“How often
has public calamity been arrested on the very brink of ruin by the seasonable
energy of a single man! Have we no such man amongst us? I am as sure as I am of
my being, that one vigorous mind, without office, without situation, without
public functions of any kind (at a time when the want of such a thing is felt,
as I am sure it is), I say, one such man, confiding in the aid of God, and full
of just reliance in his own fortitude, vigor, enterprise, and perseverance,
would first draw to him some few like himself, and then that multitudes, hardly
thought to be in existence, would appear and troop about him.”—Anglo-Irish statesman and father of conservatism Edmund Burke (1729-1797), “Letter to
William Elliot,” May 28, 1795, in The Works of the Right Honourable
Edmund Burke, Vol. V. (of 12) (1887)
The kind
of person envisioned by Burke possesses not just “seasonable energy” but moral
stature to influence followers. In our cynical age, who wields such authority?
If there
is such a person, I hope he or she will step forward quickly.
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