socially; for socially we have set examples which the whole
world has not been slow to follow.



III.


"But Heaven hath a hand in these events."
--Richard II, Act V.


The state of society in the nineteenth century would have but few
attractions for us of the twentieth, were we able to return along
the vista of a hundred years. Our manners and customs are so vastly
different from those of our great-grandfathers that we should feel
out of place indeed had we to go back, even for a short time, to
their uncouth and imperfect ways. Their extraordinarily complex
method of governing themselves, and their intricate political
machinery would be very distressing to us, and are calculated
to make one think that a keen pleasure in governing or in being
overgoverned--not a special aptitude or genius for governing--must
have been very common among them. From the alarming blunders
made in directing public affairs, and from the manner in which
beneficial measures were opposed by the party out of office, it
appears quite certain that the instincts of true statesmanship did
not animate all classes then as now. Nevertheless our forefathers
went into the work of governing themselves and each other with
a great deal of vim. They had no well drawn out formulae to
work upon as we have, but they went at things in a sort of