n6 The Best and the Good 



a great mistake to think that the extremist is a bet 

 ter man than the moderate. Usually the difference 

 is not that he is morally stronger, but that he is in 

 tellectually weaker. He is not more virtuous. He is 

 simply more foolish. This is notably true in our 

 American life of many of those who are most pes 

 simistic in denouncing the condition of our politics. 

 Certainly there is infinite room for improvement, in 

 finite need of fearless and trenchant criticism; but 

 the improvement can only come through intelligent 

 and straightforward effort. It is set back by those 

 extremists who by their action always invite reac 

 tion, and, above all, by those worst enemies of our 

 public honesty who by their incessant attacks upon 

 good men give the utmost possible assistance to the 

 bad. 



Offenders of this type need but a short shrift. 

 Though extremists after a fashion, they are morally 

 worse instead of better than the moderates. There 

 remains, however, a considerable group of men who 

 are really striving for the best, and who mistakenly, 

 though in good faith, permit the best to be the enemy 

 of the good. Under very rare conditions their atti 

 tude may be right, and because it is thus right once 

 in a hundred times they are apt to be blind to the 

 harm they do the other ninety-nine times. These 

 men need, above all, to realize that healthy growth 

 can not normally come through revolution. A revo- 



