Bates. — On Democracy. 99 



to the closest scrutiny, and discussed as fully and openly as 

 possible. Only in this way can citizens preserve their liberty 

 and advance socially. Now, it must happen that when men's 

 interests are menaced, or supposed to be menaced, sides will 

 be taken, and every effort made to defeat what are thought to 

 be obnoxious measures. Even political theories, wild and 

 impracticable though they may seem to be, cannot safely be 

 ignored. They are not got rid of by simply calling them 

 " fads." Theory has a strong tendency to translate itself 

 into fact, and politics afford a favourable arena for the ex- 

 periment. 



The existence through long centuries of organized parties 

 in the State, and the rise of new ones in more recent times, 

 witness to wide and persistent divergence of opinion, method, 

 and ideals in the sphere of politics. Eival policies, embodied 

 in party organizations, are thought to be justified on the 

 ground that they serve to correct one another by material 

 criticism, and thus to assure progress. But the mere mention 

 of the party names — Conservative, Liberal, Eadical, Socialist, 

 Anarchist, and the like — indicates how complicated poli- 

 tical questions have grown, and how greatly the decision 

 of them is embarrassed. It is difficult for any statesman or 

 party nowadays to hold on a steady course in politics. The 

 ■older political parties are failing to satisfy the demands of 

 electors, and the old political creeds have been variously 

 modified, and are loosely held. The rearrangement of parties 

 and sections of parties by mutual compromise is a familiar 

 spectacle. These and the like changes show what mighty 

 transforming forces are at work in the body politic. 



Man, it would seem, must ever be a framer of polities, 

 impelled thereto by necessity of nature and social exigencies. 

 The State is, in germ, involved in the very constitution of man. 

 Endowed with social instincts, man must have fellowship with 

 his kind. He cannot live in solitude : he must therefore 

 enter into relations with his fellows. Man, as far as we know 

 him, has always lived in society, and hence his actions must 

 be brought under some regulation. In the case of civilised 

 man, his thought is ever growing wider and clearer, his sympa- 

 thies more comprehensive, his life more complex. Added to 

 this, man has shown in all stages of his history a capacity for 

 conceiving ideals — artistic, religious, moral, social, political — 

 and his destiny is to devote his energies, even to lay down his 

 life, to realise his ideals. 



He has not been uniformly successful in his efforts for this 

 realisation. At best, his steps have been slow and painful ; 

 but often he has failed, missed the way altogether, or come 

 back to his starting-point. He has learned to do right by 

 blundering. 



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