The individual independence,
appreciation, and fulfillment which he secures in the event of success
are assuredly worth a harder and a more dangerous fight than the one by
which frequently he is confronted. In any particular case a man, as we
have admitted, may put up a good fight without securing the fruits of
victory, and his adventure may end, not merely in defeat, but in
self-humiliation. But if any general tendency exists to shirk, or to
back down, or to place the responsibility for personal ineptitude on the
public, it means, not that the fight was hopeless, but that the warriors
were lacking in the necessary will and ability.
The case of the statesman, the man of letters, the philanthropist, or
the reformer does not differ essentially from that of the architect.
They may need for their particular purposes a larger or a smaller
popular following, a larger or smaller amount of moral courage, and a
more or less peculiar kind of intellectual efficiency; but wherever
there is any bridge to be built between their own purposes and standards
and those of the public, they must depend chiefly upon their own
resources for its construction.
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