. It could not have
appeared or become a social force until man became a thinker and critic
of existing social arrangements. It was first necessary that he should
acquire a point of view and a habit of thought that give him a measure
of intellectual independence and enable him to regard social
institutions and arrangements as human devices more or less imperfect
and unjust. This thought can not be grasped without its correlative--the
possibility of improvement. Hence democracy everywhere stands for
political and social reform.

Democracy is modern, since it is only within recent times that the
general diffusion of knowledge has been possible. The invention of
printing, by making possible a cheap popular literature, contributed
more than any other one fact to the intellectual and moral awakening
which marks the beginning of modern times. The introduction of
printing, however, did not find a democratic literature ready for
general distribution, or the people ready for its appearance. A long
period of slow preparation followed, during which the masses were being
educated. Moreover, it is only within recent times that governments
would have permitted the creation and diffusion of a democratic
literature. For a long time after printing was invented the ruling
classes carefully guarded against any use of the newly discovered art
that might be calculated to undermine their authority. Books containing
new and dangerous doctrines were rigorously proscribed and the people
carefully protected from the disturbing influence of such views as might
shake their faith in the wisdom and justice of the existing social
order.[198]

It is perhaps fortunate for the world that the political and social
results of printing were not comprehended at the time of its
introduction. Had the ruling classes foreseen that it would lead to the
gradual shifting of political power from themselves to the masses, it is
not unlikely that they would have regarded it as a pernicious
innovation.

But, as is the case with all great inventions, its full significance was
not at first understood. Silently and almost imperceptibly it paved the
way for a social and political revolution. The gradual diffusion of
knowledge among the people prepared them for the contemplation of a new
social order. They began to think, to question and to doubt, and
thenceforth the power and prestige of the ruling classes began to
decline. From that time on there has been an unceasing