Note 45 — Chapter IX · DEFINITION OF THE WORD “CIVILIZATION” (continued); DIFFERENT CHARACTERISTICS OF CIVILIZED SOCIETIES; OUR CIVILIZATION IS NOT SUPERIOR TO THOSE WHICH HAVE GONE BEFORE

A nurse of Touraine put a bird into the hands of the three-year-old boy of whom she was in charge, and encouraged him to pull out its wings and feathers. When the parents blamed her for teaching such wickedness, she replied, “It is to make him proud.” This answer, given in 1847, goes back directly to the educational maxims in vogue at the time of Vercingetorix.