Page:The cult of incompetence (IA cu31924030447654).pdf/13

 may it not have been possible in the following pages to reproduce the elegant and master of French prose, not even the inadequacies of a translation can obscure the force of his argument. The only incisive style of a introduction, therefore, that seems possible must take the form of a request to the reader to study M. Faguet's criticism of modern democracy with the daily paper in his hand. He will then see, taking chapter by chapter, how in some aspects the phenomena of English democracy are identical with those described in the text, and how in others our English worship of incompetence, moral and technical, differs considerably from that which prevails in France. It might have been possible, as a part of the scheme of this volume, to note on each page, by way of illustration, instances from contemporary English practice, but an adequate execution of this plan would have overloaded