Democracy an& tReltaton.

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class and clothing, culture and property, even ofrace and colour, come to nothing.

In spite of this teaching of Jesus in medievalsociety the conception of equality was buried undera system of hierarchical authority. Even in thePuritan reformation the distinction between theelect and the reprobate in its practical outcomejustified the distinction between master andservant and built up a new bourgeois aristocracy.It was only the Reform of the Reformation, whichdenied all outward authority, the traditionalpower of priest and king not less than the newpower of money which the rising tide of capitalismbrought to the front. It was in the world of thesects where rank and power were superseded byequality. So in the early Quaker meetings masterand servant, man and woman, rich and poor metas " Children of the Light " and therefore asequals.

This spirit has survived up to the present time.A little Quaker book of our own day declares thatthe ancestral veto against removing the hat inpresence of a lady should be abandoned if oneraises the hat with the same politeness to thelady's serving-maid. In this spirit no calling, noteven that of a waitress or woman factory worker,is to be despised, but neither is any resentmentto be shown to a millionaire. In America manyEuropean tourists have been astonished by thepractice of equality as a general style of life." Fellow " is the key-word : " men and women "or better still "boys and girls" replace theconventional " ladies and gentlemen."