Whatever
doubts may exist
about the sources of this democracy, there can be none
about the chief source of the
morality that gives it life and substance... [From the Hebrew tradition, via the Puritans, come] the contract and all its corollaries; the higher law as something more than a «brooding omnipresence in the sky»; the concept of the competent and responsible individual; certain key ingredients of economic individualism; the insistence on a citizenry educated to understand its rights and duties; and the middle - class virtues, that high plateau of moral stability on which, so Americans believe, successful democracy must always build [Seedtime of the Republic (Harcourt, Brace, 1953, p. 55)-RSB-.