r and neatness which so much improve it."

"And how well it would answer here! The hill on which the castle stands,
slopes down to that projecting angle. The village, you see, is built in
a semicircle, regularly enough, just opposite to it. The brook runs
between. It is liable to floods; and do observe the way the people set
about protecting themselves from them; one with stones, another with
stakes; the next puts up a boarding, and a fourth tries beams and
planks; no one, of course, doing any good to another with his
arrangement, but only hurting himself and the rest too. And then there
is the road going along just in the clumsiest way possible,--up hill and
down, through the water, and over the stones. If the people would only
lay their hands to the business together, it would cost them nothing but
a little labor to run a semi-circular wall along here, take the road in
behind it, raising it to the level of the houses, and so give themselves
a fair open space in front, making the whole place clean, and getting
rid, once for all, in one good general work, of all their little
trifling ineffectual makeshifts."

"Let us try it," said the Captain, as he ran his eyes over the lay of
the ground, and saw quickly what was to be done.

"I can undertake nothing in company with peasants and shopkeepers,"
replied Edward, "unless I may have unrestricted authority over them."

"You are not so wrong in that," returned the Captain; "I have
experienced too much trouble myself in life in matters of that kind. How
difficult it is to prevail on a man to venture boldly on making a
sacrifice for an after-advantage! How hard to get him to desire an end,
and not hesitate at the means! So many people confuse means with ends;
they keep hanging over the first, without having the other before their
eyes. Every evil is to be cured at the place where it comes to the
surface, and they will not trouble themselves to look for the cause
which produces it, or the remote effect which results from it. This is
why it is so difficult to get advice listened to, especially among the
many: they can see clearly enough from day to day, but their scope
seldom reaches beyond the morrow; and if it comes to a point where with
some general arrangement one person will gain while another will lose,
there is no prevailing on them to strike a balance. Works of public
advantage can be carried through only by an uncontrolled absolute
authority."

While they were standi