ON POLITICAL APPEALS.
POLITICAL APPEALS.
It was one of Dr. Caliban’s chief characteristics—and perhaps the main source of his power over others—that he could crystallize, or—to use the modern term—“wankle,” the thought of his generation into sharp unexpected phrases. Among others, this was constantly upon his lips:—
“We live in stirring times.”
If I may presume to add a word to the pronouncements of my revered master, I would re-write the sentence thus:—
“We live in stirring—AND CHANGEFUL—times.”
It is not only an element of adventure, it is also an element of rapid and unexpected development which marks our period, and which incidentally lends so considerable an influence to genius.
In the older and more settled order, political forces were so well known that no description or analysis of them was necessary: to this day members of our more ancient political families do not read the newspapers. Soon, perhaps, the national life will have entered a new groove, and once more literary gentlemen will but indirectly control the life of the nation.