thousands of people.  And the politician most of all depends upon a numerous and faithful body of admirers.  Of what avail would his independence and competence be in case there were nobody to accept his leadership?  It is not enough, consequently, to assert that the individual must emancipate himself by means of excellent and disinterested work.  His emancipation has no meaning, his career as an individual no power, except with the support of a larger or smaller following.  Admitting the desirability of excellent work, what kind of workmanlike excellence will make the individual not merely independent and incorruptible, but powerful?  In what way and to what end shall he use the instrument, which he is to forge and temper, for his own individual benefit and hence for that of society?

These questions involve a real difficulty, and before we are through they must assuredly be answered; but they are raised at the present stage of the discussion for the purpose of explicitly putting them aside rather than for the purpose of answering them.  The individual instruments must assuredly be forged and tempered to some good use, but before we discuss their employment let us be certain of the instruments themselves.  Whatever that employment may be and however much of a following its attainment may demand, the instrument must at any rate be thoroughly well made, and in the beginning it is necessary to insist upon merely instrumental excellence, because the American habit and tradition is to estimate excellence almost entirely by results.  If the individual will only obtain his following, there need be no close scrutiny as to his methods.  The admirable architect is he who designs an admirably large number of buildings.  The admirable playwright is he who by whatever means makes the hearts of his numerous audiences palpitate.  The admirable politician is he who succeeds somehow or anyhow in gaining the largest area of popular confidence.  This tradition is the most insidious enemy of American individual independence and fulfillment.  Instead of declaring, as most Americans do, that a man may, if he can, do good work, but that he must create a following, we should declare that a man may, if he can, obtain a following, but that he must do good work.  When he has done good work, he may not have done all that is required of him; but if he fails to do good work, nothing else counts.  The individual democrat who has had the chance and who has failed in that essential respect is an individual sham, no matter how much of a shadow his figure casts upon the social landscape.