Children, until the State takes possession of them, are used either as capital or as instruments of convenience.
Self-interest has become, specially since 1789, the sole motive of the masses; they never ask if an action is legal or immoral, but only if it is profitable.

Morality, which is not to be confounded with religion, begins only at a certain competence,--just as one sees, in a higher sphere, how delicacy blossoms in the soul when fortune decorates the furniture.

A positively moral and upright man is rare among the peasantry.

Do you ask why?
Among the many reasons that may be given for this state of things, the principal one is this: Through the nature of their social functions, the peasants live a purely material life which approximates to that of savages, and their constant union with nature tends to foster it.

When toil exhausts the body it takes from the mind its purifying action, especially among the ignorant.