Contains a discussion on liberalism and conservatism, and reviews of two books both coming from the mainstream of Australian liberalism, but representing very different elements in that stream: Ken Inglis’s “Nation, the life of an independent journal of opinion”, and D.A. Kemp’s “Foundations for Australian Political Analysis: Politics and Authority”. While the Nation writers generally believed in applying reason to the construction of government policies and structures which would nurture a society characterised by justice and civilization, Kemp believes that the best society we can attain will arise only when we give up expectations of government nurture and apply reason to the pursuit of our individual affairs.