of the human heart and the
lessons of history, that all the misfortunes of our beautiful France
must be attributed."

In 1806, M. de Tracy, unable to print his "Commentaire sur l'Esprit
des Lois" in France, sends it to the president of the United States,
Jefferson, who translates it into English, publishes it anonymously,
and has it taught in his schools.[6245] About the same date, the
republication of the "Traite d'economie-politique" of J.--B. Say is
prohibited, the first edition of which, published in 1804, was soon
exhausted.[6246] In 1808, all publications of local and general
statistics, formerly incited and directed by Chaptal, were interrupted
and stopped; Napoleon always demands figures, but he keeps them for
himself; if divulged they would prove inconvenient, and henceforth
they become State secrets. The same precautions and the same rigor
are extended to books on law, even technical, and against a "Precis
historique du droit Romain." "This work," says the censorship, "might
give rise to a comparison between the progress of authority under
Augustus and that going on under the reign of Napoleon, in such a way as
to produce a bad effect on public opinion."[6247] In effect, nothing
is more dangerous than history, for it is composed, not of general
propositions that are unintelligible except to the meditative, but of
particular facts accessible and interesting to the first one that comes
along.

For this reason, not only the science of sensations and of ideas,
philosophic law and comparative law, politics and moral law, the science
of wealth and statistics, but again, and especially, the history of
France, is a State affair, an object of government; for no object
affects the government more nearly; no study contributes so much towards
strengthening or weakening the ideas and impressions which shape public
opinion for or against him.[6248] It is not sufficient to superintend
this history, to suppress it if need be, to prevent it from being a poor
one; it must again be ordered, inspired and manufactured, that it may be
a good one.

"There is no work more important.[6249]... I do not count the expense
in this regard. It is even my intention to make the minister ensure that
this work is under my protection.."

Above all, the attitude of the authors who write should be made sure
of. "Not only must this work be entrusted to authors of real talent,
but again to attached men, who will present facts in this true light