“Representative Government the Ideally Best Polity.”—­Every student who has access to Mills’ Representative Government should read the chapter with the heading at the beginning of this paragraph.  He combats the proposition, “if a good despot could be insured, despotic monarchy would be the best form of government.”  Granting that much good might be done, he shows that the very passivity of the people must result in deterioration, “that is, if the nation had ever attained anything to decline from.”  On the other hand, he shows that participation in public affairs gives a mental and moral training otherwise unattainable.  After showing the nature of the mental development acquired, he says:  “Still more salutary is the moral part of the instruction afforded by the participation of the private citizen, if even rarely, in public functions.  He is called upon, while so engaged, to weigh interests not his own; to be guided, in case of conflicting claims by another rule than his private partialities; to apply, at every turn, principles and maxims which have for their reason of existence the general good; and he usually finds associated with him in the same work minds more familiarized than his own with these ideas and operations, whose study it will be to supply reasons to his understanding, and stimulation to his feeling for the general good.  He is made to feel himself one of the public, and whatever is their interest to be his interest.  Where this school of public spirit does not exist ... a neighbor, not being an ally or an associate, since he is never engaged in any common undertaking for the joint benefit, is therefore only a rival.”

Dangers in Each Form of Government.—­While each of the typical forms has merits of its own,—­the monarchy having stability, the aristocracy securing the benefit of inherited good qualities, and democracy the advantages referred to in the preceding paragraph—­there is danger in each form.  Monarchy continually tends toward that inconsiderate exercise of power which we call tyranny.  Aristocracy tends toward oligarchy; government by the best is prone to decline into government by the few without regard to qualification.  And democracy is in danger of degenerating into mob rule.

Every Government Aims to be Aristocratic.—­That is, each government in theory seeks to have those rule who are best fitted to manage public affairs.  This is the thought, for instance, in our requiring certain qualifications in voters and office-holders.

Our Own Government.—­We fondly believe that our own government combines to a high degree the excellencies of all the forms.

Our hope for stability lies chiefly in the fact that our corner stone is eternal justice, the equality of all men before the law.  Even the severe shock of civil war has been endured, and our system is more strongly intrenched in the confidence of the world than ever before.

We believe in the potency of good blood and good training.  But the worth of each individual must be shown, it will not be taken for granted.  We will neither lift him up because he is “his father’s son,” nor cast him down because his father was unworthy.