Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 7.djvu/220

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS It is to make it just. Let no favoritism or bias be of avail to influence its services. Let there be a guarantee against robbery and fraud. It is far from me to desire to make any particular application of my language or to criticize the conduct of the government. It is against arbitrary power itself I appeal, and not against those in whose hands this power may reside. Has liberty, then, been shown to man in France, in order that he may never enjoy it? Shall it always be held up to his gaze as a fruit that when he extends the hand to grasp it he must be stricken with death? And Nature, which has made liberty such a pressing need to us, does she really desire to betray our confidence ? No ! I shall never believe that this human good, so universally preferred to all others — and without which all others are nothing — is a simple illusion. My heart tells me that liberty is possible, that its regime is easier and more stable than any arbitrary government, than any oligarchy.