The Recollections of Alexis de Tocqueville

by Alexis de Tocqueville

ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE

Alexis de Tocqueville

THE RECOLLECTIONS OF
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE

EDITED BY THE COMTE DE
TOCQUEVILLE AND NOW
FIRST TRANSLATED INTO
ENGLISH BY ALEXANDER
TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS
WITH A PORTRAIT
IN HELIOGRAVURE
NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN CO.
1896

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PREFACE

"C'est tousiours plaisir de veoir les
choses escriptes par ceulx qui ont essayé
comme il les faut conduire."
Montaigne.

Alexis de Tocqueville made his entrance in political life in 1839.[1] At the outbreak of the Revolution of February he was in the prime of his age and in the maturity of his talent. He threw himself into the struggle, resolving to devote himself to the interests of the country and of society, and he was one of the first among those whole-hearted, single-minded men who endeavoured to keep the Republic within a wise and moderate course by steering clear of the two-fold perils of Cæsarism on the one hand and revolution on the other. A dangerous and thankless enterprise, of which the difficulties were never hidden from a mind so clear-sighted as his, and of which he soon foresaw the ephemeral duration.