426 LAND REFORM 



something weighty to say and knew so well how to 

 say it, are still the source whence most of what is best 

 in modern writings is usually drawn. 



If we turn to the actors in those days, great lessons 

 are to be learnt from them ; not from their methods — 

 their methods were peculiar to the age in which they 

 lived — but from the spirit that moved them, which was 

 true for all time. The good and glory of our old 

 country (old in the sense of endearment and not of 

 decay) were their great objects. On them the spirit 

 of cosmopolitanism — too common now — had not 

 dawned. With them *' God and country " was not a 

 sentiment on the lips, but a living cause for which 

 they were willing to be spent. 



Lord Beaconsfield, with his alert mind, in the most 

 charming of his books, sets out the case. " It is the 

 past alone," he says, "that can explain the present, 

 and it is youth alone that can mould the remedial 

 future. The written history of our country for the 

 last ten reigns has been a mere phantasma, giving to 

 the origin and consequence of public transactions a 

 character and colour in every respect dissimilar to 

 their natural form and hue. In this mighty mystery 

 all thoughts and things have assumed an aspect and 

 title contrary to their real quality and style. . . . We 

 live in an age when to be young and to be indifferent 

 can no longer be synonymous We must prepare for 

 the coming hour. The claims of the Future are repre- 

 sented by suffering millions, and the Youth of a Nation 

 are the trustees of Posterity." 



THE END 



