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74 Colleges and Public Life 



leading magazines afford proof of this. Certain of 

 the governmental essays by such writers as Mr. 

 Lawrence Lowell and Professor A. B. Hart, and 

 especially such books as that on the "Speaker's 

 Powers and Duties," by Miss Follet, have been 

 genuine and valuable contributions to our political 

 thought. These essays have been studied carefully 

 not only by scholars, but by men engaged in prac- 

 tical politics, because they were written with good 

 judgment and keen insight after careful investiga- 

 tion of the facts, and so deserved respectful attention. 

 It is a misfortune for any people when the paths 

 of the practical and the theoretical politicians di- 

 verge so widely that they have no common standing- 

 ground. When the Greek thinkers began to devote 

 their attention to purely visionary politics of the kind 

 found in Plato's "Republic," while the Greek prac- 

 tical politicians simply exploited the quarrelsome 

 little commonwealths in their own interests, then the 

 end of Greek liberty was at hand. No government 

 that can not command the respectful support of the 

 best thinkers is in an entirely sound condition; but 

 it is well to keep in mind the remark of Frederick 

 the Great, that if he wished to punish a province, he 

 would allow it to be governed by the philosophers. 

 It is a great misfortune for the country when the 

 practical politician and the doctrinaire have no point 

 in common, but the misfortune is, if anything, great- 

 est for the doctrinaire. The ideal to be set before the 

 student of politics and the practical politician alike 

 is the ideal of the "Federalist." Each man should 



