traditions do no harm there is no reason to touch them, any more than
there is to abolish the boundary between this ancient and invincible
kingdom of Kent in which I write and that extremely inferior country,
England, which was conquered by the Normans and brought under the
feudal system. But so soon as these old traditions obstruct sound
action, so soon as it is necessary to be rid of them, we must be
prepared to sacrifice our archaeological emotions ruthlessly and
entirely.

And these repudiations extend also to the political parties that
struggle to realize themselves within the forms of our established
state. There is not in Great Britain, and I understand there is not in
America, any party, any section, any group, any single politician even,
based upon the manifest trend and purpose of life as it appears in the
modern view. The necessities of continuity in public activity and of a
glaring consistency in public profession, have so far prevented any
such fundamental reconstruction as the new generation requires. One
hears of Liberty, of Compromise, of Imperial Destinies and Imperial
Unity, one hears of undying loyalty to the Memory of Mr. Gladstone and
the inalienable right of Ireland to a separate national existence. One
hears, too, of the sacred principle of Free Trade, of Empires and
Zollvereins, and the Rights of the Parent to blockade the education of
his children, but one hears nothing of the greater end. At the best all
the objects of our political activity can be but means to that end,
their only claim to our recognition can be their adequacy to that end,
and none of these vociferated "cries," these party labels, these
programme items, are ever propounded to us in that way. I cannot see
how, in England at any rate, a serious and perfectly honest man,
holding as true that ampler view of life I have suggested, can attach
himself loyally to any existing party or faction. At the utmost he may