Power is the ability to do. It is that which accomplishes, which achieves results. True power is constructive. That which destroys, which undoes, is not rightly named power. Power is that which governs; it is its own authority, a free agent. That which is subject to authority, to surveillance, that which is forced to maintain an attitude of servility, is not power. Good is constructive, evil is destructive; good builds up, evil pulls down; good does, evil undoes. Good is its own authority, evil its own slave; good has the freedom of the world, evil is ever under suspicion; good makes for order, government, control; evil is disorder, misrule, lawlessness. Good carries within itself the warrant of perpetuity; evil invites its own annihilation. Opposite qualities cannot be accurately described by identical terms. Which, then, of these two, is properly called power?
