ABSTRACT
Democracy must have a deeper and truer philosophical sense if it is to be preferred to other regimes. Since democratic peoples do in some degree govern themselves, they must individually show a greater responsibility before the labor of reason and the judgment seat of history. If democracy is to remain the aspiration of humble men and women throughout the world, it must show rare skills on the different levels of politics. Democratic goals are poorly, or bombastically, stated, and they are poorly realized in practice. The reconciliation of the interests of class or groups, which has been so central in the doctrine of progress, becomes in itself one of the symbols of class imperialism. The materialist—the modern revolutionary—would deny in general the wisdom of tradition, even when subjected to the orthodoxy of reason. Tradition must be refined, as metals are refined in the process of manufacturing.
