fellow men can meet with much success.

What I have said relates to the somewhat narrow field of office-holding.
This is really a small part of the American system or of any system.
James Bryce tells us that we have a government of public opinion. That
is growing to be more and more true of the governments of the entire
world. The first care of despotism seems to be to control the school and
the press. Where the mind is free it turns not to force but to reason
for the source of authority. Men submit to a government of force as we
are doing now when they believe it is necessary for their security,
necessary to protect them from the imposition of force from without.
This is probably the main motive of the German people. They have been
taught that their only protection lay in the support of a military
despotism. Rightly or wrongly they have believed this and believing have
submitted to what they suppose their only means of security. They have
been governed accordingly. Germany is still feudal.

This leads to the larger and all important field of politics. Here we
soon see that office-holding is the incidental, but the standard of
citizenship is the essential. Government does rest upon the opinions of
men. Its results rest on their actions. This makes every man a
politician whether he will or no. This lays the burden on us all. Men
who have had the advantages of liberal culture ought to be the leaders
in maintaining the standards of citizenship. Unless they can and do
accomplish this result education is a failure. Greatly have they been
taught, greatly must they teach. The power to think is the most
practical thing in the world. It is not and cannot be cloistered from
politics.

We live under a republican form of government. We need forever to