and impossible to surprise a whole
 people into  unpremeditated action4    
,it is well to give full weight to these
 great advantages of our big  and       
strenuous and yet familiar way of       
conducting affairs2 but it is           
imperative at the same time to make very
 plain the influences which are         
pointing toward changes in our          
politics--changes which threaten loss of

  organic wholeness and soundness4 ,the 
union of strength with bigness  depends 
upon the maintenance of character1 and  
it is just the character  of the nation 
which is being most deeply affected and 
modified by the  enormous immigration   
which1 year after year1 pours into the  
country  from ,europe4 ,our own         
temperate blood1 schooled to            
self-possession and  to the measured    
conduct of self-government1 is receiving
 a constant  infusion and yearly        
experiencing a partial corruption of    
foreign blood4  ,our own equable habits 
have been crossed with the feverish     
humors of  the restless ,old ,world4 ,we
 are unquestionably facing an           
ever-increasing  difficulty of          
self-command with ever-deteriorating    
materials1 possibly  with degenerating  
fibre4 ,we have so far succeeded in     
retaining        8,some sense of duty1  
something of a faith1      ,some        
reverence for the laws ourselves have   
made1      ,some patient force to change

 them when we will1      ,some civic    
manhood firm against the crowd20    ,but
 we must reckon our power to continue to
 do so with a people made up  of 8minds 
cast in every mould of race1--minds     
inheriting every bias of  environment1  
warped by the diverse histories of a    
score of different  nations1 warmed or  
chilled1 closed or expanded1 by almost  
every climate  on the globe40    ,what  
was true of our early circumstances is  
not true of our present4 ,we  are not   
now simply carrying out under normal    
conditions the principles  and habits of
 ,english constitutional history4 ,our  
tasks of construction  are not done4 ,we
 have not simply to conduct1 but also to
 preserve and  freshly adjust our       
government4 ,europe has sent her habits 
to us1 and  she has sent also her       
political philosophy1 a philosophy which
 has  never been purged by the cold bath
 of practical politics4 ,the communion  
which we did not have at first with her 
heated and mistaken ambitions1  with her

 radical1 speculative habit in politics1
 with her readiness  to experiment in   
forms of government1 we may possibly    
have to enter  into now that we are     
receiving her populations4 ,not only    
printing and  steam and electricity have
 gotten hold of us to expand our        
,english  civilization1 but also those  
general1 and yet to us alien1 forces of 
democracy of which mention has already  
been made2 and these are apt to  tell   
disastrously upon our ,saxon habits in  
government4      ,,iv4    ,it is thus   
that we are brought to our fourth and   
last point4 ,we have  noted 7#a7 the    
general forces of democracy which have  
been sapping  old forms of government in
 all parts of the world2 7#b7 the error 
of  supposing ourselves indebted to     
those forces for the creation of our    
government1 or in any way connected with
 them in our origins2 and 7#c7  the     
effect they have nevertheless had upon  
us as parts of the general  influences  
of the age1 as well as by reason of our 

vast immigration  from ,europe4 ,what1  
now1 are the new problems which have    
been prepared  for our solution by      
reason of our growth and of the effects 
of  immigration8 ,they may require as   
much political capacity for their       
proper solution as any that confronted  
the architects of our government4       
,these problems are chiefly problems of 
organization and leadership4  ,were the 
nation homogeneous1 were it composed    
simply of later  generations of the same
 stock by which our institutions were   
planted1  few adjustments of the old    
machinery of our politics would1        
perhaps1  be necessary to meet the      
exigencies of growth4 ,but every added  
element  of variety1 particularly every 
added element of foreign variety1       
complicates even the simpler questions  
of politics4 ,the dangers  attending    
that variety which is heterogeneity in  
so vast an organism  as ours are1 of    
course1 the dangers of                  
disintegration--nothing less2  and it is

 unwise to think these dangers remote   
and merely contingent  because they are 
not as yet very menacing4 ,we are       
conscious of oneness  as a nation1 of   
vitality1 of strength1 of progress2 but 
are we often  conscious of common       
thought in the concrete things of       
national policy8  ,does not our         
legislation wear the features of a vast 
conglomerate8 ,are  we conscious of any 
national leadership8 ,are we not1       
rather1 dimly  aware of being pulled in 
a score of directions by a score of     
crossing  influences1 a multitude of    
contending forces8    ,this vast and    
miscellaneous democracy of ours must be 
led2 its giant  faculties must be       
schooled and directed4 ,leadership      
cannot belong  to the multitude2 masses 
of men cannot be self-directed1 neither 
can  groups of communities4 ,we speak of
 the sovereignty of the people1 but     
that sovereignty1 we know very well1 is 
of a peculiar sort2 quite  unlike the   
sovereignty of a king or of a small1    

easily concerting  group of confident   
men4 ,it is judicial merely1 not        
creative4 ,it  passes judgment or gives 
sanction1 but it cannot direct or       
suggest4  ,it furnishes standards1 not  
policies4 ,questions of government are  
infinitely complex questions1 and no    
multitude can of themselves  form       
clear-cut1 comprehensive1 consistent    
conclusions touching them4  ,yet without
 such conclusions1 without single and   
prompt purposes1  government cannot be  
carried on4 ,neither legislation nor    
administration  can be done at the      
ballot box4 ,the people can only accept 
the  governing act of representatives4  
,but the size of the modern democracy   
necessitates the exercise of persuasive 
power by dominant minds in the  shaping 
of popular judgments in a very different
 way from that in which  it was         
exercised in former times4 8,it is said 
by eminent censors of  the press10 said 
,mr4 ,bright on one occasion in the     
,house of ,commons1  8that this debate  

will yield about thirty hours of talk1  
and will end  in no result4 ,i have     
observed that all great questions in    
this country  require thirty hours of   
talk many times repeated before they are
  settled4 ,there is much shower and    
much sunshine between the sowing of  the
 seed and the reaping of the harvest1   
but the harvest is generally  reaped    
after all40 ,so it must be in all       
self-governing nations of  to-day4 ,they
 are not a single audience within sound 
of an orator's  voice1 but a thousand   
audiences4 ,their actions do not spring 
from a  single thrill of feeling1 but   
from slow conclusions following upon    
much  talk4 ,the talk must gradually    
percolate through the whole mass4 ,it   
cannot be sent straight through them so 
that they are electrified as  the pulse 
is stirred by the call of a trumpet4 ,a 
score of platforms in  every            
neighborhood must ring with the         
insistent voice of controversy2  and for
 a few hundreds who hear what is said by

 the public speakers1  many thousands   
must read of the matter in the          
newspapers1 discuss  it interjectionally
 at the breakfast-table1 desultorily in 
the  street-cars1 laconically on the    
streets1 dogmatically at dinner2 all    
this with a certain advantage1 of       
course4 ,through so many stages  of     
consideration passion cannot possibly   
hold out4 ,it gets chilled  by          
over-exposure4 ,it finds the modern     
popular state organized for  giving and 
hearing counsel in such a way that those
 who give it must  be careful that it is
 such counsel as will wear well4 ,those 
who  hear it handle and examine it      
enough to test its wearing qualities  to
 the utmost4 ,all this1 however1 when   
looked at from another point  of view1  
but illustrates an infinite difficulty  
of achieving energy  and organization4  
,there is a certain peril almost of     
disintegration  attending such          
phenomena4    ,every one now knows      
familiarly enough how we accomplished   

the wide  aggregations of               
self-government characteristic of the   
modern time1 how  we have articulated   
governments as vast and yet as whole as 
continents  like our own4 ,the          
instrumentality has been representation1
 of which the  ancient world knew       
nothing1 and lacking which it always    
lacked national  integration4 ,because  
of representation and the railroads to  
carry  representatives to distant       
capitals1 we have been able to rear     
colossal  structures like the government
 of the ,united ,states as easily as the
  ancients gave political organization  
to a city2 and our great building  is as
 stout as was their little one4    ,but 
not until recently have we been able to 
see the full effects of  thus sending   
men to legislate for us at capitals     
distant the breadth  of a continent4 ,it
 makes the leaders of our politics1 many
 of them1  mere names to our            
consciousness instead of real persons   
whom we have  seen and heard1 and whom  

we know4 ,we have to accept rumors      
concerning  them1 we have to know them  
through the variously colored accounts  
of others2 we can seldom test our       
impressions of their sincerity by       
standing with them face to face4 ,here  
certainly the ancient pocket  republics 
had much the advantage of us3 in them   
citizens and leaders  were always       
neighbors2 they stood constantly in each
 other's presence4  ,every ,athenian    
knew ,themistocles's manner1 and gait1  
and address1 and  felt directly the just
 influence of ,aristides4 ,no ,athenian 
of a later  period needed to be told of 
the vanities and fopperies of           
,alcibiades1  any more than the elder   
generation needed to have described to  
them the  personality of ,pericles4     
,our separation from our leaders is the 
greater peril1 because  democratic      
government more than any other needs    
organization in order  to escape        
disintegration2 and it can have         
organization only by full  knowledge of 

its leaders and full confidence in them4
 ,just because it  is a vast body to be 
persuaded1 it must know its persuaders2 
in order  to be effective1 it must      
always have choice of men who are       
impersonated  policies4 ,just because   
none but the finest mental batteries1   
with pure  metals and unadulterated     
acids1 can send a current through so    
huge and  yet so rare a medium as       
democratic opinion1 it is the more      
necessary  to look to the excellence of 
these instrumentalities4 ,there is no   
permanent place in democratic leadership
 except for him who 8hath clean  hands  
and a pure heart40 ,if other men come   
temporarily into power among  us1 it is 
because we cut our leadership up into so
 many small parts1  and do not subject  
any one man to the purifying influences 
of centred  responsibility4 ,never      
before was consistent leadership so     
necessary2  never before was it         
necessary to concert measures over areas
 so vast1  to adjust laws to so many    

interests1 to make a compact and        
intelligible  unit out of so many       
fractions1 to maintain a central and    
dominant force  where there are so many 
forces4    ,it is a noteworthy fact that
 the admiration for our institutions    
which has during the past few years so  
suddenly grown to large  proportions    
among publicists abroad is almost all of
 it directed to  the restraints we have 
effected upon the action of government4 
,sir  ,henry ,maine thought our federal 
,constitution an admirable reservoir1   
in which the mighty waters of democracy 
are held at rest1 kept back  from free  
destructive course4 ,lord ,rosebery has 
wondering praise for  the security of   
our ,senate against usurpation of its   
functions by the  ,house of             
,representatives4 ,mr4 ,goldwin ,smith  
supposes the saving act  of organization
 for a democracy to be the drafting and 
adoption of a  written constitution4    
,thus it is always the static1 never the
 dynamic1  forces of our government     

