1948, Capitalism, Coronet Instruction Films.

1946, Despotism, Encyclopedia Britianica Films Inc.

1794, Speech to the National Convention, Maximilien Robespierre.

Robespierre's interrogation of King Louis XVI at the National Convention, 1792.

Upon the Jacobins I exercise, if we are to believe my accusers, a despotism of opinion, which can be regarded as nothing other than the forerunner of dictatorship. Firstly, I do not know what a dictatorship of opinion is, above all in a society of free men... unless this describes nothing more than the natural compulsion of principles. In fact, this compulsion hardly belongs to the man who enunciates them; it belongs to universal reason and to all men who wish to listen to its voice. It belongs to my colleagues of the Constituent Assembly, to the patriots of the Legislative Assembly, to all citizens who will invariably defend the cause of liberty. (Speech to the National Convention, November, 1792).

With regret I pronounce this fatal truth: Louis must die so that the nation may live. (Speech to the National Convention, December, 1792).

Report on the Principles of Political Morality, 5 Feburary, 1794.

After having proceeded haphazardly for a long time, swept along by the movement of opposing factions, the representatives of the French people have finally demonstrated a character and a government. [...] But up to the very moment when I am speaking, it must be agreed that we have been guided, amid such stormy circumstances, by the love of good and by the awareness of our country's needs rather than by an exact theory and by precise rules of conduct, which we did not have even leisure enough to lay out.
It is time to mark clearly the goal of the revolution, and the end we want to reach.

We must take far-sighted precautions to return the destiny of liberty into the hands of the truth, which is eternal, rather than into those of men, who are transitory, so that if the government forgets the interests of the people, or if it lapses into the hands of corrupt individuals, according to the natural course of things, the light of recognized principles will illuminate their treachery, and so that every new faction will discover death in the mere thought of crime. . . .
What is the goal toward which we are heading? The peaceful enjoyment of liberty and equality; the reign of that eternal justice whose laws have been inscribed, not in marble and stone, but in the hearts of all men, even in that of the slave who forgets them and in that of the tyrant who denies them.
We seek an order of things in which all the base and cruel passions are enchained, all the beneficent and generous passions are awakened by the laws; where ambition becomes the desire to merit glory and to serve our country; where distinctions are born only of equality itself; where the citizen is subject to the magistrate, the magistrate to the people, and the people to justice; where our country assures the well-being of each individual, and where each individual proudly enjoys our country's prosperity and glory; where every soul grows greater through the continual flow of republican sentiments, and by the need of deserving the esteem of a great people; where the arts are the adornments of the liberty which ennobles them and commerce the source of public wealth rather than solely the monstrous opulence of a few families.
In our land we want to substitute morality for egotism, integrity for formal codes of honor, principles for customs, a sense of duty for one of mere propriety, the rule of reason for the tyranny of fashion, scorn of vice for scorn of the unlucky, self-respect for insolence, grandeur of soul over vanity, love of glory for the love of money, good people in place of good society. We wish to substitute merit for intrigue, genius for wit, truth for glamour, the charm of happiness for sensuous boredom, the greatness of man for the pettiness of the great, a people who are magnanimous, powerful, and happy, in place of a kindly, frivolous, and miserable people - which is to say all the virtues and all the miracles of the republic in place of all the vices and all the absurdities of the monarchy.

Let France, formerly illustrious among the enslaved lands, eclipsing the glory of all the free peoples who have existed, become the model for the nations, the terror of oppressors, the consolation of the oppressed the ornament of the world - and let us, in sealing our work with our blood, see at least the early dawn of the universal bliss -that is our ambition, that is our goal.
What kind of government can realize these wonders? Only a democratic... government...

Now, what is the fundamental principle of popular or democratic government, that is to say, the essential mainspring which sustains it and makes it move? It is virtue. I speak of the public virtue which worked so many wonders in Greece and Rome and which ought to produce even more astonishing things in republican France... .

...the French are the first people of the world who have established real democracy, by calling all men to equality and full rights of citizenship; and there, in my judgment, is the true reason why all the tyrants in league against the Republic will be vanquished.
There are important consequences to be drawn immediately from the principles we have just explained.
Since the soul of the Republic is virtue, equality, and since your goal is to found, to consolidate the Republic, it follows that the first rule of your political conduct ought to be to relate all your efforts to maintaining equality and developing virtue; because the first care of the legislator ought to be to fortify the principle of the government. This everything that tends to excite love of country, to purify morals, to elevate souls, to direct the passions of the human heart toward the public interest, ought to be adopted or established by you. Everything which tends to concentrate them in the abjection of selfishness, to awaken enjoyment for petty things and scorn for great ones, ought to be rejected or curbed by you. Within the scheme of the French revolution, that which is immoral is impolitic, that which is corrupting is counter-revolutionary. Weakness, vice, and prejudices are the road to royalty...

