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himself. If he ever raises his looks higher, he then perceives nothing but the
immense form of society at large, or the still more imposing aspect of
mankind. His ideas are all either extremely minute and clear, or extremely
general and vague: what lies between is an open void. When he has been
drawn out of his own sphere, therefore, he always expects that some
amazing object will be offered to his attention; and it is on these terms alone
that he consents to tear himself for an instant from the petty complicated
cares which form the charm and the excitement of his life. This appears to
me sufficiently to explain why men in democracies, whose concerns are in
general so paltry, call upon their poets for conceptions so vast and
descriptions so unlimited".
Dickens beschrijft uitbundig het bloemrijk taalgebruik, ik geef als voorbeeld
de toast die de oorlogscorrespondent Jefferson Brick uitbrengt:
'T will give you, sir. The Rowdy Journal and its brethren; the well of Truth,
whose waters are black from being composed of printers' ink, but are quite
clear enough for my country to behold the shadow of her Destiny reflected
in."
"Hear, hear!" cried the colonel, with great complacency. "There are flowery
components, sir, in the language of my friend?"
"Very much so, indeed," said Martin."
Over parlementsleden.
De Tocqueville schrijft over parlementsleden het volgende, en ik bied u
hierbij een vrij lang citaat aan, opdat u zelf kunt vaststellen hoe actueel het
werk van De Tocqueville is:
"Amongst aristocratie nations the members of political assemblies are at the
same time members of the aristocracy. Each of them enjoys high established
rank in his own right, and the position which he occupies in the assembly is
often less important in his eyes than that which he fills in the country. This
consoles him for playing no part in the discussion of public affairs, and
restrains him from too eagerly attempting to play an insignificant one.
In America, it generally happens that a Representative only becomes
somebody front his position in the Assembly. He is therefore perpetually
haunted by a craving to acquire importance there, and he feels a petulant
desire to be constantly obtruding his opinions upon the House. His own
vanity is not the only stimulant which urges him on in this course, but that of
his constituents, and the continual necessity of propitiating them. Amongst
aristocratic nations a member of the legislature is rarely in strict dependence
upon his constituents: he is frequently to them a sort of unavoidable
representative; sometimes they are themselves strictly dependent upon him;
and if at length they reject him, he may easily get elected elsewhere, or,
retiring from public life, he may still enjoy the pleasures of splendid
idleness. In a democratic country like the United States a Representative has