which are praised4 ,the greater part of 
our  foreign admirers find our success  
to consist in the achievement of  stable
 safeguards against hasty or            
retrogressive action2 we are asked  to  
believe that we have succeeded because  
we have taken ,sir ,archibald  ,alison's
 advice1 and have resisted the infection
 of revolution by  staying quite still4 
,but1 after all1 progress is motion1    
government is action4 ,the waters  of   
democracy are useless in their          
reservoirs unless they may be used  to  
drive the wheels of policy and          
administration4 ,though we be the  most 
law-abiding and law-directed nation in  
the world1 law has not  yet attained to 
such efficacy among us as to frame1 or  
adjust1 or  administer itself4 ,it may  
restrain1 but it cannot lead us2 and ,i 
believe that unless we concentrate      
legislative leadership--leadership1     
that is1 in progressive policy--unless  
we give leave to our nationality  and   
practice to it by such concentration1 we

 shall sooner or later  suffer something
 like national paralysis in the face of 
emergencies4 ,we  have no one in        
,congress who stands for the nation4    
,each man stands but  for his part of   
the nation2 and so management and       
combination1 which  may be effected in  
the dark1 are given the place that      
should be held by  centred and          
responsible leadership1 which would of  
necessity work in  the focus of the     
national gaze4    ,what is the valuable 
element in monarchy which causes men    
constantly  to turn to it as to an ideal
 form of government1 could it but be    
kept  pure and wise8 ,it is its         
cohesion1 its readiness and power to    
act1  its abounding loyalty to certain  
concrete things1 to certain visible     
persons1 its concerted organization1 its
 perfect model of progressive  order4   
,democracy abounds with vitality2 but   
how shall it combine with  its other    
elements of life and strength this power
 of the governments  that know their own

 minds and their own aims8 ,we have not 
yet reached  the age when government may
 be made impersonal4    ,the only way in
 which we can preserve our nationality  
in its integrity  and its old-time      
originative force in the face of growth 
and imported  change is by concentrating
 it2 by putting leaders forward1 vested 
with  abundant authority in the         
conception and execution of policy4     
,there is  plenty of the old vitality in
 our national character to tell1 if we  
will but give it leave4 ,give it leave1 
and it will the more impress and  mould 
those who come to us from abroad4 ,i    
believe that we have not made  enough of
 leadership4        8,a people is but   
the attempt of many      ,to rise to the
 completer life of one2      ,and those 
who live as models for the mass         
,are singly of more value than they     
all40    ,we shall not again have a true
 national life until we compact it by   
such legislative leadership as other    
nations have4 ,but once thus  compacted 

and embodied1 our nationality is safe4  
,an acute ,english  historical scholar  
has said that 8the ,americans of the    
,united ,states  are a nation because   
they once obeyed a king20 we shall      
remain a nation  only by obeying        
leaders4        8,keep but the model    
safe1      ,new men will rise to study  
it40          ,v    ,,government ,,under
 ,,the ,,constitution      ,it is by no 
means wholly to our advantage that our  
constitutional law  is contained in     
definitive written documents4 ,the fact 
that it is thus  formulated and rendered
 fixed and definite has seriously misled
 us1 it  is to be feared1 as to the true
 function and efficacy of constitutional
  law4 ,that law is not made more valid 
by being written1 but only more         
explicit2 it is not rendered more       
sacred1 but only more definite and      
secure4 ,written constitutions are      
simply more or less successful          
generalizations of political experience4
 ,their tone of authority does  not at  

all alter the historical realities and  
imperative practical  conditions of     
government4 ,they determine forms1 utter
 distinct  purposes1 set the powers of  
the ,state in definite hierarchy2 but   
they  do not make the forms they        
originate workable1 or the purposes they
  utter feasible4 ,all that must depend 
upon the men who become governors  and  
upon the people over whom they are set  
in authority4 ,laws can have  no other  
life than that which is given them by   
the men who administer  and the men who 
obey them4 ,constitutional law affords  
no exception to  the rule4 ,the         
,constitution of the ,united ,states1   
happily1 was framed by  exceptional men 
thoroughly schooled in the realities of 
government4 ,it  consists1 accordingly1 
not of principles newly invented1 to be 
put into  operation by means of devices 
originated for the occasion1 but of     
sound  pieces of tested experience4 ,it 
has served its purpose beneficently1    
not because it was written1 but because 

it has proved itself accordant  in every
 essential part with tried principles of
 government--principles  tested by the  
race for whose use it was intended1 and 
therefore  already embedded in their    
lives and practices4 ,its strength will 
be  found1 upon analysis1 to lie in its 
definiteness and in its power to        
restrain rather than in any unusual     
excellence of its energetic parts4  ,for
 the right operation of these it has had
 to depend1 like other  constitutions1  
upon the virtue and discretion of the   
people and their  ministers4 8,the      
public powers are carefully defined2 the
 mode in which  they are to be exercised
 is fixed2 and the amplest securities   
are taken  that none of the more        
important constitutional arrangements   
shall be  altered without every         
guarantee of caution and every          
opportunity for  deliberation4444 ,it   
would seem that1 by a wise constitution1
 democracy  may be made nearly as calm  
as water in a great artificial          

reservoir40,d        ,d ,sir ,henry     
,maine3 ,popular ,government 7,am4 ed471
 pp4 #aaj1 #aaa4    ,we possess1        
therefore1 not a more suitable          
constitution than other  countries1 but 
a constitution which is perfectly       
definite and which  is preserved by very
 formidable difficulties of amendment   
against  inconsiderate change4 ,the     
difference between our own case and that
  of ,great ,britain upon which we have 
most reason to congratulate  ourselves  
is that here public opinion has definite
 criteria for its  conservatism2 whereas
 in ,england it has only shifting and   
uncertain  precedent4 ,in both countries
 there is the same respect for law4 ,but
  there is not in ,england the same     
certainty as to what the law of the     
constitution is4 ,we have a fundamental 
law which is written1 and which  in its 
main points is read by all alike in a   
single accepted sense4  ,there is no    
more quarrel about its main intent than 
there is in ,england  about the meaning 

of ,magna ,charta4 ,much of the ,british
 constitution1 on  the contrary1 has not
 the support of even a common statute4  
,it may1 in  respect of many vital parts
 of it1 be interpreted or understood in 
half  a dozen different ways1 and       
amended by the prevalent understanding4 
,we are not more free than the ,english2
 we are only more secure4    ,the       
definiteness of our ,constitution1      
nevertheless1 apart from its  outline of
 structural arrangements and of the     
division of functions  among the several
 departments of the government1 is      
negative rather  than affirmative4 ,its 
very enumeration of the powers of       
,congress is  but a means of indicating 
very plainly what ,congress can not do4 
,it is significant that one of the most 
important and most highly  esteemed of  
the many legal commentaries on our      
government should be  entitled          
#8,constitutional ,limitations4' ,in    
expounding the restrictions  imposed by 
fundamental law upon state and federal  

action1 ,judge  ,cooley is allowed to   
have laid bare the most essential parts 
of our  constitutional system4 ,it was a
 prime necessity in so complex a        
structure that bounds should be set to  
authority4 ,the #8may-nots' and  the    
#8shall-nots' of our constitutions1     
consequently1 give them their           
distinctive form and character4 ,the    
strength which preserves the system  is 
the strength of self-restraint4    ,and 
yet here again it must be understood    
that mere definiteness of  legal        
provision has no saving efficacy of its 
own4 ,these distinct lines  run between 
power and power will not of their own   
virtue maintain  themselves4 ,it is not 
in having such a constitution but in    
obeying  it that our advantage lies4    
,the vitality of such provisions        
consists  wholly in the fact that they  
receive our acquiescence4 ,they rest    
upon the legal conscience1 upon what    
,mr4 ,grote would have called the       
#8constitutional morality1' of our race4

 ,they are efficient because we  are    
above all things law-abiding4 ,the      
prohibitions of the law do not  assert  
themselves as taskmasters set over us by
 some external power4  ,they are of our 
own devising4 ,we are self-restrained4  
,this legal conscience manifestly       
constitutes the only guarantee1 for     
example1 of the division of powers      
between the state and federal           
governments1 that chief arrangement of  
our constitutional system4 ,the         
integrity of the powers possessed by the
 ,states has from the first  depended   
solely upon the conservatism of the     
federal courts4 ,state  functions have  
certainly not decayed2 but they have    
been preserved1 not  by virtue of any   
forces of self-defence of their own1 but
 because the  national government has   
been vouchsafed the grace of            
self-restraint4  ,what curtailment their
 province might suffer has been         
illustrated  in several notable cases in
 which the ,supreme ,court of the       

,united  ,states has confirmed to the   
general government extensive powers of  
punishing state judicial and executive  
officers for disobedience to  state     
laws4 ,although the federal courts have 
generally held ,congress  back from     
aggressions upon the ,states1 they have 
nevertheless once  and again            
countenanced serious encroachments upon 
state powers2 and  their occasional     
laxity of principle on such points is   
sufficiently  significant of the fact   
that there is no balance between the    
state  and federal governments1 but only
 the safeguard of a customary           
#8constitutional morality' on the part  
of the federal courts4 ,the actual      
encroachments upon state rights which   
those courts have permitted1  under the 
pressure of strong political interests  
at critical periods1  were not1 however1
 needed to prove the potential supremacy
 of the  federal government4 ,they only 
showed how that potential supremacy     
would  on occasion become actual        

supremacy4 ,there is no guarantee but   
that of  conscience that justice will be
 accorded a suitor when his adversary is
  both court and opposing litigant4 ,so 
strong is the instinct of those  who    
administer our governments to keep      
within the sanction of the law1  that   
even when the last three amendments to  
the ,constitution were being  forced    
upon the southern states by means which 
were revolutionary the  outward forms of
 the ,constitution were observed4 ,it   
was none the less  obvious1 however1    
with what sovereign impunity the        
national government  might act in       
stripping those forms of their          
genuineness4 ,as there are  times of    
sorrow or of peril which try men's souls
 and lay bare the  inner secrets of     
their characters1 so there are times of 
revolution  which act as fire in burning
 away all but the basic elements of     
constitutions4 ,it is then1 too1 that   
dormant powers awake which are not      
afterward readily lulled to sleep again4

