American Institutions and Their Influence | Page 8

at intervals of fifty years,
beginning with the eleventh century, we shall invariably perceive that a
twofold revolution has taken place in the state of society. The noble has
gone down on the social ladder, and the roturier has gone up; the one
descends as the other rises. Every half-century brings them nearer to
each other, and they will very shortly meet.
Nor is this phenomenon at all peculiar to France. Whithersoever we
turn our eyes, we shall discover the same continual revolution
throughout the whole of Christendom.
The various occurrences of national existence have everywhere turned
to the advantage of democracy; all men have aided it by their exertions;
those who have intentionally labored in its cause, and those who have
served it unwittingly--those who have fought for it, and those who have
declared themselves its opponents--have all been driven along in the
same track, have all labored to one end, some ignorantly, and some
unwillingly; all have been blind instruments in the hands of God.
The gradual development of the equality of conditions is, therefore, a

providential fact, and it possesses all the characteristics of a divine
decree: it is universal, it is durable, it constantly eludes all human
interference, and all events as well as all men contribute to its progress.
Would it, then, be wise to imagine that a social impulse which dates
from so far back, can be checked by the efforts of a generation? Is it
credible that the democracy which has annihilated the feudal system,
and vanquished kings, will respect the citizen and the capitalist? Will it
stop now that it has grown so strong and its adversaries so weak?
None can say which way we are going, for all terms of comparison are
wanting: the equality of conditions is more complete in the Christian,
countries of the present day, than it has been at any time, or in any part
of the world; so that the extent of what already exists prevents us from
foreseeing what may be yet to come.
The whole book which is here offered to the public, has been written
under the impression of a kind of religious dread, produced in the
author's mind by the contemplation of so irresistible a revolution,
which has advanced for centuries in spite of such amazing obstacles,
and which is still proceeding in the midst of the ruins it has made.
It is not necessary that God himself should speak in order to disclose to
us the unquestionable signs of his will; we can discern them in the
habitual course of nature, and in the invariable tendency of events; I
know, without a special revelation, that the planets move in the orbits
traced by the Creator's fingers.
If the men of our time were led by attentive observation and by sincere
reflection, to acknowledge that the gradual and progressive
development of social equality is at once the past and future of their
history, this solitary truth would confer the sacred character of a divine
decree upon the change. To attempt to check democracy would be in
that case to resist the will of God; and the nations would then be
constrained to make the best of the social lot awarded to them by
Providence.
The Christian nations of our age seem to me to present a most alarming
spectacle; the impulse which is bearing them along is so strong that it
cannot be stopped, but it is not yet so rapid that it cannot be guided:
their fate is in their hands; yet a little while and it may be so no longer.
The first duty which is at this time imposed upon those who direct our
affairs is to educate the democracy; to warm its faith, if that be possible;

to purify its morals; to direct its energies; to substitute a knowledge of
business for its inexperience, and an acquaintance with its true interests
for its blind propensities; to adapt its government to time and place, and
to modify it in compliance with the occurrences and the actors of the
age.
A new science of politics is indispensable to a new world.
This, however, is what we think of least; launched in the middle of a
rapid stream, we obstinately fix our eyes on the ruins which may still
be descried upon the shore we have left, while the current sweeps us
along, and drives us backward toward the gulf.
In no country in Europe has the great social revolution which I have
been describing, made such rapid progress as in France; but it has
always been borne on by chance. The heads of the state have never had
any forethought for its exigencies, and its victories have been obtained
without their consent or without their knowledge. The most powerful,
the most intelligent,