were only mildly inoculated with the democratic spirit at first
became surcharged with this spirit because of their many reactions. They
have been obeying the behests of spiritual impulse, working in war
gardens, eliminating luxuries, purchasing bonds, contributing to
benevolent enterprises, until democracy is their ruling passion. Every
effort a man puts forth in the interest of humanity has a reflex influence
upon his inner self and he experiences a spiritual expansion. So it has
come to pass that men and women are doing two, three, or ten times the
amount of work they did in the past and doing it better. Their aroused and
enlarged spiritual impulses are the enginery that is driving their minds
and bodies forward into virgin territory, into new and larger enterprises,
and thus into a wider, deeper realization of their own capabilities. So
the leaven of democracy is working through difficulties of surpassing
obduracy and resolving situations that seemed, in the past, to be beyond
human achievement. And of democracy it may be said, as of Dame Rumor of
old, "She grows strong by motion and gains power by going. Small at first
through fear, she presently raises herself into the air, she walks upon
the ground and lifts her head among the clouds." On the side of democracy,
at any rate, it would seem that education is beginning to find its way
again.
In the thinking of most people democracy is a form of government; but
primarily it is not this at all. Rather it is a spiritual attitude. The
form of government is an outward manifestation of the inward feeling. Our
ancestors held democracy hidden in their hearts as they crossed the ocean
long before it became visible as a form of government. The form of
government was inevitable, seeing that they possessed the feeling of
democracy, and that they were journeying to land in obedience to the
dictates of this feeling. In education for democracy the form of
government is an after-consideration; that will come as a natural
sequence. The chief thing is to inoculate the spirits of people with a
feeling for democracy. This germ will grow out into a form of government
because of the unity of feeling and consequent thinking. When this
spiritual attitude is generated, not only does the form of government
follow, but people meet upon the plane of a common purpose and give
expression to their inner selves in like movements. They come to realize
that, in a large way, each one is his brother's
|