Page:A Jewish State 1917.djvu/53

 differences between local groups will also continue to be marked. Everything will shape itself quite naturally. All acquired rights will be protected, and every new development will be given sufficient scope.

Our people will be made thoroughly acquainted with all these matters.

We shall not take others unawares or mislead them, any more than we shall deceive ourselves.

Everything must be systematically settled beforehand. I merely indicate this scheme, our acutest thinkers will combine in elaborating it. Every sociological and technical acquirement of our age, and of the more advanced age which will be reached before the slow execution of my plan is accomplished, must be employed for this object. Every valuable invention that exists now, or lies in the future, must be used. By these means a country can be occupied and a State founded in a manner as yet unknown to history, and with possibilities of success such as never occurred before.

CONSTITUTION.

One of the great committees which the Society will have to appoint will be the council of jurists of the State. These must formulate the best, that is, the best modern constitution possible. I believe that a good constitution should be of moderately elastic nature. In another work I have explained in detail what forms of government I hold to be the best. I think a democratic monarchy and an aristocratic republic are the two most superior forms of a State, because in them the form of State and the principle of government are opposed to one another, and thus preserve a true balance of power. I am a staunch supporter of monarchical institutions, because these allow of a consistent policy, and represent the interests of a historically famous family born and educated to rule, whose desires are bound up with the preservation of the State. But our history has been too long interrupted for us to attempt direct continuity of ancient constitutional forms without exposing ourselves to the charge of absurdity.

A democracy without a sovereign's useful counterpoise is extreme in appreciation and condemnation, tends to idle discussion in Parliaments, and produces that objectionable class of men, professional politicians. Nations are also really not fit for unlimited democracy at present, and will become less and less fitted for it in the future. For a pure democracy presupposed a predominance of simple customs, and our customs become daily more complex with the growth of commerce and increase of culture. "Le ressort d'une démocratic est la vertu," said wise Montesquieu. And where is this virtue, that is to say, this political virtue, to be met with? I do not believe in our political virtue; firstly, because we are no better than the rest of modern humanity; and, secondly, because freedom will make us show our fighting qualities at first. I also hold a settling of questions by the public voice to be a foolish proceeding, because there are no simple political questions which can be settled by Ayes and Noes. The masses are also more prone even than Parliaments to be led away by heterodox opinions, and to be swayed by vigorous ranting. It is impossible to formulate a wise internal or external policy in a popular assembly.

Politics must take shape in the upper strata and work downwards. But no member of the Jewish State will be oppressed, every man will be able and desirous to rise in it. Thus a great upward tendency will pass through our people, every individual,