CHAPTER XVI.
A FREE AND LEGISLATIVE PEOPLE.
Considering that all public power was now suspended, and that the habitual restraint of the people had suddenly ceased, I shuddered with the apprehension that they would fall into the dissolution of anarchy.
But, taking their affairs into immediate deliberation, they said: It is not enough that we have freed ourselves from tyrants and parasites; we must prevent their return.

We are men, and experience has abundantly taught us that every man is fond of power, and wishes to enjoy it at the expense of others.

It is necessary, then, to guard against a propensity which is the source of discord; we must establish certain rules of duty and of right.

But the knowledge of our rights, and the estimation of our duties, are so abstract and difficult as to require all the time and all the faculties of a man.

Occupied in our own affairs, we have not leisure for these studies; nor can we exercise these functions in our own persons.