Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/386

366 they prove at last the sincerity of their own convictions by the sacrifices which they make for their success; if they are mistaken, and their expectations deceive them, they injure only themselves. The enthusiasm of statesmen is less innocent in itself or in its consequences. The leaders of a suffering nation cannot with impunity excite hopes of relief which they have no means of realizing; least of all when the fulfilment of such hopes depends on the exercise of virtues which in themselves they are careless of practising.

The commissioners were received by the people as angel messengers. 'The Iron world,' the country villagers exclaimed, 'is now at an end, and the Golden world is returning.' 'If the thing go forward,' Hales wrote to the Protector, 'never king had so assured subjects as his Grace shall have, nor ever governor under a king that had so many men's hearts and good wills as your Grace shall have.' 'If there be any way or policy of man to make the people receive God's word, it is only this, when they see it bringeth forth so good fruit that men seek not their own wealth, nor their private commodity. I do certainly believe in your Grace's sayings, that maugre the devil, private profit, self-love, money and such like the devil's instruments, it shall go forward, and set such a stay in the body of the commonwealth, that all the members shall live in due temperament and harmony, without one having too much, and a great many nothing.'