The Altruistic Type of Government 237 



democracy is receptive. It organizes for action upon all the 

 wisdom within reach, recognizing its need for still more, and 

 not assuming to define what part is needed and what is 

 superfluous. Thus the belief or opinion of any constituent 

 member is added to the common fund for such subsequent 

 digestion as may seem due to it, without any test of ortho- 

 doxy except the common consent. The individual stands in 

 the exercise of this right as the equal to any other man in 

 that share in the highest evolution of human conduct. There 

 is in this equality an isolation typical of the natural attitude 

 at all times and places of unavoidable responsibility, and there 

 is, in the submission to majority rule, the conduct typical 

 of the perpetual regard for fellows in mutual support. 



