Many men who live far beyond the Commonwealth and Empire have come to feel, as the coronation of the Queen drew near, that though they have no part in the gorgeous ceremony, they do participate in the solemn rite. For the British have made out of the forms and usages of their own unique history a great work of art which celebrates the saving truth about the government of men.
It is the truth that in every good society there must be a common center, known to be legitimate, to which the loyalty and the public love of all men are bound. That center of allegiance may be incarnate in an actual person or, as in a republic, it may be disembodied and have its being in the idea of the constitution and its ideal meaning. But always and everywhere, if a government is to be good, a center of men's allegiance must be recognized that is above the diversities and conflicts of their interests, and that is invulnerable to the pressure of party, faction, class, race, and sect.
And since this center of men's worldly allegiance must be beyond the reach of their worldly passions, it must be founded in, it must be consecrated to, the realm of the spirit. It must be bound to the truths that are more than the private and passing opinions of persons and of crowds, and to the laws that are above their wishes and their impulses.
This is the universal essence which Queen Elizabeth II represents for all mankind when she is recognized, is sworn, is anointed, and is crowned. In the course of the centuries, the British people--the most gifted in government since the Romans and with their genius in poetry--have invested monarchy with the meaning that must be recognized somewhere and somehow in any state--whether or not it has a king--if it is to be governed well.
The ritual itself is an eloquent record of how this has been done, so often against the will of the reigning monarch himself. The ritual looks back upon and sums up the centuries of struggle and of inspiration in which the British have brought all earthly powers--kings, nobles, and all the commoners no less --under the laws. It is a great art to have woven about their hereditary and not always very royal and admirable kings, a web of usages and symbols and ceremonies which--though they are unique for the British people in their concrete and historic circumstance--are none the less true and significant for ail peoples and all states.
The truths of this rite are most timely for our day. Our generation would, in any circumstances, be more sensitive and receptive to them than those that have preceded us, even if by great good fortune the central figure were not the young and beautiful Queen attended by her great Prime Minister, so undoubtedly the chivalrous and dauntless champion of freedom and good hope. This is a moment to reaffirm and to celebrate the essential truths. For the future of the free democratic society hangs in the balance because, confronted with the challenge of their adversaries, they are so weakened by the conflict and confusion within and among themselves.
If the free world is in this great peril, it is not because the adversaries of freedom are so strong or so attractive but because so many, indeed most, of the large democratic states are at the moment so badly governed. In many of them, our own alas included, good government is undermined by the usurpation of the sovereign power by the popular assembly. In the crisis of our Western society this usurpation has brought about a paralysis and panic fear which threaten to wreck the position of the whole free world, and to destroy the freedom and the kindly community of men with one another at home.
