PREFACE. 19 



I dare say some of my readers, especially the 

 younger ones, will demur to that last speech of mine. 

 Well, I hope they will not be angry with me for 

 saying it. I, at least, shall certainly not be angry 

 with them. For when I was young I was very much 

 of what I suspect is their opinion. I used to think 

 one could get perfect freedom, and social reform, and 

 all that I wanted, by altering the arrangements of 

 society and legislation ; by constitutions, and Acts of 

 Parliament; by putting society into some sort of 

 freedom-mill, and grinding it ah 1 down, and regene- 

 rating it so. And that something can be done by 

 improved arrangements, something can be done by 

 Acts of Parliament, I hold still, as every rational man 

 must hold. 



But as I grew older, I began to see that if things 

 were to be got right, the freedom-mill would do very 

 little towards grinding them right, however well and 

 amazingly it was made. I began to see that what 

 sort of flour came out at one end of the mill, depended 

 mainly on what sort of grain you had put in at the 

 other ; and I began to see that the problem was to get 

 good grain, and then good flour would be turned out, 

 even by a very clumsy old-fashioned sort of mill. 

 And what do I mean by good grain ? Good men, 

 honest men, accurate men, righteous men, patient 

 men, self-restraining men, fair men, modest men. 

 Men who are aware of their own vast ignorance com- 

 pared with the vast amount that there is to be learned 

 in such a universe as this. Men who are accustomed 

 to look at both sides of a question ; who, instead of 

 making up their minds in haste like bigots and fanatics, 

 wait like wise men, for more facts, and more thought 



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