    ,such was certainly the effect of   
the civil war upon the ,constitution of 
the ,union4 ,the implying of powers1    
once cautious1 is now become bold  and  
confident4 ,in the discussions now going
 forward with reference to  federal     
regulation of great corporations1 and   
with reference to federal  aid to       
education1 there are scores of writers  
and speakers who tacitly  assume the    
power of the federal government to act  
in such matters1 for  one that urges a  
constitutional objection4               
,constitutional objections1  before the 
war habitual1 have1 it would seem1      
permanently lost their  prominence4     
,the whole energy of origination under  
our system rests with ,congress4  ,it   
stands at the front of all government   
among us2 it is the single  affirmative 
voice in national policy4 ,first or     
last1 it determines what  is to be done4
 ,the ,president1 indeed1 appoints      
officers and negotiates  treaties1 but  
he does so subject to the #8yes' of the 

,senate4 ,congress  organizes the       
executive departments1 organizes the    
army1 organizes the  navy4 ,it audits1  
approves1 and pays expenses4 ,it        
conceives and directs  all comprehensive
 policy4 ,all else is negation4 ,the    
,president says  #8no' in his vetoes2   
the ,supreme ,court says #8no' in its   
restraining  decisions4 ,and it is as   
much the law of public opinion as the   
law of  the ,constitution that restrains
 the action of ,congress4    ,it is the 
habit both of ,english and ,american    
writers to speak of the  constitution of
 ,great ,britain as if it were #8writ in
 water1' because  nothing but the will  
of ,parliament stands between it and    
revolutionary  change4 ,but is there    
nothing back of the will of ,parliament8
 ,parliament  dare not go faster than   
the public thought4 ,there are vast     
barriers  of conservative public opinion
 to be overrun before a ruinous speed   
in revolutionary change can be attained4
 ,in the last analysis1 our  own        

,constitution has no better safeguard4  
,we have1 as ,i have already  pointed   
out1 the salient advantage of knowing   
just what the standards  of our         
,constitution are4 ,they are formulated 
in a written code1 wherein  all men may 
look and read2 whereas many of the      
designs of the ,british  system are to  
be sought only in a cloud-land of       
varying individual  readings of affairs4
 ,from the constitutional student's     
point of view1  there are1 for instance1
 as many different ,houses of ,lords as 
there  are writers upon the historical  
functions of that upper chamber4 ,but   
the public opinion of ,great ,britain is
 no more a juggler of precedents  than  
is the public opinion of this country4  
,perhaps the absence  of a written      
constitution makes it even less a       
fancier of logical  refinements4 ,the   
arrangements of the ,british            
constitution have1 for all  their       
theoretical instability1 a very firm and
 definite standing in the  political    

habit of ,englishmen3 and the greatest  
of those arrangements  can be done away 
with only by the extraordinary force of 
conscious  revolution4    ,it is        
wholesome to observe how much of our own
 institutions rests upon  the same      
basis1 upon no other foundations than   
those that are laid in  the opinions of 
the people4 ,it is within the undoubted 
constitutional  power of ,congress1 for 
example1 to overwhelm the opposition of 
the  ,supreme ,court upon any question  
by increasing the number of justices    
and refusing to confirm any appointments
 to the new places which do  not promise
 to change the opinion of the court4    
,once1 at least1 it  was believed that a
 plan of this sort had been carried     
deliberately  into effect4 ,but we do   
not think of such a violation of the    
spirit of  the ,constitution as         
possible1 simply because we share and   
contribute  to that public opinion which
 makes such outrages upon constitutional
  morality impossible by standing ready 

to curse them4 ,there is a close        
analogy between this virtual            
inviolability of the ,supreme ,court and
 the  integrity hitherto vouchsafed to  
the ,english ,house of ,lords4 ,there   
may  be an indefinite creation of peers 
at any time that a strong ministry      
chooses to give the sovereign its       
imperative advice in favor of such  a   
course4 ,it was1 doubtless1 fear of the 
final impression that would  be made    
upon public opinion by action so        
extraordinary1 as much as the  timely   
yielding of the ,lords upon the question
 at issue1 that held the  ministry back 
from such a measure1 on one notable     
occasion4 ,hitherto  that ancient upper 
chamber has had in this regard the same 
protection  that shields our federal    
judiciary4    ,it is not essentially a  
different case as between ,congress and 
the  ,executive4 ,here1 too1 at the very
 centre of the ,constitution1 ,congress 
stands almost supreme1 restrained by    
public opinion rather than by law4      

,what with the covetous admiration of   
the presidency recently manifested  by  
some alarmed theorists in ,england1 and 
the renewed prestige lately  given that 
office by the prominence of the question
 of civil service  reform1 it is just   
now particularly difficult to apply     
political facts  to an analysis of the  
,president's power4 ,but a clear        
conception of his  real position is for 
that very reason all the more desirable4
 ,while  he is a dominant figure in     
politics would seem to be the best time 
to  scrutinize and understand him4      
,it is clearly misleading to use the    
ascendant influence of the  ,president  
in effecting the objects of civil       
service reform as an  illustration of   
the constitutional size and weight of   
his office4  ,the principal part in     
making administration pure1             
business-like1 and  efficient must      
always1 under any conceivable system of 
government1  be taken by the executive4 
,it was certainly taken by the executive

  in ,england thirty years ago2 and that
 much in opposition to the will  of     
,parliament4 ,the prominence of our     
,president in administrative  reform    
furnishes no sufficient ground for      
attributing a singularity of  executive 
influence to the government of this     
country4    ,in estimating the actual   
powers of the ,president it is no doubt 
best  to begin1 as almost all writers in
 ,england and ,america now habitually   
begin1 with a comparison between the    
executives of the two kindred           
countries4 ,whilst ,mr4 ,bagehot has    
done more than any other thinker  to    
clear up the facts of ,english          
constitutional practice1 he has  also1  
there is reason to believe1 done        
something toward obscuring  those facts4
 ,everybody1 for instance1 has accepted 
as wholly true  his description of the  
ministry of the ,crown as merely an     
executive  committee of the ,house of   
,commons2 and yet that description is   
only  partially true4 ,an ,english      

cabinet represents1 not the ,commons    
only1  but also the ,crown4 ,indeed1 it 
is itself #8the ,crown4' ,all executive 
prerogatives are prerogatives which it  
is within the discretion of the  cabinet
 itself to make free use of4 ,the fact  
that it is generally the  disposition of
 ministers to defer to the opinion of   
,parliament in the  use of the          
prerogative1 does not make that use the 
less a privilege  strictly beyond the   
sphere of direct parliamentary control1 
to be  exercised independently of its   
sanction1 even secretly on occasion1    
when ministers see their way clear to   
serving the state thereby4 8,the        
ministry of the day10 says a            
perspicacious expounder of the ,english 
system1,e 8appears in ,parliament1 on   
the one hand1 as personating the  ,crown
 in the legitimate exercise of its      
recognized prerogatives2 and  on the    
other hand1 as the mere agent of        
,parliament itself1 in the  discharge of
 the executive and administrative       

functions of government  cast upon them 
by law40 ,within the province of the    
prerogative 8lie the  stirring topics of
 foreign negotiations1 the management of
 the army  and navy1 public finance1    
and1 in some important respects1        
colonial  administration40 ,very recent 
,english history furnishes abundant and 
striking evidence of the vitality of the
 prerogative in these fields  in the    
hands of the gentlemen who 8personate   
the ,crown0 in ,parliament4  8,no       
subject has been more eagerly discussed 
of late10 declares ,mr4  ,amos 7page    
#ahg71 8than that of the province of    
,parliament in respect  of the making of
 treaties and the declaration of war4   
,no prerogative  of the ,crown is more  
undisputed than that of taking the      
initiative in  all negotiations with    
foreign governments1 conducting them    
throughout1  and finally completing them
 by the signature and ratification of a 
treaty4444 ,it is a bare fact that      
during the progress of the ,british     

diplomatic movements which terminated in
 the ,treaty of ,berlin of #ahgh1  or   
more properly in the ,afghan war of that
 year10--including the  secret treaty by
 which ,turkey ceded ,cyprus to         
,england1 and ,england  assumed the     
protectorate of ,asia                   
,minor1--8,parliament never had an      
opportunity of expressing its mind on   
any one of the important and            
complicated engagements to which the    
country was being committed1 or  upon   
the policy of the war upon the northwest
 frontier of ,india4 ,the  subjects     
were1 indeed1 over and over again       
discussed in ,parliament1  but always   
subsequent to irreparable action having 
been taken by the  government0 7page    
#ahh74 ,had ,mr4 ,amos lived to take his
 narrative  of constitutional affairs   
beyond #ahhj1 he would have had equally 
significant instances of ministerial    
initiative to adduce in the cases  of   
,egypt and ,burmah4        ,e ,mr4      
,sheldon ,amos3 ,fifty ,years of the    

,english ,constitution1          page   
#cch4    ,the unfortunate campaign in   
the ,soudan was the direct outcome of   
the  purchase of the ,suez ,canal shares
 by the ,british government in #ahge4   
,the result of that purchase was that   
8,england became pledged in a  wholly   
new and peculiar way to the support of  
the existing ,turkish and  ,egyptian    
dominion in ,egypt2 that large ,english 
political interests  were rendered      
subservient to the decisions of local   
tribunals in a  foreign country2 and    
that ,english diplomatic and political  
action in  ,egypt1 and indeed in        
,europe1 was trammelled1 or at least    
indirectly  influenced1 by a narrow     
commercial interest which could not but 
weigh1  however slightly1 upon the      
apparent purity and simplicity of the   
motives of the ,english government40    
,and yet the binding engagements  which 
involved all this were entered into     
8despite the absence of all  assistance 
from1 or consent of1 ,parliament40,f    

