Gentlemen, it is a great lesson and a plain one. Diplomacy based on knowledge of the ordinary motives of ordinary men is strong,--statesmanship based on close study of the interests and aims of states and classes is strong;--but there is a Diplomacy and a Statesmanship infinitely stronger. Infinitely stronger are the Diplomacy and Statemanship whose master is a _heart_,--a heart with an instinct for truth and right;--a heart with a faith that on truth and right alone can peace be fitly builded. Your common-place Cavour, with his deep instinct for Italian Liberty and Unity;--your uncouth Lincoln, with his deep instinct for American Liberty and Unity, are worth legions of compromise builders and conciliation mongers. Mazarin delivered France into the hands of Louis XIV., and Louis brought them permanently into the narcotic phase. He stupefied them with sensuality,--attached them to his court,--made his palace the centre of their ambition,--gave scope to their fancy, by setting them at powdering and painting and frizzing,--gave scope to their activity by keeping them at gambling and debauchery,--weaned them from turbulence by stimulating them to decorate their bodies and to debase their souls.[41] The central power was thus saved;--the people went on suffering as before. Under the Regency of Louis XV. the nobility went from bad to worse. Their scorn for labor made them despise not merely those who toiled in Agriculture and Manufactures--it led them logically to openly neglect, and secretly despise professions generally thought the most honorable. When Racine ridiculed lawyers,[42] and when Moliere ridiculed physicians[43] and scholars,[44] they but yielded to this current. Wise men saw the danger. Laws were passed declaring that commerce should not be derogatory to nobility. Abbé Coyer wrote a book to entice nobles into commerce. It had a captivating frontispiece, representing a nobleman elegantly dressed going on board a handsome merchant ship.[45] All in vain. The serf-mastering traditions were too strong. The Revolution comes. The nobles stand out against the entreaties of Louis XVI.--the statesmanship of Turgot, the financial skill of Necker,--the keenness of Sieyes,--the boldness of Mirabeau. The very existence of France is threatened; but they have erected, as nobles always do, their substitute for patriotism. They stand by their order. Royalty yields to the third estate,--the clergy yield, the nobility will not. They are at last scared into momentary submission to right and justice and the spirit of the age. On the memorable Fourth of August they renounce their most hideous oppressions.