Thus not only does the law of partible inheritance render it difficult for families to preserve their ancestral domains entire, but it deprives them of the inclination to attempt it, and compels them in some measure to co-operate with the law in their own extinction.
The law of equal distribution proceeds by two methods: by acting upon things, it acts upon persons; by influencing persons, it affects things.
By these means the law succeeds in striking at the root of landed property, and dispersing rapidly both families and fortunes.

*c [Footnote c: Land being the most stable kind of property, we find, from time to time, rich individuals who are disposed to make great sacrifices in order to obtain it, and who willingly forfeit a considerable part of their income to make sure of the rest.

But these are accidental cases.
The preference for landed property is no longer found habitually in any class but among the poor.

The small landowner, who has less information, less imagination, and fewer passions than the great one, is generally occupied with the desire of increasing his estate: and it often happens that by inheritance, by marriage, or by the chances of trade, he is gradually furnished with the means.

Thus, to balance the tendency which leads men to divide their estates, there exists another, which incites them to add to them.