There are moments in human life which can never be forgotten.  Such is the time when Emile receives the instruction of which I have spoken; its influence should endure all his life through.  Let us try to engrave it on his memory so that it may never fade away.  It is one of the faults of our age to rely too much on cold reason, as if men were all mind.  By neglecting the language of expression we have lost the most forcible mode of speech.  The spoken word is always weak, and we speak to the heart rather through the eyes than the ears.  In our attempt to appeal to reason only, we have reduced our precepts to words, we have not embodied them in deed.  Mere reason is not active; occasionally she restrains, more rarely she stimulates, but she never does any great thing.  Small minds have a mania for reasoning.  Strong souls speak a very different language, and it is by this language that men are persuaded and driven to action.

I observe that in modern times men only get a hold over others by force or self-interest, while the ancients did more by persuasion, by the affections of the heart; because they did not neglect the language; of symbolic expression.  All agreements were drawn up solemnly, so that they might be more inviolable; before the reign of force, the gods were the judges of mankind; in their presence, individuals made their treaties and alliances, and pledged themselves to perform their promises; the face of the earth was the book in which the archives were preserved.  The leaves of this book were rocks, trees, piles of stones, made sacred by these transactions, and regarded with reverence by barbarous men; and these pages were always open before their eyes.  The well of the oath, the well of the living and seeing one; the ancient oak of Mamre, the stones of witness, such were the simple but stately monuments of the sanctity of contracts; none dared to lay a sacrilegious hand on these monuments, and man’s faith was more secure under the warrant of these dumb witnesses than it is to-day upon all the rigour of the law.

In government the people were over-awed by the pomp and splendour of royal power.  The symbols of greatness, a throne, a sceptre, a purple robe, a crown, a fillet, these were sacred in their sight.  These symbols, and the respect which they inspired, led them to reverence the venerable man whom they beheld adorned with them; without soldiers and without threats, he spoke and was obeyed. [Footnote:  The Roman Catholic clergy have very wisely retained these symbols, and certain republics, such as Venice, have followed their example.  Thus the Venetian government, despite the fallen condition of the state, still enjoys, under the trappings of its former greatness, all the affection, all the reverence of the people; and next to the pope in his triple crown, there is perhaps no king, no potentate, no person in the world so much respected as the Doge of Venice; he has no power, no authority, but he is rendered sacred by his pomp, and he wears