tious agglomerations of juxtaposed inhabitants, human assemblages
without any soul; and, for twenty years, the legislator fails to
communicate to them that semblance of spirit, the judicial quality of
which it disposes; it is only after 1811 that the departments arrive at
civil proprietorship and personality: this dignity, besides, the State
confers only to disburden itself and to burden them, to impose expenses
on them which hardly concern them but which do concern it, to compel
them in its place to support the costly maintenance of its prisons,
police quarters, courts of justice, and prefectorial mansions; even at
this late date, they are not yet, in the eyes of jurisconsults or
before the Council of State, incontestable proprietors and complete
personalities;[4153] they are not to be fully qualified in this sense
until the law of 1838.

Local society, accordingly, proves abortive over the whole 27,000
square leagues of territory; it is simply a legal figment, an artificial
grouping together of neighbors who do not find themselves bound and
incorporated together by neighborhood; in order that their society might
become viable and stimulating would require both commune and department
to have in mind and at heart the following idea, which they no longer
entertained:

"We are all aboard the same ship, it is ours and we are its crew. We are
here to manage it ourselves, with our own hands, each according to his
rank and position, each taking his part, little or big, in doing his own
work."

*****

[Footnote 4101: My understanding, today in 1999, that all people other
animals by nature are 'built' as egoists, that is to look out for
themselves, to preserve their life, protect their property and family.
As far as the social (or gregarious) instincts are concerned then there
are several which manifest themselves in the correct and timely order
during our entire existence. Some will regulate falling in love, others
procreation, others relationship between man and woman, others between
parents and children, at yet others the group and its choice and
submission to a leader. One of the results is that everyone wants to be
important and accepted, another that a mob has drives or instincts which
may galvanize it into compassion, anger, fear and action. To this must
be added that all people can remember, not only what they have tried,
but also what they have seen or heard about. They also tend to imagine
that others react i