Excerpt from Liberty and Democracy and Other Essays in War-Time But while a programme of reconstruction is yet to make, it may be worth a word here to define the line which the author's thinking repeatedly brings him to believe such te construction must follow. This is the educa tional, not in any narrow scholastic way, but broadly, touching the whole life of the citizen and the whole endeavour of the state. Democracy can only flourish where the citi zens are both intelligent and alert, intelligent as to the purposes of their society and alert as to the means of attaining these: unceasing vigilance is the preserver of freedom, but this must be accompanied by a no less unceasing consideration of the ends of human life if the liberty is to be worth preserving. He who would duly enquire about the best form of the state ought first to determine which is the most eligible life. Aristotle's aphorism is the core of political wisdom; and its applied meaning can only be that the citizen who is a true warden of his rights must be an athlete of the mind, forever trained and in training. The problem of due training is the problem of political self-preservation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.