...the characteristic of popular government is to be trustful towards the people and severe towards itself.
Here the development of our theory would reach its limit, if you had only to steer the ship of the Republic through calm waters. But the tempest rages, and the state of the revolution in which you find yourselves imposes upon you another task. . . .
We must smother the internal and external enemies of the Republic or perish with them. Now, in this situation, the first maxim of your policy ought to be to lead the people by reason and the people's enemies by terror.
If the mainspring of popular government in peacetime is virtue, amid revolution it is at the same time [both] virtue and terror: virtue, without which terror is fatal; terror, without which virtue is impotent. Terror is nothing but prompt, severe, inflexible justice; it is therefore an emanation of virtue.

It has been said that terror was the mainspring of despotic government. Does your government, then, resemble a despotism? Yes, as the sword which glitters in the hands of liberty's heroes resembles the one with which tyranny's lackeys are armed. Let the despot govern his brutalized subjects by terror; he is right to do this, as a despot. Subdue liberty's enemies by terror, and you will be right, as founders of the Republic. The government of the revolution is the despotism of liberty against tyranny. Is force made only to protect crime? And is it not to strike the heads of the proud that lightning is destined? . . .

Cartoon of Robespierre guillotining the executioner after having guillotined everyone else in France.

To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to pardon them is barbarity. The rigor of tyrants has only rigor for a principle; the rigor of the republican government comes from charity.
Therefore, woe to those who would dare to turn against the people the terror which ought to be felt only by its enemies! [...] ... if in all the Republic there existed only one virtuous man persecuted by the enemies of liberty, the government's duty would be to seek him out vigorously and give him a dazzling revenge. . . .
How frivolous it would be to regard a few victories achieved by patriotism as the end of all our dangers. Glance over our true situation. You will become aware that vigilance and energy are more necessary for you than ever. An unresponding ill-will everywhere opposes the operations of the government. [...] One senses that crime, frightened, has only covered its tracks with greater skill. . . .
You could never have imagined some of the excesses committed by hypocritical counter-revolutionaries in order to blight the cause of the revolution. [...] Whence came this sudden swarm of foreigners, priests, noble, intriguer of all kinds, which at the same instant spread over the length and breadth of the Republic, seeking to execute, in the name of philosophy, a plan of counter-revolution which has only been stopped by the force of public reason?

Such an internal situation ought to seem to you worthy of all your attention, above all if you reflect that at the same time you have the tyrants of Europe to combat, a million and two hundred thousand men under arms to maintain... .

What is the remedy for all these evils? We know no other than the development of that general motive force of the Republic - virtue.

It is indeed true that the goal of all our enemies is to dissolve the Convention. It is true that the tyrant of Great Britain and his allies promise their parliament and subjects that they will deprive you of your energy and of the public confidence which you have merited; that is the fist instruction for all their agents. . . .
We are beginning a solemn debate upon all the objects of [the Convention's] anxiety, and everything that can influence the progress of the revolution. We adjure it not to permit any particular hidden interest to usurp ascendancy here over the general will of the assembly and the indestructible power of reason.

The execution of Robespierre by the guillotine, 28 July, 1794.

1795, Medical Histories and Reflections, John Ferriar.

Editors Note: John Ferriar was physician to Manchester Infirmary, Lunatic Hospital, and 'House of Recovery' (the first fever hospital in Manchester).

The management of the mind is an object of great consequence, in the treatment of insane persons, and has been much misunderstood. It was formerly supposed that lunatics could only be worked upon by terror; shackles and whips, therefore, became part of the medical apparatus.

