fine field in which he can be to us a fine example.

V

In further consideration of this we should put by the thought of finding
a mere working agreement. There is a deep-lying basis of authority and
justice to seek, which it should be our highest aim to discover. Modern
governments concede justice to those who can compel justice--even the
democracy requires that you be strong enough to formulate a claim and
sustain it; but this is the way of tyranny. A perfect government should
seek, while careful to develop its stronger forces and keep them in
perfect balance, to consider also the claims of those less powerful but
not less true. A government that over-rides the weak because it is safe,
is a tyranny, and tyranny is in seed in the democratic governments of
our time. We must consider this well, for it is pressing and grave; and
we must get men to come together as citizens to defend the rights as
well of the unit which is unsupported as of the party that commands
great power. So shall we give steadiness and fervour to our growing
strength by balancing it with truth and justice: so shall we found a
government that excesses cannot undermine nor tyranny destroy.

VI

We have to consider, in conclusion, the unrest in the world, the war of
parties and classes, and the need of judging the tendencies of the time
to set our steps aright. With the wars and rumours of wars that threaten
the great nations from without and the wild upheavals that threaten them
within, it would be foolish to hide from ourselves the drift of events.
We must decide our attitude; and if it is too much to hope that we may
keep clear of the upheavals, we should aim at strengthening ourselves
against the coming crash. We cannot set the world right, but we can go a
long way to setting things in our own land right, by making through a
common patriotism a united people. What if we are held up occasionally
by the cold cries shot at every high aim--"dreamer--Utopia"; cry this
in return: no vision of the dreamer can be more wild than the frantic
make-shifts of the Great Powers to vie in armaments with one another or
repress internal revolts. Consider England in the late strike that
paralysed her. It was only suspended by a step that merely deferred the
struggle; the strife is again threatening. All the powers are so
threatened and their efforts to defer the hour are equally feverish and
fruitless; for the hour is pressing and may flash on the world whe