The Emperor's New Clothes. (From the "Tales.") IVAN SERGEYEVITCH TURGENEFF--(Born in 1818, died in 1883.) Bazarov's Death. (From "Fathers and Children." Translated by Constance Garnett) HENRIK IBSEN--(Born in 1828, died in 1906.) The Thought Child. (From "The Pretenders." Translated by William Archer) COUNT LEO TOLSTOY--(Born in 1828.) Shakespeare Not a Great Genius. (From "A Critical Essay on Shakespeare." Translated by V. Tchertkoff and I. F. M.) * * * * * FRANCE (Continued) 1805-1909 ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE Born in Paris in 1805, died in 1859; studied law, taking his degree in 1826; traveled in Italy and Sicily; in 1831 visited the United States under a commission to study the penitentiary system; returning published a book on the subject which was crowned by the French Academy; from private notes taken in America then wrote his masterpiece, "Democracy in America," which secured his election to the Academy in 1841; spent some years in public life and then retired in order to travel and write. THE TYRANNY OF THE AMERICAN MAJORITY[1] I hold it to be an impious and execrable maxim that, politically speaking, the people has a right to do whatever it pleases; and yet I have asserted that all authority originates in the will of the majority. Am I then in contradiction with myself? [Footnote 1: From Chapter XV of "Democracy in America." Translated by Henry Reeve.] A general law, which bears the name of justice, has been made and sanctioned not only by a majority of this or that people, but by a majority of mankind. The rights of every people are consequently confined within the limits of what is just. A nation may be considered in the light of a jury which is empowered to represent society at large and to apply the great and general law of justice. Ought such a jury, which represents society, to have more power than the society in which the law it applies originates? When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right which the majority has of commanding, but I simply appeal from the sovereignty of the people to the sovereignty of mankind. It has been asserted that a people can never entirely outstep the boundaries of justice and of reason in those affairs which are more peculiarly its own; and that consequently, full power may fearlessly be given to the majority by which it is represented. But this language is that of a slave.