(¶t)
I offer a foolproof way to elevate the soul of women; it is to join them to
all the activities of man; if man persists in finding this way impractical,
let him share his fortune with woman, not at his caprice, but by the wisdom
of laws. Prejudice falls, morals are purified, and nature regains all her
rights. Add to this the marriage of priests and the strengthening of the
king on his throne, and the French government cannot fail.
(¶u)
It would be very necessary to say a few words on the troubles which are
said to be caused by
the decree in
favour of coloured men in our islands. There is where nature
shudders with horror; there is where reason and
humanity have still not touched callous souls; there, especially, is where
division and discord stir up their inhabitants. It is not difficult to
divine the instigators of these incendiary fermentations; they are even in
the midst of the National Assembly; they ignite the flame in Europe which
must inflame America. Colonists make a claim to reign as despots over the
men whose fathers and brothers they are; and, disowning the rights of
nature, they trace the source of [their rule] to the scantiest tint of
their blood. These inhuman colonists say: our blood flows in their veins,
but we will shed it all if necessary to glut our greed or our blind
ambition. It is in these places nearest to nature where the father scorns
the son; deaf to the cries of blood, they stifle all its attraction; what
can be hoped from the resistance opposed to them? To constrain [blood]
violently is to render it terrible; to leave [blood] still enchained is to
direct all calamities towards America. A divine hand seems to spread
liberty abroad throughout the realms of man; only the law has the right to
curb this liberty if it degenerates into license, but it must be equal for
all; liberty must hold the National Assembly to its decree dictated by
prudence and justice. May it act the same way for the state of France and
render her as attentive to new abuses as she was to the ancient ones which
each day become more dreadful. My opinion would be to reconcile the
executive and legislative power, for it seems to me that the one is
everything and the other is nothing - whence comes, unfortunately perhaps,
the loss of the French Empire. I think that these two powers, like man and
woman, should be united but equal in force and virtue to make a good
household.
[Also in the French: u
v
w
and a ps
]