COMPLETE DEMOCRACY AN ILL USION 183 



cracy, exerting itself independently of any separate Book n 

 will of the few, and turning the powers of the few 

 into its willing or unwilling instruments. 



Now perhaps the question which will in this place 

 most naturally suggest itself is whether this will of 

 the many, however effectively it may be exercised, 

 is really a power that makes for civilisation and 

 progress, and whether it is not more likely to bring 

 harm than benefit to those very collections of 

 ordinary men who exercise it. And this question is, 

 no doubt, extremely pertinent ; but it is not one that 

 need engage our attention now. The fact which 

 alone we are now concerned to demonstrate is that 

 the alleged will of the many is not what democrats 

 conceive it to be, and that it is not really the will of 

 the many at all. 



For although there is much in the history of the But these signs 



, i i are deceptive ; 



present century to warrant the assumption that the for what seems 

 political will of the many is at last emerging as a mLy^rSaiy 6 

 supreme and independent governing power, we fctkm d of n the 

 shall find that these movements and opinions, which another 



minority. 



seem, when viewed superficially, to result from the 

 spontaneous actions and spontaneous thoughts of 

 the many, really imply the influence of exceptional 

 men, just as much as those movements which are 

 avowedly aristocratic in origin ; and that in the 

 absence of these men the movements could never 

 have taken place, nor the opinions have ever 

 assumed any uniform and coherent shape. 



To understand how this is, we need merely reflect 

 upon the fact that masses of men, as masses, can 



