CXLIV.

TRUE STATESMANSHIP.

The true lawgiver ought to have a heart full of sensibility. He ought to
love and respect his kind, and to fear himself. It may be allowed to his
temperament to catchy his ultimate object with an intuitive glance, but his
movements toward it ought to be deliberate. Political arrangement, as it is
a work for social ends, is to be wrought only by social means. There mind
must conspire with mind. Time is required to produce all the good we aim
at. Our patience will achieve more than our force. If I might venture to
appeal to what is so much out of fashion in Paris, I mean to experience, I
should tell you that in my course I have known, and, according to my
measure, have cooperated with great men; and I have never yet seen any plan
which has not been mended by the observations of those who were much
inferior in understanding to the person who took the lead in business. By a
slow but well-sustained progress the effect of each step is watched; the
good or ill success of the first gives light to us in the second; and so,
from light to light, we are conducted with safety through the whole series.
We see that the parts of the system do not clash. The evils latent in the
most promising contrivances are provided for as they arise. One advantage
is as little as possible sacrificed to another. We compensate, we
reconcile, we balance. We are enabled to unite into a consistent whole the
various anomalies and contending principles that are found in the minds and
affairs of men. From hence arises not an excellence in simplicity but one
far superior, an excellence in composition. Where the great interests of
mankind are concerned through a long succession of generations, that
succession ought to be admitted into some share in the councils which are