devoted to these; for the heathen deities at least imaged human
virtues, and were something to look up to.

As for institutions, however good in themselves, they will avail
but little in maintaining the standard of national character. It
is the individual men, and the spirit which actuates them, that
determine the moral standing and stability of nations.
Government, in the long run, is usually no better than the people
governed. Where the mass is sound in conscience, morals, and
habit, the nation will be ruled honestly and nobly. But where
they are corrupt, self-seeking, and dishonest in heart, bound
neither by truth nor by law, the rule of rogues and wirepullers
becomes inevitable.

The only true barrier against the despotism of public opinion,
whether it be of the many or of the few, is enlightened individual
freedom and purity of personal character. Without these there can
be no vigorous manhood, no true liberty in a nation. Political
rights, however broadly framed, will not elevate a people
individually depraved. Indeed, the more complete a system of
popular suffrage, and the more perfect its protection, the more
completely will the real character of a people be reflected, as by
a mirror, in their laws and government. Political morality can
never have any solid existence on a basis of individual
immorality. Even freedom, exercised by a debased people, would
come to be regarded as a nuisance, and liberty of the press but a
vent for licentiousness and moral abomination.

Nations, like individuals, derive support and strength from the
feeling that they belong to an illustrious race, that they are the