Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 6.djvu/211

198 coming into the world is to acquire property; first food, then shelter. The first thing the baoy does is this; the earliest generation of babies—baby men—their first deed was acquisition; food for existence, flowers for ornament. Proper, is the material result and test of man's normal activity. It is also the indispensable condition of existence from day to day; much and permanent property is the indispensable condition for the advance and development of mankind, in mind and conscience, heart and soul. It is an accident of more value than all other external accidents—priestly, kingly, nobilitary, and despotocratic. In the industrial state, money is the symbol of power, for the individual and for the nation; it is worth more than descent from priestly Moses, or Luther, from royal Charlemagne, or protectorial Cromwell, or from any nobilitary stem, "All the blood of all the Howards" is powerless, compared to the almighty dollar.

Democracy is not possible except in a nation where there is so much property, and that so widely distributed that the whole people can have considerable education—intellectual, moral, affectional, and religious. So much property, widely distributed, judiciously appKed, is the indispensable material basis of a democracy; as military power is indispensable to the existence of an unnatural oligarchy—priestly, monarchic, nobilitary, or despotocratic; and as those tyrannical rulers must have] military power to keep the people down, so in a democracy the people must have property—the result of their industry—to keep themselves up, and advance their education; else, very soon there will be a government over all, but by a few, and for the sake of a few; and democracy will end in despotism. But it must be natural property resting on a basis of natural morality, consisting of what man may own and not violate his moral nature. There can be no natural property which violates natural right, the constitution of the universe.

Accordingly, fipom the nature of such a government, it becomes necessanr, in every industrial democracy, to have one thing sacred:—the natural rights of man, the substance of humanity. This is the prime factor of all the national product. If the natural rights of man be not respected, then the democracy will perish, just as the oligarchy will come to an end if the pretended privilege