246 FRESH FIELDS 



furnish employment for the unwise, capital flows 



to capital hands as surely as water seeks water. 



" Winds blow and waters roll 

 Strength to the brave." 



There never is and never can be any government 

 but by the wisest. In all nations and communities 

 the law of nature finally prevails. If there is no 

 wisdom in the people, there will be none in their 

 rulers; the virtue and intelligence of the rej^resen- 

 tative will not be essentially different from that of 

 his constituents. The dependence of the foolish, 

 the thriftless, the improvident, upon his natural 

 master and director, for food, employment, for life 

 itself, is just as real to-day in America as it was in 

 the old feudal or patriarchal times. The relation 

 between the two is not so obvious, so intimate, so 

 voluntary, but it is just as vital and essential. How 

 shall we know the wise man unless he makes him- 

 self felt, or seen, or heard? How shall we know 

 the master unless he masters us? Is there any 

 danger that the real captains will not step to the 

 front, and that we shall not know them wdien they 

 do? Shall we not know a Luther, a Cromwell, a 

 Franklin, a Washington ? 



"Man," says Carlyle, "little as he may suppose 

 it, is necessitated to obey superiors; he is a social 

 being in virtue of this necessity; nay, he could 

 not be gregarious otherwise; he obeys those whom 

 he esteems better than himself, wiser, braver, and 

 will forever obey such; and ever be ready and 

 delighted to do it." Think in how many ways, 



