A shameful equality and a fatal tranquillity, no doubt; but such as peoples are sometimes contented with under the dominance of certain circumstances, or in the last gasp of their existence.

Liberty, equality, and tranquillity were all alike wanting, from the tenth to the thirteenth century, to the inhabitants of each lord's domains; their sovereign was at their very doors, and none of them was hidden from him, or beyond reach of his mighty arm.

Of all tyrannies, the worst is that which can thus keep account of its subjects, and which sees, from its seat, the limits of its empire.

The caprices of the human will then show themselves in all their intolerable extravagance, and, moreover, with irresistible promptness.

It is then, too, that inequality of conditions makes itself more rudely felt; riches, might, independence, every advantage and every right present themselves every instant to the gaze of misery, weakness, and servitude.