place in this way: tribes or collections of men
stop short at a stage of civilization which indolence or ignorance leads
them to be content with; in order that they shall pass beyond it, it is
necessary that a superior and far-seeing mind, the civilizer, should
assist them, should draw them to himself, raise them a degree by sheer
force, as in the 'Deluge' of Poussin, those on the upper terraces
stretch their hands to those below, clutch and lift them up. But
humanity, I shall be told, is at last emancipated; it has no longer any
deluge to fear; it has attained its majority; it finds within itself all
the motives and stimulants to action; light circulates; every one has
the right to speak and to be heard; the sum total of all opinions, the
net result of discussion, may be accepted as the voice of truth itself!
I do not deny that in certain questions of general interest and utility,
on which every one may be tolerably well informed, the voice of all has,
in our mild and instructed ages, its share of reason, and even of
wisdom; ideas ripen by the mere conjunction of forces and the course of
the seasons. And yet has routine altogether ceased? Is prejudice, that
monster with a thousand forms which has the quality of never recognizing
its own visage, as far removed as we flatter ourselves? Is progress,
true progress, as entirely the order of the day as it is believed to be?
How many steps are there still to take,--steps which I am persuaded
never will be taken save by the impulsion and at the signal of a firm
and vigorous head, which shall take the direction upon itself!

"Some years since there was a question about finishing the Louvre. Could
it of could it not be done? A great Assembly, when consulted, declared
it to be impracticable. It was in fact impracticable under the
conditions which then existed. Yet within the short period that has
since elapsed, the Louvre has been finished. This instance is for me
only a symbol. How many moral Louvres remain to be completed!

"There are governments which have for their principle resistance and
obstruction; but there are also governments of initiation. Governments
founded on pure liberty are not necessarily the most active. Free
assemblies are better suited to put the drag upon the wheels, to check
them when they go too fast, than to accelerate them. Like criticism,
which is in fact their province and their strength, they excel in
warning and in hindering rather than in undertakin