pleasure to them without the laurel wreath and its maddening influence. This vulgar taste, which lays more stress upou inebriation than upon sustenance, by no means originated in the lowest social strata; on the contrary, it was carried and transplanted thither in the past, and is now only wore prominent there in its late and luxurious growth; but its origin is derived from the highest intellects, for it flourished in them for thousands of years. The people are the last virgin soil on which this brilliant weed could thrive. Well, then, should we really entrust politics to them, so that they may have their daily cup of the intoxicating draught?
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Hante politique.—However largely the private advantage and vanity—of both individuals and nations—may have influenced the great politics, the most powerful tide which urges them forward is the desire for the sensation of power, bursting forth from inexhaustible wells not only in the souls of princes and rulers, but periodically in an equal measure from among the lowest ranks of the people. The time will come when the masses will be ready to sacrifice their lives, their goods and chattels, their consciences and their virtue, for the purpose of securing that highest of enjoyments and of ruling either in reality or in imagination as a victorious, tyrannical, arbitrary nation over other nations. On these occasions the prodigal, devotel, hopeful, confident, over-
