Excerpt from Democracy: A Study of Government

Carlyle, after showing Emerson the House of Commons, thought he would annihilate his friend's optimism in politics by abruptly asking him, "Don't you believe in the Devil now?" The memory of this incident, and the condition of things in this country, suggested that the title for the present essay should be "The Devil's Harness." But publishers might fear a bon mot for a title, and the advocates of popular government might resent the imputations which it would seem to carry against their idol. Yet tragedy and comedy are sufficiently mingled in politics to justify a little jeu d'esprit in the proposition to restrain some of the tendencies of the age. Besides, it is hard to resist the temptation to indulge in a little irony at the expense of Mr. Lecky for his pessimism respecting democracy, even if the sequel should reveal more sympathy with his criticisms than usually lurks in satire. I have considered Mr. Lecky half right and half wrong: right in his animadversions, but wrong in his implied demand for a return to eighteenth century methods.

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