[47] But, in this multitude of
the oppressed, it is the notables who are chiefly aimed at and who, in
their possessions as well as in their persons, have suffered the most.
II. The Value of Notables in Society.
Various kinds and degrees of Notables in 1789. - The great social
staff. - Men of the world. - Their breeding. - Their intellectual
culture. - Their humanity and philanthropy. - Their moral temper. -
Practical men. - Where recruited, - Their qualifications. - Their
active benevolence. - Scarcity of them and their worth to a
community.
On estimating the value of a forest you begin by dividing its
vegetation into two classes; on the one hand the full-grown trees, the
large or medium-sized oaks, beeches and aspens, and, on the other, the
saplings and the undergrowth. In like manner, in estimating society,
you divide the individuals composing it into two groups, one
consisting of its notables of every kind and degree, and the other, of
the common run of men. If the forest is an old one and has not been
too badly managed, nearly the whole of its secular growth is found in
its clusters of full-grown trees. Nearly all the useful wood is to be
found in the mature forest.
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