y cooeperate in every enterprise whose
tendency was to the national good, working steadily and cheerfully side
by side with rivals and political opposers, and confining its own
opposition strictly to those measures of which the effect is, judged by
its own standard, obviously evil. The _role_ of the true reformer is to
glide quietly along with the tide of events, becoming reconciled to
those measures which, though contrary to his own convictions, are
nevertheless too firmly established to admit of being shaken by his most
powerful efforts; and so while carefully avoiding all unnecessary
antagonisms, all useless stirring up of old bitternesses, to seek so to
identify himself with the current of events, and so to become part and
parcel of the nation's political life and progress, as to be enabled to
guide into the channel of future good the movement which at first
started awry. Even where the vessel has widely diverged from the path of
good, and follows that which leads to inevitable destruction, it is his
part, instead of wasting his powers in useless struggles to stay her
course, to continue on as part and parcel of the precious freight,
seeking opportunity so to guide the erring prow that she shall be
gradually diverted from the evil course toward some distant and advanced
point of the forsaken track, without being violently dragged back along
her wake. So reaching at last the accustomed course, the good ship will
still be far advanced upon her way with all the benefits of past
experience of evil to act as a warning against future digressions from
the established path of progress. It will be time enough then to point
out the dangers she has escaped, and to argue the absurdity of the olden
theories which have so seriously interfered with her navigation. By such
a course alone will he secure the respect of his opponents, and the
love and admiration of those who never fail to appreciate sterling
integrity of purpose, uprightness of motives, and persevering effort in
the cause of the public good, which is that of the right and the true;
and so only will he quiet and disarm that factious spirit which would
otherwise be ever ready to start into a violent opposition at his first
effort in the public cause. Nor must such a course imply time-serving or
sycophancy, or the least concealment of any of the loftiest and noblest
sentiments. In any matter of wrong, where the voice and the concentrated
effort of the true philanthropist c