Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/256

lamentations. The greater number do not survive this infancy of sorrow, but are cut off by death. Those who are able to resist the early trials of life, only do so to enter upon the path of their dolorous passion; and, after unceasing combats and many afflictions, they ultimately reach the final catastrophe, overcome with weariness and crushed by suffering. The earth is harsh and insatiable toward them; she exacts their efforts, that is to say, their life; and in exchange for the life she takes from them, she scarcely proffers a drop of water from her fountains to allay their thirst, or a single grain of wheat from her treasures, to appease their hunger. Nor does she even thus prolong their life that they may live, but that they may continue to give her their labor; like the tyrant, who only sustains his slaves in order that he may a longer time enjoy the fruit of their servitude. We everywhere behold the feeble, victims of the tyranny of the strong. A woman who was distinguished by her talents, wishing to give a convincing proof of her genius, asked herself one day what would be the greatest and most remarkable of paradoxes; nor could she find one more surprising than to affirm, with a tone of authority, that slavery is of modern and liberty of ancient existence. Whether, by dint of repetition, she forced herself to believe this assertion, I cannot tell, but it is certain that the world received her affirmation, and, what is more, the world is quite capable of so foolish an act of faith. As to the idea of equality, I know not if it be possible, (but, what is impossible to a rationalist philosopher?) I know not if it be possible for this idea to have found its historic and philosophic origin in the division of mankind into castes, the ones invested, as by right, with the power to com