HOW CUSTOMS ARE SOFTENED AS SOCIAL CONDITIONS BECOME MORE EQUAL
When the fabulists seek to interest us in the actions of beasts
they invest them with human notions and passions; the poets who
sing of spirits and angels do the same; there is no wretchedness
so deep nor any happiness so pure as to fill the human mind and
touch the heart unless we are ourselves held up to our own eyes
under other features. This is strictly applicable to our present
subject. When all men are irrevocably marshaled in an
aristocratic community according to their professions, their
property, and their birth, the members of each class,
considering themselves as children of the same family cherish a
constant and lively sympathy towards one another, which can
never be felt in an equal degree by the citizens of a democracy.
But the same feeling does not exist between the several classes
towards each other. Among an aristocratic people each caste has
its own opinions, feelings, rights, customs, and modes of
living. Thus the men who compo