subconscious reservoir whence our nobler energies are supplied for
ever. And so, little things lead to great; and in an office wrangle or a
social squabble there is need for developing those very qualities of
judgment, courage, and patience which equip a man for the trials of the
battlefield or the ruling of the state.


IV


We have considered the individual in business and social life. Let us
now follow him into a political assembly. We find the same conditions
prevail. Again, men fight bitterly but most frequently for nothing worth
a fight; and again those rightly judging the situation must resolve not
to be tempted into a wrangle even if their restraint be called by
another name. What in a political assembly is often the first thing to
note? We begin by the assumption, "this is a practical body of men," the
words invariably used to cover the putting by of some great principle
that we ought all endorse and uphold. But, first, by one of the many
specious reasons now approved, we put the principle by, and before long
we are at one another's throats about things involving no principle. It
is not necessary to particularise. Note any meeting for the same general
conditions: a chairman, indecisive, explaining rules of order which he
lacks the grit to apply; members ignoring the chair and talking at one
another; others calling to order or talking out of time or away from the
point; one unconsciously showing the futility of the whole business by
asking occasionally what is before the chair, or what the purpose of the
meeting. This picture is familiar to us all, and curiously we seem to
take it always as the particular freak of a particular time or locality;
but it is nothing of the kind. It is the natural and logical result of