through taxation,
provides for its expenses; however short-sighted the State may be, it
consults civil interests, even in its military interest.--Thus, of
the two nets in which it has enveloped all human activity, one is rent
asunder and the other has slackened its meshes. There is no longer any
reason for making the community omnipotent; the individual need not
alienate himself entirely; he may, without inconvenience, reserve to
himself a part of himself, and, if now called upon to sign a social
contract, you may be sure that he would make this reservation.

II. Changed minds.

Changed minds.--Conscience and its Christian origin.--Honor
and its feudal origin.--The individual of to-day refuses to
surrender himself entirely.--His motives.--Additional
motives in modern democracy.--Character of the elective
process and the quality of the representative.

And so have not only outward circumstances changed, but the very human
attitudes are now different. In the mind of modern man a feeling,
distasteful to the antique pact, has evolved.--Undoubtedly, in extreme
cases and under the pressure of brutal necessity I may, momentarily,
sign a blank check. But, never, if I understand what I am doing, will
I sign away in good faith the complete and permanent abandonment of
myself: it would be against conscience and against honor, which two
possessions are not to be alienated. My honor and my conscience are
not to go out of my keeping; I am their sole guardian and depositary; I
would not even entrust them to my father.--Both these terms are recent
and express two conceptions unknown to the ancients,[2206] both being
of profound import and of infinite reach. Through them, like a bud
separated from its stem and taking root apart, the individual has
separated himself from the primitive body, clan, family, caste or city
in which he has lived indistinguishable and lost in the crowd; he has
ceased to be an organ and appendage; he has become a personality.--The
first of these concepts is of Christian origin the second of feudal
origin; both, following each other and conjoined, measure the enormous
distance which separates an antique soul from a modern soul.[2207]

Alone, in the presence of God, the Christian has felt melting, like wax,
all the ties binding him to his group; this because he is in front of
the Great Judge, and because this infallible judge sees all souls as
they are, not confusedly and in mas