“There must be a good, wide margin allowed for offensive partisanship,” Thorndyke continued. “That’s the trouble with the professors of political economy in colleges--they leave human nature out of the equation. There’s my boss, Senator Standiford. He is as honest as the day as far as money goes, and honest in using his enormous power for the good of the party, and he was born with the notion that his party and the country are interchangeable terms. He uses dishonest men sometimes, but not dishonest methods. It is both shameful and ridiculous that a great State like ours should hand over such vast power to one man as it has to Senator Standiford, but that’s not his fault. It is rather to his credit that he has not misused his power. The trouble is, that the people will get accustomed to the system of one-man government, and when Senator Standiford goes hence, the party will choose another dictator, probably neither as honest or as able as he.” “Senator Standiford is a rich man. Suppose he were poor? What percentage would you allow a poor man in political life in his efforts to be honest?” “I can’t figure it out that way,” answered Thorndyke, “although I ought to know public life from the viewpoint of the poor but honest Congressman. I am not worth ten thousand dollars in the world outside of my Congressional salary. But as the Kentucky colonel said on the stump, ‘I am as honest as the times will allow.’” “Don’t you think,” persisted Crane, for whom this discussion of honesty in public life had a powerful fascination, “that the same man in certain political circumstances would remain honest, while in different circumstances he might succumb to temptation? Take the case of a poor man in politics.” “I admit that the most desperate venture on earth is for a man to attempt to live by politics. Some men have done it, like Patrick Henry, for example. But those men are quite beyond comparison with every-day men. However, Marcus Aurelius says, ‘A man should _be_ upright, he should not be made to be upright.’” This saying of Marcus Aurelius troubled Crane. He did not fully believe it. He thought that Marcus Aurelius, like the professors of political economy in colleges and universities, left out of account the great factor of human nature, which makes a bad man to do good acts, and a good man to do bad acts, and makes a man good at one time, bad at another, and both good and bad together. Presently he roused himself and said: “It would be a great thing for any public man if he could lead such a life that every word he said or wrote could be printed.” “Why, have you been writing letters lately?” “God knows, no! I have always had sense enough for that--to write as few letters as possible.” At that moment Crane felt a thrill of satisfaction--not one line did Governor Sanders have of his.