9 departing, but those who lay most claim to the considera tion of the rest, are the first to compromise their super human character. In former days Asiatic sovereigns under-. stood the art of causing themselves to be adored. Their palaces were seen from afar; their statues were erected everywhere; their edicts "{ere read; but they never showed themselves. The most familiar never addressed them but upon their knees; from time to time a half-lifted veil parted to disclose them as if by a lightning flash, and then as 1.uddenly enfolded them once more, leaving consternation in the hearts of all beholders. In those days respect was profound enough to result in stupifaction: a dumb mes• senger brought a silken cord to the condemned, and that sufficed, even a gesture would have been superfluous. And now we se~ «overeigns taking boxes by telegraph at the theatre to witness the performance of Orp!tceaux Enftrs Or The Grand Ducluss of Gerolstezi,, that is to say, taking part in the derision of all which used to be held most worthy of respect-divinity and royalty ! Which is the true regicide, the man who kills a sovereign, doing him the honour to take him as the representative of a whole society, or the monarch, who mocks at himself by laughing at the Grand Duchess or General Bourn 1 He teaches us at least that political power is a worm-eaten institution. It has retained its form, but the universal respect whicli gave it worth has disappeared. It is nothing but an external scaffolding, the edifice itself has ceased to exist. Does not the spread of an education, which gives the nme. conception of things to all, contribute to our progress towards equality 1 •If instruction were only to be obtained at school, governments might still hope to hold the minds of men enslaved; but it is outside the school that most knowledge is gained. It is picked up in the street, in the workshop, before the booths of a fair, at the theatre, in railway carriages, on steam boats, by gazing at new landscapes, by visiting foreign towns. Almost every one travels now, either as a luxury or a necessity. Not a meeting but people who have seen Russia, Australia, or America may be found in it, and if travellers who have changed continents are so frequently met with, there is, one may say, no one who has not moved about sufficiently to have observed the, contrast between town and country, mountain and' plain. ~arth and sea. The rich travel more than• the poor, it i~ Bibi oteca. G no B anco
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