There is
nothing in our time to correspond with the continual petty making and
entangling of laws in an atmosphere of contention that is perhaps the
most perplexing aspect of constitutional history in the nineteenth
century. In that age they seem to have been perpetually making laws when
we should alter regulations. The work of change which we delegate to
these scientific committees of specific general direction which have
the special knowledge needed, and which are themselves dominated by
the broad intellectual process of the community, was in those days
inextricably mixed up with legislation. They fought over the details; we
should as soon think of fighting over the arrangement of the parts of
a machine. We know nowadays that such things go on best within laws, as
life goes on between earth and sky. And so it is that government gathers
now for a day or so in each year under the sunshine of Brissago when
Saint Bruno's lilies are in flower, and does little more than bless the
work of its committees. And even these committees are less originative
and more expressive of the general thought than they were at first. It
becomes difficult to mark out the particular directive personalities
of the world. Continually we are less personal. Every good thought
contributes now, and every able brain falls within that informal and
dispersed kingship which gathers together into one purpose the energies
of the race.
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