th the consciousness of power there must be a
deep sense of responsibility. Secondly, with freedom of action there
must be a law-abiding spirit, a habit of obedience to those laws of
action which control the arbitrary changeful will of the moment. The
prayer of the old Greek poet is one for all time:

May my lot be to keep a reverence pure in word and deed,
Controlled by laws, lofty, heaven-born,
Of which the father is God alone,
Not by the mortal nature of man begotten
Never in oblivion lulled to sleep!
God is mighty within them and grows not old.

Thirdly, there should be an ideal of what we aim at, of what we wish the
nation to become and to do, carefully thought out, and consciously set
before us--its attainment the object of our efforts--and with that must
be combined patient attention and steady work in planning and in taking
each practical step which will tend towards its realisation. Mere
captivating phrases are a will-of-the-wisp leading us to that "dangerous
quag" of revolutionary change into which "even if a good man fall he
will find no bottom for his feet to stand on." Reformation and
revolution are "contraries" though not perhaps "contradictories." Either
for the individual or the nation vague aspiration not followed by
beneficent action is the kind of stimulant which destroys virility. It
renders even virtue sterile, and engenders no new birth.

The Reign of Law is the best protection of Liberty. Arbitrariness--the
term seems the nearest we have to express the idea, but it is not quite
happy, and the use of the more expressive German word "Willkuer" might be
pardoned--is as great a danger in a democracy as in an autocracy, and it
is less capable of remedy. The "divine right of the odd man" "to govern
wrong" is too often assumed as an article of political faith. A new
generation may think that to quote from an early Victorian writer is to
appeal to the "dark ages"; but is there not a warning for all time in
Hallam's words, "the absolute Government of the majority is in general
the most tyrannical of any"? It is possible to decapitate a king who
sets himself above the law, or to deport or destroy a reactionary and
tyrannous aristocracy, but against the crimes or follies of an
unrestrained majority there is no appeal. Chaos, "red ruin, and the
breaking up of laws" follow in their steps. A general and deep sense of
responsibility as well as consciousness of power among "the masses"