We might be tempted to call good letter-writing one of “the little handicraft of an idle man”; but then two of the most perfect masters of the art were Cicero and Voltaire, two of the most occupied personages that ever lived.
Morley argues that great letter-writing is not limited to idle individuals, citing Cicero and Voltaire as examples of busy masters of the craft.
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But they were barren of any institutions by which the country could be governed and kept in prosperity for the future.”(166) This is a statement of the case that biographer and historian alike should ponder.
I am trying to feel my way through the most difficult problem, the most difficult situation that a responsible Government can have to face.
We ought to be able to separate in thought the question of the grounds and evidence for a given dogma being true, from the distinct and purely historic question of the social and intellectual conditions which made men accept it for true.
I think they will commit a great error if they take this course.
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