author - "Alexis de Tocqueville"
ions. Noforeigner has ever exhibited such a deep, clear, and correctinsight of the machinery of our complicated systems of federaland state governments. The most intelligent Europeans areconfounded with our _imperium in imperio_; and theirconstant wonder is, that these systems are not continuallyjostling each other. M. DE TOCQUEVILLE has clearly perceived,and traced correctly and distinctly, the orbits in which theymove, and has described, or rather defined, our federalgovernment, with an accurate precision, unsurpassed even by anAmerican pen. There is no citizen of this country who will notderive instruction from our author's account of our nationalgovernment, or, at least, who will not find his own ideassystematised, and rendered more fixed and precise, by the perusalof that account.
Among other subjects discussed by the author, that of thepolitical influence of the institution of trial by jury,is one of the most curious and interesting. He has certainlypresented it in a light e
y of the undertaking increase admiration for the remarkable ability with which the task was performed.
Were literary excellence the sole claim of "Democracy in America" to distinction, the splendor of its composition alone would entitle it to high place among the masterpieces of the century. The first chapter, upon the exterior form of North America, as the theatre upon which the great drama is to be enacted, for graphic and picturesque description of the physical characteristics of the continent is not surpassed in literature: nor is there any subdivision of the work in which the severest philosophy is not invested with the grace of poetry, and the driest statistics with the charm of romance. Western emigration seemed commonplace and prosaic till M. de Tocqueville said, "This gradual and continuous progress of the European race toward the Rocky Mountains has the solemnity of a providential event; it is like a deluge of men rising unabatedly, and daily driven onward by the hand of God!"
The mind
ions. Noforeigner has ever exhibited such a deep, clear, and correctinsight of the machinery of our complicated systems of federaland state governments. The most intelligent Europeans areconfounded with our _imperium in imperio_; and theirconstant wonder is, that these systems are not continuallyjostling each other. M. DE TOCQUEVILLE has clearly perceived,and traced correctly and distinctly, the orbits in which theymove, and has described, or rather defined, our federalgovernment, with an accurate precision, unsurpassed even by anAmerican pen. There is no citizen of this country who will notderive instruction from our author's account of our nationalgovernment, or, at least, who will not find his own ideassystematised, and rendered more fixed and precise, by the perusalof that account.
Among other subjects discussed by the author, that of thepolitical influence of the institution of trial by jury,is one of the most curious and interesting. He has certainlypresented it in a light e
y of the undertaking increase admiration for the remarkable ability with which the task was performed.
Were literary excellence the sole claim of "Democracy in America" to distinction, the splendor of its composition alone would entitle it to high place among the masterpieces of the century. The first chapter, upon the exterior form of North America, as the theatre upon which the great drama is to be enacted, for graphic and picturesque description of the physical characteristics of the continent is not surpassed in literature: nor is there any subdivision of the work in which the severest philosophy is not invested with the grace of poetry, and the driest statistics with the charm of romance. Western emigration seemed commonplace and prosaic till M. de Tocqueville said, "This gradual and continuous progress of the European race toward the Rocky Mountains has the solemnity of a providential event; it is like a deluge of men rising unabatedly, and daily driven onward by the hand of God!"
The mind