em to take charge of the
Government, ninety-nine would accept it in Paris and ninety-nine would
refuse it in London... The Frenchman thinks that all difficulties can
be overcome by a little quickness of wit. Mirabeau accepted the post of
reporter to the Committee on Mines without having the slightest tincture
of knowledge on the subject."

In short, most of them enter politics "like the gentleman who, on being
asked if he knew how to play on the harpsichord, replied, 'I cannot
tell, I never tried, but I will see.'"

"The Assembly had so high an opinion of itself, especially the left side
of it, that it would willingly have undertaken the framing of the Code
of Laws for all nations... Never has so many men been seen together,
fancying that they were all legislators, and that they were there to
correct all the errors of the past, to remedy all mistakes of the human
mind, and ensure the happiness of all ages to come. Doubt had no
place in their minds, and infallibility always presided over their
contradictory decrees."--

This is because they have a theory and because, according to their
notion, this theory renders special knowledge unnecessary. Herein they
are thoroughly sincere, and it is of set purpose that they reverse all
ordinary modes of procedure. Up to this time a constitution used to be
organized or repaired like a ship. Experiments were made from time to
time, or a model was taken from vessels in the neighborhood; the first
aim was to make the ship sail; its construction was subordinated to its
work; it was fashioned in this or that way according to the materials on
hand; a beginning was made by examining these materials, and trying to
estimate their rigidity, weight, and strength.--All this is reactionary;
the age of Reason has come and the Assembly is too enlightened to drag
on in a rut. In conformity with the fashion of the time it works by
deduction, after the method of Rousseau, according to an abstract notion
of right, of the State and of the social compact.[2126] According to
this process, by virtue of political geometry alone, they shall have the
perfect vessel and since it perfect it follows that it will sail, and
that much better than any empirical craft.--They legislate according
to this principle, and one may imagine the nature of their discussions.
There are no convincing facts, no pointed arguments; nobody would
ever imagine that the speakers were gathered together to conduct real
business. Thro