ust, Miltiades, the victor of Marathon,
and Themistocles, the victor of Salamis. The excesses of the Paris
Commune of 1870 during its reign, the lynchings of today by mobs of
so-called "respectable citizens" who assume the power to accuse, judge
and execute all at once, indicate how much regard unrestrained
democracies would have for the rights of their individual members.

Nevertheless, despite the danger of more or less arbitrariness, of
more or less oppression of the individual, any government must be made
strong enough perfectly to maintain order and peace among its
subjects. Order is earth's as well as heaven's first law. The goddess
Themis in the early Greek mythology was the goddess of order as well
as the supplier of _themistes_ or decisions. She was present as the
spirit of order in the councils of gods and men. The government that
cannot or will not maintain order and peace, prevent violence and
fraud, enforce individual rights and redress individual wrongs
completely and promptly, is so far a failure and whatever its form
should be reformed or overthrown. Even military despotism is better
than disorder.

On the other hand, there must be taken into account the tendency,
already mentioned, of the possessor of unlimited power over others to
use it for his own benefit or pleasure at the expense of those subject
to his control, where not restrained by affection or like virtues.
Under all governments there has been more or less friction between the
persons governing and those governed; more or less strife, sometimes
culminating in rebellion and even revolution. If it be said that under
a government by the people directly, a pure democracy, such as seems
to be advocated at this day, there would be no distinction between
governors and governed, that all would be governors and governed
alike, the answer is that in a pure democracy the governing power is
and can be exercised by only a part of the people, a majority it may
be, but still only a part. This part are the governors. The other
part, perhaps nearly as numerous, are governed. Friction and even
factious strife would still exist. Indeed, a government by a pure
democracy ruling directly would probably be more arbitrary than any
other, as was the case in Athens. The government by one, or that by a
few, would be restrained to some extent by public opinion, would
refrain from extreme measures lest they excite effectual resistance,
but a majority would feel no such