[The Origins of Contemporary France<br> Volume 4 (of 6) by Hippolyte A. Taine]@TWC D-Link book
The Origins of Contemporary France
Volume 4 (of 6)

CHAPTER II
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Nothing beyond that.
Again, in this preparation for future welfare the same principle still holds.
VII.

Fabrication of social instruments.
Fabrication of social instruments .-- Application of this principle .-- How all kinds of useful laborers are formed .-- Respect for spontaneous sources, the essential and adequate condition .-- Obligation of the State to respect these .-- They dry up when it monopolizes them .-- The aim of patriotism .-- The aim of other liberal dispositions .-- Impoverishment of all the productive faculties .-- Destructive effect of the Jacobin system.
Among the precious products, the most precious and important are, evidently, the animated instruments, namely the men, since they produce the rest.

The object then, is to fashion men capable of physical, mental or moral labor, the most energetic, the most persistent, the most skillful and most productive; now, we already know the conditions of their formation.

It is essential and sufficient, that the vivacious sources, described above, should flow there, on the spot, each through its natural outlet, and under the control of the owner.

On this condition the jet becomes more vigorous, for the acquired impetus increases the original outflow; the producer becomes more and more skillful, since 'practice makes perfect.' Those around him likewise become better workmen, inasmuch as they find encouragement in his success and avail themselves of his discoveries .-- Thus, simply because the State respects, and enforces respect, for these individual sources in private hands, it develops in individuals, as well as in those around them, the will and the talent for producing much and well, the faculty for, and desire to, keep on producing more and better; in other words, all sorts of energies and capacities, each of its own kind and in its own place, with all compatible fullness and efficiency.


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