52o POLITICS AND MORALS

Everyone knows Kant's famous confession of his ever-
increasing wonder at the starry heavens above and the moral
law within. The conviction that society rests on moral and
spiritual foundations was shared by Burke, the greatest of
English political thinkers, who described the state as a partner-
ship in all art, in all science, in all perfection. And Mill based
the most moving plea for individual liberty ever written on
his lofty reading of the character and potentialities of man.
Democracy is more than a type of government, and what is
called pacifism is more than a mere theory of international
relations. Both are the expression of faith in the ultimate
sanity of the common man, in his power to learn from ex-
perience, in his capacity for spiritual growth.

I share this faith. Despite the number and the eminence
of his disciples, I believe that Machiavelliis unfair to mankind.
The professed realist only saw a limited portion of the vast
field of experience. The will to power is not title sole key to
human nature. History is assuredly a record of strife—the
strife of arms and wits ; but it is also, as Kropotkin reminded
us in an illuminating work, a story of mutual aid. Noble aims
in plenty have been formed by men and nations, and many of
them have been wholly or partially achieved. With a longer
and a wider experience than Machiavelli, we have learned to
recognize the solid core of truth in the old adage that honesty
is the best policy. The application of the maxims of The Prince
may achieve a temporary triumph, but they provide no founda-
tion for the enduring happiness, prosperity or security of a
state. If man were, indeed the unruly and perfidious animal
that he believes, The Prince might be accepted as a recipe for
making the best of a bad job. But the broad testimony of
modern history suggests that the average man rises above this
level. Our sixteenth-century instructor makes no allowance
for growth; the idea of progress is the creation of modern
times, above all of the eighteenth century. Froude used to
say that history is like a child's box of letters, with which you
can spell any -word you choose. What Machiavelli satw was
real enough, and he was a careful student of history as well;
but in (Concentrating his gaze on the practice of governments,
he paid too little attention to other aspects of the life of the
community. Brilliant intellects like Machiavelli and Hobbes,
Voltaire and Marx have seen certain phenomena with extra-
ordinary distinctness" and emphasized their immense signi-
ficance, yet vast tracts of human experience lie beyond their