desert, that is stunted for want of attention, leafless for want of
moisture, that has grown crooked from neglect, become barren from want
of loam, whose tender bark is gnawed by rapacious beasts of prey,
pierced by innumerable insects, would perhaps have expanded far and wide
its verdant boughs from a straight and stately stem, have brought forth
delectable fruit, have afforded from its luxuriant foliage under its
lambent leaves an umbrageous refreshing retreat from the scorching rays
of a meridian sun, have offered beneath its swelling branches, under its
matted tufts a shelter from the pitiless storm, it its seed had been
fortunately sown in a more fertile soil, placed in a more congenial
climate, had experienced the fostering cares of a skilful cultivator.

Let it not then be said, that it is degrading man reduce his functions
to a pure mechanism; that it is shamefully to undervalue him,
scandalously to abuse him, to compare him to a tree; to an abject
vegetation. The philosopher devoid of prejudice does not understand this
language, invented by those who are ignorant of what constitutes the
true dignity of man. A tree is an object which, in its station, joins
the useful with the agreeable; it merits our approbation when it
produces sweet and pleasant fruit; when it affords a favourable shade.
All machines are precious, when they are truly useful, when they
faithfully perform the functions for which they are designed. Yes, I
speak it with courage, reiterate it with pleasure, the honest man, when
he has talents, when he possesses virtue, is, for the beings of his
species, a tree that furnishes them with delicious fruit, that affords
them refreshing shelter: the honest man is a machine of which the
springs are adapted to fulfil its functions in a manner that must
gratify the expectation of all his fellows. No, I should not blush, I
should not feel degraded, to be a machine of this sort; and my heart
would leap with joy, if I could foresee that the fruit of my reflections