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Democracy and religion : a study in Quakerism / by G. von Schulze-Gaevernitz
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12 Swartbmore SLecture.

and that too, with Politics of a particular tendency.I go further and would maintain that Quakerismis the home in which centuries ago modern Demo-cracy and modern Socialism, its younger brother,were alike cradled. By viodern Democracy I meanthe democracy of universal human right based uponthe worth of " whatsoever bears the form andfeature of man " in contrast to medieval or ancientdemocracy, which was founded upon membershipof the guild or full citizenship in the city com-munity. And by modern Socialism I mean theSocialism of Western Europe , which in order tosafeguard this human right and human value seeksto organise the economic life of the communitysystematically from the centre, and is to be con-trasted with the primitive " Socialism " of theIncas and with that of the Soviets -in essence noless primitivefor which the individual counts forso little.

But in this historical achievement the Quaker movement was but the heir of its immediate prede-cessor, the Early Anabaptists , who gathered inHolland after being driven by persecution out ofGermany . Therefore, in assuming the name ofQuaker a German is reverting to the best part ofhis own ancestral heritage. But it was left to theEnglish and American " Friends " to give it thestamp of a sound currency, in political and economiclife, a currency that has now world-wide validity.

The contemporaries of the early Friends werefully conscious of this historical connexion. Ifound in the British Museum a seventeenth centurybooklet entitled " The English Quaker the German