ll, whether he is dealing with children in politics, or with
full-grown men, seek to do for the people what the government can do
for them, and what, from imperfect education or deficient powers of
combination, they cannot do for themselves. He knows that if he does too
much for them they will do nothing; and that if he does nothing for them
they will in some states of society be utterly helpless. For the many
cannot exist without the few, if the material force of a country is from
below, wisdom and experience are from above. It is not a small part of
human evils which kings and governments make or cure. The statesman is
well aware that a great purpose carried out consistently during many
years will at last be executed. He is playing for a stake which may be
partly determined by some accident, and therefore he will allow largely
for the unknown element of politics. But the game being one in which
chance and skill are combined, if he plays long enough he is certain of
victory. He will not be always consistent, for the world is changing;
and though he depends upon the support of a party, he will remember that
he is the minister of the whole. He lives not for the present, but for
the future, and he is not at all sure that he will be appreciated either
now or then. For he may have the existing order of society against him,
and may not be remembered by a distant posterity.

There are always discontented idealists in politics who, like Socrates
in the Gorgias, find fault with all statesmen past as well as present,
not excepting the greatest names of history. Mankind have an uneasy
feeling that they ought to be better governed than they are. Just as the
actual philosopher falls short of the one wise man, so does the actual
statesman fall short of the ideal. And so partly from vanity and
egotism, but partly also from a true sense of the faults of eminent men,
a temper of dissatisfaction and criticism springs up among those who
are ready enough to acknowledge the inferiority of their own powers. No
matter whether a statesman makes high professions or none at all--they
are reduced sooner or later to the same level. And sometimes the more
unscrupulous man is better esteemed than the more conscientious, because
he has not equally deceived expectations. Such sentiments may be unjust,
but they are widely spread; we constantly find them recurring in reviews
and newspapers, and still oftener in private conversation.

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