dupe of the former. We do not accept a system because we deem it a
true one, but because the truth we find in it suits us. Political or
religious fanaticism, any theological or philosophical channel in
which truth flows, always has its source in some ardent longing, some
secret passion, some accumulation of intense, painful desire to which
a theory affords and outlet. In the Jacobin, as well as in the
Puritan, there is a fountain-head of this description. What feeds this
source with the Puritan is the anxieties of a disturbed conscience
which, forming for itself some idea of perfect justice, becomes rigid
and multiplies the commandments it believes that God has promulgated;
on being constrained to disobey these it rebels, and, to impose them
on others, it becomes tyrannical even to despotism. The first effort
of the Puritan, however, wholly internal, is self-control; before
becoming political he becomes moral. With the Jacobin, on the
contrary, the first precept is not moral, political; it is not his
duties which he exaggerates but his rights, while his doctrine,
instead of being a prick to his conscience, flatters his pride.[21]
However vast and insatiate human pride may be, now it is satisfied,
for never before has it had so much to feed upon. -- In the program of
the sect, do not look for the restricted prerogatives growing out of
self-respect which the proud-spirited man claims for himself, such as
civil rights accompanied by those liberties that serve as sentinels
and guardians of these rights - security for life and property, the
stability of the law, the integrity of courts, equality of citizens
before the law and under taxation, the abolition of privileges and
arbitrary proceedings, the election of representatives and the
administration of public funds. Summing it up, the precious
guarantees which render each citizen an inviolable sovereign on his
limited domain, which protect his person and property against all
species of public or private oppression and exaction, which maintain