unit in the imagination, a statistical cipher, but a sorrowing soul
and a suffering body. - And so much the more because, since the
writings of Rousseau and the economists, a spirit of humanity, daily
growing stronger, more penetrating and more universal, has arisen to
soften the heart. Henceforth the poor are thought of, and it is
esteemed an honor to think of them. We have only to read the registers
of the States-General[11] to see that spirit of philanthropy spreads
from Paris even to the chateaux and abbeys of the provinces. I am
satisfied that, except for a few country squires, either huntsmen or
drinkers, carried away by the need of physical exercise, and confined
through their rusticity to an animal life, most of the resident
seigniors resembled, in fact or in intention, the gentry whom
Marmontel, in his moral tales, then brought on the stage. Fashion took
this direction, and people in France always follow the fashion. There
is nothing feudal in their characters; they are "sensible" people,
mild, very courteous, tolerably cultivated, fond of generalities, and
easily and quickly roused, and very much in earnest. For instance like
that amiable logician the Marquis de Ferrières, an old light-horseman,
deputy from Saumur in the National Assembly, author of an article on
Theism, a moral romance and genial memoirs of no great importance;
nothing could be more remote from the ancient harsh and despotic
temperament. They would be glad to relieve the people, and they try to
favor them as much as they can.[12] They are found detrimental, but they
are not wicked; the evil is in their situation and not in their
character. It is their situation, in fact, which, allowing them rights
without exacting services, debars them from the public offices, the
beneficial influence, the effective patronage by which they might
justify their advantages and attach the peasantry to them.

But on this ground the central government has taken their place.