True Manliness / From the Writings of Thomas Hughes

CXLVIII.

A liberal politician is a man who looks to the future and not to the past; he looks for progress; he desires to see the whole nation raised; he desires to go on from better things to better things, and he is not afraid of new things; he holds that every institution must be tried by its worth and its value to the nation;—he holds above all things that there should be equality before the law for every institution, for every society, and for every individual citizen.

CXLIX.

Alfred the Great had his problems of anarchy, widespread lawlessness, terrorism, to meet. After the best thought he could give to the business, he met them and prevailed. Like diseases call for like cures; and we may assume without fear that a remedy which has been very successful in one age is at least worth looking at in another.

We too, like Alfred, have our own troubles—our land-questions, labor-questions, steady increase of pauperism, and others. In our struggle for life we fight with different weapons, and have our advantages of one kind or another over our ancestors; but when all is said and done there is scarcely more coherence in the English nation of to-day than in that of 1079. Individualism, no doubt, has its noble side; and “every man for himself” is a law which works wonders; but we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that under their action English life has become more and more disjointed, threatening in some directions altogether to fall to pieces. What we specially want is something which shall bind us more closely together. Every nation of Christendom is feeling after the same thing. The need of getting done in some form that which frank-pledge did for Alfred’s people expresses itself in Germany in mutual-credit banks, open to every honest citizen; in France, in the productive associations of all kinds; at home, in our co-operative movements and trades-union.

No mere machinery, nothing that governments or legislatures can do in our day, will be of much help, but they may be great hindrances. The study of the modern statesman must be how to give such movements full scope and a fair chance, so that the people may be able without let or hindrance to work out in their own way the principle which Alfred brought practically home to his England, that in human society men cannot divest themselves of responsibility for their neighbors, and ought not to be allowed to attempt it.

CL.

The more attentively we study Alfred’s life, the more clearly does the practical wisdom of his methods of government justify itself by results. Of strong princes, with minds “rectified and prepared” on the Machiavellian model, the world has had more than enough, who have won kingdoms for themselves, and used them for themselves, and so left a bitter inheritance to their children and their people. It is well that, here and there in history, we can point to a king whose reign has proved that the highest success in government is not only compatible with, but dependent upon, the highest Christian morality.

CLI.

Think well over your important steps in life, and having made up your minds, never look behind.

CLII.

A gentleman should shrink from the possibility of having to come on others, even on his own father, for the fulfilment of his obligations, as he would from a lie. I would sooner see a son of mine in his grave than crawling on through life a slave to wants and habits which he must gratify at other people’s expense.

CLIII.

No two men take a thing just alike, and very few can sit down quietly when they have lost a fall in life’s wrestle, and say, “Well, here I am, beaten no doubt this time. By my own fault too. Now, take a good look at me, my good friends, as I know you all want to do, and say your say out, for I mean getting up again directly and having another turn at it.”

CLIV.

No man who is worth his salt can leave a place where he has gone through hard and searching discipline, and been tried in the very depths of his heart, without regret, however much he may have winced under the discipline. It is no light thing to fold up and lay by for ever a portion of one’s life, even when it can be laid by with honor and in thankfulness.

INDEX.

“Pansy knows girls, and has the gift of story-telling, by which the hard facts of every-day life take on a charm as of fairy-land. No one can look into ‘The Chautauqua Girls’ without feeling the subtle fascination of its pictures of quiet life, and being drawn into warm sympathy with the four friends who long to form noble characters. They have been won to a love of Jesus by attending a camp-meeting at Chautauqua; but they find it so hard to be true to their new impulses, and to carry the spirit of the Bible into every-day life, that the story of their struggles, disheartening failures relieved by partial successes, is very human and full of genuine pathos. It is good summer reading, for beguiling away hours, and inspiring with generous purposes.”

“Pansy’s last book, ‘The Chautauqua Girls at Home,’ is as fresh and inspiring as a fine morning in June. The four friends, Marion, Ruth, Flossy and Eurie, are of genuine flesh and blood, with the petty weaknesses that flesh is heir to, and the noble aspirations that come at times to every high-minded girl. Their unlikeness to each other in character and social position, and their mutual helpfulness in all sorts of difficulties, make a delightful story; instructive as well as fascinating. One finds it hard to lay down the book after beginning the first chapter. It will find many readers who will welcome its stimulating power to high aims in life, and to patience and hope in fighting hard battles.”

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