the monsters of
destructive error.

For in the [Greek: gnothi seauton] of the Greek philosopher lies the
secret of all reform. To know one's faults is already one half the
battle to correct them. He who becomes conscious that health of body and
mind are steadily yielding to the inroads of an insidious foe, is worse
than a fool if he do not at once apply the knife to the seat of disease,
however painful may be the operation. And though to-day we hear but
little of reform, and all parties seem striving which shall display the
most devotion to the cause of the past, the most affection for the
unchanged and unchangeable _status quo ante bellum_ in all things, yet
is the popular mind not the less earnestly though silently working.
To-day we have a task which occupies all our attention, absorbs all our
powers and resources, and there is no time for reform: the all-absorbing
and vital question being the establishing of things upon the old
footing. But, peace restored, and the deathblow given to treason, the
work of reform will commence. Then will become manifest the workings of
the great mind of the nation during all this trying and bloody war. To
acknowledge our defects and miscomings now, is but to give a handle to
the enemies of our cause: but, this danger removed, the axe will at once
be laid at the root of those evils which have come nigh to working our
destruction; all the unsightly excrescences which have for years been
accumulating upon the trunk of our goodly tree will be carefully pruned
away, and the result will be a healthier and more abundant fruit in the
days to come. And these reforms will be brought about quietly, yet with
a firm and vigorous hand, and in a manner that will show to the world
our determination henceforth to leave no loophole for the entrance of
the destroyer.

No race of _thinkers_ can ever be enslaved. Hitherto we have been too
unreflecting, too much governed by momentary impulses, too much carried
away by party cries and unhealthy enthusiasm, and hence completely
beneath the sway of designing demagogues. We have left the politicians
to do our thinking for us, and accepted too unhesitatingly their
interested dicta as our rules of political action. The press has
hitherto led the people, and so mighty an engine of political power has
been eagerly seized and controlled by party leaders as a means of
accomplishing their ends. All this will be done away with. We shall do
our thinking for ourselves