ur diplomacy is as complicated
as ours, and it is the most complicated on earth, for all things
grow in complexity as they develop toward a higher condition.
What fitness is there in these people? Well, it is not democracy
merely; it is a representative democracy. Our people do not vote
in mass for anything; they pick out captains of thought, they
pick out the men that do know, and they send them to the
Legislature to think for them, and then the people afterward
ratify or disallow them.

But when you come to the Legislature I am bound to confess that
the thing does not look very much more cheering on the outside.
Do they really select the best men? Yes; in times of danger they
do very generally, but in ordinary time, "kissing goes by
favor." You know what the duty of a regular Republican-Democratic
legislator is. It is to get back again next winter. His second
duty is what? His second duty is to put himself under that
extraordinary providence that takes care of legislators'
salaries. The old miracle of the prophet and the meal and the
oil is outdone immeasurably in our days, for they go there poor
one year, and go home rich; in four years they become
moneylenders, all by a trust in that gracious providence that
takes care of legislators' salaries. Their next duty after
that is to serve the party that sent them up, and then, if there
is anything left of them, it belongs to the commonwealth.
Someone has said very wisely, that if a man traveling wishes to
relish his dinner he had better not go into the kitchen to see
where it is cooked; if a man wishes to respect and obey the law,
he had better not go to the Legislature to see where that is
cooked.

--HENRY WARD BEECHER.

From a lecture delivered in Exeter Hall, London, 1886, when making
his last tour of Great Britain.

_In Case of Trouble_

But what are you to do if, notwithstanding all your efforts, you should
forget your points, and your mind, for the minute, becomes blank? This
is a deplorable condition that sometimes arises and must be dealt with.
Obviously, you can sit down and admit defeat. Such a consummation is
devoutly to be shunned.

Walking slowly across the platform may give you time to grip yourself,
compose your thoughts, and stave off disaster. Perhaps the surest and
most practical method is to begin a new sentence with you