Nor is the representative an agent of the particular interest in which his district participates for the real task of the legislature is deliberation rather than voting. The true, great interests of the nation in principle fit together; it is the task of wise and virtuous statesmen to reason out how they fit, how existing troubles may best be remedied. When they have finished deliberating the result should scarcely require a vote. Government is a matter of reason, not of will of duties and not of arithmetic.