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(Part II)<br />
DOCTORS ARE NO DOUBT CORRECT in warning us not<br />
to touch incurable wounds; and I am presumably taking chances<br />
in preaching as I do to a people which has long lost all sensitivity<br />
and, no longer conscious <strong>of</strong> its infirmity, is plainly suffering<br />
from mortal illness. Let us therefore understand by logic, if we<br />
can, how it happens that this obstinate willingness to submit has<br />
become so deeply rooted in a nation that the very love <strong>of</strong> liberty<br />
now seems no longer natural.<br />
In the first place, all would agree that, if we led our lives<br />
according to the ways intended by nature and the lessons taught<br />
by her, we should be intuitively obedient to our parents; later we<br />
should adopt reason as our guide and become slaves to nobody.<br />
Concerning the obedience given instinctively to one's father and<br />
mother, we are in agreement, each one admitting himself to be a<br />
model. As to whether reason is born with us or not, that is a<br />
question loudly discussed by academicians and treated by all<br />
schools <strong>of</strong> philosophers. For the present I think I do not err in<br />
stating that there is in our souls some native seed <strong>of</strong> reason,<br />
which, if nourished by good counsel and training, flowers into<br />
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