d and the other giving her drink; the
father and mother enter and, on seeing this touching incident, "these
good people find themselves so happy in possessing such children they
forget they are poor." "Oh, my father," cries a shepherd youth of the
Pyrenees,[3408] "accept this faithful dog, so true to me for seven
years; in future let him follow and defend you, thus serving me better
than in any other manner." It would require too much space to follow in
the literature of the end of the century, from Marmontel to Bernardin de
Saint-Pierre, and from Florian to Berquin and Bitaube, the interminable
repetition of these sweet insipidities. The illusion even reaches
statesmen. "Sire," says Turgot, on presenting the king with a plan of
political education,[3409] "I venture to assert that in ten years your
nation will no longer be recognizable, and through enlightenment and
good morals, in intelligent zeal for your service and for the country,
it will rise above all other nations. Children who are now ten years
of age will then be men prepared for the state, loving their country,
submissive to authority, not through fear but through Reason, aiding
their fellow-citizens, and accustomed to recognizing and respecting
justice."--In the months of January, 1789,[3410] Necker, to whom M.
de Bouille pointed out the imminent danger arising from the unswerving
efforts of the Third-Estate, "coldly replied, turning his eyes upward,
'reliance must be placed on the moral virtues of man.'"--In the main, on
the imagination forming any conception of human society, this consists
of a vague, semi-bucolic, semi-theatrical scene, somewhat resembling
those displayed on the frontispieces of illustrated works on morals and
politics. Half-naked men with others clothed in skins, assemble together
under a large oak tree; in the center of the group a venerable old man
arises and makes an address, using "the language of nature and Reason,"
proposing that all should be united, and explaining how men are bound
together by mutual obligations; he shows them the harmony of private and
of public interests, and ends by making them appreciate of the beauty of
virtue.[3411] All utter shouts of joy, embrace each other, gather round
the speaker and elect him chief magistrate; dancing is going on under
the branches in the background, and henceforth happiness on earth is
fully established.--This is no exaggeration. The National Assembly
addresses the nation in harangues