If a man would convince himself by experience that this is the case, he need do nothing but remove all compulsion from his fellows, and try to govern them by clearly and forcibly representing to them what is reasonable, right, and fair, though at the same time it may be contrary to their interests.  He would be laughed to scorn; and as things go that is the only answer he would get.  It would soon be obvious to him that moral force alone is powerless.  It is, then, physical force alone which is capable of securing respect.  Now this force ultimately resides in the masses, where it is associated with ignorance, stupidity and injustice.  Accordingly the main aim of statesmanship in these difficult circumstances is to put physical force in subjection to mental force—­to intellectual superiority, and thus to make it serviceable.  But if this aim is not itself accompanied by justice and good intentions the result of the business, if it succeeds, is that the State so erected consists of knaves and fools, the deceivers and the deceived.  That this is the case is made gradually evident by the progress of intelligence amongst the masses, however much it may be repressed; and it leads to revolution.  But if, contrarily, intelligence is accompanied by justice and good intentions, there arises a State as perfect as the character of human affairs will allow.  It is very much to the purpose if justice and good intentions not only exist, but are also demonstrable and openly exhibited, and can be called to account publicly, and be subject to control.  Care must be taken, however, lest the resulting participation of many persons in the work of government should affect the unity of the State, and inflict a loss of strength and concentration on the power by which its home and foreign affairs have to be administered.  This is what almost always happens in republics.  To produce a constitution which should satisfy all these demands would accordingly be the highest aim of statesmanship.  But, as a matter of fact, statesmanship has to consider other things as well.  It has to reckon with the people as they exist, and their national peculiarities.  This is the raw material on which it has to work, and the ingredients of that material will always exercise a great effect on the completed scheme.

Statesmanship will have achieved a good deal if it so far attains its object as to reduce wrong and injustice in the community to a minimum.  To banish them altogether, and to leave no trace of them, is merely the ideal to be aimed at; and it is only approximately that it can be reached.  If they disappear in one direction, they creep in again in another; for wrong and injustice lie deeply rooted in human nature.  Attempts have been made to attain the desired aim by artificial constitutions and systematic codes of law; but they are not in complete touch with the facts—­they remain an asymptote, for the simple reason that hard and fast conceptions never embrace all possible cases, and cannot be made to meet individual instances.  Such conceptions resemble the stones of a mosaic rather than the delicate shading in a picture.  Nay, more:  all experiments in this matter are attended with danger; because the material in question, namely, the human race, is the most difficult of all material to handle.  It is almost as dangerous as an explosive.