Many  single  questions,  moreover,  admit  of  a
variety  of  solutions,  running  from  the  extremely
radical  on  one  side  to  the  highly  conservative  on
the  other;  and  instead  of  all  men  grouping  them-
selves naturally  into  two  compact  bodies  favoring
very  different  solutions,  as  they  ought  to  do  under
the  theory  of  parties,  a  large  part  of  the  community
is  in  fact  inclined  to  a  middle  course.  This  is  true
not  only  of  a  single  subject,  but  even  more  of  the
attitude  of  the  public  toward  the  general  progress
of  political  thought.  Most  men,  in  short,  hold
moderate  views,  inclining  to  neither  extreme,  and
the  dividing  line  between  the  parties  usually  cleaves
these  moderate  men  asunder,  including  some  in  one
camp  and  some  in  the  other.
A  diagram  may  help  to  make  the  matter  clear.
If  we  represent  the  state  of  the  public  mind,  on  any
question  capable  of  a  variety  of  solutions,  or  on  the


90


The  Function  of  Parties


[§38


general  trend  of  politics,  by  a  figure  whose  thickness
at  any  point  indicates  the  number  of  people  naturally
preferring  the  opinion  corresponding  to  that  point,
the  figure  would  by  no  means  have  the  shape  of  a
dumb-bell  or  figure  eight,  as  the  theory  of  parties
would  lead  us  to  suppose.  On  the  contrary,  it  would
be  thickest  near  the  centre,  not  far  from  the  very
place  where  the  division  between  the  parties  comes.
The  normal  curve  so  formed  is  known  to  scientific
men  as  the  integral  of  probability.
