Democracy In America, vol 2 | Page 6

nation and all the
feelings of patriotism; whence it derives a peculiar force. To this
powerful reason another of no less intensity may be added: in American
religion has, as it were, laid down its own limits. Religious institutions
have remained wholly distinct from political institutions, so that former
laws have been easily changed whilst former belief has remained
unshaken. Christianity has therefore retained a strong hold on the
public mind in America; and, I would more particularly remark, that its
sway is not only that of a philosophical doctrine which has been
adopted upon inquiry, but of a religion which is believed without
discussion. In the United States Christian sects are infinitely diversified
and perpetually modified; but Christianity itself is a fact so irresistibly
established, that no one undertakes either to attack or to defend it. The
Americans, having admitted the principal doctrines of the Christian
religion without inquiry, are obliged to accept in like manner a great
number of moral truths originating in it and connected with it. Hence
the activity of individual analysis is restrained within narrow limits,
and many of the most important of human opinions are removed from
the range of its influence.
The second circumstance to which I have alluded is the following: the
social condition and the constitution of the Americans are democratic,
but they have not had a democratic revolution. They arrived upon the
soil they occupy in nearly the condition in which we see them at the
present day; and this is of very considerable importance.
There are no revolutions which do not shake existing belief, enervate
authority, and throw doubts over commonly received ideas. The effect
of all revolutions is therefore, more or less, to surrender men to their
own guidance, and to open to the mind of every man a void and almost
unlimited range of speculation. When equality of conditions succeeds a
protracted conflict between the different classes of which the elder
society was composed, envy, hatred, and uncharitableness, pride, and
exaggerated self- confidence are apt to seize upon the human heart, and
plant their sway there for a time. This, independently of equality itself,
tends powerfully to divide men - to lead them to mistrust the judgment
of others, and to seek the light of truth nowhere but in their own
understandings. Everyone then attempts to be his own sufficient guide,

and makes it his boast to form his own opinions on all subjects. Men
are no longer bound together by ideas, but by interests; and it would
seem as if human opinions were reduced to a sort of intellectual dust,
scattered on every side, unable to collect, unable to cohere.
Thus, that independence of mind which equality supposes to exist, is
never so great, nor ever appears so excessive, as at the time when
equality is beginning to establish itself, and in the course of that painful
labor by which it is established. That sort of intellectual freedom which
equality may give ought, therefore, to be very carefully distinguished
from the anarchy which revolution brings. Each of these two things
must be severally considered, in order not to conceive exaggerated
hopes or fears of the future.
I believe that the men who will live under the new forms of society will
make frequent use of their private judgment; but I am far from thinking
that they will often abuse it. This is attributable to a cause of more
general application to all democratic countries, and which, in the long
run, must needs restrain in them the independence of individual
speculation within fixed, and sometimes narrow, limits. I shall proceed
to point out this cause in the next chapter.

Chapter II
: Of The Principal Source Of Belief Among Democratic Nations
At different periods dogmatical belief is more or less abundant. It arises
in different ways, and it may change its object or its form; but under no
circumstances will dogmatical belief cease to exist, or, in other words,
men will never cease to entertain some implicit opinions without trying
them by actual discussion. If everyone undertook to form his own
opinions and to seek for truth by isolated paths struck out by himself
alone, it is not to be supposed that any considerable number of men
would ever unite in any common belief. But obviously without such
common belief no society can prosper - say rather no society can
subsist; for without ideas held in common, there is no common action,
and without common action, there may still be men, but there is no
social body. In order that society should exist, and, a fortiori, that a
society should prosper, it is required that all the minds of the citizens
should be rallied and held together by certain predominant ideas; and

this cannot be the case, unless