After I had read over the list of the persons and descriptions
elected into the Tiers Etat, nothing which they afterwards did could
appear astonishing. Among them, indeed, I saw some of known rank, some
of shining talents; but of any practical experience in the state,
not one man was to be found. The best were only men of theory. But
whatever the distinguished few may have been, it is the substance
and mass of the body which constitutes its character and must
finally determine its direction. In all bodies, those who will lead
must also, in a considerable degree, follow. They must conform their
propositions to the taste, talent, and disposition of those whom
they wish to conduct; therefore, if an assembly is viciously or feebly
composed in a very great part of it, nothing but such a supreme degree
of virtue as very rarely appears in the world, and for that reason
cannot enter into calculation, will prevent the men of talent
disseminated through it from becoming only the expert instruments of
absurd projects! If, what is the more likely event, instead of that
unusual degree of virtue, they should be actuated by sinister ambition
and a lust of meretricious glory, then the feeble part of the
assembly, to whom at first they conform, becomes in its turn the
dupe and instrument of their designs. In this political traffic, the
leaders will be obliged to bow to the ignorance of their followers,
and the followers to become subservient to the worst designs of
their leaders.
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