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102 PROBLEMS CONFRONTING RUSSIA
private, whenever he has a chance of getting into personal
touch with him.
Of course a simple-minded child of nature cannot possess
the highly evolved mentality of a man of public affairs.
Russia has, in a few months, reached a degree of political
freedom * for which Great Britain required centuries of slow
and steady reform. By this abrupt movement historical
continuity was lost. England felt her way towards progress
with caution, in the light of Burke’s dictum : " With
inclination to preserve and capacity to reform." The
super-quickness of progress which has fallen to the lot of Russia
produced in the mind of the reformers a hope to accomplish
the impossible, to realise Utopia, and let the solid ground
of practical experience slip away from beneath their feet.
An appreciation of the organic evolution of State and social
institutions in England should have had a beneficial
influence in Russian politics and steadied the forces which
brought about the revolution.
Since Russia has become a democracy she is liable to be
compared with the older democracy of Great Britain, and the
question arises in consequence as to the actual conception of
democracy, apart from its literally meaning that the people
are the ruling power. A levelling of the differences which
divide the various classes of society is, of course, the true
aim of democracy, but all depends upon the standard of
the " level" taken as normal. Human society can be
levelled from below or from above. It may be laid down
that the mode of life, moral principles, and manners of the
lower strata should be the rule for the whole community ;
or, on the contrary, the tendency may exist that the masses
should adjust their ways and customs to those of the higher
educated classes. With all their democratic tendencies
the British avowedly follow what may be styled the cult of
the gentleman, that is to say, that the higher standard of life
is considered to be the universal aim. This distinctive
feature of British democracy has given it the polish of
aristocracy. The preponderance which the British exercise
* I leave out of account revolutionary degeneracy. See chapter v.
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