Machiavelli's Teaching Would Hardly Have Stood The

Advice To Persons About To Write History - Don't.

The Science Of Politics Is The One Science That Is Deposited By The Streams Of History, Like The Grains Of Gold In The Sand Of A River; And The Knowledge Of The Past, The Record Of Truths Revealed By Experience, Is Eminently Practical, As An Instrument Of Action And A Power That Goes To Making The Future.

The Law Of Liberty Tends To Abolish The Reign Of Race Over Race, Of Faith Over Faith, Of Class Over Class. It Is Not The Realisation Of A Political Ideal: It Is The Discharge Of A Moral Obligation.

The Epoch Of Doubt And Transition During Which The Greeks Passed From The Dim Fancies Of Mythology To The Fierce Light Of Science Was The Age Of Pericles, And The Endeavour To Substitute Certain Truth For The Prescriptions Of Impaired Authorities, Which Was Then Beginning To Absorb The Energies Of The Greek Intellect, Is The Grandest Movement In The Profane Annals Of Mankind, For To It We Owe, Even After The Immeasurable Progress Accomplished By Christianity, Much Of Our Philosophy And Far The Better Part Of The Political Knowledge We Possess.

That Great Political Idea, Sanctifying Freedom And Consecrating It To God, Teaching Men To Treasure The Liberties Of Others As Their Own And To Defend Them For The Love Of Justice And Charity More Than As A Claim Of Right, Has Been The Soul Of What Is Great And Good In The Progress Of The Last Two Hundred Years.