h we are familiar,[2206] court bishops, drawing-room
abbes imposed from above on their diocese or their abbey, non-residents,
charged with functions which they do not fulfill, largely-paid idlers,
parasites of the Church, and, besides all this, worldly, gallant, often
unbelievers, strange leaders of a Christian clergy and which, one would
say, were expressly selected to undermine Catholic faith in the minds
of their flocks, or monastic discipline in their convents.--Such,
in 1791,[2207] is the new constitutional clergy, schismatic,
excommunicated, interlopers, imposed on the orthodox majority to say
masses which they deem sacrilegious and to administer sacraments which
they refuse to accept.

In the last place, even when the rulers do not subordinate the interests
of the institution to their passions, to their theories, or to their own
interests, even when they avoid mutilating it and changing its
nature, even when they loyally fulfill, as well as they know how,
the supererogatory (distributive) mandate which they have adjudged to
themselves, they infallibly fulfill it badly, at least worse than the
special and spontaneous bodies for which they substitute themselves,
for the structure of these bodies and the structure of the state are
different.--Unique of its kind, alone wielding the sword, acting from
above and afar by authority and constraints, the State acts over the
entire territory through uniform laws, through imperative and minute
regulations, by a hierarchy of obedient functionaries, which it
maintains under strict instructions. Hence, it is not adapted to
business which, to be well done, needs springs and processes of another
species. Its springs, wholly exterior, are insufficient, too weak to
support and push undertakings which require an internal motor like
private interest, local patriotism, family affections, scientific
curiosity, charitable instincts, and religious faith. Its wholly
mechanical processes, too rigid and too limited, cannot urge on
enterprises which demand of whoever undertakes them delicate and safe
handling, supple manipulation, appreciation of circumstances, ready
adaptation of means to ends, constant contrivance, the initiative, and
perfect independence. On this account the State is a poor head of a
family, a poor commercial or agricultural leader, a bad distributor of
labor and of subsistence, a bad regulator of production, exchanges, and
consumption, a mediocre administrator of the pro