Page:Despotism and democracy; a study in Washington society and politics (IA despotismdemocra00seawiala).pdf/274

 poor man in political life in his efforts to be honest?"

"I can't figure it out that way," answered Thorndyke, "although I ought to know public life from the viewpoint of the poor but honest Congressman. I am not worth ten thousand dollars in the world outside of my Congressional salary. But as the Kentucky colonel said on the stump, 'I am as honest as the times will allow.'"

"Don't you think," persisted Crane, for whom this discussion of honesty in public life had a powerful fascination, "that the same man in certain political circumstances would remain honest, while in different circumstances he might succumb to temptation? Take the case of a poor man in politics."

"I admit that the most desperate venture on earth is for a man to attempt to live by politics. Some men have done it, like Patrick Henry, for example. But those men are quite beyond comparison with every-day men. However, Marcus Aurelius says, 'A man should be upright, he should not be made to be upright.'"

This saying of Marcus Aurelius troubled Crane.