Navy would have left us naked to our enemies and a prey to starvation
within a few months from the outbreak of war; "Reform" to denote changes
which pedantry or envy may urge, but which could lead to no useful
practical result. In spite of this, the three words do in fact, like
the words Liberty, Equality, Fraternity--whatever crimes may have been
committed in their name--indicate and express three ideas that we must
have definitely before us in considering what the lines of
reconstruction ought to be.

The spirit--the tone of mind in which the work of reconstruction is
approached--will count for much. First of all, it is essential to have
hope--a real expectation not only that by strenuous effort and wise
foresight the country will meet and overcome the trials which are
inevitable, and the perils which threaten after as well as during the
War, but also that a better and brighter future is in store. Plans must
be framed and action taken under the inspiration of a firm trust that
the ideals we aim at are to be realised, that the "things hoped for"
have a potential actuality. Fatalism in politics--we use the term in the
original sense including ethics--is deadly, whether it is the fatalism
due to a sloppy optimism which is satisfied that somehow things will
come right whatever we do or leave undone, or to a paralysing pessimism
which in cowardly despair accepts the triumph of evil as ordained and
gives up the struggle when the prospects of victory seem dark. It would
be folly not to recognise that not only now, but for years to come there
will be enormous difficulties and terrible dangers to be faced; but it
is possible for our hearts and minds to be filled too much with the
contemplation of them instead of looking to the goal we aim at, and the
steps we must take one by one to reach it.

Be not over-exquisite
To cast the fashion of uncertain evils.
What need a man forestall his date of grief
And run to meet what he would most avoid?

There may be rocks and breakers--"a ferment of revolution"--ahead, but
the task of the pilot and the crew is to keep their eyes on the channel
through them, and to work the ship in its course to the haven where they
would be.

Secondly, there must be a faith to inspire action, based on a belief in
an essential goodness of human nature and in its capacity for
improvement. Unless such a belief were well founded, democracy would be
a thing to be dreaded and resisted by eve