.

IN Hans Christian Andersen's immortal classic, "The Ugly Duckling," a young swan (in the ignorance of his swanhood) attempts desperately to be a worthy duckling (which he fancies himself to be). As a duckling, he is an abysmal failure; he is the worst of the plebeian lot; only when he discovers himself to be an aristocratic swan does he live up to his potential and his heritage; only then does he receive the ovation and the adulation due to him. He has recognized himself to be what he is.

One swan who frenziedly strove to be a duckling was Henry George. After achieving unparalleled fame as the author of Progress and Poverty, he became enchanted with the transitory glitter of politics. His heart was ablaze with the desire to do something to alleviate the suffering of mankind. He leaped with both feet into the political arena, and remained there until the very day of his death.

As a theorist, economist, and stylist, George was among the fixed and permanent stars in the constellation of influence. As a mere politician, he was a comet that brightly whizzed across the darkened sky, and vanished in the obscurity of forbidding blackness. The greatest mistake made by Henry George was to sacrifice his fiery and dynamic genius at the altar of reform; to change from a high-ranking general of thought into a lowly private of action.

What drove him to it?

An autobiographic clue may be found in his own words:

"He works for those he never saw and never can see; for a fame, or maybe for a scant justice, that can only come long after the clods have rattled upon his coffin lid. He toils in the advance, where it is cold, and there is little cheer from men, and the stones are sharp and brambles thick. Amid the scoffs of the present and the sneers that stab like knives, he builds for the future; he cuts the trail that progressive humanity may hereafter broaden into a highroad. Into higher, grander spheres desire mounts and beckons, and a star that rises in the east leads him on. Lo! the pulses of the man throb with the yearnings of the god - he would aid in the process of the suns!"

Warm-hearted, impassioned, idealistic, compassionate - George desperately needed to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land. Even though he demonstrated with conclusive brilliance man's necessary adherence to Natural Law, he could not wait to take the Law into his own hands. Books were not enough; words were not enough. What was needed was a moralistic crusade. And little Harry George had to lead it.

So he became a politician.

***

It may be pertinent at this time to discuss the distinction between thought or knowledge (the province of the thinker) and action (the province of the agitator).

Numerous centuries ago, Plato stated that no man knowingly acts "wrongly." If a man were to claim that he knows the difference between right and wrong, and still acts "wrongly," there can be but one answer: the man does not know; he is ignorant! Otherwise, he would have to choose the "right" path.

Action is never independent from, or contrary to, knowledge or thought. Knowledge presupposes and includes action. Once a man knows what is "right," he must, of necessity, act in accordance with such knowledge.

"You conquer fate by thought," declared Thoreau. "If you think the fatal thought of men and institutions, you need never pull the trigger. The consequences of thinking inevitably follow."

Commenting on bombs, munitions, and jails, Tolstoy emphatically stated: "When men understand that they need not make them, then these things will cease to be."

The stress, therefore, is on knowledge, thought, wisdom, reason, and understanding. It is in the teaching and in the learning of these "virtues" that the salvation of man lies - not in blind, fanatic, violent, independent, reformist action. The aim of teaching is to point out the path of individual fulfillment through thought.

"Let no man imagine," proclaimed Henry George, "that he has no influence. Whoever he may be, and wherever he may be placed, the man who thinks becomes a light and a power."

***

Many, many decades have passed since George's eloquent orations thrilled cheering mobs. Has the world, since then, benefited by the enactment into law of the innumerable reforms fought for? Have war and poverty been eliminated?

Alas, no! Misery exists everywhere. Swarming "do-gooders" still scurry, scramble, and scuttle about this earth. They order and restrain; command and deny; compel and prohibit; force and forbid. Are they aware - these arrogant little, foolish little "lawmakers" - of an ancient utterance by the venerable sage, Lao-tzu:

"The more restrictions and prohibitions there are in the empire, the more impoverished will the people be. …The more laws and orders are issued, the more will thieves and robbers abound."

Was George aware of the truth expressed in the above statement? By the insight shown in his writings, yes! For instance, how much bitter anguish would Henry George, the weary political reformer, have been spared, had he heeded the wise words of Henry George, the great analytical philosopher:

"Social reform is not to be secured by noise and shouting; by complaints and denunciations; by the formation of parties or the making of revolutions; but by the awakening of thought and the progress of ideas. Until there be correct thought, there cannot be right action; and when there is correct thought, right action will follow."