persons: and the PRETENCE of serious difference of opinion, belied
by every action of their lives, was quite good enough for that. What
has all that got to do with us?"

Said I: "Why, nothing, I should hope. But I fear--In short, I have
been told that political strife was a necessary result of human
nature."

"Human nature!" cried the old boy, impetuously; "what human nature?
The human nature of paupers, of slaves, of slave-holders, or the
human nature of wealthy freemen? Which? Come, tell me that!"

"Well," said I, "I suppose there would be a difference according to
circumstances in people's action about these matters."

"I should think so, indeed," said he. "At all events, experience
shows that it is so. Amongst us, our differences concern matters of
business, and passing events as to them, and could not divide men
permanently. As a rule, the immediate outcome shows which opinion on
a given subject is the right one; it is a matter of fact, not of
speculation. For instance, it is clearly not easy to knock up a
political party on the question as to whether haymaking in such and
such a country-side shall begin this week or next, when all men agree
that it must at latest begin the week after next, and when any man
can go down into the fields himself and see whether the seeds are
ripe enough for the cutting."

Said I: "And you settle these differences, great and small, by the
will of the majority, I suppose?"