Prepare yourself, from afar, to take the lead in it.
"In politics, my son, you are not ignorant that we all take our principles from our temperament.

The bilious are demagogues, the sanguine, democrats, the nervous, aristocrats.

You are both sanguine and nervous, an excellent constitution, for it gives you a choice.

You may, for example, be an aristocrat in regard to yourself personally, and, at the same time, a democrat in relation to others; and in that you will not be exceptional.
"Make yourself master of every question likely to interest your contemporaries, but do not become absorbed in any yourself.

In reality, all principles are indifferent--true or false according to the hour and circumstance.