The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61,
No. 379, May, 1847, by Various

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Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 379, May, 1847

Author: Various

Release Date: November 20, 2007 [EBook #23572]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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BLACKWOOD'S

EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.

No. CCCLXXIX. MAY, 1847. VOL. LXI.

Transcriber's Note: Minor typos have been corrected and footnotes moved
to the end of each article.

M. DE TOCQUEVILLE.[1]

M. De Tocqueville is one of the greatest, perhaps the very greatest, of
the political philosophers of the present day. Alone of all his
contemporaries, his best works will bear a comparison with those of
Machiavelli and Bacon. Less caustic and condensed than Tacitus, less
imaginative and eloquent than Burke, he possesses the calm judgment, the
discriminating eye, and the just reflection, which have immortalised the
Florentine statesman and the English philosopher. Born and bred in the
midst of the vehement strife of parties in his own country, placed
midway, as it were, between the ruins of feudal and the reconstruction
of modern society in France, he has surveyed the contest with an
impartial gaze. He has brought to the examination of republican
institutions in the United States, the eye of calm reason and the powers
of philosophic reflection. The war-cries, the illusions, the
associations of neither party have been able to disturb his steady mind.
Though a man of rank, descended, as his name indicates, of an ancient
family, he is not bigoted in favour of the old regime; though belonging
to a profession where strenuous efforts can alone ensure success, he is
not blind to the dangers of the new order of things. The feudal ages,
with their dignified manners, glorious episodes, and heart-stirring
recollections, are not lost upon him, but they h