has been some one in the course of ages who
has truly united the power of command with the power of thought and
reflection, as there have been also many false combinations of these
qualities. Some kind of speculative power is necessary both in practical
and political life; like the rhetorician in the Phaedrus, men require to
have a conception of the varieties of human character, and to be raised
on great occasions above the commonplaces of ordinary life. Yet the idea
of the philosopher-statesman has never been popular with the mass of
mankind; partly because he cannot take the world into his confidence or
make them understand the motives from which he acts; and also because
they are jealous of a power which they do not understand. The revolution
which human nature desires to effect step by step in many ages is likely
to be precipitated by him in a single year or life. They are afraid that
in the pursuit of his greater aims he may disregard the common feelings
of humanity, he is too apt to be looking into the distant future or back
into the remote past, and unable to see actions or events which, to use
an expression of Plato's 'are tumbling out at his feet.' Besides, as
Plato would say, there are other corruptions of these philosophical
statesmen. Either 'the native hue of resolution is sicklied o'er with
the pale cast of thought,' and at the moment when action above all
things is required he is undecided, or general principles are enunciated
by him in order to cover some change of policy; or his ignorance of the
world has made him more easily fall a prey to the arts of others; or in
some cases he has been converted into a courtier, who enjoys the luxury
of holding liberal opinions, but was never known to perform a liberal
action. No wonder that mankind have been in the habit of calling
statesmen of this class pedants, sophisters, doctrinaires, visionaries.
For, as we may be allowed to say, a little parodying the words of Plato,
'they have seen bad imitations of the philosopher-statesman.' But a man
in whom the power of thought and action are perfectly balanced, equal to
the present, reaching forward to the future, 'such a one,' ruling in a
constitutional state, 'they have never seen.'

But as the philosopher is apt to fail in the routine of political life,
so the ordinary statesman is also apt to fail in extraordinary crises.
When the face of the world is beginning to alter, and thunder is heard
in the distance, he is st