a new city on unoccupied ground; there are some
foundations truly laid which have withstood the fire and storm and which
cannot be disturbed without both risk and useless toil. There are still
edifices standing to which time has given a beauty and tradition a
sanctity which newer creations cannot possess. They cannot be removed
without irreparable loss. Like any other metaphor, that of rebuilding a
city as compared with the action of a state, of a nation, after a time
of change and trouble, is misleading if pressed too far. Progress for a
nation must rather be the growth and development of a living organism
adapting itself to new conditions or altered environment. We should "lop
the moulder'd branch away," amputate the diseased tissue, as the true
Conservative policy, and tend and foster the healthy growths with utmost
care, as the true method for the Liberal who aims at improvement and
fuller life.

One other thing must be said of the spirit in which the work of
Reconstruction should be undertaken, which goes to the root of the whole
matter, and a word must be used which we would have avoided if
possible--"the word is too often profaned for me to profane it." But
search for a substitute has been unavailing.

There are some words which are better unspoken, except in case of
necessity, that become soiled by common use. The too ready employment of
them may savour indeed of that unctuous tone which makes ordinary
Englishmen and boys squirm. "Conscience" is one. When a man speaks of
his conscience you at once, and quite rightly, begin to suspect him. He
is probably going to refuse some hard task which others are undertaking,
to do something which is offensive to his fellows, or at best, in sheer
obstinacy to insist on a course of conduct which he knows cannot be
justified by reason. Someone has defined "conscience" as the
"deification of our prejudices"; the giving of a kind of divine
authority to something we will insist on doing though it brings no
good, even causes harm, to ourselves and offends and injures others, or
the giving a name which should be sacred as commanding what we want to
do for other reasons. A staunch Nonconformist--one of the clearest
thinkers and probably the finest preacher of the last generation--how he
would have hated the phrase, but one cannot pause for another!--truly
said of the passive resisters in his day, "There is a deal more of
politics than of conscience in their action." Yet there are t