,such exercises of the  prerogatives of 
the ,crown receive additional weight    
from 8the almost  recognized right of   
evolving an army of almost any size from
 the ,indian  seed-plot1 of using       
reserve forces without communication to 
,parliament  in advance1 and of         
obtaining large votes of credit for     
prospective  military operations of an  
indefinite character1 the nature of     
which  ,parliament is allowed only dimly
 to surmise0 7page #cib74 ,the latest   
evidence of the 8almost recognized0     
character of such rights was the  war   
preparations made by ,england against   
,russia in #ahhe4 ,if to such  powers of
 committing the country irrevocably to  
far-reaching foreign  policies1 of      
inviting or precipitating war1 and of   
using ,indian troops  without           
embarrassment from the trammels of the  
,mutiny ,act1 there be  added the great 
discretionary functions involved in the 
administration  of colonial affairs1    
some measure may be obtained of the     

power wielded  by ministers1 not as the 
mere agents of ,parliament1 but as      
personating  the ,crown4 ,such is in    
,england the independence of action     
possible to  the executive4        ,f   
,amos1 page #chd4    ,as compared with  
this1 the power of the ,president is    
insignificant4  ,of course1 as everybody
 says1 he is more powerful than the     
sovereign  of ,great ,britain4 ,if      
relative personal power were the        
principle of  etiquette1 ,mr4 ,cleveland
 would certainly not have to lift his   
hat  to the ,queen1 because the ,queen  
is not the ,english executive4 ,the     
prerogatives of the ,crown are still    
much greater than the prerogatives  of  
the presidency2 they are exercised1     
however1 not by the wearer of  the      
crown1 but by the ministry of the       
,crown4    ,as ,sir ,henry ,maine       
rightly says1 the framers of our        
,constitution1  consciously or          
unconsciously1 made the ,president's    
office like the  ,king's office under   

the ,english constitution of their      
time1--the  constitution1 namely1 of    
,george ,,iii41 who chose his advisers  
with or  without the assent of          
,parliament4 ,they took care1 however1  
to pare  down the model where it seemed 
out of measure with the exercise of the 
people's liberty4 ,they allowed the     
,president to choose his ministers      
freely1 as ,george then seemed to have  
established his right to do2 but  they  
made the confirmation of the ,senate a  
necessary condition to his              
appointments4 ,they vested in him the   
right of negotiating treaties  with     
foreign governments2 but he was not to  
sign and ratify treaties  until he had  
obtained the sanction of the ,senate4   
,that oversight of  executive action    
which ,parliament had not yet had the   
spirit or the  inclination to exert1 and
 which it had forfeited its independence
 by  not exerting1 was forever secured  
to our federal upper chamber by the     
fundamental law4 ,the conditions of     

mutual confidence and co-operation      
between executive and legislature now   
existing in ,england had not  then been 
developed1 and consequently could not be
 reproduced in this  country4 ,the      
posture and disposition of mutual       
wariness which were  found existing     
there were made constitutional here by  
express written  provision4 ,in short1  
the transitional relations of the ,crown
 and  ,parliament of that day were      
crystallized in our ,constitution1 such 
guarantees of executive good faith and  
legislative participation in the        
weightier determinations of government  
as were lacking in the model  being     
sedulously added in the copy4    ,the   
really subordinate position of the      
presidency is hidden from  view partly  
by that dignity which is imparted to the
 office by its  conspicuous place at the
 front of a great government1 and its   
security  and definiteness of tenure2   
partly by the independence apparently   
secured to it by its erection into an   

entirely distinct and separate          
#8branch' of the government2 and partly 
by those circumstances of our  history  
which have thrust our ,presidents       
forward1 during one or two  notable     
periods1 as real originators of policy  
and leaders in affairs4  ,the ,president
 has never been powerful1 however1      
except at such times  as he has had     
,congress at his back4 ,while the new   
government was  a-making--and           
principally because it was              
a-making--,washington and  his          
secretaries were looked to by ,congress 
for guidance2 and during  the           
presidencies of several of ,washington's
 immediate successors the  continued    
prominence of questions of foreign      
policy and of financial  management kept
 the officers of the government in a    
position of  semi-leadership4 ,jackson  
was masterful with or without right4 ,he
  entered upon his presidency as he     
entered upon his campaign in ,florida1  
without asking too curiously for        

constitutional warrant for what he was  
to undertake4 ,in the settlement of the 
southern question ,congress went  for a 
time on all-fours with the ,president4  
,he was powerful because  ,congress was 
acquiescent4    ,but such cases prove   
rather the usefulness than the strength 
of the  presidency4 ,congress has1 at   
several very grave crises in national   
affairs1 been seasonably supplied with  
an energetic leader or agent  in the    
person of the ,president4 ,at other     
times1 when ,congress was in  earnest in
 pushing views not shared by the        
,president1 our executives  have either 
been overwhelmed1 as ,johnson was1 or   
have had to decline  upon much humbler  
services4 ,their negotiations with      
foreign governments  are as likely to be
 disapproved as approved2 their budgets 
are cut down  like a younger son's      
portion2 their appointments are censured
 and their  administrations criticised  
without chance for a counter-hearing4   
,they  create nothing4 ,their veto is   

neither revisory nor corrective4 ,it is 
merely obstructive4 ,it is1 as ,i have  
said1 a simple blunt negation1          
oftentimes necessarily spoken without   
discrimination against a good  bill     
because of a single bad clause in it4   
,in such a contest between  origination 
and negation origination must always    
win1 or government  must stand still4   
,in ,england the veto of the ,crown has 
not passed out of use1 as is  commonly  
said4 ,it has simply changed its form4  
,it does not exist as an  imperative1   
obstructive #8,no1' uttered by the      
sovereign4 ,it has passed  over into the
 privilege of the ministers to throw    
their party weight1  reinforced by their
 power to dissolve ,parliament1 against 
measures of  which they disapprove4 ,it 
is a much-tempered instrument1 but for  
that  reason all the more flexible and  
useful4 ,the old1 blunt1 antagonistic   
veto is no longer needed4 ,it is needed 
here1 however1 to preserve the          
presidency from the insignificance of   

merely administrative functions4  ,since
 executive and legislature cannot come  
into relations of mutual  confidence and
 co-operation1 the former must be put in
 a position to  maintain a creditable   
competition for consideration and       
dignity4    ,a clear-headed1 methodical1
 unimaginative ,president like ,mr4     
,cleveland  unaffectedly recognizes the 
fact that all creating1 originating     
power  rests with ,congress1 and that he
 can do no more than direct the  details
 of such projects as he finds commended 
by its legislation4 ,the  suggestions of
 his message he acknowledges to be      
merely suggestions1  which must depend  
upon public opinion for their weight4   
,if ,congress  does not regard them1 it 
must reckon with the people1 not with   
him4 ,it  is his duty to tell ,congress 
what he thinks concerning the pending   
questions of the day2 it is not his duty
 to assume any responsibility  for the  
effect produced on ,congressmen4    ,the
 ,english have transformed their ,crown 

into a ,ministry1 and in  doing so have 
recognized both the supremacy of        
,parliament and the  rle of leadership  
in legislation properly belonging to a  
responsible  executive4 ,the result has 
been that they have kept a strong       
executive  without abating either the   
power or the independence of the        
representative chamber in respect of its
 legislative function4 ,we1 on  the     
contrary1 have left our executive       
separate1 as the ,constitution  made it2
 chiefly1 it is to be suspected1 because
 the explicit and  confident gifts of   
function contained in that positive     
instrument  have blinded us by their    
very positiveness to the real           
subordination  of the executive         
resulting from such a separation4 ,we   
have supposed  that our ,president was  
great because his powers were specific1 
and  that our ,congress was not supreme 
because it could not lay its hands      
directly upon his office and turn him   
out4 ,in fact1 neither the dignity  and 

power of the executive nor the          
importance of ,congress is served  by   
the arrangement4 ,being held off from   
authoritative suggestion in             
legislation1 the ,president becomes1    
under ordinary circumstances1  merely a 
ministerial officer2 whilst ,congress1  
on its part1 deprived  of such          
leadership1 becomes a legislative mass  
meeting instead of a  responsible       
co-operating member of a well-organized 
government4 ,being  under the spell of  
the ,constitution1 we have been unable  
to see the  facts which written         
documents can neither establish nor     
change4    ,singularly enough1 there is 
sharp opposition to the introduction    
into ,congress of any such leadership on
 the part of the executive as  the      
,ministers of the ,crown enjoy in       
,parliament1 on the ground of the       
increase of power which would accrue as 
a result to the legislature4  ,it is    
said that such a change would1 by       
centring party and personal             

responsibility in ,congress1 give too   
great a prominence to legislation2      
would make ,congress the object of too  
excited an interest on the part  of the 
people4 ,legislation in ,parliament1    
instead of being piecemeal1  tessellated
 work1 such as is made up in ,congress  
of the various  fragments contributed by
 the standing committees1 is1 under each
  ministry1 a continuous1 consistent1   
coherent whole2 and1 instead of  bearing
 the sanction of both national parties1 
is the peculiar policy  of only one of  
them4 ,it is thought that1 if such      
coherence of plan1  definiteness and    
continuity of aim1 and sanction of party
 were to be  given the work of          
,congress1 the resulting concentration  
of popular  interest and opinion would  
carry ,congress over all the barriers of
 the  ,constitution to an undisputed    
throne of illimitable power4 ,in short1 
the potential supremacy of ,congress is 
thought to be kept within  bounds1 not  
by the constitutional power of the      

executive and the  judiciary1 its       
co-ordinate branches1 but by the        
intrinsic dulness and  confusion of its 
own proceedings4 ,it cannot make itself 
interesting  enough to be great4    ,but
 this is a two-edged argument1 which one
 must needs handle with  great caution4 
,it is evidently calculated to destroy  
every argument  constructed on the      
assumption that it is written laws which
 are  effective to the salvation of our 
constitutional arrangements2 for  it is 
itself constructed on the opposite      
assumption1 that it is the  state of    
popular interest in the nation which    
balances the forces of  the government4 
,it would1 too1 serve with equal        
efficacy against any  scheme whatever   
for reforming the present methods of    
legislation in  ,congress1 with which   
almost everybody is dissatisfied4 ,any  
reform  which should tend to give to    
national legislation that uniform1 open1
  intelligent1 and responsible character
 which it now lacks1 would also  create 

that popular interest in the proceedings
 of ,congress which1 it  is said1 would 
unhinge the ,constitution4 ,democracy is
 so delicate a  form of government that 
it must break down if given too great   
facility  or efficacy of operation4 ,no 
one body of men must be suffered to     
utter  the voice of the people1 lest    
that voice become1 through it1 directly 
supreme4    ,the fact of the overtopping
 power of ,congress1 however1 remains4  
,the  houses create all governmental    
policy1 with that wide latitude of      
#8political discretion' in the choice of
 means which the ,supreme ,court        
unstintingly accords them4 ,congress has
 often come into conflict  with the     
,supreme ,court by attempting to extend 
the province of the  federal government 
as against the ,states2 but it has      
seldom1 ,i believe1  been brought       
effectually to book for any alleged     
exercise of powers  as against its      
directly competing branch1 the          
executive4 ,having by  constitutional   

grant the last word as to foreign       
relations1 the control  of the finances1
 and even the oversight of executive    
appointments1  ,congress exercises what 
powers of direction and management it   
pleases1  as fulfilling1 not as         
straining1 the ,constitution4           
,government lives  in the origination1  
not in the defeat1 of measures of       
government4 ,the  ,president obstructs  
by means of his #8,no2' the houses      
govern by means of  their #8,yes4' ,he  
has killed some policies that are dead2 
they have given  birth to all policies  
that are alive4    ,but the measures    
born in ,congress have no common        
lineage4 ,they have  not even a         
traceable kinship4 ,they are fathered by
 a score or two of  unrelated standing  
committees3 and ,congress stands        
godfather to them  all1 without         
discrimination4 ,congress1 in effect1   
parcels out its great  powers amongst   
groups of its members1 and so confuses  
its plans and  obscures all             

