The sequent democracy was derived of
neighborliness and good fellowship, the "natural issue of their interests,
their occupations, and their manner of life," and was not constructed of
any theory of an ideal state. Nor were they frightened by the arguments of
Socrates, who found in the "extravagant love of liberty" the preface to
tyranny. And they would not have been frightened even if they had been
familiar with his doctrine of democracy. They little dreamed that they
were exemplifying the doctrines of a French philosopher or refuting those
of a Greek thinker.
Those primitive democratic and individualistic conditions had not yet been
seriously changed when, in that bit of the valley which lies in the dim
background of my own memory, there had developed a form of government more
stern and uncaressing. But there was not a pauper in all the township for
its stigmatizing care. There was not an orphan who did not have a home;
there was not a person in prison; there was only one insane person, so far
as the public knew, and she was cared for in her own home.
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