Political Science Of The State

122 POLITICAL SCIENCE.

ties. To what is the difference owing ? I believe the system
to be at the bottom an emanation from universal suffrage ;
that the stratum of society which would be excluded from
the polls by a very small property qualification needs to be
informed whom to vote for ; that while in general they desire
good government, they are not competent to decide what it
is, or who ought to administer it ; that the best part of society
will not attempt to instruct them, and that thus they are left
in the hands of men who have their own points to carry by
the means of such constituents. They would not vote as
they do, if suddenly raised in intelligence and character.
But as long as there is such a class, there is a demand for
demagogues. And what is worth noticing, when by the
help of such a class the leaders carry their points, the follow-
ers think that they have gained the victory, and it is a great
cause of the solid coherence of parties after mistakes and
weaknesses, that they who only vote and scarcely know why,
are as eager for the party's success as any others. Whereas,
from the beginning they may not have put forth one inde-
pendent thought. No relation of subservience is more strik-
ingly sad than this — that there are multitudes in the freest
countries who can only vote according to the will of others,
and yet all the while think themselves free and independent.

Whether there is any cure for these evils we shall consider
in the section on parties in the United States.

201.
It has often been said that Athens gives us a sample of
The Athenian de- extreme democracy ; it has been called " a fierce
mocracy. democratic," and yet with all the faults of its
constitution— which were in part forced upon it— it did not
fall into those fits of fanatical suspicion, cruelty, and bloody
strife, which blot the annals of some other Greek states. In
fact, as soon as the principle of the government was secured
against the opposite principle of oligarchy, it showed itself
possessed of a certain moderation and refinement of taste,
which to a great degree kept out scenes of violence ; and it