The main point in the method of Socrates was
essentially democratic. He urged men to bring all
things to the test of incessant inquiry, and not to content
themselves with the verdict of authorities, majorities, or
custom; to judge of right and wrong, not by the will or
sentiment of others, but by the light which God has set
in each man's reason and conscience. He proclaimed
that authority is often wrong, and has no \varrant to
silence or to impose conviction. But he gave no warrant
to resistance. He emancipated men for thought, but not
for action. The sublime history of his death shows that
the superstition of the State was undisturbed by his con-
tempt for its rulers.
Plato had not his master's patriotism, nor his reverence for the civil power. He believed that no State can command obedience if it does not deserve respect; and he encouraged citizens to despise their government if they were not governed by \vise men. To the aristocracy of philosophers he assigned a boundless prerogative; but as no government satisfied that test, his plea for despotism was hypothetical. When the lapse of years roused him from the fantastic dream of his Republic, his belief in divine government moderated his intolerance of human freedom. Plato would not suffer a democratic polity; but he challenged all existing authorities to justify themselves before a superior tribunal; he desired that all constitutions should be thoroughly remodelled, and he supplied the greatest need of Greek democracy, the conviction that the will of the people is subject to the will of God, and that all civil authority, except that of an imaginary state, is limited and conditional. The prodigious vitality of his writings has kept the glaring perils of popular government constantly before mankind; but it has also preserved the belief in ideal politics and the notion of judging the powers of this world by a standard from heaven. There has been no fiercer enemy of democracy; but there has been no stronger advocate of revolution.
In the Ethics Aristotle condemns democracy, even with a property qualification, as the worst of governments.
