He strikes the keynote of his discourse in his opening sentence: “He must be a born leader or misleader of men, or must have been sent into the world unfurnished with that modulating and restraining balance-wheel which we call a sense of humor, who, in old age, has as strong a confidence in his opinions and in the necessity of bringing the universe into conformity with them as he had in youth.” Here was Lowell, not unmindful of the zeal of his youth, standing up in the serenity of age and about to repeat his credo in accents which could not be the self-same as those with which he had early sung. Wherein, then, does “Democracy” disclose essential agreement with its author’s ardent faith in youth, or departure from the ideals then enjoyed? The one note always struck by Lowell when he was singing of freedom and democracy was that of the impregnable defence of these great truths in free and conscience-governed character, and it is this note with which his address concludes: “Our healing is not in the storm or in the whirlwind, it is not in monarchies, or aristocracies, or democracies, but will be revealed by the still small voice that speaks to the conscience and the heart, prompting us to a wider and wiser humanity.” And in testing current views by his unalterable faith in humanity, he cleaves with no uncertain stroke. At the time of his address Henry George’s doctrine was preached by its most eloquent expounder, Henry George himself, and Lowell says frankly: “I do not believe that land should be divided because the quantity of it is limited by nature,” but a moment after, “Mr. George is right in his impelling motive; right, also, I am convinced, in insisting that humanity makes a part, by far the most important part, of political economy.” So, too, he distinguishes at once between a socialism which means “the practical application of Christianity to life, and has in it the secret of an orderly and benign reconstruction,” and State Socialism, whose disposition is to “cut off the very roots in personal character--self-help, forethought, and frugality--which nourish and sustain the trunk and branches of every vigorous commonwealth.”