ectoral
districts that each deputy represented at least ten million electors.
That is not surprising if one reflects that it was the first time that
the very simple idea had won acceptance of extending to women and
children the right of voting exercised in their name, naturally enough,
by their father or by their lawful or natural husband. Incidentally one
may note that this salutary and necessary reform, as much in accordance
with common sense as with logic, required alike by the principle of
national sovereignty and by the needs of social stability, nearly failed
to pass, incredible as it may seem, in the face of a coalition of
celibate electors.

Tradition informs us that the bill relating to this indispensable
extension of the franchise would have been infallibly rejected, if,
luckily, the recent election of a multi-millionaire suspected of
imperialistic tendencies had not scared the assembly. It fancied it
would injure the popularity of this ambitious pretender by hastening to
welcome this proposal in which it only saw one thing, that is, that the
fathers and husbands, outraged or alarmed by the gallantries of the new
Caesar, would be all the stronger for impeding his triumphant march. But
this expectation was, it appears, unrealised.

Whatever may be the truth of this legend, it is certain that, owing to
the enlargement of the electoral districts, combined with the
suppression of the electoral privileges, the election of a deputy was a
veritable coronation, and ordinarily produced in the elect a species of
megalomania. This reconstituted feudalism was bound to end in a
reconstitution of monarchy. For a moment the learned wore this cosmic
crown, following the prophecy of an ancient philosopher, but they did
not keep it. The popularisation of knowledge through innumerable schools
had made science as common an object as a charming woman or an elegant
suite of furniture. It had been extraordinarily simplified by the
thorough way in which it had been worked out, complete as regards its
general outlines, in which no change could be expected, and its
henceforth rigid classification abundantly garnished with data. Only
advancing at an imperceptible pace, it held, in short, but an
insignificant place in the background of the brain, in which it simply
replaced the catechism of former days. The bulk of intellectual energy
was therefore to be found in another direction, as were also its glory
and prestige. Already the scien