106 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



from the centre to the most distant extremities of the body 

 pontic. PoHtical changes in England may be known in New 

 Zealand in a few hom-s. The Press, too, exerts its mighty 

 force in fostering and stimulating the democratic spn-it. 

 Through it the people can make their thoughts and wishes 

 known, and so influence and guide their representatives. In 

 this way the community at large becomes a kind of parliament. 

 Political topics and measures are discussed and criticized from 

 a hundred points of view. The spread of education and con- 

 sequent enlightenment of the people, tending as it does to 

 equalise social conditions, is also a contributory force in the 

 same direction. Acted on by all these agencies, the civilised 

 world itself seems to be in process of unification. 



In some such way as this modern democracy is to be 

 accounted for, and under conditions of this kind it is opera- 

 tive. But there is one other cause, very powerful and per- 

 sistent in its action, which has also, in my opinion, helped 

 to produce the social development going on in our civilisation 

 — I mean the Christian ethic. There can be no question at 

 all as to the existence and potency of this force. Has it 

 also played an important part in the evolution of our demo- 

 cracy ? Contradictory answers will probably be given to 

 this question. But, without making the Christian ethic re- 

 sponsible for all the doings of democracy, or for what may 

 be called the accidents of the movement, the uphfting of the 

 people may be said to be essentially its work. The opinion 

 of the author of " Social Evolution " is, I think, sound in the 

 main: "All anticipations and forebodings as to the future of 

 the incoming democracy founded upon the comparisons with 

 the past are unreliable or worthless. For the world has never 

 before witnessed a democracy of the kind that is now slowly 

 assuming supreme power amongst the western peoples. To 

 compare it with democracies which held power under the 

 ancient empires is to altogether misunderstand both the 

 nature of our civilisation and the character of the forces 

 that have produced it. Neither in form nor in spirit have we 

 anything in common with the democracies of the past. . . 

 The gradual emancipation of the people and their rise to 

 supreme power has been in our case the product of a slow 

 ethical development, in which character has been profoundly 

 influenced, and in which conceptions of equality and of re- 

 sponsibility to each other have obtained a hold on the general 

 mind hitherto unparalleled. The fact of our time which over- 

 shadows all others is the arrival of democracy. But the 

 perception of the fact is of relatively httle importance if we 

 do not also realise that it is a new democracy." 



The advance of democracy, whether we approve or deplore 

 it, is an undeniable fact. The unmistakable signs or proofs 