responsibility4 ,it is a leading        
complaint of ,sir ,henry  ,maine's      
against the system in ,england1 which is
 just under his nose1  that it confers  
the preliminary shaping and the         
initiation of all  legislation upon the 
cabinet1 a body which deliberates and   
resolves in  strict secrecy1--and so    
reminds him1 remotely enough1 of the    
,spartan  ,ephors and the ,venetian     
,council of ,ten4 ,he commends1 by      
contrast1  that constitution 7our own1  
which he sees at a great distance7 which
  reserves to the legislature itself the
 origination and drafting of  its       
measures4 ,it is hard for us1 who have  
this commended constitution  under our  
noses1 to perceive wherein we have the  
advantage4 ,british  legislation is for 
the most part originated and shaped by a
 single  committee1 acting in secret1   
whose proposals1 when produced1 are     
eagerly debated and freely judged by the
 sovereign legislative body4  ,our      
legislation is framed and initiated by a

 great many committees1  deliberating in
 secret1 whose proposals are seldom     
debated and only  perfunctorily judged  
by the sovereign legislative body4 ,it  
is  impossible to mistake the position  
and privileges of the ,brutish  cabinet1
 so great and conspicuous and much      
discussed are they4 ,they  simplify the 
whole ,british system for men's         
comprehension by merely  standing at the
 centre of it4 ,but our own system is   
simple only in  appearance4 ,it is easy 
to see that our legislature and         
executive are  separate1 and that the   
legislature matures its own measures by 
means of  committees of its own members4
 ,but it may readily escape superficial 
observation that our legislature1       
instead of being served1 is ruled  by   
its committees2 that those committees   
prepare their measures in  private2 that
 their number renders their privacy a   
secure secrecy1 by  making them too many
 to be watched1 and individually too    
insignificant  to be worth watching2    

that their division of prerogatives     
results in a  loss1 through diffusion1  
of all actual responsibility2 and that  
their  co-ordination leads to such a    
competition among them for the attention
  of their respective houses that       
legislation is rushed1 when it is not   
paralyzed4    ,it is thus that1 whilst  
all real power is in the hands of       
,congress1  that power is often thrown  
out of gear and its exercise brought    
almost to a standstill4 ,the competition
 of the committees is the clog4  ,their 
reports stand in the way of each other1 
and so the complaint is  warranted that 
,congress can get nothing done4         
,interests which press for  attention in
 the nation are reported upon by the    
appropriate committee1  perhaps1 but the
 report gets pushed to the wall4 ,or    
they are not  reported upon4 ,they are  
brought to the notice of ,congress1 but 
they  go to a committee which is        
unfavorable4 ,the progress of           
legislation  depends both upon the      

fortunes of competing reports and upon  
the  opinions held by particular        
committees4    ,the same system of      
committee government prevails in our    
state  legislatures1 and has led to some
 notable results1 which have recently   
been pointed out in a pamphlet entitled 
,american ,constitutions1  contributed  
to the ,johns ,hopkins series of        
,studies in ,history and  ,political    
,science by ,mr4 ,horace ,davis4 ,in the
 state legislatures1 as  in ,congress1  
the origination and control of          
legislation by standing  committees has 
led to haphazard1 incoherent1           
irresponsible law-making1  and to a     
universal difficulty about getting      
anything done4 ,the result  has been    
that state legislatures have been       
falling into disrepute in  all quarters4
 ,they are despised and mistrusted1 and 
many ,states have  revised their        
constitutions in order to curtail       
legislative powers and  limit the number
 and length of legislative sessions4    

,there is in some  ,states an apparent  
inclination to allow legislators barely 
time enough  to provide moneys for the  
maintenance of the governments4 ,in some
  instances necessary powers have been  
transferred from the legislatures  to   
the courts2 in others to the governors4 
,the intent of all such  changes is     
manifest4 ,it is thought safer to       
entrust power to a law  court1          
performing definite functions under     
clear laws and in accordance  with      
strict judicial standards1 or to a      
single conspicuous magistrate1  who can 
be watched and cannot escape            
responsibility for his official  acts1  
than to entrust it to a numerous body   
which burrows toward its  ends in       
committee-rooms1 getting its light      
through lobbies2 and which  has a       
thousand devices for juggling away      
responsibility1 as well as  scores of   
antagonisms wherewith to paralyze       
itself4    ,like fear and distrust have 
often been felt and expressed of late   

years  concerning ,congress1 for like   
reasons4 ,but so far no attempt has been
  made to restrict either the powers or 
the time of ,congress4 ,amendments  to  
the ,constitution are difficult almost  
to the point of impossibility1  and the 
few definite schemes nowadays put       
forward for a revision of the           
,constitution involve extensions rather 
than limitations of the powers  of      
,congress4 ,the fact is that1 though    
often quite as exasperating to  sober   
public opinion as any state legislature1
 ,congress is neither so  much          
distrusted nor so deserving of distrust4
 ,its high place and vast  sphere in the
 government of the nation cause its     
members to be more  carefully chosen1   
and its proceedings to be more closely  
watched1 and  frequently controlled by  
criticism4 ,the whole country has its   
eyes  on ,congress1 and ,congress is    
aware of the fact4 ,it has both the will
  and the incentive to be judicious and 
patriotic4 ,newspaper editors  have     

constantly to be saying to their        
readers1 #8,look what our state         
legislators are doing2' they seldom have
 to urge1 #8,look what ,congress  is    
doing4' ,it cannot1 indeed1 be watched  
easily1 or to much advantage4  ,it      
requires a distinct effort to watch it4 
,it has no dramatic contests  of party  
leaders to attract notice4 ,its methods 
are so much after the  fashion of the   
game of hide-and-seek that the eye of   
the ordinary man  is quite baffled in   
trying to understand or follow them1 if 
he try only  at leisure moments4 ,but1  
at the same time1 the interests handled 
by  ,congress are so vast that at least 
the newspapers and the business men1  if
 no others1 must watch its legislation  
as best they may4 ,however hard  it may 
be to observe1 it is too influential in 
great affairs to make it  safe for the  
country to give over trying to observe  
it4    ,but though ,congress may always 
be watched1 and so in a measure         
controlled1 despite its clandestine and 

confusing methods1 those  methods must  
tend to increase the distrust with which
 ,congress is  widely regarded2 and     
distrust cannot but enervate1 belittle1 
and  corrupt this will-centre of the    
,constitution4 ,the question is not     
merely1 ,how shall the methods of       
,congress be clarified and its ways     
made purposeful and responsible8 ,there 
is this greater question at  stake3 ,how
 shall the essential arrangements of the
 ,constitution be  preserved8 ,congress 
is the purposing1 designing1 aggressive 
power of  the national government4      
,disturbing and demoralizing influences 
in  the organism1 if there be any1 come 
out from its restless energies4         
,damaging encroachments upon ground     
forbidden to the federal government     
generally originate in measures of its  
planning4 ,so long as it  continues to  
be governed by unrelated standing       
committees1 and to take  its resolves in
 accordance with no clear plan1 no      
single1 definite  purpose1 so long as   

what it does continues to be neither    
evident nor  interesting1 so long must  
all its exertions of power be invidious2
 so  long must its competition with the 
executive or the judiciary seem  merely 
jealous and always underhand3 so long   
must it remain virtually  impossible to 
control it through public opinion4 ,as  
well ask the  stranger in the gallery of
 the ,new ,york ,stock ,exchange to     
judge of  the proceedings on the floor4 
,as well ask a man who has not time to  
read all the newspapers in the ,union to
 judge of passing sentiment in  all     
parts of the country4 ,congress in its  
composition is the country  in          
miniature4 ,it realizes ,hobbes's       
definition of liberty as political      
power divided into small fragments4 ,the
 standing committees typify  the        
individuals of the nation4 ,congress is 
better fitted for counsel  than the     
voters simply because its members are   
less than four hundred  instead of more 
than ten millions4    ,it has been      

impossible to carry out the programme of
 the ,constitution2  and1 without       
careful reform1 the national legislature
 will even more  dangerously approach   
the perilous model of a mass meeting4   
,there are  several ways in which       
,congress can be so integrated as to    
impart to  its proceedings system and   
party responsibility4 ,that may be done 
by entrusting the preparation and       
initiation of legislation to a  single  
committee in each house1 composed of the
 leading men of the  majority in that   
house4 ,such a change would not         
necessarily affect the  present         
precedents as to the relations between  
the executive and the  legislature4     
,they might still stand stiffly apart4  
,congress would be  integrated and      
invigorated1 however1 though the whole  
system of the  government would not be4 
,to integrate that1 some common         
meeting-ground  of public consultation  
must be provided for the executive and  
the  houses4 ,that can be accomplished  

only by the admission to ,congress1  in 
whatever capacity1--whether simply to   
answer proper questions and  to engage  
in debate1 or with the full privileges  
of membership1--of  official            
representatives of the executive who    
understand the  administration and are  
interested and able to defend it4 ,let  
the tenure  of ministers have what      
disconnection from legislative          
responsibility  may seem necessary to   
the preservation of the equality of     
,house and  ,senate1 and the separation 
of administration from legislation2     
light  would at least be thrown upon    
administration2 it would be given the   
same advantages of public suggestion and
 unhampered self-defence that           
,congress1 its competitor1 has2 and     
,congress would be constrained to  apply
 system and party responsibility to its 
proceedings4    ,the establishment in   
the ,united ,states of what is known as 
#8ministerial responsibility' would     
unquestionably involve some  important  

changes in our constitutional system4 ,i
 am strongly of the  opinion that such  
changes would not be too great a price  
to pay for the  advantages secured us by
 such a government4 ,ministerial        
responsibility  supplies the only       
conditions which have yet proved        
efficacious1 in the  political          
experience of the world1 for vesting    
recognized leadership  in men chosen for
 their abilities by a natural selection 
of debate in  a sovereign assembly of   
whose contests the whole country is     
witness4  ,such survival of the ablest  
in debate seems the only process        
available  for selecting leaders under a
 popular government4 ,the mere fact that
  such a contest proceeds with such a   
result is the strongest possible        
incentive to men of first-rate powers to
 enter legislative service2  and popular
 governments1 more than any other       
governments1 need leaders  so placed    
that1 by direct contact with both the   
legislative and the  executive          

