Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/188

 level against it, helpless itself to move until some hand be held out, and at the mercy of accident, whether it be that of a true friend or a concealed and insidious foe; prepared to be the unconscious victim of that perverted abihty which is always hovering over it, ready to seize upon and turn its follies into a wicked profit;—the other, in which the same society is awakened to the value of what is truly good, by being insensibly forced to a comparison between the great and the mean. In the table which exhibits the chief names that enlighten and adorn their times, they will see—

Can there be a doubt in which condition there will be found that upward look, and that endeavour to appreciate excellence, which is a step towards excellence itself? It is the people who must search for and learn where knowledge and virtue are to be found. They do not come to them unsought:—the counterfeit only will be thrust into their hands, and in taking it they embrace "the false Duessa," and must, in the end, endure the odious sight of her deformity. "Philosophy cannot raise the bulk of mankind to her level, therefore if she is to become popular she must descend to theirs. This she cannot do without a twofold grave injury. She will debase herself and will puff up her disciples."

The habit of scrutinizing with attention the conduct of public men, and of forming an estimate of their relative merits, on an examination of the lists which the gazettes I famish, will naturally dispose the minds of men towards political moderation, and render them tolerant of differences, which they now regard as impassably objections. As our views widen, our sympathies increase and multiply; all things become more precious, and in all we find good. Merits will appear, where people had before seen only adversaries. It is party which begets party. When an elector addresses himself to the task of forming on his voting-paper a