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Show 44 b 1 t create and not enjoy, who toil only for class, orn mere Y o , . . ot h ers. Th ere I·S mutuality of earninoa and enJoywg: none is compelled to work vicariously for ano~her,. none allowed to rob others of the natural fruit of their tml. Of course, each works at such calling as his nature demands: on the mare liberum, the open sea of human industry, every personal bark saHs whither it may, and with such freight and swiftness as it will or can. Government, in social and political affairs, is the right of all, not less their duty, and practically the lot of each. So there is no privilege in politics, no lordly class born to command and not obey, no slavh;h class born to serve and not command: there is mutuality of command and obedience. And as there is no compulsory vicarious work, but each takes part in the labor of all, and has his share in the enjoyment thereof; so there is no vicarious government, but each takes part in the making of laws and in obedience thereunto. Such is the ideal democracy, nowhere made actual. Practically, Labor and Government are the two great forces in the Education of Mankind. These take the youth where schools and colleges leave him, and carry him further up to another seminary, where he studies for ·what honors he will, and graduates into such degrees as he can attain to. This sharing of Labor and Government is the indispensable condition for human Development; for, if any class of men permanently withdraws itself from Labor, first it parts from its human sympathy ; next it becomes debauched in its several powers; and presently it loses its masculine vigor and its feminine delicacy ; and dies, at last, a hideous ruin. Do you doubt what I say ? Look, then, at the Roman aristocracy from two centuries before Christ to four centuries after, - at the French aristocracy from Louis XIII. to Louis XVI. 45 If any class of men is withheld from Government,from its share in organizing the people into social, political, and ecclesiastical forms, from making and executing the laws,- then that class loses its manhood and womanhood ' dwindles into meanness and insignificance, and also must perish. For example, look at the populace of Rome from the second century before Christ to the fourth after· look ' at the miserable people of Naples and Spain, too far gone ever to be raised out of the grave where they are buried now; look at the inhabitants of Ireland, whose only salvation consists in flight to a new soil, where they may have a share in political government, as well as in economic labor. So much for the definition of terms frequently to be used, and the statement of the great principles which lie at the foundation of human progress and welfare. Now, in the history of a nation, there are always two operating forces,- one positive, the other negative. One I will call the Progressive Force. It is that Instinct of Progress just named, with the sum total of all the excellences of the people, their hopefulness, human sympathy, virtue, religion, piety. This is the power to advance. The other I will call the Regressive Force; that is, the vis inertia:, the sluggishness of the people, the sum total of all the people's laziness and despair, all the selfishness of a class, all the vice and anti-religion. This is power to retard. I do not speak of the conservative force which would keep, or the destructive force which would wastefully consume, but only of those named. The destructive force in America is now small ; the conservative, or preservative, exceeding great. Every nation has somewhat of the progressive force, each likewise something of the regressive. Let me illus- |