Mutual Antipathy | Lapham's Quarterly
Germaine de Staël on political passions. Worldly passions have always made a part of religious fanaticism, and frequently, on the contrary, true faith by some abstract ideas feeds political fanaticism. The mixture is found everywhere, but it is on the proportion of the ingredients that the good and the mischief depend. Social order is in itself an intricate and irregular edifice. In the meantime, it cannot be conceived other than it is, but the concessions with which it is necessary to comply in order that it may subsist torment exalted souls with pity, satisfy the vanity of some, and provok...
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