4 A REVISION OF THE TREATY chap.

For there are, in the present times, two opinions;not, as in former ages, the true and the false, butthe outside and the inside ; the opinion of the publicvoiced by the politicians and the newspapers, andthe opinion of the politicians, the journalists and thecivil servants, upstairs and backstairs and behind-stairs, expressed in limited circles. In time of warit became a patriotic duty that the two opinionsshould be as different as possible ; and some seem tothink it so still.

This is not entirely new. But there has been achange. Some say that Mr. Gladstone was a hypo-crite ; yet if so, he dropped no mask in private life.The high tragedians, who once ranted in the Parlia-ments of the world, continued it at supper afterwards.But appearances can no longer be kept up behindthe scenes. The paint of public life, if it is ruddyenough to cross the flaring footlights of to-day,cannot be worn in private,—which makes a greatdifference to the psychology of the actors themselves.The multitude which lives in the auditorium of theworld needs something larger than life and plainerthan the truth. Sound itself travels too slowly inthis vast theatre, and a true word no longer holdswhen its broken echoes have reached the farthestlistener.

Those who live in the limited circles and share theinside opinion pay both too much and too littleattention to the outside opinion ; too much, because,