《论美国的民主·卷二·二部·第四章·美国人以自由制度对抗个人主义》第4节
It would seem as if every imagination in the United States were upon the stretch to invent means of increasing the wealth and satisfying the wants of the public. The best-informed inhabitants of each district constantly use their information to discover new truths which may augment the general prosperity; and if they have made any such discoveries, they eagerly surrender them to the mass of the people. When the vices and weaknesses, frequently exhibited by those who govern in America, are closely examined, the prosperity of the people occasions--but improperly occasions--surprise. Elected magistrates do not make the American democracy flourish; it flourishes because the magistrates are elective. It would be unjust to suppose that the patriotism and the zeal which every American displays for the welfare of his fellow-citizens are wholly insincere. Although private interest directs the greater part of human actions in the United States as well as elsewhere, it does not regulate them all. I must say that I have often seen Americans make great and real sacrifices to the public welfare; and I have remarked a hundred instances in which they hardly ever failed to lend faithful support to each other. The free institutions which the inhabitants of the United States possess, and the political rights of which they make so much use, remind every citizen, and in a thousand ways, that he lives in society. They every instant impress upon his mind the notion that it is the duty, as well as the interest of men, to make themselves useful to their fellow-creatures; and as he sees no particular ground of animosity to them, since he is never either their master or their slave, his heart readily leans to the side of kindness. Men attend to the interests of the public, first by necessity, afterwards by choice: what was intentional becomes an instinct; and by dint of working for the good of one's fellow citizens, the habit and the taste for serving them is at length acquired. Many people in France consider equality of conditions as one evil, and political freedom as a second. When they are obliged to yield to the former, they strive at least to escape from the latter. But I contend that in order to combat the evils which equality may produce, there is only one effectual remedy--namely, political freedom.
注释摘要
这段文字是托克维尔对美国人公共精神来源的一次集中诊断。他先摆出一个看似矛盾的现象：仔细看美国掌权者的毛病与弱点，本不该有如此繁荣；可人民偏偏很繁荣。他的答案斩钉截铁——不是选出来的人让民主兴旺，而是选举这件事本身让民主兴旺。他由此把分析的重心从官员的品格移到了制度对人的塑造力上。 托克维尔在这里并不否认私人利益在美国的巨大驱动力，但他紧接着加了一个重要的限…