as i understand the word “politician,” it means a man who, whatever his other engagements in life may be, and however he may earn his daily bread, feels above all things deeply interested, feels that he is bound to be deeply interested, and to take as active a part as he can, in the public affairs of his country. i believe that every englishman, if he is worth anything at all, is bound to be a politician, and can’t for the life of him help taking a deep interest in the public affairs of his country. the object of politics is the well-being of the nation, or in other words to make “a wise and understanding people.” now, what are the means by which a wise and an understanding people is to be made? well, of course, the chief means of making a wise and[296] understanding people is by training them up in wisdom and understanding. the state wants men who are brave, truthful, generous; the state wants women who are pure, simple, gentle. by what means is the state to get citizens of that kind?

such a politician looking around him and seeing how the national conscience is to be touched—for unless the national conscience be touched you can never raise citizens of that kind—finds that the great power which alone can do it, is that which goes by the name of religion.