And I can tell you this, gentlemen, from personal conversation with some of the most intelligent of the labouring class, that ... the hereditary, the traditionary policy of the Tory party that would improve the condition of the people, is more appreciated by the people than the ineffable mysteries and all the pains and penalties of the Ballot Bill.... Is that wonderful? Consider the condition of the great body of the working classes of this country. They are in possession of personal privileges--of personal rights and liberties--which are not enjoyed by the aristocracies of other countries. Recently they have obtained--and wisely obtained--a great extension of political rights; and when the people of England see that under the Constitution of this country ... they possess every personal right of freedom, and according to the conviction of the whole country, also an adequate concession of political rights, is it at all wonderful that they should wish to elevate and improve their condition, and is it unreasonable that they should ask the Legislature to assist them in that behest, as far as it is consistent with the general welfare of the realm?...” The crucial problem still exacts, though it need not baffle, solution. We are still waiting for the complete answer to the question here propounded by Disraeli. CHAPTER IV CHURCH AND THEOCRACY “The equality of man,” exclaims Disraeli in _Tancred_, “can only be accomplished by the sovereignty of God. The longing for fraternity can never be satisfied but under the sway of a common Father ... announce the sublime and solacing principle of theocratic equality.” This is a Semitic idea; but, then, so is the Church. The State, on the other hand, is an Aryan conception. The real religion both of Athens and of Rome was the State. These radical ideas of Church and State, to which we have grown so accustomed, are, in fact, the products of special races and the salvage of the centuries. The Romans invented “Empire,” the Athenians “Democracy,” the Jews created “Theocracy.” It may be interesting to inquire how this idea of a spiritual _Church_--a colony from the unseen and eternal--has been in constant conflict with that other dominant idea of the _State_; and how, among the nations, England alone has made any serious or successful attempt to reconcile them. For these are the ideas, expressed or implied, of Disraeli. I take the liberty of illustrating these ideas afresh in my own manner, and in continuous commentary, rather than by considering isolated passages scattered through his books and speeches, many of which I shall quote later on. And the standpoint marked by the title of this chapter is the point of view which seems to me to distinguish the many varieties of the theme which he presents, and which evidently fascinated him.