sed life
comfortably and was looked up to,... in the discharge of his duty,...
with no other ambition than to transmit to his children.... along with
their inheritance an unsullied reputation."[4180] Among the other groups
of the bourgeoisie the same corporate system, the same settled habits,
the same security, the same frugality, the same institutions, the same
customs,[4181] promoted the growth of nearly the same sentiments, while
the intellectual culture of these men was not insignificant. Having
leisure, they were given to reading; as they were not overwhelmed with
newspapers they read books worth reading; I have found in old libraries
in the provinces, in the houses of the descendants of a manufacturer
or lawyer in a small town, complete editions of Voltaire, Rousseau,
Montesquieu, Buffon and Condillac, with marks in each volume showing
that the volume had been read by someone in the house before the close
of the eighteenth century. Nowhere else, likewise, had all that was
sound and liberal in the philosophy of the eighteenth century found
such a welcome; it is from this class that the patriots of 1789 were
recruited; it had furnished not only the majority of the Constituent
Assembly, but again all the honest men who, from July, 1789 to the end
of 1791 performed their administrative duties so disinterestedly, and
with such devotion and zeal, amidst so many difficulties, dangers and
disappointments. Composed of Feuillants or Monarchists, possessing
such types of men as Huez of Troyes or Dietrich of Strasbourg, and for
representatives such leaders as Lafayette and Bailly, it comprised
the superior intelligence and most substantial integrity of the
Third-Estate. It is evident that, along with the nobles and clergy, the
best fruits of history were gathered in it, and most of the mental
and moral capital accumulated, not only by the century, but, again, by
preceding centuries.

VI. The Demi-notables.

Where recruited.--Village and trade syndics.--Competency of
their electors.--Their interest in making good selections.
--Their capacity and integrity.--The sorting of men under the
ancient regime.--Conditions of a family's maintenance and
advancement.--Hereditary and individual right of the Notable
to his property and rank.

Like a fire lit on a hilltop overlooking a cold and obscure countryside,
a civilization, kept alive with much expense on peaks in a sea of human
barbarity, radia