I have seen great exertions thrown away, in attempting to infulence lunatics by arguments, or to surprise them into rationality by strategem. I never knew such endevours answer any good purpose. The stories current in books, of wonderful cures thus produced, are, like most other good stories, incapable of serving more than once. A system of discipline, mild, but exact, which makes the patient sensible of restraint, without exciting pain or terror, is best suited to those complaints. In the furious state, the arms, and sometimes the legs must be confined, but this should never be done when it can possibly be avoided. When the patient is mischievous and unruly, instead of ordering stripes, I shut him up in his cell, order the window to be darkened, and allow him no food or water-gruel and dry bread, till he shews tokens of repentence, which are never long delayed, upon this plan. Previous to this kind of punishment, I find it useful to remonstrate, for lunatics have frequently a high sense of honour, and are sooner brought to reflection by the apperance of indignity, than by actual violence, against which they usually harden themselves... .

It has long been my wish, that a room might be appropriated in our hospital, to convalescents, and that the privilege of admission to it might be made the reward of regular behaviour among the patients. Such a distinction would act powerfully in creating a habbit of self-restraint, the first salutary operation in the mind of a lunatic. For in the cure of disease of this nature, the patient must 'minister to himself'; medicine may restore him more early and more completely to the command of his intellectual operations; discipline must direct him in their exertion.

350, Politics, Aristotle.

Book I


Chapter 2

...he that can by his intelligence foresee things needed is by nature ruler and master, while he whose bodily strength enables him to perform them is by nature a slave, one of those who are ruled.

...as the poets say, 'It is proper that Hellenes should rule over barbarians,' meaning that barbarian and slave are by nature identical.

...man is by nature a political animal; it his nature to live in a state.

As man is the best of all animals when he has reached his full development, so he is worst of all when divorced from law and morals. Wickedness armed is hardest to deal with; and though man while keeping his weapons can remain disposed to understanding and virtue, it is all too easy for him to use them for the opposite purposes. Hence man without goodness is the most savage, the most unrighteous, and the worst in regard to sexual licence and gluttony.

Chapter 3

[The economics of the household] can be subdivided so as to correspond to the parts of which a complete household is made up, namely, the free and the slaves;... the smallest division of a household into parts gives three pairs-- master and slave, husband and wife, father and children. And so we must ask ourselves what is, and what ought to be, each one of these three relationships.

Chapter 4

Tools may be animate as well as inanimate;... the worker in a craft is, from the point of view of the craft, one of its tools. [...] ...a slave... is a tool worth many tools. [...] ... a slave is not only his master's slave but wholly his master's property... . ...the nature and function of the slave: any human being that by nature belongs not to himself but to another is by nature a slave; and a human being belongs to another whenever he is a piece of human property, that is a tool or instrument having a separate existence and useful for the purposes of living.

Chapter 5

But whether anyone does in fact by nature answer to this description, and whether or not it is a just and a better thing for one man to be a slave to another, or whether all slavery is contrary to nature - these are the questions which must be considered next.

There are many different forms of this ruler-ruled relationship and they are to be found everywhere. For wherever there is a combination of elements,... and a common unity is the result, in all such cases the ruler-ruled relationship appears. It appears notably in living creatures as a consequence of their whole nature. The living creature consists in the first place of mind and body, and of these the former is ruler by nature, the latter ruled. [...] ...the man who is in good condition mentally and physically, one in whom the rule of mind over body is conspicuous - because the bad and unnatural condition of a permanently or temporarily depraved person will often give the impression that his body is ruling over his soul. However that may be, it is, as I say, within living creatures that we first find it possible to see both the rule of a master and that of a statesman. The rule of soul over body is like a master's rule, while the rule of intelligence over desire is like a statesman's or a king's. In these relationships it is clear that it is both natural and expedient for the body to be ruled by the soul, and for the emotional part of our natures to be ruled by the mind, the part which possesses reason. The reverse, or even parity, would be fatal all round. This is also true as between man and the other animals; for tame animals are by nature better than wild, and it is better for them all to be ruled by men, because it secures their safety. Again, as between male and female the former is by nature superior and ruler, the latter in ferior and subject. And this must hold good of mankind in general.
Therefore whenever there is the same wide discrepancy between human beings as there is between soul and body or between man and beast, then those whose condition is such that their function is the use of their bodies and nothing better can be expected of them, those, I say, are slaves by nature. It is better for them, just as in the cases mentioned, to be ruled thus.

Chapter 6

Surely it is in a sense goodness or ability which attains a position of command and is therefore best able to use force; and that which is victorious is so in virtue of superiority in some form of goodness.

...the slave is in a sense a part of his master, a living, but as it were a separate, part of his body.

