502 BEST MEANS OF ENLIGHTENING AND IMPROVING THE PEOPLE. 



would be quite willing to let it be wrecked if he could save himself and 

 his own goods, but who knows better how to manage it, and whose in- 

 terests may prompt him to save it, than to one who would be willing to 

 sacrifice his own life for it, but who has less ability. I make this com- 

 parison, not to render the opposite party odious, but to teach it the 

 necessity of joining wisdom and knowledge to goodness : of having the 

 wisdom of the serpent as well as the innocence of the dove. 



Secondly, having decided which of the two great parties (as being de- 

 cidedly the better of the two, however faulty still) we must fix on the 

 basis of our hope, and the material to work on, in order to the attain- 

 ment of any substantial and permanent good, let us at once come to the 

 practical part of the question, and inquire (with a view to decide) what 

 we ought to do, including, of course, what we ought to endeavour to 

 persuade others to do. In order to this, we must now separately consi- 

 der the two different questions above-mentioned, the END we have, or 

 ought to have, in view, and the MEANS by which we are to attain it, 

 noticing at the same time the popular errors as to both ; and taking 

 care to make both as definite* as possible, and also strictly within the 

 bounds of practicability two conditions that are sadly forgotten by po- 

 litical reformers in general. 



The one great leading (and misleading) error of the Liberals the 

 fountain-head from whence all the others proceed, and which therefore 

 must be attacked in the very threshold of our undertaking is, this 

 very partial and one-sided view of the truth. The WHOLE TRUTH, and 

 the foundation-stone, or rather the vital root of all perfection both in 

 morals and politics, is this : there are two distinct and almost opposite 

 classes of virtues, and therefore of objects to be pursued the amiable and 

 benevolent, and the respectable and dignified; and neither a character nor 

 a government can be perfect that does not unite both.-\ This is a point, 

 however, which the majority of the liberal party, even after it has been 

 pointed out to them, will perhaps refuse to admit. But let them once 

 be made aware of the consequences of denying it, and then, even though 

 they may not themselves admit it, they will see the necessity of acting 

 as if they did, and putting forward as their leaders only such persons as 



* The following opinions of the man who was pre-eminently the " tretvagisot" of all 

 the philosophers and politicians of our century, may be read with interest and profit. 



" Nov. 1 , 1830. I see no reformer who asks himself the question, " What is it that 

 1 propose to myself to effect in the result ?' *' 



*' March 20, 1831. 1 cannot discern a ray of principle in the government plan." 



" June 25, 1831. The duplicity and tergiversation of the Whig newspapers is most 

 disgusting:' Coleridge's Table-Talk. 



The above passages are important, not at all in themselves, but as revealing the 

 cause why the ablest and one of the most zealous defenders and martyrs of liberty in 

 his youth, became the decided e^emy of the liberal party (without changing his 

 principles] in the latter half of his life. Had the liberals not made themselves con- 

 temptible, nothing would have bribed him to desert them. The same is true of many 

 other great men and obscure men, too. 



f It is a consideration at once important and gratifying in the highest degree, tha 

 the system which combines both these qualities in the greatest perfection is, the 

 established religion and constitution of this country; and Addison begins one of his 

 admirable papers in the Spectator with the reflection, that he has always considered 

 it a peculiar subject of gratitude, that if he had the power of choosing his own religion 

 and government, it would be that of his own country in preference to any other. 

 There is indeed this difference between them, that while the former is definite and 



