Page:Dawn of the Day.pdf/211

Rh for the "general safety" is far too high, and, what is the maddest thing of all, we effect the very reverse of the general safety, a fact which our own country has undertaken to prove, as though it had never been proved before! Making society safe against thieves and fire, and thoroughly fit for all trade and traffic, and transforming the State in a good and evil sense into a kind of Providencethese are low, moderate, and by no means indispensable aims, which we ought not to strive after with the highest meals and instruments in existence—these we ought to reserve for our highest and rarest aims. Our age, however much it may talk about economy, is a lavisher: it lavishes the most precious thing of all—the intellect. —The great wars of the present times are the results of the study of history. —Some people govern from a mere passion for governing; others in order not to be governed. To the latter it is only the lesser of two evils. —People say with great reverence, “He is a character !"-that is, if he shows a rough consistency, through this consistency be obvious even to the dullest eye. But whenever a subtler and deeper