He will
treat his brethren as beings to be aided and directed, he will use his
strength and his wisdom as gifts for which he must render an account,
and the trivialities of etiquette will count as nothing. When the street
orator yells, "Who is our ruler? Is he not flesh and blood like us? Are
not many of us above him?" he may possibly be stating truth. It would
have been hard to find any street-lounger more despicable than Bomba or
more foolish than poor Louis XVI; but the method of oratory is purely
destructive, and it will be much more to the purpose if the street
firebrand gives his audience some definite ideas as to the man who ought
to be chosen as leader. If we have the faculty for recognizing our best
man, all chatter about equalities and inequalities must soon drop into
silence. When the ragged Suwarrow went about among his men and talked
bluffly with the raw recruits, there was no question of equality in any
squad, for the tattered, begrimed man had approved himself the wisest,
most audacious, and most king-like of all the host; and he could afford
to despise appearances. No soldier ventured to think of taking a
liberty; every man reverenced the rough leader who could think and plan
and dare.
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