his, because if the people are trusted with more power they will
tyrannize life down to this paralyzing reaction.

The logic of this bold pessimism is:--Human nature is tyrannical; the
majority have always tyrannized in proportion to their power; increase
their power and they will increase their tyranny. This is the
syllogism which has dignified the foregoing collection of occurrences
into grave symptoms of an increase of popular despotism.

It might be fair to meet dogmatic pessimism with dogmatic optimism.
Or, it would be legitimate to follow the logic to its end in a general
abandoning of all the powers of government which, it seems, has only
hurt when it tried to help humanity; to go back honestly to Jefferson,
and beyond him, to

The very best government of all,
That which governs not at all.

This is the pandemonium of anarchy. Mr. Flower believes that there is
not enough of the golden rule in society to-day to make socialism
tolerable. But we have only to imagine our present society, with its
current quantity of golden rule, thrown into the chaos where
government has ceased to govern, where the political majority has lost
all its power, but where the majority of brute strength awakes to find
itself with no laws to molest or make it afraid.

But this doctrine of the inevitable despotism of the political
majority lies so at the bottom of the whole impeachment, that it ought
to be carefully examined in itself.

In the first place, both premises are without support. Human nature,
even in irresponsible multitudes, is not essentially tyrannical. Let
us admit frankly all the degraded sweeps of intolerance in the past;
yet has not human nature during recent generations been growing in the
tolerant spirit? Look straight at the intelligent society around us;
look within ourselves most of all, and let us ask if we see any such
intolerance of spirit as would bloom into tyranny if we only had the
chance. A man may prove to me by inductive data, reaching
uninterruptedly over ten thousand years, that my own nature is
intolerant; he may even corroborate his proof by pointing to my
occasional acts of thoughtless disregard for another's opinion, yet
all this array does not overwhelm me, for I know I am not intolerant.
Our society to-day, as a whole, knows it is not intolerant;--even
though it be proved as conclusively as ever Puritan divine proved
God's hatred for man, and man's incapacity for a single good act. The