There are some men who appear to be destined for the instruction of the world, as the abettors and satellites of despotism, who cannot or who do not recognize the difference between interest or conscience; who desire to debase mankind, that they may appear above the common level of humanity, conscious of their incapability of lifting themselves up by virtue and by nobility of action. This man was the incarnation of the spirit of Slavery; he could have exclaimed, with Barnave, "Perish the colonies rather than a principle." This man was, for the time being, the entire incorporation of the sedition--its principles, its passions, its impulses, its cruelties. "There are abysses which we dare not sound, and characters we desire not to fathom, for fear of finding in them too great darkness, too much horror." This man, so calm, so dignified, so wise in his exterior, could not find sufficient generosity in his soul, although the representative of five millions of men, to say to these armies of suffering prisoners, * * * _indignus Cæsaris iræ_--unworthy of the anger of Cæsar. XXVI. What have the wretches to offer in atonement for these outrages upon nature, these violations of the spirit and majesty of the law, from which they now claim protection? Will the blood of these living monsters expiate the martyrdom of the host of dead heroes? No! Will it give ease or bring congratulation to the broken and aching hearts who yet revere the memory of the thirty thousand victims? Never! The divine spirit of liberty would protest against the defilement of her sacred altars with the foul blood of such filthy and depraved sacrifices. Let the gates of the prison open, and these men stand forth to the full gaze of offended mankind, assassins and murderers as they are. Vengeance does not belong to the human race. There are times in the history of men when human invectives are without force. "There are deeds of which no men are judges, and which mount, without appeal, direct to the tribunal of God." BOOK EIGHTH. I. Certain branches of the human family present physical peculiarities and aptitudes for certain climates which others do not. The one thrives and arrives at perfection, whilst the other languishes and dies. Floras and Faunas have well-defined limits of latitude, beyond which they decline and become extinct, and in some countries we observe certain limitations as to longitudes. "There are tropical trees that become shrubs in our zone, and the flowers of our meadows have their types in the tapering trunks of other climes."