I offer you Woodruff's concern in this political year not to excite you to partisanship for one brand of leader over another, but in the hope that, on the other side of the next two months, we will each still hold something close to our hearts in reverence. Like tortured lovers, we are in danger of losing touch with every delicacy of feeling toward what we revere--as our emotions are taunted, exploited and manipulated.

      Reverence is a virtue in Aristotle’s system of ethics says Woodruff. It is also feeling. A man of the philosopher’s trade, Woodruff disagrees with a concept of ethics that exalts ethical rules over feelings. Modern ethics, he says, are “mostly about doing what is right whether you feel like it or not.” In contrast, he describes the classic idea of virtue as “cultivating feelings that will lead you in the right way.”

      In American politics, virtue is merely another marketing point. Routinely, we are treated to comparisons of the candidates’ devotion to God, the Nation, the Family and the Constitution. We hear each extol his respect for fellow patriots’ heroism, for the beauty of our natural environment and for the future of all of our children. We are asked to test each nominee by some sincerity-gauge that measures the depth of his feeling.

      Is their sincerity about these matters any guide to the correctness of their opinions? History establishes that both Emperor Hirohito and President Truman were virtuous, disciplined leaders who sincerely sought peace, yet, on the advice of their generals, one ordered the attack on Pearl Harbor and the other the attack on Hiroshima. Neither choice looks ethically sound in retrospect. Yet it is hard to find hope that through philosophy we can cultivate enough virtue to avert the exercise of consolidated power.

      The treasure of Woodruff’s book lies in his thoughtful consideration of how virtue feels from the inside, not what it looks like on someone else. Even though we may see the behavior of someone else and call it arrogant, without reverence, we do not shift away from our inner self-justifications. We continue to feel quite righteous and ethical in the exercise of the small authority we possess.

         In my own experience, I have found that cultivating feelings of reverence does temper my inclinations toward arrogance. Reverence relaxes my efforts to exercise control, calms my anxiety about the outcomes of my choices, and joins my mind to the thoughts of others. In this greater openness I am able to listen and learn rather than shout and wrestle for command.