BOOKS OF THE DAY
A Philosopher of Democracy
The Modern Democratic State. Volume I. By A. D. Lindsay. (Oxford University Press, issued under the auspices of the Royal Insti- tute of International Affairs. izs. 6d.) IT is natural to expect Dr. Lindsay to wrestle with the argument " until the breaking of the day " ; and that expectation is fulfilled in the close and profound thinking of this volume. It is natural, too, to expect him (as he did before in his little volume on The Essentials of Democracy) to bring the convictions and the experience of the religious society to bear on the problems of politics. That expecta- tion, too, is fulfilled .in this first volume of his analysis of the philosophy of the democratic State. But he has preserved a stern silence about the general plan and scheme of his work. There is no preface: there is simply a full analytical table of contents, which occupies the first 26 pages, and then the eleven chapters of the first volume. The general development of the argument shows a first chapter which explains the author's method : two succeeding historical chapters which deal with the general development of operative political ideas from Greece and Rome to Hobbes ; an intercalated (and singularly valuable) fourth chapter on Ethics, Politics, and Economics, in which the argument takes stock of the great factors in the further process of historical development ; three further historical chapters (V, VI and VII) which are concerned with early democratic theories, the rise of nationality and nationalism, and the industrial revolution ; and, finally, four philosophical chapters which treat of political obligation, sovereignty, the general will, and the general relation of democracy to the common life of the community. From two brief references at the end of the final chapter, it may be gathered that the second- volume will " examine the modern challenges to democracy " (p. 280 and " discuss the problem of democratic control " (p. 286).
If I were to choose the parts of the book which represent the author's thought at its best, and are most characteristic of his genius, I should select the chapter on Ethics, Politics, and Economics; the first part of the chapter on early democratic theories, with its account of the Puritans ; and the chapter on sovereignty, in which Dr. Lindsay advances that theory of the sovereignty of the constitu- tion which he had expounded, years ago, in a symposium of the Aristotelian Society. But it is perhaps a folly to choose where all is good, and all is suggestive. Three strands unite in the texture of the book—philosophy, a Christian faith, and a synoptic view of history. 'But there is also a further strand, which may not unjustly be called the master-strand. This is a wisdom about life—the sort of wisdom which, if one may use a phrase of his own, is " produced by experience of a certain kind, by responsibility, by a varied
acquaintance with men and things and by an all-round experience. One sometimes wishes, as one reads the book, that Dr. Lindsa had allowed the master-strand to be still more dominant. Unlik Dr. Johnson's frien4;1, Mr. Edwards of Pembroke College, why remarked, at the age of 70, " I have tried too in my time to be philosopher, but, I don't know how, cheerfulness was always break ing in," Dr. Lincliay tends to write from the cheerfulness of h.
experience, but " philosophy is always breaking in "—philosophy that is to say, in the sense of the technical theories of the political philosophers. His book is therefore not altogether a book on the Modern Democratic State, or on his own reflections about it ; it is also a book about the philosophers of the
State. This is a natural piety : we all stand eon the shoulders of our predecessors, and it is loyal to acknowledge our debt. But to wrestle with Rousseau and Boianquet may al
be a distraction from wrestling with the thing itself. Anything that Dr. Lindsay writes belongs to the world at large, and should be studied by the world at large. The simpler the argument, and the simpler and more attractive the style in whichoiit is expressed, the farther it will carry. And it is vitally important that it should be carried far—into vicarages, and manses, into study-groups and classes, into every place and forum where there is thought and debate.
Dr. Lindsay combines two things—vision, and a sense of the actual ; faith, and a clear view of the mountains which have to be
moved. He faces all the difficulties of democracy—faces them frankly, states them fully, and gives them their just weight. That already appears in his first volume : it can hardly appear more in the second, when he faces, as he promises, the modern challenges
to democracy. But- the faith remains ; and it makes him not only the philosopher, but also the Puritan prophet, of the cause of
democracy. He sees the intrinsic and moral rightness of a demo- cratic society in which men freely express their minds and shape their characters in free associations ; and he sees democratic govern- ment as the servant of such a society. " It will never be its business to construct a complete plan for Society, nor to run and dominate or plan the community. A democratic government has to take the community for granted, to recognise . . . that there are -activities I . . . which cannot ,be the state's activities—must be done by inde- pendent and free organisations or not done at all."
I would end by one small note of suggestion which may bear on the second volume. Should not the analytical table of contents be related more closely to the actual text? In this first volume the one seems sometimes to lead a life which is independent of the other. It would help the reader, when he too '! wrestles with the argument," if there were a complete concordance.
ERNEST BARKER.
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