"The Story of Civilization", Vol. VIII, "The Age of Louis XIV", "But the drain upon his people had become unbearable.  Revolts broke out in Bordeaux and Brittany; in south France the peasantry neared starvation; in the Dauphine the populace was living on bread made of acorns and roots.  When the Dutch offered peace, Louis signed with them (August 11, 1678) a treaty restoring to the United Provinces all the territory that France had taken from them, and lowering the tariffs that had kept Dutch products out of France."It is one of the common errors of philosophers to place their hopes in an enlightened monarch as the means of producing the perfect state.  Plato traveled to Syracuse in Sicily to educate the son of the tyrant there to be the perfect prince.  His efforts were frustrated.  Confucius was educating a prince in China successfully until a rival sent the Prince a gift of several beautiful concubines and he lost the boys interest and was forced to seek employment elsewhere.This idea, that it is easier to