For the many, of
whom each individual is but an ordinary person, when they meet
together may very likely be better than the few good, if regarded
not individually but collectively, just as a feast to which many
contribute is better than a dinner provided out of a single purse. For
each individual among the many has a share of virtue and prudence, and
when they meet together, they become in a manner one man, who has many
feet, and hands, and senses; that is a figure of their mind and
disposition. Hence the many are better judges than a single man of
music and poetry; for some understand one part, and some another,
and among them they understand the whole. There is a similar
combination of qualities in good men, who differ from any individual
of the many, as the beautiful are said to differ from those who are
not beautiful, and works of art from realities, because in them the
scattered elements are combined, although, if taken separately, the
eye of one person or some other feature in another person would be
fairer than in the picture. Whether this principle can apply to
every democracy, and to all bodies of men, is not clear. Or rather, by
heaven, in some cases it is impossible of application; for the
argument would equally hold about brutes; and wherein, it will be
asked, do some men differ from brutes? But there may be bodies of
men about whom our statement is nevertheless true.
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