Strona 169 z 1391

The same question reappears in politics, where the useful or

expedient seems to claim a larger sphere and to have a greater

authority. For concerning political measures, we chiefly ask: How

will they affect the happiness of mankind? Yet here too we may

observe that what we term expediency is merely the law of right

limited by the conditions of human society. Right and truth are

the highest aims of government as well as of individuals; and we

ought not to lose sight of them because we cannot directly

enforce them. They appeal to the better mind of nations; and

sometimes they are too much for merely temporal interests to

resist. They are the watchwords which all men use in matters of

public policy, as well as in their private dealings; the peace of

Europe may be said to depend upon them. In the most commercial

and utilitarian states of society the power of ideas remains.