departments of the government1 they     
shall see the problems of  government at
 first hand2 and so trained that they   
shall at the same  time be1 not mere    
administrators1 but also men of tact and
 eloquence1  fitted to persuade masses  
of men and to draw about themselves a   
loyal  following4    ,if we borrowed    
ministerial responsibility from         
,england1 we should1  too1              
unquestionably enjoy an infinite        
advantage over the ,english in  the use 
of it4 ,we should sacrifice by its      
adoption none of that great  benefit and
 security which our federal system      
derives from a clear  enumeration of    
powers and an inflexible difficulty of  
amendment4 ,if  anything would be       
definite under cabinet government1      
responsibility  would be definite2 and1 
unless ,i am totally mistaken in my     
estimate of  the legal conscience of the
 people of this country1--which seems to
  me to be the heart of our whole       
system1--definite responsibility will   

establish rather than shake those       
arrangements of our ,constitution  which
 are really our own1 and to which our   
national pride properly  attaches1      
namely1 the distinct division of powers 
between the state and  federal          
governments1 the slow and solemn        
formalities of constitutional  change1  
and the interpretative functions of the 
federal courts4 ,if  we are really      
attached to these principles1 the       
concentration of  responsibility in     
government will doubly insure their     
preservation4 ,if  we are not1 they are 
in danger of destruction in any case4   
,but we cannot have ministerial         
responsibility in its fulness  under the
 ,constitution as it stands4 ,the most  
that we can have is  distinct           
legislative responsibility1 with or     
without any connection  of co-operation 
or of mutual confidence between the     
executive and  ,congress4 ,to have so   
much would be an immense gain4 ,changes 
made to  this end would leave the       

federal system still an unwieldy        
mechanism  of counteracting forces1     
still without unity or flexibility2 but 
we  should at least have made the very  
great advance of fastening upon         
,congress an even more positive form of 
accountability than now rests  upon the 
,president and the courts4 ,questions of
 vast importance and  infinite delicacy 
have constantly to be dealt with by     
,congress2 and  there is an evident     
tendency to widen the range of those    
questions4  ,the grave social and       
economic problems now thrusting         
themselves  forward1 as the result of   
the tremendous growth and concentration 
of  our population1 and the consequent  
sharp competition for the means  of     
livelihood1 indicate that our system is 
already aging1 and that  any clumsiness1
 looseness1 or irresponsibility in      
governmental action  must prove a source
 of grave and increasing peril4 ,there  
are already  commercial heats and       
political distempers in our body politic

 which  warn of an early necessity for  
carefully prescribed physic4 ,under     
such circumstances1 some measure of     
legislative reform is clearly           
indispensable4 ,we cannot afford to put 
up any longer with such  legislation as 
we may happen upon4 ,we must look and   
plan ahead4 ,we must  have legislation  
which has been definitely forecast in   
party programmes  and explicitly        
sanctioned by the public voice4 ,instead
 of the present  arrangements for       
compromise1 piecemeal legislation1 we   
must have  coherent plans from          
recognized party leaders1 and means for 
holding  those leaders to a faithful    
execution of their plans in clear-cut   
,acts  of ,congress4                    
,illustration    ,,list ,,of ,,volumes  
,,of ,,essays ,,on ,,literature1 ,,art1 
,,music1 ,,etc41 ,,published  ,,by      
,,charles ,,scribner',s ,,sons1 #gdc-gde
 ,,broadway1 ,,new ,,york4              
,illustration      ,,henry ,,adams4     
,,historical ,,essays4 7#abmo1 #b4jj47  

,,contents3 ,primitive ,rights of       
,women--,captaine ,john ,smith--,harvard
  ,college1 #aghf-aghg--,napoleon ,i4 at
 ,st4 ,domingo--,the ,bank of ,england  
,restriction--,the ,declaration of      
,paris1 #ahfa--,the ,legal ,tender      
,act--,the  ,new ,york ,gold            
,conspiracy--,the ,session1 #ahfi-ahgj4 
8,mr4 ,adams is thorough in research1   
exact in statement1 judicial      in    
tone1 broad of view1 picturesque and    
impressive in description1      nervous 
and expressive in style4 ,his           
characterizations are terse1            
pointed1 clear40--,new ,york ,tribune4  
,,sir ,,edwin ,,arnold4    ,,japonica4  
,illustrated by ,robert ,blum4 7,large  
#hvo1 #c4jj47        8,artistic and     
handsome4 ,in theme1 style1             
illustrations and      manufacture1 it  
will appeal to every refined taste1     
presenting a      most thoughtful and   
graceful study of the fascinating people
 among      whom the author spent a     
year40--,cincinnati ,enquirer4          

,,augustine ,,birrell4    ,,obiter      
,,dicta1 ,first ,series4 7#afmo1 #a4jj47
    ,,contents3 ,carlyle--,on the       
,alleged ,obscurity of ,mr4 ,browning's 
,poetry--,truth ,hunting--,actors--,a   
,rogue's ,memoirs--,the ,via            
,media--,falstaff4        8,some        
admirably written essays1 amusing and   
brilliant4 ,the book      is the book of
 a highly cultivated man1 with a real   
gift of      expression1 a good deal of 
humor1 a happy fancy40--,spectator4     
,,obiter ,,dicta1 ,second ,series4      
7#afmo1 #a4jj47    ,,contents3          
,milton--,pope--,johnson--,burke--,the  
,muse of                                
,history--,lamb--,emerson--,the ,office 
of ,literature--,worn ,out              
,types--,cambridge and the              
,poets--,book-buying4        8,neat1    
apposite1 clever1 full of quaint        
allusions1 happy thoughts1      and apt1
 unfamiliar quotations40--,boston       
,advertiser4    ,,res ,,judicat3 ,papers
 and ,essays4 7#afmo1 #a4jj47           

8,whether ,mr4 ,birrell writes of       
,richardson or ,barrow1 ,gibbon or      
,newman1 he shows himself equally       
intelligent and appreciative4      ,his 
wit and audacity are backed by sterling 
sense and fine      taste40--,chicago   
,tribune4      ,prof4 ,h4 ,h4 ,,boyesen4
    ,,essays ,,on ,,german ,,literature4
 7#abmo1 #a4ej47        8,prof4 ,boyesen
 is cultivated without being pedantic1  
and serious      without being dull4    
,the literature he analyzes and expounds
 is the      literature that has        
international value40--,boston ,beacon4 
,w4 ,c4 ,,brownell4    ,,french         
,,traits4 7#abmo1 #a4ej47    ,,contents3
 ,the ,social                           
,instinct--,morality--,intelligence--,se
nse  and                                
,sentiment--,manners--,women--,the ,art 
,instinct--,the ,provincial             
,spirit--,democracy--,new ,york after   
,paris4        8,these chapters form a  
volume of criticism which is            
sympathetic1      intelligent1 acute1   

and contains a great amount of wholesome
      suggestion40--,boston ,advertiser4
    ,,french ,,art4 7#abmo1 #a4be47     
8,brought to the judgment in this cool  
and scientific spirit1 the      whole   
course of ,french painting and          
sculpture1 as shown by the      masters 
pre-eminent in each era1 is reviewed by 
a critic as certain      of his         
criticisms as he is capable in forming  
them40--,springfield      ,republican4  
,,thomas ,,carlyle4    ,,lectures ,,on  
,,the ,,history ,,of ,,literature4 7,now
 printed for the first time4  #abmo1    
#a4jj47    ,,summary ,,of ,,contents3   
,literature in ,general--,language1     
,tradition--,the ,greeks--,the ,heroic  
,ages--,homer--schylus  to              
,socrates--,the ,romans--,middle        
,ages--,christianity--,the              
,crusades--,dante--,the                 
,spaniards--,chivalry--,cervantes--,the 
,germans--,luther--,the ,origin1 ,work  
and ,destiny of the ,english--          
,shakespeare--,milton--,swift--,hume--,w

ertherism--,the ,french                 
,revolution--,goethe and his ,works4    
8,every intelligent ,american reader    
will instantly wish to read this        
book through1 and many will say that it 
is the clearest and wisest      and most
 genuine book that ,carlyle ever        
produced4 ,we could have no      work   
from his hand which embodies more       
clearly and emphatically his            
literary opinions than his rapid and    
graphic survey of the great      writers
 and great literary epochs of the       
world40--,boston ,herald4      ,,alice  
,,morse ,,earle4    ,,the ,,sabbath ,,in
 ,,puritan ,,new ,,england4 7#abmo1     
#a4be47        8,she writes with a keen 
sense of humor1 and out of the full     
stores of adequate knowledge and        
plentiful explorations among old        
pamphlets1 letters1 sermons1 and that   
treasury1 not yet run dry in      ,new  
,england1 family traditions4 ,the book  
is as sympathetic as it is      bright  
and humorous40--,the ,independent4      

,,china ,,collecting ,,in ,,america4    
7with #ge illustrations4 ,sq4 #hvo1     
#c4jj47        8,her book is full of    
entertainment1 not only for the china   
hunter      and collector1 but for all  
who are interested in early times and   
manufactures1 in the old houses and     
country people1 in the history      of  
,america1 and the habits and customs of 
the past40--,new ,york      ,observer4  
,,customs ,,and ,,fashions ,,in ,,old   
,,new ,,england4 7#abmo1 #a4be47        
,mrs4 ,earle describes the daily life   
and habits1 the festivals1 larder1      
taverns1 modes of travel1 peculiarities 
of courtship1 marriages1  funerals1 the 
utensils and furniture of the ,puritan  
farm and home1 with  the same wit1      
sympathetic feeling1 and copious        
information so marked in  her former    
works4      ,,henry ,t4 ,,finck4        
,,chopin1 and ,other ,musical ,essays4  
7#abmo1 #a4ej47        8,written from   
abundant knowledge3 enlivened by        
anecdote and touches      of enthusiasm1

 suggestive1 stimulating40--,boston     
,post4      ,,james ,,anthony ,,froude4 
,,the ,,spanish ,,story ,,of ,,the      
,,armada1 ,,and ,,other ,,essays4       
7#abmo1 #a4ej47    ,,contents3 ,the     
,spanish ,story of the ,armada--,antonio
 ,perez3 ,an  ,unsolved ,historical     
,riddle--,saint ,teresa--,the           
,templars--,the ,norway                 
,fjords--,norway ,once ,more4    ,,short
 ,,studies ,,on ,,great ,,subjects4     
7,half leather1 #abmo1 #d vols41 each   
#a4ej47    ,,contents3    ,,vol4 ,i4    
,the ,science of ,history--,times of    
,erasmus and ,luther--,the  ,influence  
of the ,reformation on the ,scottish    
,character--,the ,philosophy  of        
,catholicism--,a ,plea for the ,free    
,discussion of ,theological             
,difficulties--,criticism and the       
,gospel ,history--,the ,book of         
,job--,spinoza--,the ,dissolution of    
,monasteries--,england's ,forgotten     
,worthies--,homer--,the ,lives of the   
,saints--,representative ,man--,reynard 

