out this same liberty of action,
namely, that whenever we can make a perfectly equitable law about any
matter, or even a law securing, on the whole, more just conduct than
unjust, we ought to make that law; and that there will yet, on these
conditions, always remain a number of matters respecting which legalism
and formalism are impossible; enough, and more than enough, to exercise
all human powers of individual judgment, and afford all kinds of scope
to individual character. I think this; but of course it can only be
proved by separate examination of the possibilities of formal restraint
in each given field of action; and these two lectures are nothing more
than a sketch of such a detailed examination in one field, namely, that
of art. You will find, however, one or two other remarks on such
possibilities in the next note.

* * * * *

Note 2nd, p. 21.--"_Right to public support._"

127. It did not appear to me desirable, in the course of the spoken
lecture, to enter into details or offer suggestions on the questions of
the regulation of labour and distribution of relief, as it would have
been impossible to do so without touching on many disputed or disputable
points, not easily handled before a general audience. But I must now
supply what is wanting to make my general statement clear.

I believe, in the first place, that no Christian nation has any business
to see one of its members in distress without helping him, though,
perhaps, at the same time punishing him: help, of course--in nine cases
out of ten--meaning guidance, much more than gift, and, therefore,
interference with liberty. When a peasant mother sees one of her
careless children fall into a ditch, her first proceeding is to pull him
out; her second, to box his ears; her third, ordinarily, to lead him
carefully a little way by the hand, or send him home for the rest of the
day. The child usually cries, and very often would clearly prefer
remaining in the ditch; and if he understood any of the terms of
politics, would certainly express resentment at the interference with
his individual liberty: but the mother has done her duty. Whereas the
usual call of the mother nation to any of her children, under such
circumstances, has lately been nothing more than the foxhunter's,--"Stay
still there; I shall clear you." And if we always _could_ clear them,
their requests to be left in muddy independence might be sometimes
allowed by