Principles of Freedom | Page 5

by the discovery of principles that govern and justify it.
Otherwise we cannot yield it our allegiance. Let us to the examination,

then; we shall find it soul-stirring and inspiring. We must be prepared,
however, to abandon many deeply-rooted prejudices; if we are
unwilling, we must abandon the truth. But we will find courage in
moving forward, and will triumph in the end, by keeping in mind at all
times that the end of freedom is to realise the salvation and happiness
of all peoples, to make the world, and not any selfish corner of it, a
more beautiful dwelling-place for men.
Treated in this light, the question becomes for all earnest men great and
arresting. Our friend, who may have smiled, will discuss it readily now.
Yet he may not be convinced; he may point his finger over the wasted
land and contrast its weakness with its opponents' strength, and
conclude: "Your philosophy is beautiful, but only a dream." He is at
least impressed; that is a point gained; and we may induce him to come
further and further till he adopts the great principle we defend.
III
His difficulty now is the common error that a man's work for his
country should be based on the assumption that it should bear full
effect in his own time. This is most certainly false; for a man's life is
counted by years, a nation's by centuries, and as work for the nation
should be directed to bringing her to full maturity in the coming time, a
man must be prepared to labour for an end that may be realised only in
another generation. Consider how he disposes his plans for his
individual life. His boyhood and youth are directed that his manhood
and prime may be the golden age of life, full-blooded and
strong-minded, with clear vision and great purpose and high hope, all
justified by some definite achievement. A man's prime is great as his
earlier years have been well directed and concentrated. In the early
years the ground is prepared and the seed sown for the splendid period
of full development. So it is with the nation: we must prepare the
ground and sow the seed for the rich ripeness of maturity; and bearing
in mind that the maturity of the nation will come, not in one generation
but after many generations, we must be prepared to work in the
knowledge that we prepare for a future that only other generations will
enjoy. It does not mean that we shall work in loneliness, cheered by no

vision of the Promised Land; we may even reach the Promised Land in
our time, though we cannot explore all its great wonders: that will be
the delight of ages. But some will never survive to celebrate the great
victory that will establish our independence; yet they shall not go
without reward; for to them will come a vision of soul of the future
triumph, an exaltation of soul in the consciousness of labouring for that
future, an exultation of soul in the knowledge that once its purpose is
grasped, no tyranny can destroy it, that the destiny of our country is
assured, and her dominion will endure for ever. Let any argument be
raised against one such pioneer--he knows this in his heart, and it
makes him indomitable, and it is he who is proven to be wise in the end.
He judges the past clearly, and through the crust of things he discerns
the truth in his own time, and puts his work in true relation to the great
experience of life, and he is justified; for ultimately his work opens out,
matures, and bears fruit a hundredfold. It may not be in a day, but when
his hand falls dead, his glory becomes quickly manifest. He has lived a
beautiful life, and has left a beautiful field; he has sacrificed the hour to
give service for all time; he has entered the company of the great, and
with them he will be remembered for ever. He is the practical man in
the true sense. But there is the other self-styled practical man, who
thinks all this proceeding foolish, and cries out for the expedient of the
hour. Has he ever realised the promise of his proposals? No, he is the
most inefficient person who has ever walked the earth. But for a saving
consideration let him go contemplate the wasted efforts of the
opportunist in every generation, and the broken projects scattered
through the desert-places of history.
IV
Still one will look out on the grim things of the hour, and hypnotised by
the hour will cry: "See the strength of the British Empire, see our
wasted state; your hope is vain." Let him consider this clear truth:
peoples endure; empires