I

Citizenship

REMEMBER an old scholastic aphorism which

says that the man who lives wholly detached from others must be either an angel or a devil.' When I see in any of these detached gentlemen of our times the angelic purity, power, and beneficence, I shall admit them to be angels. In the meantime we are born only to be men. We shall do enough if we form ourselves to be good ones. It is therefore our business carefully to cultivate in our minds, to rear to the most perfect vigour and maturity, every sort of generous and honest feeling that belongs to our nature. To bring the dispositions that are lovely in private life into the service and conduct of the commonwealth; so to be patriots as not to forget we are gentlemen. To cultivate friendships, and to incur enmities. To have both strong, but both selected; in the one to be placable; in the other, immovable. To model our principles to our duties and our situation. To be fully persuaded that all virtue which is impracticable is spurious; and rather to run the risque of falling into faults in a course which leads us to act with effect and energy, than to loiter out our days without blame and without use. Public life is a situation of power and energy; he trespasses upon his duty who sleeps upon his watch, as well as he that goes over to the enemy.

EDMUND BURKE

DON QUIXOTE GIVES COUNSEL

Don Quixote gives Counsel to Sancho

HE

Panza

ERE Don Quixote came up, and learning what had passed and how soon Sancho had to leave for his governorship, with permission of the Duke he took his squire by the hand and went away with him to his apartment to counsel him how he was to behave in his office. Having entered the chamber, he shut the door behind him, and almost by force made Sancho sit down beside him, and in a deliberate voice thus addressed him.

Firstly, O son, thou hast to fear God, for in the fearing Him is wisdom, and, being wise, thou canst err in nothing.

Secondly, thou hast to set thine eyes on what thou art, endeavouring to know thyself, which is the most difficult knowledge that can be conceived. From knowing thyself will follow the not swelling thyself, like the frog who would be equal with the ox, for if thou dost this the remembrance of having kept hogs in thine own country will come like the peacock's ugly feet to the tail of thy folly.

Glorify thyself, Sancho, on the humility of thy lineage, and think it no disgrace to say thou comest of peasants; for seeing thou art ashamed, none will attempt to shame thee; and prize thyself more on being a virtuous poor man than a noble sinner.

Mind, Sancho, if thou take virtue for thy means, and prize thyself on doing virtuous acts, thou wilt have

DON QUIXOTE GIVES COUNSEL

no reason to envy those who have Princes and Lords for their fathers; for blood is inherited but virtue is acquired, and virtue has worth in itself alone which blood has not.

This being so, if by chance any of thy kinsfolk should come to visit thee while thou art in thy Isle, do not thou despise or affront him; rather thou must receive, cherish, and entertain him, for by this thou wilt please God, who likes none to disdain that which He hath made, and wilt comply with what is thy duty to well-ordered nature.

If thou shouldst take thy wife with thee (for it is not well that they who are engaged in government should be for any long time without their own wives) instruct her, indoctrinate her, trim her of her native rudeness, for all that a wise Governor gives is wont to be lost and destroyed by a vulgar and foolish woman.

Never guide thee by arbitrary law, which is wont to have much hold over the ignorant who set up to be clever.

Let the tears of the poor man find in thee more compassion, but not more justice, than the pleadings of the rich.

Try and discover the truth, as well among the promises and presents of the rich man as among the wailings and importunities of the poor.

Where equity can and should have place, charge not the rigour of the law upon the delinquent, for the fame of the righteous judge stands not greater than that of the merciful.

1 Or, 'judge-made'

DON QUIXOTE GIVES COUNSEL

If perchance you should bend the rod of justice, let it not be with the weight of a bribe, but with that

of mercy.

When it should happen to thee to judge the cause of some enemy of thine, turn thy mind away from thine injury and set it on the truth of the case.

Let not personal passion blind thee in another's cause, for the errors thou shalt commit therein will be mostly without remedy, and if thou hast one it will be at the cost of thy credit; nay, of thy estate.

If a beautiful woman should come to beg justice of thee, turn away thine eyes from her tears, and thine ears from her moans, and consider at leisure the substance of her prayer, if thou wouldst not thy reason were drowned in her weeping, and thy honour in her sighs.

Him thou hast to punish by deeds, offend not by words, for the smart of the punishment is enough for the unhappy one without the addition of ill language.

The culprit who falls under thy jurisdiction regard as a wretched man, subject to the conditions of a depraved nature; and as much as in thee lies, without doing injury to the opposite side, show thyself to him pitiful and lenient, for though the attributes of God are all equal, that of mercy in our sight is brighter and more excellent than that of justice.

If thou shouldst follow these precepts and rules, Sancho, thy days shall be long, thy fame everlasting, thy recompense ample, and thy happiness unspeakable. Thou shalt marry thy children as thou wilt; they and thy grandchildren shall not want titles; thou shalt live

COMPROMISE

in peace and good will among men, and in the last stages of thy life shalt arrive at that of death in a sweet and ripe old age, and the tender and delicate hands of thy great-grandchildren shall close thine eyes.

CERVANTES

M

Compromise

EN are only enlightened by feeling their way through experience. The greatest geniuses are themselves drawn along by their age.

TURGOT

I

CLAIM not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. Now, at the end of three years' struggle, the nation's condition is not what either party or any man desired or expected. ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1864)

IN

N public life a man of elevated mind does not make his own self tell upon others simply or entirely. He must act with other men; he cannot select his objects or pursue them by means unadulterated by the methods and practices of minds less elevated than his He can only do what he feels to be second best. He labours at a venture, prosecuting measures so large or so complicated that their ultimate issue is uncertain.

own.

CARDINAL NEWMAN