d her divine worship. This was
superstition, no doubt, but it had in it an element of truth. To every
true philosopher there is something divine in the state, and truth in
all theories. Society stands nearer to God, and participates more
immediately of the Divine essence, and the state is a more lively image
of God than the individual. It was man, the generic and reproductive
man, not the isolated individual, that was created in the image and
likeness of his Maker. "And God created man in his own image; in the
image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

This theory is usually called the democratic theory, and it enlists in
its support the instincts, the intelligence, the living forces, and
active tendencies of the age. Kings, kaisers, and hierarchies are
powerless before it, and war against it in vain. The most they can do
is to restrain its excesses, or to guard against its abuses. Its
advocates, in returning to it, sometimes revive in its name the old
pagan superstition. Not a few of the European democrats recognize in
the earth, in heaven, or in hell, no power superior to the people, and
say not only people-king but people-God. They say absolutely, without
any qualification, the voice of the people is the voice of God, and
make their will the supreme law, not only in politics, but in religion,
philosophy, morals, science, and the arts. The people not only found
the state, but also the church. They inspire or reveal the truth,
ordain or prohibit worships, judge of doctrines, and decide cases of
conscience. Mazzini said, when at the bead of the Roman Republic in
1848, the question of religion must be remitted to the judgment of the
people. Yet this theory is the dominant theory of the age, and is in
all civilized nations advancing with apparently irresistible force.

But this theory has its difficulties. Who are the collective people
that have the rights of society, or, who are the sovereign people? The
word people is vague, and in itself determines nothing. It may include
a larger or a smaller number; it may mean the political people, or it
may mean simply population; it may mean peasants, artisans,
shopkeepers, traders, merchants, as distinguished from the nobility;
hired laborers or workmen as distinguished from their employer, or
slaves as distinguished from their master or owner. In which of these
senses is the word to be taken when it is said, "The people are
sovereign?" Th