Chapter 7

...there is a difference between the rule of master over slave and political rule. All forms of rule are not the same though some though some say that they are. Rule over free men is by nature different from rule over slaves; rule in a household is monarchical since every house has one ruler; the government of a state is rule over free and equal persons. 

Chapter 12


There are, as we saw, three parts of household management, corresponding to three types of rule, one as of a master, despotic;...  next the rule of a father; and a third which arises out of the marriage relationship. This is included becauserule is exercised over wife and children, over both as free persons... . For the male is more fitted to rule than the female. [...] ...between male and female this relationship of superior and inferior is permanent. Rule over children is royal, for the beggeter is ruler by virtue both of affection and age; and this is the prototype of royal rule.


Chapter 13


..inquirey into the relations of ruler and ruled, and in particular whether or not the virtue of the one is the same as the virtue of the other. ...why should one completely rule and the other completely obey?  [...] ...if he that rules is not to be self-controlled and just, how shall he rule well? And if the ruled lacks virtue, how shall he be ruled well? For if he is slack and disobedient, he will not perform his duties. Thus it becomes clear that both ruler and ruled must have a share in virtue but there are differences in virtue in each case... . An immediate indication of this is afforded by the soul; for it is here that the natural ruler and the natural subject, whose virtue we regard as different, are to be found. In the soul the difference betwen ruler and ruled is that between the rational and the non-rational. It is therefore clear that in other connexions also there will be natural differences. And so generally in cases of ruler and ruled; the differences will be natural but they need not be the same. For rule of free over slave, male over female, man over boy, are all natural, but they are also different, because, while parts of the soul are present in each case, the distribution is different. Thus the deliberative faculty in the soul is not present at all in a slave; in a female it is inoperative, in a child undeveloped.

Sophocles singles out 'silence' as 'brining credit to a woman', but that is not so for a man. This method of assessing virtue according to function is one that we should always follow.


Book V

Chapter 8

Constitutions last longer not only when any possible destroyers are at a distance, but sometimes just because they are close by; for through fear of them men keep a firm hold on their own constitution. So it becomes the duty of those who have the interests of the constitution at heart to create fear on its behalf, so that all may be on the lookout and not allow their watch on the constitution to disperse like sentries at night; the distant fear must be brought home.

Chapter 11

The typical tyrant dislikes proud and free­ spirited people. He regards himself as the only person entitled to those qualities; and anyone who shows a rival pride and a spirit of freedom destroys the supremacy and master-like character of the tyranny.


Book VII

Chapter 2

Certainly most people seem to think that domination and government are one and the same thing... . [...] Of course we may be sure that nature has made some creatures to be treated despotically and others not, and if this is so, we must try to exercise despotic rule not over all creatures but only over those made for such treatment.


Chapter 3

But not all giving of commands is despotic and those who think it is are mistaken. The difference between ruling over free men and ruling over slaves is as great as the natural differences between freedom and slavery, a distinction which has been sufficently emphasized in an earlier passage.

It is only when one man is superior in virtue and in the ability to perform the finest actions that it becomes right to serve him and just to obey him.


Chapter 7


The power to command and the spirit of freedom have their source in this faculty [the spirited part of man located in his heart], which is masterful and unsubdued.


Chapter 14


Since every association of persons forming a state consists of rulers and ruled, we must ask whether those who rule and those who are ruled ought to be different persons or the same for life; for the education which will be needed will depend upon which way we answer that question. If one group of persons were as far superior to all the rest as we deem gods and heroes to be superior to men, having to begin with great physical and bodily excellence and equally great mental and spiritual superiority, so much so that the superiority of the rulers is indisputable and quite evident to those ruled by them, then, I say, it is better that the same set of persons should always rule and the other always be ruled. But since this is not a condition that can easily be obtained, and since kings are not so greatly superior to their subjects as the writer Scylax says they were in India, it follows that, for a variety of causes, all alike must share in the business of ruling and being ruled by turns. ...this is fair and the established constitution can hardly be long maintained if it is contrary to justice. Otherwise there will be a large revolutionary element among the ruled all over the country, and it becomes quite impossible for even a strong governing class to withstand such a combination.

Again it cannot be disputed that rulers have to be superior to those who are ruled. It therefore becomes the duty of the lawgiver to consider how this distinction is to be made... . [...] ...as is often said, one who is to become a good ruler must first himself be ruled. Rule, as was said earlier, is of two kinds, according as it is exercised for the good of the ruler, which is despotic rule, or for the good of the ruled, which is rule over free men.

