, and that democracy classes government among
them. In short, the democratic faith is this: that the most terribly
important things must be left to ordinary men themselves--the mating of
the sexes, the rearing of the young, the laws of the state. This is
democracy; and in this I have always believed.

But there is one thing that I have never from my youth up been able to
understand. I have never been able to understand where people got the
idea that democracy was in some way opposed to tradition. It is obvious
that tradition is only democracy extended through time. It is trusting
to a consensus of common human voices rather than to some isolated or
arbitrary record. The man who quotes some German historian against the
tradition of the Catholic Church, for instance, is strictly appealing to
aristocracy. He is appealing to the superiority of one expert against
the awful authority of a mob. It is quite easy to see why a legend is
treated, and ought to be treated, more respectfully than a book of
history. The legend is generally made by the majority of people in the
village, who are sane. The book is generally written by the one man in
the village who is mad. Those who urge against tradition that men in the
past were ignorant may go and urge it at the Carlton Club, along with
the statement that voters in the slums are ignorant. It will not do for
us. If we attach great importance to the opinion of ordinary men in
great unanimity when we are dealing with daily matters, there is no
reason why we should disregard it when we are dealing with history or
fable. Tradition may be defined as an extension of the franchise.
Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our
ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit
to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be
walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the
accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the
accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man's
opinion, even if he is our groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a
good man's opinion, even if he is our father. I, at any rate, cannot
separate the two ideas of democracy and tradition; it seems evident to
me that they are the same idea. We will have the dead at our councils.
The ancient Greeks voted by stones; these shall vote by tombstones. It
is all quite regular and official, for most tombstones, lik