As I understand the word “politician,” it means a man who, whatever his
other engagements in life may be, and however he may earn his daily
bread, feels above all things deeply interested, feels that he is bound
to be deeply interested, and to take as active a part as he can, in the
public affairs of his country. I believe that every Englishman, if he
is worth anything at all, is bound to be a politician, and can’t for
the life of him help taking a deep interest in the public affairs of
his country. The object of politics is the well-being of the nation, or
in other words to make “a wise and understanding people.” Now, what are
the means by which a wise and an understanding people is to be made?
Well, of course, the chief means of making a wise and understanding
people is by training them up in wisdom and understanding. The State
wants men who are brave, truthful, generous; the State wants women who
are pure, simple, gentle. By what means is the State to get citizens of
that kind?
Such a politician looking around him and seeing how the national
conscience is to be touched—for unless the national conscience be
touched you can never raise citizens of that kind—finds that the great
power which alone can do it, is that which goes by the name of religion.