In aristocracies it is not exactly labor that is despised, but labor with a view to profit.

Labor is honorific in itself, when it is undertaken at the sole bidding of ambition or of virtue.

Yet in aristocratic society it constantly happens that he who works for honor is not insensible to the attractions of profit.

But these two desires only intermingle in the innermost depths of his soul: he carefully hides from every eye the point at which they join; he would fain conceal it from himself.

In aristocratic countries there are few public officers who do not affect to serve their country without interested motives.