'This ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other
undone.'
Our country cannot be left to politicians, for its first great demand is
the careful thought of every man in the direction of its affairs; and
this, no single man or class of men can supply. The action of Government
should be conditioned by the needs of the people, and these can be known
only by the people themselves. It is for every man, therefore, to keep
an earnest and heedful eye to his own needs and the wants of those about
him, if the _vox populi_ would be _vox Dei_, the utterance of God's
truth; otherwise the opinion of the people will be the voice of
demagogues, which is as far as possible from the voice of God. Another
need is that of continual watchfulness, lest the country be defrauded,
or its rulers become corrupt. No class of men can be appointed as
watchmen, lest they also go in the same way: but it is the unalienable
duty of the whole people. When the emergency of defence arises, no man
can really perform his duty by the payment of money or the providing of
a substitute; for that which makes a country strong is not armies or
cannon, but life. The Moors held Grenada, in the midst of Spain, for
years, the Swiss have remained amid the storms of Europe for centuries,
a Rome of huts went out to conquer the world, while a Rome of palaces is
doomed to invasion and death.
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