as devotedly attached
to the form of government which, at that time, governed the community.
But it is a vast error to suppose that there was anything degraded in
the character of the French of that age. There might be some sort of
servitude in France at that time, but assuredly there was no servile
spirit among the people. The writers of that age felt a species of
genuine enthusiasm in extolling the power of their king; and there was
no peasant so obscure in his hovel as not to take a pride in the glory
of his sovereign, and to die cheerfully with the cry "Vive le Roi!" upon
his lips. These very same forms of loyalty are now odious to the French
people. Which are wrong?--the French of the age of Louis XIV, or their
descendants of the present day?

Our judgment of the laws of a people must not then be founded Future
Condition Of Three Races In The United States exclusively upon its
inclinations, since those inclinations change from age to age; but upon
more elevated principles and a more general experience. The love which a
people may show for its law proves only this:--that we should not be in
too great a hurry to change them.

Appendix V

In the chapter to which this note relates I have pointed out one source
of danger: I am now about to point out another kind of peril, more rare
indeed, but far more formidable if it were ever to make its appearance.
If the love of physical gratification and the taste for well-being,
which are naturally suggested to men by a state of equality, were to
get entire possession of the mind of a democratic people, and to fill it
completely, the manners of the nation would become so totally opposed to
military tastes, that perhaps even the army would eventually acquire
a love of peace, in spite of the peculiar interest which leads it to
desire war. Living in the midst of a state of general relaxation, the
troops would ultimately think it better to rise without efforts, by
the slow but commodious advancement of a peace establishment, than
to purchase more rapid promotion at the cost of all the toils and
privations of the field. With these feelings, they would take up arms
without enthusiasm, and use them without energy; they would allow
themselves to be led to meet the foe, instead of marching to attack him.
It must not be supposed that this pacific state of the army would render
it adverse to revolutions; for revolutions, and especially military
revolutions, which are generally very