This right belongs so thoroughly to the essence of liberty that
to deny it is to mutilate man in his body, in his soul, and in
the exercise of his faculties, and society, which progresses only
by the free initiative of individuals, soon lacking explorers,
finds itself arrested in its onward march.
It is time to give body to all these ideas by the testimony of
facts.
I know a commune where from time immemorial there had been no
roads either for the clearing of lands or for communication with
the outside world. During three-fourths of the year all
importation or exportation of goods was prevented; a barrier of
mud and marsh served as a protection at once against any invasion
from without and any excursion of the inhabitants of the holy and
sacred community. Six horses, in the finest weather, scarcely
sufficed to move a load that any jade could easily have taken
over a good road. The mayor resolved, in spite of the council,
to build a road through the town. For a long time he was
derided, cursed, execrated.
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