This is why I undertake to show you in Rome a dozen men of high
literary and scientific acquirements, to a hundred thousand who don't
know their ABC.
The Church is but the more flourishing for it, and the State by no
means the less so. The true shepherds of peoples, they who feed the
sheep for the sake of selling the wool and the skins, do not want them
to know too much. The mere fact of a man's being able to read makes
him wish to meddle with everything. The custom-house may be made to
keep him from reading dangerous books, but he'll be sure to take the
change out of the laws of the kingdom. He'll begin to inquire whether
they are good or bad, whether they accord with or contradict one
another, whether they are obeyed or broken. No sooner can he calculate
without the help of his fingers, than he'll want to look up the
figures of the Budget. But if he has reached the culminating point of
knowing how to use his pen, the sight of the smallest bit of paper
will give him a sort of political itching. He will experience an
uncontrollable desire to express his sentiments as a man and a
citizen, by voting for one representative, and against another. And,
gracious goodness! what will become of us if the refractory sheep
should get as high as the generalities of history, or the speculations
of philosophy?--if he should begin to stir important questions, to
inquire into great truths, to refute sophisms, to point out abuses, to
demand rights? The shepherd's occupation is assuredly not all roses
from the day he finds it necessary to muzzle his flock.
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