It is the peculiarities of individuals
which alone can furnish the points of departure for new modes of action
and new plans of life. Hence it is not less the right of individuals
than it is the interest of the race that every one should not only be
permitted, but should even be encouraged to follow the dictates of his
own genius, with the most perfect and unlimited freedom consistent with
the peace and security of other men. Each one of the numberless buds on
a full-grown tree is the germ of another individual precisely similar to
the one from which it is taken. But if new trees are propagated from
these buds, they will exhibit not the slightest diversity in character
from that of the parent stock. It is only from the seed, original
centres of vitality and individuality that new varieties are produced
and improvements obtained either in the flower or the fruit. So in human
society: if each life is only an offshoot from the main body--a mere bud
from the parent tree--with no diversities in character, and no salient
points of original activity, it is evident that men would remain
substantially the same from generation to generation, and society would
stand still forever. Such, it is well known, is the case in those
Eastern nations in which a rigid system of caste prevails, the same
positions and occupations descending from father to son, without the
possibility of one generation escaping from the fatal routine to which
its predecessor was subjected.
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