Equality should appear, and the methods of
applying them be made out. The problem of popular sovereignty pointed to
the same need. Thus the lines of the remainder of our task are clearly
laid down. We have to get at the fundamentals of Liberalism, and to
consider what kind of structure can be raised upon the basis which they
offer. We will approach the question by tracing the historic movement of
Liberal thought through certain well-marked phases. We shall see how the
problems which have been indicated were attacked by successive thinkers,
and how partial solutions gave occasion for deeper probings. Following
the guidance of the actual movement of ideas, we shall reach the centre
and heart of Liberalism, and we shall try to form a conception of the
essentials of the Liberal creed as a constructive theory of society.
This conception we shall then apply to the greater questions, political
and economic, of our own day; and this will enable us finally to
estimate the present position of Liberalism as a living force in the
modern world and the prospect of transforming its ideals into
actualities.

FOOTNOTES:

[2] In England "benefit of clergy" was still a good plea for remission
of sentence for a number of crimes in the seventeenth century. At that
time all who could read could claim benefit, which was therefore of the
nature of a privilege for the educated class. The requirement of
reading, which had become a form, was abolished in 1705, but peers and
clerks in holy orders could still plead their clergy in the eighteenth
century, and the last relics of the privilege were not finally abolished
till the nineteenth century.

[3] See an interesting chapter in Faguet's _Liberalisme_, which points
out that the common saying that thought is free is negated by any
inquisition which compels a man to disclose opinions, and penalizes him
if they are not such as to suit the inquisitor.

CHAPTER III

THE MOVEMENT OF THEORY

Great changes are not caused by ideas alone; but they are not effected
without ideas. The passions of men must be aroused if the frost of
custom is to be broken or the chains of authority burst; but passion of
itself is blind and its world is chaotic. To be effective men must act
together, and to act together they must have a common understanding and
a common object. When it comes to be a question of any far-reaching
change, they must not merely conceive their own immediate end with
clearness. They mu