Wilson has
looked so steadily and with so deep emotion that he has made of it a
poetical subject. And then I shall venture to distinguish those
processes of imagination, that artistic method, which we call style, by
which he has elucidated its meaning for his readers so as to win for it
their intelligent and moved regard. The inquiry will take into account
his earliest book, _Congressional Government_, published in 1885,
_Division and Reunion_, 1893, _An Old Master and Other Political
Essays_, 1893, _Mere Literature and Other Essays_, 1896, _George
Washington_, 1897, _The State_, written 1889, rewritten 1898, _A History
of the American People_, 1902, _Constitutional Government in the United
States_, 1908, and a volume, issued very recently in England, containing
some of the President's statements on the war and entitled _America and
Freedom_.
Like a strong current through these works runs the doctrine that in a
good government the law-making power should be also the administering
power and should bear full and specific responsibility; safeguards
against ill-considered action being provided in two directions, by the
people on the one hand, and on the other hand by law and custom, these
latter being considered historically, as an organic growth.
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