A SUNDAY IN CHEYNE KOW 247 



through how many avenues, in our times, the wise 

 man can reach us and place himself at our head, or 

 mould us to his liking, as orator, statesman, poet, 

 philosopher, preacher, editor. If he has any wise 

 mind to speak, any scheme to unfold, there is the 

 rostrum or pulpit and crowds ready to hear him, or 

 there is the steam power press ready to disseminate 

 his wisdom to the four corners of the earth. He 

 can set up a congress or a parliament and really 

 make and unmake the laws, by his own fireside, in 

 any country that has a free press. "If we will 

 consider it, the essential truth of the matter is, 

 every British man can now elect himself to Parlia- 

 ment without consulting the hustings at all. If 

 there be any vote, idea, or notion in him, or any 

 earthly or heavenly thing, cannot he take a pen 

 and therewith autocratically pour forth the same 

 into the ears and hearts of all people, so far as it 

 will go 1 " (" Past and Present. ") Or, there is 

 the pulpit everywhere waiting to be worthily filled. 

 What may not the real hero accomplish here ? " In- 

 deed, is not this that we call sjDiritual guidance 

 properly the soul of the whole, the life and eyesight 

 of the whole? " Some one has even said, "Let me 

 make the songs of a nation and I care not who 

 makes the laws." Certainly the great poet of a 

 people is its real Founder and King. He rules for 

 centuries and rules in the heart. 



In more primitive times, and amid more rudely 

 organized communities, the hero, the strong man, 

 could step to the front and seize the leadership like 



