Now, as public opinion thus combines truth and falsehood, the public cannot be in earnest with both, _i.e._ both cannot be its real will. But if we restrict ourselves to its express utterance, we cannot possibly tell what it is in earnest with--_because it does not know_. Therefore, the degree of passion {287} with which a given opinion is maintained throws no light on the question, on what points the public is really in earnest, in the sense of the “real will.” This can only be known from the substantive reality, which is the “true inwardness” of public opinion. This substantive reality, the true merits of any case, is not to be got by the study of mere public opinion as expressed, but when it is successfully divined and asserted, public opinion will always come round to it. If we ask how it is to be divined or known, we must go back to the analogy of a theory. The solution must be constructed so as to satisfy the real facts or needs, and the real facts or needs only become known in proportion as it is constructed, just as in scientific discovery. The man who can see and do what his age wills and demands is the great man of the age. Public opinion, then, demands to be at once esteemed and contemned; esteemed in its essential basis, contemned in its conscious expression. It is, however, the principle of the modern world that every one is allowed to contribute his opinion. When he has contributed it, and so far satisfied the impulse of self-assertion, he is likely to acquiesce in what is done, to which, he can feel, he has thrown in some element of suggestion or criticism. 10. In concluding this chapter, we will attempt to estimate the nearness of such an analysis of the State to the actual facts of life, admitting certain appearances against it, but rejecting pessimistic views which rest on false abstractions. I will state the difficulties as they appeared to T.H. Green, a cautious and practical Englishman, {288} well experienced in local politics, and acquainted with different classes of men. [1] “To an Athenian slave, who might be used to gratify a master’s lust, it would have been a mockery to speak of the State as a realisation of freedom; and perhaps it would not be much less to speak of it as such to an untaught and under-fed denizen of a London yard with gin shops on the right hand and on the left.”