the ,fox--,the ,cat's                   
,pilgrimage--,fables--,parable of the   
,bread-fruit  ,tree--,compensation4     
,,vol4 ,,ii4 ,calvinism--,a ,bishop of  
the ,twelfth ,century--,father  ,newman 
on 8,the ,grammar of                    
,assent0--,conditions and ,prospects  of
 ,protestantism--,england and ,her      
,colonies--,a ,fortnight in             
,kerry--,reciprocal ,duties in ,state   
and ,subject--,the ,merchant and ,his   
,wife--,on ,progress--,the ,colonies    
,once ,more--,education--,england's     
,war--,the ,eastern                     
,question--,scientific ,method ,applied 
to ,history4    ,,vol4 ,,iii4 ,annals of
 an ,english ,abbey--,revival of        
,romanism--,sea  ,studies--,society in  
,italy in the ,last ,days of the ,roman 
,republic--,lucian--,divus ,caesar--,on 
the ,uses of a ,landed ,gentry--,party  
,politics--,leaves from a ,south        
,african ,journal4    ,,vol4 ,,iv4 ,the 
,oxford ,counter--,reformation--,life   
and ,times of ,thomas  ,becket--,origen 

and ,celsus--,a ,cagliostro of the      
,second ,century--,cheneys  and the     
,house of ,russell--,a ,siding at a     
,railway ,station4        8,all the     
papers here collected are marked by the 
qualities      which have made ,mr4     
,froude the most popular of living      
,english      historians--by skill in   
argumentative and rhetorical exposition1
 by      felicities of diction1 by      
contagious earnestness1 and by the rare 
power of fusing the results of research 
in the imagination so as      to produce
 a picture of the past at once exact and
 vivid40--,n4 ,y4      ,sun4            
,,william ,,ewart ,,gladstone4          
,,gleanings ,,of ,,past ,,years1        
#ahdc-ahgi4 7#g vols41 #afmo1 each      
#a4jj47    ,,contents3 ,vol4 ,i41 ,the  
,throne and the ,prince ,consort4 ,the  
,cabinet  and ,constitution--,vol4      
,,ii41 ,personal and ,literary--,vol4   
,,iii41  ,historical and                
,speculative--,vol4 ,,iv41              
,foreign--,vol4 ,v4 and ,,vi41          

,ecclesiastical--,vol4 ,,vii41          
,miscellaneous4        8,not only do    
these essays cover a long period of     
time1 they also      exhibit a very wide
 range of intellectual effort4 ,perhaps 
their      most striking feature is the 
breadth of genuine intellectual         
sympathy1 of which they afford such     
abundant evidence40--,nation4           
,,robert ,,grant4    ,,the ,,reflections
 ,,of ,a ,,married ,,man4 7#abmo1 cloth1
 #a4jj2 paper1 #ej cents47              
8,nothing is more entertaining than to  
have one's familiar      experiences    
take objective form2 and few experiences
 are more      familiar than those which
 ,mr4 ,grant here chronicles for us4    
,altogether ,mr4 ,grant has given us a  
capital little book1 which      should  
easily strike up literary comradeship   
with #8,the ,reveries of      a         
,bachelor4'0--,boston ,transcript4      
,,opinions ,,of ,a ,,philosopher4       
7,illustrated by ,reinhart and ,smedley4
 #abmo1  cloth1 #a4jj47    ,a sequel to 

the author's 8,reflections10 relating   
the experiences  through middle life of 
,fred and ,josephine1 with equal charm  
and humor4      ,e4 ,j4 ,,hardy4        
,,the ,,business ,,of ,,life3 ,a ,book  
for ,everyone4--,,how ,,to ,,be ,,happy 
,,though  ,,married3 ,being a ,handbook 
to ,marriage--,,the ,,five ,,talents    
,,of ,,woman3 ,a  ,book for ,girls and  
,women--,,manners ,,makyth ,,man--,,the 
,,sunny ,,days ,,of ,,youth3  ,a ,book  
for ,boys and ,young ,men4 7#abmo1 each 
#a4be47        8,the author has a large 
store of apposite quotations and        
anecdotes      from which he draws with 
a lavish hand1 and he has the art of    
brightening his pages with a constant   
play of humor that makes what      he   
says uniformly entertaining40--,boston  
,advertiser4      ,w4 ,e4 ,,henley4     
,,views ,,and ,,reviews4 ,essays in     
,appreciation3 ,literature4 7#abmo1     
#a4jj47    ,,contents3                  
,dickens--,thackeray--,disrali--,dumas--
,meredith--,byron--,hugo--,heine--      

,arnold--,rabelais--,shakespeare--,sidne
y--,walton--,banville--,berlioz--       
,longfellow--,balzac--,hood--,lever--,co
ngreve--,tolsto--,fielding1  etc41 etc4 
8,interesting1 original1 keen and       
felicitous4 ,his criticism will be      
found suggestive1 cultivated1           
independent40--,n4 ,y4 ,tribune4        
,j4 ,g4 ,,holland4    ,,titcomb',s      
,,letters ,,to ,,young ,,people1        
,,single ,,and ,,married--,,gold-,,foil1
  ,,hammered ,,from ,,popular           
,,proverbs--,,lessons ,,in ,,life3 ,a   
,series of ,familiar                    
,essays--,,concerning ,,the ,,jones     
,,family--,,plain ,,talks ,,on          
,,familiar  ,,subjects--,,every-,,day   
,,topics1 ,first ,series1 ,second       
,series4 7,small #abmo1  each1 #a4be47  
8,dr4 ,holland will always find a       
congenial audience in the homes of      
culture and refinement4 ,he does not    
affect the play of the darker      and  
fiercer passions1 but delights in the   
sweet images that cluster      around   

the domestic hearth4 ,he cherishes a    
strong fellow-feeling      with the pure
 and tranquil life in the modest social 
circles of the      ,american people1   
and has thus won his way to the         
companionship of      many friendly     
hearts40--,n4 ,y4 ,tribune4             
,,william ,,ralph ,,inge4    ,,society  
,,in ,,rome ,,under ,,the ,c,,sars4     
7#abmo1 #a4be47        8,every page is  
brimful of interest4 ,the picture of    
life      in ,rome under the ,csars are 
graphic and thoroughly                  
intelligible40--,chicago ,herald4       
,,andrew ,,lang4    ,,essays ,,in       
,,little4 7,portrait1 #abmo1 #a4jj47    
,,contents3 ,alexandre ,dumas--,mr4     
,stevenson's ,works--,thomas ,haynes    
,bayly--,thodore de ,banville--,homer   
and the ,study of ,greek--,the ,last    
,fashionable                            
,novel--,thackeray--,dickens--,adventure
s of ,buccaneers--,the                  
,sagas--,kingsley--,lever--,poems of    
,sir ,walter ,scott--,bunyan--,letter to

 a  ,young ,journalist--,kipling's      
,stories4        8,one of the most      
entertaining and bracing of books4 ,it  
ought to      win every vote and please 
every class of readers40--,spectator    
7,london74    ,,letters ,,to ,,dead     
,,authors4 7#afmo1 #a4jj4 ,cameo        
,edition1 with etched  portrait and four
 new letters1 #a4be47    ,letters to    
,thackeray--,dickens--,herodotus--,pope-
-,rabelais--,jane  ,austen--,isaak      
,walton--,dumas--,theocritus--,pope--,sc
ott--,shelley--  ,molire--,burns1 etc41 
etc4        8,the book is one of the    
luxuries of the literary taste4 ,it is  
meant      for the exquisite palate1 and
 is prepared by one of the #8knowing'   
kind4 ,it is an astonishing little      
volume40--,n4 ,y4 ,evening ,post4       
,,sidney ,,lanier4    ,,the ,,english   
,,novel ,,and ,,the ,,principle ,,of    
,,its ,,development4 7,crown #hvo1      
#b4jj47        8,the critical and       
analytical portions of his work are     
always      in high key1 suggestive1    

brilliant1 rather dogmatic and not      
free from caprice4444 ,but when all     
these abatements are      made1 the     
lectures remain lofty in tone and full  
of original                             
inspiration40--,independent4    ,,the   
,,science ,,of ,,english ,,verse4       
7,crown #hvo1 #b4jj47        8,it       
contains much sound practical advice to 
the makers of verse4      ,the work     
shows extensive reading and a refined   
taste both in poetry      and in        
music40--,nation4      ,,edward         
,,sandford ,,martin4    ,,windfalls ,,of
 ,,observation4 ,gathered for the       
,edification of the ,young and  the     
,solace of ,others4 7#abmo1 #a4be47     
,a collection of brief essays on topics 
of perennial interest1 personal  in     
quality1 literary in treatment1 shrewd1 
and dryly humorous1 having a  decided   
8,roundabout10 though thoroughly        
,american1 flavor4      ,,brander       
,,matthews4    ,,french ,,dramatists    
,,of ,,the #ai,,th ,,century4 7,new     

,edition1 #hvo1 #a4ej47    ,,contents3  
,chronology--,the ,romantic             
,movement--,hugo--,dumas--,scribe--,augi
er--,dumas                              
fils--,sardou--,feuillet--,labiche--,mei
lhac and ,halvy--,zola and the          
,tendencies of ,french ,drama--,a ,ten  
,years' ,retrospect3 #ahha-ahia4        
8,mr4 ,matthews writes with authority of
 the ,french ,stage4 ,probably      no  
other writer of ,english has a larger   
acquaintance with the      subject than 
he4 ,his style is easy and graceful1 and
 the book is      delightful            
reading40--,n4 ,y4 ,times4    ,,the     
,,theatres ,,of ,,paris4 7,illustrated4 
#afmo1 #a4be47        8,an interesting1 
gossipy1 yet instructive little         
book40--,academy      7,london74        
,,donald ,g4 ,,mitchell4    ,,english   
,,lands1 ,,letters ,,and ,,kings4 ,vol4 
,i41 ,from ,celt to ,tudor4 ,vol4       
,,ii41 ,from ,elizabeth to ,anne4       
7#abmo1 each #a4ej47        8,crisp1    
sparkling1 delicate1 these brief talks  

about authors1 great      and small1    
about kings and queens1 schoolmasters   
and people1 whet      the taste for     
more4 ,in #8,ik ,marvel's' racy1 sweet1 
delightful prose1      we see the       
benefits of ,english literature         
assimilated40--,literary      ,world4   
,,reveries ,,of ,a ,,bachelor2 or1 ,a   
,book of the ,heart--,,dream ,,life3 ,a 
,fable of  the ,seasons4 7,cameo        
,edition1 with etching1 #afmo1 each     
#a4be47        8,beautiful examples of  
the art 7of book making74 ,the vein of  
sentiment in the text is one of which   
youth never tires40--,the      ,nation4 
,,seven ,,stories ,,with ,,basement     
,,and ,,attic--,,wet ,,days ,,at        
,,edgewood1 with ,old  ,farmers1 ,old   
,gardeners and ,old ,pastorals--,,bound 
,,together1 ,a ,sheaf of                
,papers--,,out-,,of-,,town ,,palaces1   
with ,hints for their ,improvement--,,my
 ,,farm  ,,of ,,edgewood1 ,a ,country   
,book4 7#abmo1 each #a4be47        8,no 
,american writer since the days of      

