rapid, are attended indeed with
great dangers, but not with protracted toil; they gratify ambition at
less cost than war; life only is at stake, and the men of democracies
care less for their lives than for their comforts. Nothing is more
dangerous for the freedom and the tranquillity of a people than an army
afraid of war, because, as such an army no longer seeks to maintain its
importance and its influence on the field of battle, it seeks to assert
them elsewhere. Thus it might happen that the men of whom a democratic
army consists should lose the interests of citizens without acquiring
the virtues of soldiers; and that the army should cease to be fit for
war without ceasing to be turbulent. I shall here repeat what I have
said in the text: the remedy for these dangers is not to be found in the
army, but in the country: a democratic people which has preserved the
manliness of its character will never be at a loss for military prowess
in its soldiers.

Appendix W

Men connect the greatness of their idea of unity with means, God with
ends: hence this idea of greatness, as men conceive it, leads us into
infinite littleness. To compel all men to follow the same course towards
the same object is a human notion;--to introduce infinite variety of
action, but so combined that all these acts lead by a multitude of
different courses to the accomplishment of one great design, is a
conception of the Deity. The human idea of unity is almost always
barren; the divine idea pregnant with abundant results. Men think they
manifest their greatness by simplifying the means they use; but it is
the purpose of God which is simple--his means are infinitely varied.

Appendix X

A democratic people is not only led by its own tastes to centralize
its government, but the passions of all the men by whom it is governed
constantly urge it in the same direction. It may easily be foreseen that
almost all the able and ambitious members of a democratic community will
labor without 2 ceasing to extend the powers of government, because they
all hope at some time or other to wield those powers. It is a waste
of time to attempt to prove to them that extreme centralization may
be injurious to the State, since they are centralizing for their own
benefit. Amongst the public men of democracies there are hardly any but
men of great disinterestedness or extreme mediocrity who seek to oppose
the centralization of government: the former are scarce