No. 4.] CULTURE OF CIVIC VIRTUES. 35 



tutions are not the work of philosophers, but of the inter- 

 ests and instincts of large portions of society recently 

 grown into strength." What is true of England is emi- 

 nently true of America. In a government of the people, 

 for the people and by the people we must not overlook 

 these " interests and instincts,'" which grow with increasing 

 intelligence. Were the Jewish Messiah elected President 

 of the United States he would have to keep his ideas of the 

 Kingdom of God in abeyance until the people had worked 

 them out in their own way. There is, then, nothing so im- 

 portant as the intelligent, thinking and courageous citizen. 



But in order to think highly of mankind, as Helvetius 

 has said, "you must not expect too much of them." The 

 people climb to the summits of great ideas very slowly ; 

 they have no wings and do not fly, but toil upwards with 

 weary feet, and, sometimes, with doubting hearts. To be- 

 lieve in the people — that they are after all the democracy 

 of God, that there are great possibilities in them, that by 

 and by they will carry their " banner full high advanced" 

 — is a civic virtue of the highest importance and rank. 



We are naturally a conservative people, and this charac- 

 teristic makes us a great deal of trouble, for, as the late 

 Walter Bagehot has said : ' ' One of the greatest pains of 

 human nature is the pain of a new idea. It is, as the com- 

 mon people say, 'so upsetting'". The newcomer is not a 

 peaceable tenant of the mind but makes trouble at once 

 with all the former occupants, and you are in constant dan- 

 ger of having your old favorites disturbed or losing some 

 of your old pets. The air to-day is full of new ideas on all 

 subjects pertaining to human welfare, and it is both un- 

 American and unpatriotic to dismiss them without a thought. 



Then, again, there is the bias of party. God grant that 

 the time may never come when there will be no parties in 

 our land. I confess to having a great liking for my old 

 party prejudices ; they are encouraging to law and order 

 and steadying to the individual in the discharge of his du- 

 ties ; but there is no call that we should follow the example 

 of the Chinese and blacken our teeth because we think the 

 devil has white ones. 



