38 DiscouESEs or father hyacinthe. 



[In closing:, Father lîyacinthc spoke of that immortaliiy of 

 nntiom uhich has the ground of its existence in the immortalit}^ 

 of families.] 



The domestic spirit and the national spirit, far from 

 beino- antac-onistic. as the theorizcrs and jurists of the 

 Ee volution conceived, are really developed and strength- 

 ened each by the other. A nation is not an assemblage 

 of individuals, but an assemblage of families. A nation 

 of individuals is only the dead body of a nation, buried 

 under the weight of centralized despotism, or galvanized 

 into the convulsions of anarchy. The necessary and 

 providential counterpoise to both despotism and anarchy 

 is found in the family, an element at once conservative 

 and liberal, a principle of order and at the same time 

 of independence. 



Let us, then, no longer set up the State in opposition 

 to the family, either on the question of marriage, or on 

 the questions of education and of testament; and since 

 the need of social reforms is felt more keeuly at this 

 liour than ever before, let us learn, at last, to understand 

 tliis great truth, so long misunderstood, that the urgent 

 and decisive reforms are those of domestic life; that 

 political reforms are only of secondarj^ importance. 



statesmen and legislators of my country, turn your 

 attention to questions such as these. They are less fitted, 

 I know, to inflame the passions; but the solution of 

 them would be fiir more effective for the regeneration 

 of our character, and of the public morals! Ask your- 

 selves what -are the means to be employed in order to 

 restore to private life the liberty Avhich it possesses in so 

 inadequate a measure ; — to revive in domestic society 

 ilie spirit of the traditions which used to constitute its 

 vigor! Inquire, above all, by what way and in what 

 measure the authority of the head of the h.mily should 



