i8o 



ARISTOCRACY AND EVOLUTION 



Book II 

 Chapter 4 



This is the 

 only point in 

 which the 



from the 

 aristocratic. 



according to that theory, is elected not because 

 he is supposed to be wiser than his constituents, 

 but because he is supposed to be exceptionally 

 capable of understanding their precise wishes, 

 and giving effect to each of them. In the first of 

 these two cases the governor is like the physician 

 whom the patient calls in, but whose orders he never 

 thinks of disputing. In the second, he is like the 

 professional Spanish letter-writer, whom the illiterate 

 lover employs to put his passion for him grammati- 

 cally upon paper. 



The only point, then, in which democracy can 

 claim to differ essentially, not only from autocracy, 

 but from any form of oligarchy, lies not in its form of 

 government, but in the power that is behind its 

 government. This power, according to democratic 

 theorists, is the power of the mass of ordinary men, 

 as definitely opposed to exceptional men ; and the 

 exceptional men who are picked out as governors 

 would necessarily, in an ideal democracy, be excep- 

 tional only for such qualities as practical activity and 

 a quick apprehension of the wishes of other people, 

 which would enable them to do what their many- 

 headed master bade them ; but they would have to 

 be wanting in any strength of mind or originality 

 which might prompt them to acts out of harmony 

 with their master's temper at the moment, or what 

 is the same thing, to any acts beyond their master's 

 comprehension, even although such acts might be 

 for his future benefit. This is what the democratic 

 theory, in its last analysis, means. All exceptional will 



