VII OX THE NATURAL INEQUALITY OF MEN 291 



intensify the new presentation of old speculations ; 

 which had the further good fortune to address 

 itself to a public as ripe and ready as Balak him- 

 self to accept the revelations of any seer whose 

 prophecies were to its mind. 



Missionaries, whether of philosophy or of re- 

 ligion, rarely make rapid way, unless their 

 preachings fall in with the prepossessions of the 

 multitude of shallow thinkers, or can be made \o 

 serve as a stalking-horse for the promotion of the 

 practical aims of the still larger multitude, who 

 do not profess to think much, but are quite 

 certain they want a great deal. Rousseau's 

 writings are so admirably adapted to touch both 

 these classes that the effect they produced, espe- 

 cially in France, is easily intelligible. For, in 

 the middle of the eighteenth century, French 

 society (not perhaps so different as may be im- 

 agined from other societies before and since) pre- 

 sented two large groups of people who troubled 

 themselves about politics in any sense other 

 than that of personal or party intrigue. There 

 was an upper stratum of luxurious idlers, jealously 

 excluded from political action and consequently 

 ignorant of practical affairs, with no solid know- 

 ledge or firm principles of any sort ; but, on the 

 other hand, open-minded to every novelty which 

 could be apprehended without too much trouble, 

 and exquisitely appreciative of close deductive 

 reasoning and clear exposition. Such a public 



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