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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: simple. This universal moderation moderates the sovereign
himself, and checks within certain limits the inordinate extent
of his desires.
Independently of these reasons drawn from the nature of the
state of society itself, I might add many others arising from
causes beyond my subject; but I shall keep within the limits I
have laid down to myself. Democratic governments may become
violent and even cruel at certain periods of extreme
effervescence or of great danger: but these crises will be rare
and brief. When I consider the petty passions of our
contemporaries, the mildness of their manners, the extent of
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