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CHAPTER XIX.
WHY SO MANY AMBITIOUS MEN AND SO LITTLE LOFTY AMBITION ARE
TO BE FOUND IN THE UNITED STATES.
The first thing which strikes a traveller in the United States is
the innumerable multitude of those who seek to throw off their
original condition; and the second is the rarity of lofty ambition
to be observed in the midst of the universally ambitious stir of
society. No Americans are devoid of a yearning desire to rise; but
hardly any appear to entertain hopes of great magnitude, or to
drive at very lofty aims. All are constantly seeking to acquire
property, power, and reputation—few contemplate these things
upon a great scale; and this is the more surprising, as nothing is
to be discerned in the manners or laws of America, to limit desire
or to prevent it from spreading its impulses in every direction. It
seems difficult to attribute this singular state of things to the
equality of social conditions; for at the instant when that same
equality was established in France, the flight of ambition became
unbounded. Nevertheless I think that the principal cause which
may be assigned to this fact is to be found in the social condition
and democratic manners of the Americans.
All revolutions enlarge the ambition of men: this proposition is more peculiarly true of those revolutions which overthrow an aristocracy. When the former barriers which kept back the multitude from fame and power are suddenly thrown down, a violent and universal rise takes place toward that eminence so long coveted and at length to be enjoyed. In this first burst of triumph nothing seems impossible to any one: not only are desires boundless, but the power of satisfying them seems almost boundless too. Amid the general and sudden renewal of laws and customs, in this vast confusion of all men and all ordinances, the various members of the community rise and sink again with excessive rapidity, and