9. A system of education by which the citizens will be qualified for the discharge of all their duties, and thus secure a free government. These are the fundamental principles upon which a true republic may be established, the aim and end of which is the regulation and protection of the people in the exercise of their natural rights; and this exercise is the best and all that government can confer upon a people. It is for them to determine. It is only for them to understand to apply the remedy. It is impossible to conceive that men will take up arms and spend their lives and fortunes, not to maintain their rights, but to perpetuate a system that outrages every principle of justice and destroys their liberty. The power to do this is in the people; but that power must be concentrated. The power is in the knowledge of these immortal truths in the minds of the people and in their will to enforce them. "If, while there is yet time," says Henry George, "we turn to justice and obey her, if we trust liberty and follow her, the dangers that now threaten must disappear." The means for such reconstruction are still in our hands; but intelligence, resolution, organization, are the necessary conditions for its successful accomplishment. Let the ballot, which is the force that now menaces our destruction, be turned to agencies for construction. Let wisdom guide and reason rule; let unity give strength. With a government as here indicated, what a glorious achievement would be accomplished! "With want destroyed; with greed changed to noble passions; with the fraternity that is born of equality taking the place of jealousy and fear that array men against each other; with mental power loosened by conditions that give to the humblest comfort and leisure-and who shall measure the heights to which our civilization may soar? Words fail the thought! It is the golden age of which poets have sung and high-raised seers have told in metaphor. It is the glorious vision which has always haunted man with gleams of fitful splendor." -Henry George. Civilization, which has risen and declined in successive periods, may steadily pursue its upward course. It only needs the full and uninterrupted play of the social forces, and the political appliances for their regulation and protection of their exercise, to reach a point in civilization never yet experienced in the history of the world. There is nothing extravagant or exaggerating in this view. When poverty is removed; when avarice and greed no longer goad to cruelty and robbery, and the higher faculties assert their prerogative, then the "sword will be beaten into a plowshare, and the spear into a pruning-hook." Is not this worth striving for? What nobler object could engage the attention of man? How earnestly and faithfully the patriot fathers struggled for this! How bravely and lavishly they poured out their treasure and their blood! And shall we, the sons and daughters of such noble sires, ignobly submit to what they so gloriously conquered? "The true republic is not yet here; but her birthstruggles must soon begin. Already with the hope of her men's thoughts are stirring Not a republic of landlords and peasants, nor a republic of millionaires and tramps; not a republic in which some are masters and some serve: but a republic of equal citizens, where competition becomes co-operation, and the interdependence of all gives true independence to each; where moral progress goes hand in hand with intellectual progress, and material progress elevates and enfranchises even the poorest and weakest and lowliest."-Henry George. CHAPTER XX. DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. "Truth crushed to earth will rise again, Dies amid her worshipers." THE presentation of new thoughts, or even of old ones in new arrangement or application, excites opposition and is generally resisted. We cherish our opinions with vigilant care. No difference what they are or how we came by them: should they be assailed, we hasten with laudable zeal to defend them. Were they judiciously selected from the great field of thought and formed with special regard to truth and reason? We never knew how or when they were formed. We never questioned their soundness nor suspected their validity. But let a new idea, or a new application of an old one, be presented for acceptance, and forthwith there is "war in the camp.' We approach it with the utmost caution; we examine it with the utmost care; we scrutinize it with the keenest adverse criticism; and then-reject it. This is the most favorable consideration of its treatment. Too often we refuse it attention, and not seldom make war upon it because it is a new idea. There are several reasons for this. We love our opinions because they are ours. They flow along the mental ruts without much exertion; whereas, the acceptance of a new idea necessitates a mental effort. They belong to our sect or our party, and are therefore to be cherished. To adopt a new train of thought or of thought to new purposes requires moral courage-a quality of mind that cannot be overrated. Any change is not popular. The advocacy of a new thought or a new arrangement of thought subjects one to the charge of being a "crank," an impracticable dreamer, an optimist, a socialist, a communistscarecrows to deter investigation and keep the timid "in their proper places." It is along the line of religious, social, and political thought that the advance has been slowest-where passion is the most liable to excitement, where control of opinion is most available for despotism. And yet ideas are the potent agencies in the world. The idea of right to private opinion, originated by Martin Luther, broke down the walls of ecclesiastical tyranny and liberated millions from the rule of popery. The idea of |