nds of men, at various periods
of their history, have contrived for the government of human institutions.
Such an attempt would in itself betray a lack of complete appreciation of
the excellence of the handiwork of its great Author. How could it be
otherwise when we remember that this Order constitutes the very pattern of
that divine civilization which the almighty Law of Baha'u'llah is designed
to establish upon earth? The divers and ever-shifting systems of human
polity, whether past or present, whether originating in the East or in the
West, offer no adequate criterion wherewith to estimate the potency of its
hidden virtues or to appraise the solidity of its foundations.

The Baha'i Commonwealth of the future, of which this vast Administrative
Order is the sole framework, is, both in theory and practice, not only
unique in the entire history of political institutions, but can find no
parallel in the annals of any of the world's recognized religious systems.
No form of democratic government; no system of autocracy or of
dictatorship, whether monarchical or republican; no intermediary scheme of
a purely aristocratic order; nor even any of the recognized types of
theocracy, whether it be the Hebrew Commonwealth, or the various Christian
ecclesiastical organizations, or the Imamate or the Caliphate in
Islam--none of these can be identified or be said to conform with the
Administrative Order which the master-hand of its perfect Architect has
fashioned.

This new-born Administrative Order incorporates within its structure
certain elements which are to be found in each of the three recognized
forms of secular government, without being in any sense a mere replica of
any one of them, and without introducing within its machinery any of the
objectionable features which they inherently possess. It blends and
harmonizes, as no government fashioned by mortal hands has as yet
accomplished, the salutary truths which each of these systems undoubtedly
contains without vitiating the integrity of those God-given verities on
which it is ultimately founded.

The Administrative Order of the Faith of Baha'u'llah must in no wise be
regarded as purely democratic in character inasmuch as the basic
assumption which requires all democracies to depend fundamentally upon
getting their mandate from the people is altogether lacking in this
Dispensation. In the conduct of the administrative affairs of the Faith,
in the enactment of the legislation