business of my life,' wrote the future Bishop Butler at the
age of twenty-one. And whether you are to be a member of Parliament or a
silent voter for a member of Parliament, you, too, must love truth and
search for her as for hid treasure from your youth up. You must search
for all kinds of truth,--historical, political, scientific, and
religious,--with much reading, much observation, and much reflection. And
those who have searched longest and dug deepest will always be found to
be the most temperate, patient, and forbearing with those who have not
yet found the truth. I do not know who first said it, but he was a true
disciple of Socrates and Plato who first said it. 'Plato,' he said, 'is
my friend, and Socrates is my friend, but the truth is much more my
friend.' There is a thrill of enthusiasm, admiration and hope that goes
through the whole country and comes down out of history as often as we
hear or read of some public man parting with all his own past, as well as
with all his leaders and patrons and allies and colleagues in the
present, and taking his solitary way out after the truth. Many may call
that man Quixotic, visionary, unpractical, imprudent, and he may be all
that and more, but to follow conscience and the love of truth even when
they are for the time leading him wrong is noble, and is every way far
better both for himself and for the cause he serves, than if he were
always found following his leaders loyally and even walking in the way of
righteousness with the love of self and the love of party at bottom
ruling his heart. How healthful and how refreshing at an election time
it is to hear a speech replete with the love of the truth, full knowledge
of the subject, and with the dignity, the good temper, the respect for
opponents, and the love of fair play that full knowledge of the whole
subject is so well fitted to bring with it! And next to hearing such a
speaker is the pleasure of meeting such a hearer or such a reader at such
a time. Now, I want such readers and such hearers, if not such speakers,
to be found all the next fortnight among my office-bearers and my people.
Be sure you say to some of your political opponents something like
this:--'I do not profess to read all the speeches that fill the papers at
present. I do not read all the utterances made even on my own side, and
much less all the utterances made on your side. But there is one of your
speakers I always read, and I almost alw