ting while its rays grow dim; its light and warmth
fading just as its gleams reach remoter and deeper strata. Nevertheless,
both penetrate yet sufficiently far and deep before wholly dying out. If
we want to appraise their power in France at the close of the eighteenth
century we must add to the notables the half-notables of society,
namely, the men who, like the people, were devoted to manual labor, but
who, among the people, led the way, say one hundred and fifty thousand
families, consisting of well-to-do farmers, small rural proprietors,
shopkeepers, retailers, foremen and master-workmen, village syndics and
guild syndics,[4182] those who were established and had some capital,
owning a plot of land and a house, with a business or stock of tools,
and a set of customers, that is to say, with something ahead and credit,
not being obliged to live from hand to mouth, and therefore, beginning
to be independent and more influential, in short, the overseers of
the great social work-house, the sergeants and corporals of the social
army.--They, too, were not unworthy of their rank. In the village or
trade community, the syndic, elected by his equals and neighbors,
was not blindly nominated; all his electors in relation to him were
competent; if peasants, they had seen him turning up the soil; if
blacksmiths or joiners, they had seen him at work in his forge, or at
the bench. And, as their direct, present and obvious interests were
concerned, they chose him for the best, not on the strength of a
newspaper recommendation, in deference to a vague declamatory platform
or sounding, empty phrases, but according to their personal experiences,
and the thorough knowledge they had of him. The man sent by the village
to represent them to the intendant and selected by the guild to sit in
the town council, was its most capable, and most creditable man, one of
those, probably, who, through his application, intelligence, honesty and
economy, had proved the most prosperous, some master-workman or farmer
that had gained experience through long years of assiduity, familiar
with details and precedents, of good judgment and repute, more
interested than anybody else in supporting the interests of the
community and with more leisure than others to attend to public
affairs.[4183] This man, through the nature of things, imposed himself
on the attention, confidence, and deference of his peers, and, because
he was their natural representative, he was th