same manner, and break down in the
same way, at the expiration of a more or less extensive period. Thus
far, the longest of these periods has lasted less than twenty years.

*****

[Footnote 3301: "Most of the French provinces down to the time of
Richelieu still possessed a special representative body which consented
to and levied the taxes; most of these bodies were supported by the
all-powerful minister and replaced by intendants who, from that time on,
administered, or rather exhausted, the country, divided into thirty-two
generalities. A few provinces, however, Brittany, Burgundy, Languedoc,
a part of Provence, Flanders, Artois, and some small districts in the
Pyrenees kept their old representative body and were called pays d'etat,
whilst other provinces were designated, by a strange abuse of language,
under the name of pays d'election." (Translated from" Madame de Stael et
son Temps," vol. I., p. 38.) TR.]

[Footnote 3302: Cf. on the antiquity of this sort of mind, evident
from the beginning of society and of French literature, my "History of
English Literature," vol. I., and "La Fontaine et ses fables," pp.10 to
13.]

[Footnote 3303: In relation to this sentiment, read La Fontaine's fable
of "The Rat and the Elephant." La Fontaine fully comprehended its social
and psychological bearing. "To believe one's self an important personage
is very common in France.... A childish vanity is peculiar to us.
The Spaniards are vain, but in another way. It is specially a French
weakness."]

[Footnote 3304: Beugnot, "Memoires," I., 317. "This equality which is
now our dominant passion is not the noble kindly sentiment that affords
delight by honoring one's self in honoring one's fellow, and in feeling
at ease in all social relationships; no, it is an aversion to every
kind of superiority, a fear lest a prominent position may be lost; this
equality tends in no way to raise up what is kept down, but to prevent
any elevation whatever."]

[Footnote 3305: D'Haussonville, "l'Eglise romaine et le Premier Empire,"
I., chs X. and XI.]

[Footnote 3306: Decree of March 17, 1808, on the organization of the
Israelite cult. The members of the Israelite consistories and the rabbis
must be accepted by the government the same as the ministers of the
other cults; but their salary, which is fixed, must be provided by the
Israelites of the conscription; the State does not pay this, the same
as with cures or pastors. This is not done unt