Men's attitude of mind towards policy or institutions, secular or religious, comes under the cognizance of a poet and thinker long before it develops into a political force, or presents any point, of support or resistance, to a politician. From the speculative standpoint, a change, e.g., may be seen to be salutary or necessary, but the motives for which it is popularly demanded, base or dangerous. (No better illustration of this can be found, perhaps, than in Coleridge's Table Talk, and his attitude of mind towards reform, etc.) It is for party-leaders, like Ephialtes and Pericles, to deal strenuously and practically with the problems and forces of the hour; it is for Æschylus, as for Plato, to point independently to the wide scope, for good or for evil, opened up by political and judicial changes, or by a league with Argos.
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