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ZEAL FOR AN CHAP. XIV. Effect of political writings in saving men from the trouble of thiuking. Want of jiro- jiortion be- tween llio skill of the public writer and the ju'li- cial compet- ence of liis readers. from the necessity of luaving to work his own way to a conclusion. But to spare a man from a healtliy toil is not always an unmixed good. To save a free-born citizen from the trouble of thinking upon ques- tions of State is to take from hiui his share of dominion ; and although it be true that he who follows printed advice is under a guidance more skilful and dexterous than any he could have got from his own untutored mind, he is less of a man — and, upon the wliole, is less fair, less righteous — than one who in a ruder fashion contrives to think for himself. Just as a man's quality may in some respects be lowered by his habitual re- liance on the policeman and the soldier who relieve him from the trouble and the anxiety of self-defence, so his intellectual strength, and his means of knowing how to be just, may easily become impaired if he suffers himself to walk too obediently under the leading of a political writer. But the ability of men engaged in political writing grew even more rapidly than the power to which they were attaining, and after a while, they so gained upon the ostensible statesmen that Par- liament no longer stood alone as the exponent of opinion, and was obliged to share its privilege with a number of gifted men whose names it could hardly ever liiid out.* Still, Parliament had valour and strength of its own, and, except in the matter of mere celebrity, it was a gainer " In the ilays of which I write there was much more my.stery thnii there is now as to the authorship of iiorioilical wiitings.
