Towards democracy

10 Towards Democracy

For this the heroes and lovers of all ages have laid down their lives; and nations like tigers have fought, knowing well that this life was a mere empty blob without Freedom.

Where this makes itself known in a people or even in the soul of a single man or woman, there Democracy begins to exist.

OF that which exists in the Soul, political freedom and institutions of equality, and so forth, are but the shadows (necessarily thrown) ; and Democracy in States or Constitutions but the shadow of that which first expresses itself in the glance of the eye or the appearance of the skin.

Without that first the others are of no account, and need not be further mentioned.

Vil

Inevitable in time for man and all creation is the realisation: the husks one behind another keep shelling and peeling off.

Rama crosses to Ceylon by the giant stepping-stones ; and the Ganges floats with the flowers and sacred lamps of pilgrims ; Diotima teaches Socrates divine lore; Benedict plunges his midnight lust in nettles and briars; and Bruno stands prevaricating yet obstinate before his judges. —

The midnight jackals scream round the village; and the feigned cry of the doe is heard as she crosses the track of the hunter pursuing her young ; the chaffinch sits close in her perfect nest, and the shining leaping waters of the streams tun on and on.

The great stream of history runs on.