CONDITIONS OF USEFULNEES. 2073

for the remainder of their lives. Ho laid down certain LL
Social ends, which he thought desirable, and which he &ir.37
believed that he could promote. And when one of these
Was fixed in his mind, and set definitely before him, he
became the most circumspect of creatures. Being a man of
action, and not a speculative teacher, he took care not to
devote hig energies to causes in which he did not see a good
chance of making some effective mark, either on legislation
Or on. important sections of public opinion. “I am cautious
to a fault,” he once wrote, “and nothing will be done by
Mo that has not the wisdom of the serpent, as much ag
the harmlossness of the dove in it.”
i This wag only another way of saying that strong enthusiasm
I him was no hindrance to strong sense. Instead of increasing
 the elements of friction——the besetting weakness of
reformers and digsidents of all kinds—he took infinite trouble
 to reduce these elements to the lowest possible point.
Hence he was careful not to take up too many subjects at
once, because the antagonism generated by each would have
been made worse by the antagonism belonging to every other,
and he would have called up a whole host of enemies together,
 instead of leaving himself free to deal with one at a
ime, A correspondent once wrote to him on this point.
“You have opened a very important question,” Cobden
teplied, «in respect to the duty of a public man to advocate
all the changes to which he may be favourable. I have
often reflected upon this. Bacon says, if you have a handfal
 of truths, open but one finger at a time. He is not the
Safest mora] guide, I admit, but I am not sure that he is not
bo some extent right in this view. If we are to declare our
Convictions upon all subjects, and if abstract reason is to be
our guide, without reference to time and circumstance, why
should pg I, for instance, avow myself a republican? «

1841.

b Po 8. Lucas, Jan. #7. 1883.