from its
own, and entertaining no expectation of ever ranking with its chiefs,
received benefits from them without discussing their rights. It grew
attached to them when they were clement and just, and it submitted
without resistance or servility to their exactions, as to the inevitable
visitations of the arm of God. Custom, and the manners of the time,
had moreover created a species of law in the midst of violence, and
established certain limits to oppression. As the noble never suspected
that anyone would attempt to deprive him of the privileges which
he believed to be legitimate, and as the serf looked upon his own
inferiority as a consequence of the immutable order of nature, it is
easy to imagine that a mutual exchange of good-will took place between
two classes so differently gifted by fate. Inequality and wretchedness
were then to be found in society; but the souls of neither rank of men
were degraded. Men are not corrupted by the exercise of power or debased
by the habit of obedience, but by the exercise of a power which they
believe to be illegal and by obedience to a rule which they consider
to be usurped and oppressive. On one side was wealth, strength, and
leisure, accompanied by the refinements of luxury, the elegance of
taste, the pleasures of wit, and the religion of art. On the other was
labor and a rude ignorance; but in the midst of this coarse and ignorant
multitude it was not uncommon to meet with energetic passions, generous
sentiments, profound religious convictions, and independent virtues. The
body of a State thus organized might boast of its stability, its power,
and, above all, of its glory.

But the scene is now changed, and gradually the two ranks mingle; the
divisions which once severed mankind are lowered, property is divided,
power is held in common, the light of intelligence spreads, and the
capacities of all classes are equally cultivated; the State becomes
democratic, and the empire of democracy is slowly and peaceably
introduced into the institutions and the manners of the nation. I can
conceive a society in which all men would profess an equal attachment
and respect for the laws of which they are the common authors; in which
the authority of the State would be respected as necessary, though not
as divine; and the loyalty of the subject to its chief magistrate would
not be a passion, but a quiet and rational persuasion. Every individual
being in the possession of rights which he is sur