Most events recorded in history are
more remarkable than important, like eclipses of the sun and
moon, by which all are attracted, but whose effects no one takes
the trouble to calculate.
But will the government never be so well administered, inquired
one, that we private men shall hear nothing about it? "The king
answered: At all events, I require a prudent and able man, who
is capable of managing the state affairs of my kingdom. The
ex-minister said: The criterion, O Sire! of a wise and competent
man is, that he will not meddle with such like matters." Alas
that the ex-minister should have been so nearly right!
In my short experience of human life, the _outward_ obstacles,
if there were any such, have not been living men, but the
institutions of the dead. It is grateful to make one's way
through this latest generation as through dewy grass. Men are
as innocent as the morning to the unsuspicious.
"And round about good morrows fly,
As if day taught humanity."
Not being Reve of this Shire,
"The early pilgrim blithe he hailed,
That o'er the hills did stray,
And many an early husbandman,
That he met on the way";--
thieves and robbers all, nevertheless.
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