And State Papers 499 



average man so to shape his life that the State shall 

 be worth saving, and only on those terms. We 

 need civic righteousness. The best constitution that 

 the wit of man has ever devised, the best institu- 

 tions that the ablest statesmen in the world have 

 ever reduced to practice by law or by custom, all 

 these shall be of no avail if they are not vivified 

 by the spirit which makes a State great by making 

 its citizens honest, just, and brave. I do not ask 

 you as practical believers in applied Christianity to 

 take part one way or the other in matters that are 

 merely partisan. There are plenty of questions 

 about which honest men can and do differ very 

 greatly and very intensely, but as to which the 

 triumph of either side may be compatible with the 

 welfare of the State a lesser degree of welfare or 

 a greater degree of welfare but compatible with 

 the welfare of the State. But there are certain 

 great principles, such as those which Cromwell 

 would have called "fundamentals," concerning which 

 no man has a right to have more than one opinion. 

 Such a question is honesty. If you have not hon- 

 esty in the average private citizen, in the average 

 public servant, then all else goes for nothing. The 

 abler a man is, the more dexterous, the shrewder, 

 the bolder, why the more dangerous he is if he has 

 not the root of right living and right thinking in 

 him and that in private life, and even more in 

 public life. Exactly as in time of war, although 

 you need in each fighting man far more than cour- 

 age, yet all else counts for nothing if there is not 



