Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/266

236 ZEAL FOK AX CHAP, repeated in many places, and by numbers of men ^^^' who had probably never seen one another. That one common thought ^vas the prize he sought for, and he carried it home to his employers. He became so skilled in his peculiar calling that, as long as he served them, the Company was rarely misled ; and although in later times they were frequently baflled in their pursuit of this kind of knowledge, they never neglected to do what they could to search the heart of the nation. When the managers had armed themselves with the knowledge thus gathered, they prepared to disseminate it, but they did not state baldly what they had ascertained to be the opinion of the country. Their method was as follows : they employed able writers to argue in support of the opinion which, as they believed, the country was already adopting ; and, supposing that they had been well informed, their arguments of course fell upon willing ears. Those who had already formed a judgment saw their own notions stated and pressed with an ability greater than they could themselves command ; and those who had not yet come to an opinion were strongly moved to do so when they saw the path taken by a Conipany which notoriously strove to follow the changes of the public mind. 1'iie report which the paper gave of the opinion formed by the public was so closely blended with arguments in support of that same opinion, that he wlio looked at the paper merely to know what other people thought, was seized, as he read, by the cogency of the reason-