Democracy In America, vol 1 | Page 9

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 finger. 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
described upon the shore we have left, whilst the current sweeps us
along, and drives us backwards towards 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, and the most moral classes of the nation have
never attempted to connect themselves with it in order to guide it. The
people has consequently been abandoned to its wild propensities, and it
has grown up like those outcasts who receive their education in the

public streets, and who are unacquainted with aught but the vices and
wretchedness of society. The existence of a democracy was seemingly
unknown, when on a sudden it took possession of the supreme power.
Everything was then submitted to its caprices; it was worshipped as the
idol of strength; until, when it was enfeebled by its own excesses, the
legislator conceived the rash project of annihilating its power, instead
of instructing it and correcting its vices; no attempt was made to fit it to
govern, but all were bent on excluding it from the government.
The consequence of this has been