Chapter LIII

_Princes and generations._ There is equal injustice in attributing to reigning princes the virtues and the vices of the people they actually govern.

Those virtues and those vices should almost always, as statistics and logic will show, be attributed to the atmosphere of the preceding government.

Louis XIV inherits the men of Louis XIII, glory. Napoleon I inherits the men of the Republic, glory. Louis-Philippe inherits the men of Charles X, glory. Napoleon III inherits the men of Louis-Philippe, dishonor.

It is always the preceding government that is responsible for the customs of the following, in so far as a government can be responsible for anything.

The sudden suppressions that circumstances bring to a reign do not allow of absolute exactitude in this law, in regard to time. One cannot, say precisely where an influence ends, but an influence will endure in all the generation that was subjected to it in youth.