The Progress of the Race 
To this end it will unhesitatingly sacrifice 
the individual, bestowing general strength 
and happiness in exchange for the illusory 
and mournful independence of solitude. It 
is as though Nature were of the opinion with 
which Thucydides credits Pericles, viz., that 
individuals are happier in the bosom of a 
prosperous city, even though they suffer 
themselves, than when individually prosper- 
ing in the midst of a languishing state. It 
protects the hard-working slave in the power- 
ful city, while those who have no duties, 
whose association is only precarious, are 
abandoned to the nameless, formless enemies 
that dwell in the minutes of time, in the 
movements of the universe, and in the 
recesses of space. This is not the moment 
to discuss the scheme of Nature, or to ask 
ourselves whether it would be well for man 
to follow it; but it is certain that wherever 
the infinite mass allows us to seize the 
appearance of an idea, the appearance takes 
this road whereof we know not the end. 
Let it suffice that we note the persistent 
care with which Nature preserves, and fixes 
in the evolving race, all that has been won 
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