As the character of individuals is only improved by experience, most nations require a chastisement before they set about reorganising their political institutions.

So Prussia wanted a Jena to make her the strong and healthy country she is."] [Footnote 168: Yet even in De Tocqueville's benevolent nature, there was a pervading element of impatience.

In the very letter in which the above passage occurs, he says: "Some persons try to be of use to men while they despise them, and others because they love them.

In the services rendered by the first, there is always something incomplete, rough, and contemptuous, that inspires neither confidence nor gratitude.

I should like to belong to the second class, but often I cannot.