nd on the number of those who do care for
the things that are of social value, who advance knowledge or "civilize
life through the discoveries of art," or form a narrow but effective
public opinion in support of liberty and order. We may go further.
Whatever the form of government progress always does in fact depend on
those who so think and live, and on the degree in which these common
interests envelop their life and thought. Now, complete and wholehearted
absorption in public interests is rare. It is the property not of the
mass but of the few, and the democrat is well aware that it is the
remnant which saves the people. He subjoins only that if their effort is
really to succeed the people must be willing to be saved. The masses who
spend their toilsome days in mine or factory struggling for bread have
not their heads for ever filled with the complex details of
international policy or industrial law. To expect this would be absurd.
What is not exaggerated is to expect them to respond and assent to the
things that make for the moral and material welfare of the country, and
the position of the democrat is that the "remnant" is better occupied in
convincing the people and carrying their minds and wills with it than in
imposing on them laws which they are concerned only to obey and enjoy.
At the same time, the remnant, be it never so select, has always much to
learn. Some men are much better and wiser than others, but experience
seems to show that hardly any man is so much better or wiser than others
that he can permanently stand the test of irresponsible power over them.
On the contrary, the best and wisest is he who is ready to go to the
humblest in a spirit of inquiry, to find out what he wants and why he
wants it before seeking to legislate for him. Admitting the utmost that
can be said for the necessity of leadership, we must at the same time
grant that the perfection of leadership itself lies in securing the
willing, convinced, open-eyed support of the mass.

Thus individuals will contribute to the social will in very varying
degrees, but the democratic thesis is that the formation of such a will,
that is, in effect, the extension of intelligent interest in all manner
of public things, is in itself a good, and more than that, it is a
condition qualifying other good things. Now the extension of interest is
not to be created by democratic forms of government, and if it neither
exists nor can be brought into existence,