THE HIGHER INTERCOURSE BET\VEEN NATIONS. 79 



I know that, thus speaking, I run against the preju- 

 dices of that revohitionary school which calls itself lib- 

 eral, but is anything else but that. I do not defy it, 

 but I am not afraid of it ; and in the name of truth, 

 of tlie interests of France, and tlie traditions of Europe, 

 in the name of the future as well as of the past, I re- 

 l)eat, IOC must have provifices. We must have interme- 

 diate centres, to react on the one hand against the di- 

 vision and anarchy of the towns, and on the other 

 against the centralization of the State. Let us then no 

 longer neglect the conditions of provincial life. Along- 

 side of the national language, let us have the originality 

 of their antique idiom, which we call so scornfully a 

 patois, the richness and simplicity of their ancient cos- 

 tumes, their simple and religious character, the guardian 

 of all domestic and patriotic virtues. Let us remember 

 that if the Church, without impairing the unity of 

 which she is so justly jealous, has been able, in all lands 

 and in every time, to tolerate and even encourage within 

 her pale the most amazing variety,* then national unity 

 has no more occasion to dread the free development of 

 provincial life. 



[3. The State, the central and sovereign power, unites then the 

 provinces without confounding them, and so forms the third 

 bond of civil society.] 



I admire the State, when it abides within its natural 

 limits. I praise it ; I am so content with it that I do 

 not care to look for anything further. Town needed 

 to be united to town. It was needful that, without 

 losing their independence and autonomy, the united 

 towns should become the province. And in turn, the 



* Circumdata vaneiate .... circumamicta ranelatibus. (Pealra xlv. 9, 

 IJ.) Acta of Pius IX. relating to the Oriental Liturgies. 



