; and William Pitt, Prime-Minister of England at the
age of twenty-four, and stereotyped on the French imagination as he
whose guineas were nearly as potent as Napoleon's guns.

But it is not so much by eminent examples of young statesmen as it is by
the general influence of young men in resisting the corrupting
tendencies of politics, that their influence in the social state is to
be measured. They oppose the tendency of political life to deprave
political character, to make it cold, false, selfish, distrustful,
abandoned to the greed of power and the greed of gain. They interfere
with the projects of those venerable politicians who are continually
appealing to the public to surrender, bit by bit, its humanity, its
morality, its Christianity, for what are ludicrously misnamed practical
advantages, and who slowly sap the moral vitality of a people through an
insinuating appeal to their temporary interests. The heart of a nation
may be eaten out by this process, without its losing any external signs
of prosperity and strength; but the process itself is resisted, and the
nation kept alive and impelled forward, by the purifying, though
disturbing forces, which come from the generous sentiments and fervid
aspirations of youth. Wise old heads may sneer as much as they please at
the idea of heart in politics; but if history teaches anything, it
teaches that human progress is possible only because the benevolent
instincts of the heart are permanent, while the reasonings of the head
are shifting. "When God," says Montesquieu, "endowed human beings with
brains, he did not intend to guaranty them." And the sarcasm of the
French philosopher is fully justified, when we reflect that nothing
mean, base, or cruel has ever been done in this world, which has not
been supported by arguments. To the mere head every historical event,
whether it be infamous or glorious, is like the case at law which
attracted the attention of the Irish barrister. "It was," he said, "a
very pretty case, and he should like a fee of a hundred pounds to argue
it either way." Who is there, indeed, who has not heard the most
atrocious measures recommended by the most convincing arguments? Why,
the persecutions of the early Christians, the Massacre of St.
Bartholomew, the Spanish Inquisition, the Reign of Terror, the
institution of Slavery, the _coup d' etat_ of Louis Napoleon, are under
the condemnation of history from no lack of arguments in their favor
which it