I must now make an essential remark: those who surround a monarch, often mislead his judgment by the nature and the application of the elogiums which they lavish on him. The praise of men, in a monarchy, always has a taint of slavery: thus, in such countries, a look, a word from the prince, which seems to efface, for an instant, the distance that separates him from his subjects, delights them; and their enthusiasm in those moments serves to persuade the monarch, that it is sufficient for him to smile, to render his people happy: dangerous illusion, sad effect of servility: in short, in consequence of the character which is impressed by an habitual yoke, men are pleased with exalting the power of him to whom they are obliged to submit; they love to see their servile companions multiplied; and as the greater part of them have seldom any access to the prince, vanity persuades them, that in affecting to partake of the royal grandeur, they contract a kind of familiarity with it; therefore, without reflecting whether it will be more in the power of the sovereign to make them happy, when, by enlarging his dominions, he shall have more subjects, and of course more duties to fulfil, they celebrate, above all, the conquering warrior, and thus invite princes to prefer the pursuit of military glory to every other; and, as the multitude can quickly comprehend this kind of merit; as the gaining of a battle is a simple idea, easily conceived by men of every condition and turn of mind, it happens, by this reasoning, that these triumphs are the most highly extolled; and even that men, on account of them, can excuse every other failure, broken treaties, violated oaths, alliances abandoned—In short, such is the mad folly of our praise, that the tranquillity of the state, the repose of the people, the mild benefits of peace, appear no more than the last consequence of the labours and the success of a monarch; and even history frequently represents this fortunate time, as the days of obscurity in which heroes of blood and carnage are educated; kings, discontented with their destiny, are warriors through ambition, and happy by the victories, to which we annex our first honours, and the most noble wreaths of fame. It is thus, however, that the prevailing opinion, and the rumour of renown, can sometimes deceive princes, though inconsistent with the instructions of morality and the legislation of yore, which point out the true interest of the people as the first object of a sovereign’s anxious solicitude; and instead of a sounding name, and dazzling qualities, enforce those requisite to form the guardian and protector of the felicity of the public; duties of a vast extent, and which are discharged by the secret labours of paternal vigilance, still more than by the noise of the drum and the instruments of destruction.