in him what far transcends all apprenticeships; in the man
himself there exists a model of governing, something to govern
by! There exists in him a heart-abhorrence of whatever is
incoherent, pusillanimous, unveracious,--that is to say, chaotic,
_un_governed; of the Devil, not of God. A man of this kind
cannot help governing! He has the living ideal of a governor in
him; and the incessant necessity of struggling to unfold the
same out of him. Not the Devil or Chaos, for any wages, will he
serve; no, this man is the born servant of Another than them.
Alas, how little avail all apprenticeships, when there is in your
governor himself what we may well call _nothing_ to govern by:
nothing;--a general grey twilight, looming with shapes of
expediencies, parliamentary traditions, division-lists, election-
funds, leading-articles; this, with what of vulpine alertness
and adroitness soever, is not much!

But indeed what say we, apprenticeship? Had not this Samson
served, in his way, a right good apprenticeship to governing;
namely, the harshest slave-apprenticeship to obeying! Walk this
world with no friend in it but God and St. Edmund, you will
either fall into the ditch, or learn a good many things. To
learn obeying is the fundamental art of governing. How much
would many a Serene Highness have learned, had he traveled
through the world with water-jug and empty wallet, _sine omni
expensa;_ and, at his victorious return, sat down not to
newspaper-paragraphs and city-illuminations, but at the foot of
St. Edmund's Shrine to shackles and bread and water! He that
cannot be servant of many, will never be master, true guide and
deliverer of many;--that is the meaning of true mastership. Had
not the Monk-life extraordinary 'political capabilities' in it;