That conception fitted closely
to the feudal theory of government, in which the interests of the
ruler and the subject did not necessarily coincide; the ruler
governed with his own interests in view, and coerced his subjects
if he could; but the new theory of government does not separate the
ruler from the state. The government of a state with democratic
institutions is the will of the people taking shape, and the
phenomena of rule are but those of the popular will expressing
itself, the object being that each individual should have his due
preponderance; the ultimate end being as much individual liberty as
is consistent with harmonious co-operation.
That is a rough analogy of the doctrine of Walt Whitman; namely,
that the individual, soul and body, is a polity; and that the true
life is to be found in a harmonious co-operation of body and soul.
The reason is not at liberty to deride or to neglect the bodily
desires, even the meanest and basest of them, because every desire,
whether of soul or body, is the expression of something that exists
in the animating principle. Take, for example, the case of physical
passion. That, in its ultimate analysis, is the instinct for
propagating life, the transmission and continuance of vitality. The
reason must not ignore or deplore it, but direct it into the proper
channels; it may indicate the dangers that it incurs; but merely to
thwart it, to regard it with shame and horror, is to establish an
internecine warfare.
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