,washington ,irving uses the            
,english language as does #8,ik         
,marvel4' ,his books are as natural     
as spring flowers1 and as refreshing as 
summer rains40--,boston                 
,transcript4      ,,george ,,moore4     
,,impressions ,,and ,,opinions4 7#abmo1 
#a4be47        8,both instructive and   
entertaining 444 still more interesting 
is      the problem of an ,english      
,thtre ,libre1 of which ,mr4 ,moore is  
an      ingenious advocate4 ,the four   
concluding essays1 which treat of art   
and artists1 are all                    
excellent40--,saturday ,review          
7,london47    ,,modern ,,painting4      
7#abmo1 #b4jj47    ,the courage1        
independence1 originality1 and raciness 
with which ,mr4  ,moore expressed his   
opinions on matters relating to the     
stage and to  literature in his         
8,impressions and ,opinions0 are equally
 characteristic  of these essays on art 
topics4      ,e4 ,,max ,m,,ller4        
,,chips ,,from ,a ,,german ,,workshop4  

,vol4 ,i41 ,essays on the ,science of   
,religion--,vol4 ,,ii41 ,essays on      
,mythology1 ,tradition and              
,customs--,vol4  ,,iii41 ,essays on     
,literature1 ,biographies and           
,antiquities--,vol4 ,,iv41  ,comparative
 ,philology1 ,mythology1 etc4--,vol4    
,v41 ,on ,freedom1 etc4 7#e  vols41     
,crown #hvo1 each #b4jj47        8,these
 books afford no end of interesting     
extracts2 #8chips' by the      cord1    
that are full both to the intellect and 
the imagination2      but we may refer  
the curious reader to the volumes       
themselves4 ,he      will find in them a
 body of combined entertainment and     
instruction      such as has hardly ever
 been brought together in so compact a  
form40--,n4 ,y4 ,evening ,post4         
,,biographical ,,essays4 7,crown #hvo1  
#b4jj47        8,max ,mller is the      
leading authority of the world in       
,hindoo      literature1 and his volume 
on ,oriental reformers will be          
acceptable      to scholars and literary

 people of all classes40--,chicago      
,tribune4      ,,thomas ,,nelson ,,page4
    ,,the ,,old ,,south1 ,,essays       
,,social ,,and ,,political4 7#abmo1     
#a4be47        8,they afford delightful 
glimpses of aspects and conditions of   
,southern life which few at the ,north  
have ever appreciated                   
fully40--,congregationalist4            
,,austin ,,phelps1 ,d4,d4    ,,my       
,,note-,,book3 ,fragmentary ,studies in 
,theology and ,subjects ,adjacent       
thereto 7#abmo1 #a4ej7--,,men ,,and     
,,books2 or1 ,studies in ,homiletics    
7#hvo1  #b4jj7--,,my ,,portfolio 7#abmo1
 #a4ej7--,,my ,,study1 ,,and ,,other    
,,essays 7#abmo1  #a4ej74        8,his  
great and varied learning1 his wide     
outlook1 his profound      sympathy with
 concrete men and women1 the lucidity   
and beauty of      his style1 and the   
fertility of his thought1 will secure   
for him a      place among the great men
 of ,american ,congregationalism40--,n4 
,y4      ,tribune4      ,,noah ,,porter1

 ,,ll4,d4    ,,books ,,and ,,reading4   
7,crown #hvo1 #b4jj47        8,it is    
distinguished by all the rare acumen1   
discriminating      taste and extensive 
literary knowledge of the author4 ,the  
chief      departments of literature are
 reviewed in detail40--,n4 ,y4 ,times4  
,,philip ,,schaff1 ,d4,d4               
,,literature ,,and ,,poetry4 7,with     
portrait4 #hvo1 #c4jj47        8,there  
is a great amount of erudition in the   
collection1 but the      style is so    
simple and direct that the reader does  
not realize that      he is following   
the travels of a close scholar through  
many learned      volumes in many       
different languages40--,chautauquan4    
,,edmond ,,scherer4    ,,essays ,,on    
,,english ,,literature4 7,with portrait4
 #abmo1 #a4ej47        8,m4 ,scherer had
 a number of great qualities1 mental and
 moral1      which rendered him a critic
 of ,english literature1 in particular1 
whose views and opinions have not only  
novelty and freshness1 but              

illumination and instruction for        
,english readers1 accustomed to         
conventional estimates from the ,english
 standpoint40--,literary      ,world4   
,,william ,g4 ,t4 ,,shedd1 ,d4,d4       
,,literary ,,essays4 7#hvo1 #b4ej47     
8,they bear the marks of the author's   
scholarship1 dignity      and polish of 
style1 and profound and severe          
convictions of      truth and           
righteousness as the basis of culture as
 well as      character40--,chicago     
,interior4      ,,robert ,,louis        
,,stevenson4    ,,across ,,the ,,plains1
 ,,with ,,other ,,essays ,,and          
,,memories4 7#abmo1 #a4be47             
,,contents3 ,across the ,plains3 ,leaves
 from the ,notebook of an  ,emigrant    
between ,new ,york and ,san             
,francisco--,the ,old ,pacific          
,capital--,fontainebleau3 ,village      
,communities of ,painters--,epilogue to 
an ,inland ,voyage--,contribution to the
 ,history of ,life--,education of an    
,engineer--,the ,lantern                

,bearers--,dreams--,beggars--,letter to 
a ,young ,man  ,proposing to ,embrace a 
,literary ,life--,a ,christmas ,sermon4 
,,memories ,,and ,,portraits4 7#abmo1   
#a4jj47    ,,contents3 ,some ,college   
,memories--,a ,college ,magazine--,an   
,old ,scotch  ,gardener--,memoirs of an 
,islet--,thomas ,stevenson--,talk and   
,talkers--,the  ,character of ,dogs--,a 
,gossip on a ,novel of ,dumas--,a       
,gossip on ,romance--,a  ,humble        
,remonstrance4    ,,virginibus          
,,puerisque1 and ,other ,papers4 7#abmo1
 #a4jj2 ,cameo ,edition1  with etched   
portrait1 #a4be47    ,,familiar         
,,studies ,,of ,,men ,,and ,,books4     
7#abmo1 #a4be47        8,if there are   
among our readers any lovers of good    
books to whom      ,mr4 ,stevenson is   
still a stranger1 we may advise them to 
make      his acquaintance through      
either of these collections of essays4  
,the papers are full of the rare        
individual charm which gives a          
distinction to the lightest products of 

his art and fancy4 ,he is a      notable
 writer of good ,english1 who combines  
in a manner altogether      his own the 
flexibility1 freedom1 quickness and     
suggestiveness of      contemporary     
fashions with a grace1 dignity1 and     
high-breeding that      belong rather to
 the past40--,n4 ,y4 ,tribune4          
,,charles ,w4 ,,stoddard4    ,,south    
,,sea ,,idyls4 7#abmo1 #a4ej47          
8,neither ,loti nor ,stevenson has      
expressed from tropical life the        
luscious1 fruity delicacy1 or the rich1 
wine-like bouquet of these              
sketches40--,the ,independent4          
,,richard ,,henry ,,stoddard4    ,,under
 ,,the ,,evening ,,lamp4 7#abmo1 #a4be47
        8,a very charming volume of     
gossipy criticism on such poets as      
,burns1 ,motherwell and ,hartley        
,coleridge40--,public ,opinion4         
,,henry ,,van ,,dyke1 ,d4,d4    ,,the   
,,poetry ,,of ,,tennyson4 7,new and     
enlarged ,edition1 with portrait4       
#abmo1 #b4jj47    ,,contents3           

,tennyson's ,first ,flight--,the ,palace
 of ,art3 ,milton and  ,tennyson--,two  
,splendid ,failures--,the ,idylls of the
 ,king--,the ,historic  ,triology--,the 
,bible in ,tennyson--,fruit from an ,old
 ,tree--,on the ,study  of              
,tennyson--,chronology--,list of        
,biblical ,quotations4        8,the two 
new chapters and the additional         
chronological matter have      greatly  
enriched the work40--,t4 ,b4 ,,aldrich4 
,,john ,c4 ,,van ,,dyke4    ,,art ,,for 
,,art',s ,,sake4 7,with #bd             
illustrations4 #abmo1 #a4ej47           
8,the clear setting forth of the facts  
and theories of painting      has its   
advantages in these days when there is  
so much art      analysis that nobody   
can understand4 ,this essayist deals    
with the      subtleties1 but in so     
doing he illuminates them4 ,moreover he 
is      very interesting4 ,his book     
#8reads itself1' as the phrase          
is40--,new      ,york ,sun4             
,,barrett ,,wendell4    ,,stelligeri1   

,,and ,,other ,,essays ,,concerning     
,,america4 7#abmo1 #a4be47    ,a series 
of interesting and suggestive papers on 
historical and  literary themes1        
thoroughly ,american in spirit4         
,,woodrow ,,wilson4    ,,an ,,old       
,,master1 ,,and ,,other ,,political     
,,essays4 7#abmo1 #a4jj47    ,these     
essays1 revealing a fine literary taste1
 deal in a very human and  popular way  
with some important political problems4 
,illustration    ,,the ,,foregoing      
,,volumes ,,of ,,essays ,,are ,,for     
,,sale ,,by ,,all ,,booksellers1 ,,or   
,,will ,,be ,,sent ,,postpaid1 ,,on     
,,receipt ,,of ,,price1 ,,by ,,the      
,,publishers1 ,,charles  ,,scribner',s  
,,sons1 #gdc-gde ,,broadway1 ,,new      
,,york    ,illustration                 
,transcriber's ,notes      ,punctuation1
 hyphenation1 and spelling were made    
consistent when a  predominant          
preference was found in the original    
book2 otherwise they  were not changed4 
,simple typographical errors were       

corrected2 unbalanced quotation  marks  
were remedied when the change was       
obvious1 and otherwise left  unbalanced4
    ,transcriber removed duplicate      
hemi-title pages preceding each essay4  
,illustrations in this e,book are       
decorative1 used as filler in the       
advertisements4