majority of representatives; and
individual liberty may be more secure under such a monarch than when it
is dependent on the result of divisions taken when party passion is
running high. But such a rule must lack the element of stability. The
Antonines pass away and Commodus and Heliogabalus rule in their place.
Permanent strength and settled liberty are best secured when the acts of
Government are the expression of the conscious will of the nation as a
whole, where the people think out for themselves the general lines of
action and the Government is their minister. It is not enough that there
should be a just rule in which they acquiesce, but it is they themselves
who should act--through agents, no doubt--and learn the habit of forming
right judgments and acting justly. To deny him a share in political
life--that is, in deciding the action of the State to which he
belongs--is to deprive a man of one of those "activities of the soul
which constitute happiness," to take from him one of the things that
makes a full life for those who really live among their fellows. There
may always be a few who live apart, contemplative souls

insphered
In regions mild, of calm and serene air,
Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot
Which men call earth.

Some may build themselves a Palace of Art where they may live alone;
some may sink themselves in luxury or repose in sluggish indifference,
careless of the life of others round them, with neither the heart to
feel nor head to understand anything beyond their own immediate wants.
But the highest aim and fullest life for man generally--as "an animal
more social than the bee"--is

To go and join head and heart and hand,
Active and firm to fight the bloodless fight
Of science, freedom, and the truth in Christ.

Political action may be one of the means of carrying on that fight. Is
it not one of the "rights of man" to be allowed to join in it?

It is, however, not to be forgotten that men acting in the mass, just
as men acting individually, may act under sudden impulse, may do under
the influence of temporary passion, even of a generous emotion, things
which they would regret afterwards, and feel to be an error. Some checks
on such sudden action are most essential in a democracy, because there
is no appeal from its decision. A reverence for tradition, for those
rules of conduct which have stood the test of time, is one restrai