[On Liberty] 68

The maintenance of liberty was bound to be an object of primary concern as long as the feudal and theological system retained some of its force, because liberty was then exposed to grievous and continuous attacks. Besides, the maintenance of individual liberties can in no case be the object of the social contract. Liberty, in its true perspective, is a consequence of civilisation — both progress together — but it cannot be its aim. It is characteristic of metaphysics, precisely because it teaches nothing real, to argue that one is qualified for everything without any need for special study. But when politics has risen to the ranks of the sciences of observation, which must be before too long, the conditions of capacity will become clear and fixed, and the cultivation of politics will be entrusted exclusively to a special class of scientists who will impose silence on all twaddle.