15 - Secret denunciations

Summary

Secret denunciations are an obvious abuse, but a time-hallowed one rendered necessary in many nations by the weakness of the constitution. Such a custom makes men dishonest and furtive. Anyone who suspects he sees an informer in his fellow man sees him as an enemy. Men then become accustomed to masking their feelings and hiding them from others, finally getting to the point where they hide them from themselves. Unhappy the men who reach this stage: without clear and fixed principles to guide them, they drift lost and uncertain on the wide sea of opinion, constantly struggling to save themselves from the monsters which threaten them; they live each moment embittered by the uncertainty of the future. Deprived of the lasting pleasures of peace and security, only a few brief moments of pleasure, haphazardly wolfed down in the course of their miserable lives, offer any consolation for their having lived at all. Shall we make of such men the valiant soldiers to defend the nation or the throne? And shall we find among them the upright magistrates who, with free and patriotic eloquence, will support and swell the sovereign's true interests, who will bring to the throne along with the taxes the love and thanksgiving of all classes of men, and who, on the sovereign's behalf, will bestow on the mansion and the hovel alike the peace, security and aspiration to improve one's lot through hard work which is the useful leaven and very life of the state?