|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: virtues of his maturer years is then formed. This, if I am not
mistaken, is a great error. We must begin higher up; we must
watch the infant in its mother's arms; we must see the first
images which the external world casts upon the dark mirror of his
mind; the first occurrences which he witnesses; we must hear the
first words which awaken the sleeping powers of thought, and
stand by his earliest efforts, if we would understand the
prejudices, the habits, and the passions which will rule his
life. The entire man is, so to speak, to be seen in the cradle
of the child.
The growth of nations presents something analogous to this:
|
