tates is the
innumerable multitude of those who seek to throw off their original
condition; and the second is the rarity of lofty ambition to be observed
in the midst of the universally ambitious stir of society. No Americans
are devoid of a yearning desire to rise; but hardly any appear to
entertain hopes of great magnitude, or to drive at very lofty aims. All
are constantly seeking to acquire property, power, and reputation--few
contemplate these things upon a great scale; and this is the more
surprising, as nothing is to be discerned in the manners or laws of
America to limit desire, or to prevent it from spreading its impulses in
every direction. It seems difficult to attribute this singular state
of things to the equality of social conditions; for at the instant when
that same equality was established in France, the flight of ambition
became unbounded. Nevertheless, I think that the principal cause which
may be assigned to this fact is to be found in the social condition and
democratic manners of the Americans.

All revolutions enlarge the ambition of men: this proposition is more
peculiarly true of those revolutions which overthrow an aristocracy.
When the former barriers which kept back the multitude from fame and
power are suddenly thrown down, a violent and universal rise takes place
towards that eminence so long coveted and at length to be enjoyed. In
this first burst of triumph nothing seems impossible to anyone: not only
are desires boundless, but the power of satisfying them seems almost
boundless, too. Amidst the general and sudden renewal of laws and
customs, in this vast confusion of all men and all ordinances, the
various members of the community rise and sink again with excessive
rapidity; and power passes so quickly from hand to hand that none need
despair of catching it in turn. It must be recollected, moreover, that
the people who destroy an aristocracy have lived under its laws; they
have witnessed its splendor, and they have unconsciously imbibed the
feelings and notions which it entertained. Thus at the moment when an
aristocracy is dissolved, its spirit still pervades the mass of the
community, and its tendencies are retained long after it has been
defeated. Ambition is therefore always extremely great as long as a
democratic revolution lasts, and it will remain so for some time after
the revolution is consummated. The reminiscence of the extraordinary
events which men have witnessed is not obli