Two parts of the soul are distinguished, one possessing reason in itself, the other not so possessing reason but capable of listening to reason. [...] To those who accept our division of the soul there is no difficulty in answering the question 'To which of the parts does the concept of end belong?' For the inferior is always but a means to the superior;... and the superior in this case is that which is possessed of reason.

They are... wrong in supposing that a lawgiver ought openly to approve the acquisition of mastery; for rule over free men is nobler than despotic rule and more in keeping with virtue. [...] ...as for military training, the object in practising it regularly is not to bring into subjection men not deserving of such treatment. It has three purposes: (1) to save ourselves from becoming subject to others, (2) to win for our won city a position of leadership, exercised for the benefit of others not with a view to dominating all, (3) to exercise the rule of a master over those who deserve to be treated as slaves.


Chapter 15

..for us as human beings reason and the mind are the end to whcih our growth tends. Thus it is to these that the training of our habits, as well as our coming into being, must be directed. Next, as soul and body are two, so also we note two parts of the soul, the reasoning and the unreasoning; and each of these has its own natural propensity, the former intellectual, the latter appetitive. And just as the body comes into being earlier than the soul, so also the unreasoning is prior to that which possesses reason. This is shown by the fact that, while passion and will as well as appetite are to be found in children from birth, reasoning and intelligence come into being as they grow older. Therefore the care of the body must begin before the care of the mind, then the training of the appetitive element, but always for the sake of the intelligence, as the body's training is for the sake of the soul. 

1876, Responsibility in Mental Disease, Henry Maudsley.

Chapter IX


The Prevention of Insanity: Mans Power Over Himself to Prevent Insanity.


Most persons who have suffered from the malady of thought must at one period or other of their lives have had a feeling that it would not be a hard matter to become insane, that in fact something of an effort was required to preserve their sanity. To those in whose blood a tendency to insanity runs this effort must without doubt be a sustained and severe one, being no less in some instances than a continual struggle to oppose the strong bent of their being. How far then is a man responsible for going mad? This is a question which has not been much considered; yet it is one well worthy of deep consideration; for it is certain that a man has, or might have, some power over himself to prevent insanity. [Authors note: More than twenty years ago, a small volume, entitled 'Man's Power over Himself to prevent or control Insanity," was published. It contained the substance of two lectures given at the Royal Institution, by the late Reverend John Barlow, and was one of a series of Small Books on Great Subjects.] However it be brought about, it is the dethronement of will, the loss of the power of co-ordinating the ideas and feelings; and in the wise development of the control of will over the thoughts and feelings there is a power in ourselves which makes strongly for sanity. [...] A great purpose earnestly pursued through life, a purpose to the achievement of which the energies of the individual have been definitely bent, and which has, therefore, involved much renunciation and discipline of self, has perhaps been a saving labour to the one, while the absence of such a life-aim, whether great in itself or great to the individual in the self-discipline which its pursuit entailed, may have left the other without a sufficiently powerful motive to self-government, and so have opened the door to the perturbed streams of thought and feeling which make for madness.

1866, Idiocy and its Treatment by the Physiological Method, Edouard Seguin.

A selection from Idiocy and its Treatment by the Physiological Method, Edouard Seguin, 1866.


Seguin was trained by Itard, who wrote An historical account of the Discovery and Education of a Savage Man, or of the First Developments, Physical and Moral, of the Young Savage caught in the Woods Near Aveyron in 1898. Seguins work would later inspire the methods developed by Montessori.

Note: see Foucault's lecture on the 16 January 1974 on Seguin. 



Moral Treatment

The moral treatment is the systematic action of a will upon another, in view of its improvement; in view for an idiot, of his socialization. It takes possession of him from his entrance in to his exit from the institution; from his opening to his shutting his eyes; from his acts of animal life to the exercise of his intellectual faculties. It gives a social meaning, a moral bearing to everything about him. The influences destined to give moral impulse to the very life of the idiot come upon him from prearranged circumstances,... above all, directly from the superior will which plans and directs the whole treatment.

The surrounding circumstances are to be made... instrumental to our purpose: light or darkness, solitude or multitude, movement or immobility, silence or sounds, etc., are to be chosen or prepared in view of their moral influence on the actions demanded of the idiot.

