passions of the
moment.

Great landed estates which have once been divided never come together
again; for the small proprietor draws from his land a better revenue, in
proportion, than the large owner does from his, and of course he sells
it at a higher rate. *b The calculations of gain, therefore, which
decide the rich man to sell his domain will still more powerfully
influence him against buying small estates to unite them into a large
one.

[Footnote b: I do not mean to say that the small proprietor cultivates
his land better, but he cultivates it with more ardor and care; so that
he makes up by his labor for his want of skill.]

What is called family pride is often founded upon an illusion of
self-love. A man wishes to perpetuate and immortalize himself, as it
were, in his great-grandchildren. Where the esprit de famille ceases
to act individual selfishness comes into play. When the idea of family
becomes vague, indeterminate, and uncertain, a man thinks of his
present convenience; he provides for the establishment of his succeeding
generation, and no more. Either a man gives up the idea of perpetuating
his family, or at any rate he seeks to accomplish it by other means
than that of a landed estate. Thus not only does the law of partible
inheritance render it difficult for families to preserve their ancestral
domains entire, but it deprives them of the inclination to attempt it,
and compels them in some measure to co-operate with the law in their own
extinction.

The law of equal distribution proceeds by two methods: by acting upon
things, it acts upon persons; by influencing persons, it affects things.
By these means the law succeeds in striking at the root of landed
property, and dispersing rapidly both families and fortunes. *c

[Footnote c: Land being the most stable kind of property, we find, from
time to time, rich individuals who are disposed to make great sacrifices
in order to obtain it, and who willingly forfeit a considerable part of
their income to make sure of the rest. But these are accidental cases.
The preference for landed property is no longer found habitually in any
class but among the poor. The small landowner, who has less information,
less imagination, and fewer passions than the great one, is generally
occupied with the desire of increasing his estate: and it often happens
that by inheritance, by marriage, or by the chances of trade, he is
gradually furnished with the means. Thus, to bal