degree of wisdom do we exhibit,
when at the expense of millions, we strive to preserve our country....
From what? From the blessings with which Nature has gifted other
climates.

Among the _metaphors_ which sometimes conceal, each in itself, a whole
theory of evil, there is none more common than that which is presented
under the words _tribute_ and _tributary_.

These words are so frequently employed as synonyms of _purchase_ and
_purchaser_, that the terms are now used almost indifferently. And yet
there is as distinct a difference between a _tribute_, and a _purchase_,
as between a _robbery_ and an _exchange_. It appears to me that it would
be quite as correct to say, Cartouche has broken open my strong-box,
and, has _bought_ a thousand crowns from me, as to state, as I have
heard done to our honorable deputies, We have paid in _tribute_ to
Germany the value of a thousand horses which she has sold us.

The action of Cartouche was not a _purchase_, because he did not put,
and with my consent, into my strong box an equivalent value to that
which he took out. Neither could the purchase-money paid to Germany be
_tribute_, because it was not on our part a forced payment, gratuitously
received on hers, but a willing compensation from us for a thousand
horses, which we ourselves judged to be worth 500,000 francs.

Is it necessary then seriously to criticise such abuses of language?
Yes, for very seriously are they put forth in our books and journals.
Nor can we flatter ourselves that they are the careless expressions of
uneducated writers, ignorant even of the terms of their own language.
They are current with a vast majority, and among the most distinguished
of our writers. We find them in the mouths of our d'Argouts, Dupins,
Villeles; of peers, deputies and ministers; men whose words become laws,
and whose influence might establish the most revolting Sophisms, as the
basis of the administration of their country.

A celebrated modern Philosopher has added to the categories of Aristotle
the Sophism which consists in expressing in one word a _petitio
principii_. He cites several examples, and might have added the word
_tributary_ to his nomenclature. For instance, the question is to
determine whether foreign purchases are useful or hurtful. You answer,
hurtful. And why? Because they render us _tributary_ to foreigners.
Truly here is a word, which begs the question at once.

How has this delusive figure of speech introd