Whenever that gift [of 'moral powers'] manifests itself, by which a being has an ascendancy over another, we recognize in it, in all its shapes and transformations, the qualification for the exercise of moral training;... wherever found, it is the superior good-will ready to elevate the inferior one.
The relations which this power establishes, are those of authority to obedience.

...authority need not present itself in its historical features of absolutism but assumes more tender forms as soon as it is firmly established.
Nevertheless, whatever may be its form, authority, to be obeyed, must command; in the varieties of its expression, and in their opportunity, resides a large part of the moral power of the commanding over the commanded. When we consider the qualities necessary to render commandment effective, we soon discover that those of speech do not come in the first rank; at least that its action must be preceded and corroborated by that of other qualities which enter for very little, if for anything, into ordinary language.

The first condition necessary to render command effective are lineaments and shape; the second, proportion and attitude. The lineaments of the face or its features, the shape of the body or its proportions, may offer or refuse their concourse to command. The defects of the former are nearly irremediable; those of the latter may be corrected. It is thus that certain lineaments impress the human face with so deep an expression that no other can ever be substituted; or are so rigid that no intellectual or passionate meaning can pierce through their unmeaningness. Nearly the same thing occurs with the shapes of the body and its proportions; some are only ludicrous, and cannot convey any command; others are set naturally in such attitudes of repose, quietness, or the like, as to counteract any command to action. These are only a few of the ways in which features, proportions, and attitudes may impair the efficacy of authority. The exercise of these qualities requires a good organization, mobility of the parts, and a fair sensibility, easily controlled by the will: with these advantages, the face and body are ready to command. Though the eyes are a part of the features, their office is so important that they are to be considered separately. The look is the passionate centre of the physiognomy; all the other parts coordinate their expressions to its, unless skillfully contracted into a mendacious expression, which the eye can rarely imitate. The influence of this organ, as an instrument of moral training, cannot be overrated, whether we consider it from the master's or from the pupil's side. For if the look of the former is alternatively inquiring, pressing, exacting, encouraging, caressing, etc., the look of the latter is avoiding, opposed, submitted, irate, or grateful, borrowing its expression from feelings incited by the former. To obtain this result, the master's look must have taken possession of the other, have steadily searched, penetrated, fixed, led it; and here the constant use of the look, already described in the physiological training, is found corroborated by its use in moral training, and vice versa. 
The influence of the limbs on the effectiveness of command is equally distinguishable from that of the body in their ensemble. The way in which we stand in front of the pupil is not indifferent; and our foothold tells pretty well the degree of our determination. In this respect the various positions of the legs, and consequently of the rest of the body, are very instructive. How many things our attitude alone will command. We can stand before an idiot so that he will remain quiet; we may stand by him so that he shall hasten his steps, or dignify his deportment, etc. The arms and hands are more powerful yet, at least for the command of special movements. The finger directs, averts, corrects, threatens; the hand excites, restrains, forwards, stops, puts down, nearly all expressions of activity. A waving of the hand cheers and encourages; a warning of the finger cuts down an incipient action; with its rise and fall it rules the tide of commanded or forbidden manifestations.
But how far is the easy, monotonous, inexpressive gesture, which hardly accentuates our ordinary language, from impressing the idiot, not only with our meaning but with our will. Gesture then must be subjected to a special education to acquire precision, correctness, quickness, capableness and emphasis; to become capable of speaking of itself, or to complete language; and to assume the force and fluency of an oration that the eye shall follow in all its details as the ear follows a spoken one in its meanderings: on this condition gesture becomes one of our moral powers.

When the parts of the body, not only those studied above, but all fibres, are so harmonized for the mute act of command, there comes forth the speech. Not that speech is necessarily commanding; like gesture, it is rarely so per se, and requires a good deal of art for its maturation.
 
...we find the majority of [idiots] inattentive, unintelligent, and inobedient to common speech. This difficulty admonishes us that language, even as a means of communication, but more particularly as a mode of ascendancy, is to be heightened above its ordinary expressions to impress idiots.
Thus command is expressed by attitude, corroborated by gesture, animated by physiognomy, flashed by the look, made passionate by the voice, commented upon by the accent, strengthened by the articulation, imposed by the emphasis, and carried by the whole power of the stronger on the weaker will. This power, as expressed here in the abstract, would be the most wearisome attribute of its possessor, and the heaviest burden on children, if it were not incessantly modified by circumstances, and by passing from one person to another; passage in which it loses its tension for the master, and its grim appearance for the child.