PREFACE DEMOCRACY, as defined by Abraham Lincoln,— Government of the people, for the people, and by the people, dates from the middle, or latter part, of the eighteenth century. "The short-lived Athenian democracy," says Sir Henry Sumner Maine, "under whose shelter art, science, and philosophy shot so wonderfully upwards, was only an aristocracy which rose on the ruins of one much narrower." The early Roman Republic was republic only in name, and although in its subsequent history the power of the people was considerably enlarged, there never was a time when Rome was truly governed either by the people or in their interests. That democracy, in the modern sense of the term, is essentially modern, is indicated by the fact that the two oldest buildings devoted to government assemblies which represent the people, are both of them in America. It is of democracy in its modern sense that I treat in this volume. Sir Henry Maine affirms that democracy "is simply and solely a form of government." In this volume I assume that it is something more. 544534 ୮ It is a spirit which, in so far as a spirit can be embodied in a creed, may be expressed by the statement that not only government, but wealth, education, art, literature, religion, — in a single word, life, — is, in the divine order, intended for the people, and, in the ultimate state of society, will be controlled and administered by the people for the benefit of all. Thus defined, democracy is not only a political opinion, it is also a religious faith. What this faith means, and what we in this age and country can do to promote it, and apply it to the solution of our various problems, are the questions to which I invite the consideration of the reader. In the winter of 1909-10 I gave a course of lectures before the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences on "The Spirit of Democracy." This volume is composed of the substance of those lectures rewritten and somewhat amplified and extended. Although rewritten for book publication it is probable they still partake somewhat of the style and character given to them in their original form as spoken lectures. CORNWALL-ON-HUDSON, LYMAN ABBOTT. |