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BOOK THIRD. THE MEN IN POWER.
CHAPTER I. PSYCHOLOGY OF THE JACOBIN LEADERS.
I.
Marat. - Disparity between his faculties and pretensions. - The
Maniac. - The Ambitious delirium. - Rage for persecution. - The
permanent nightmare. - Homicidal frenzy.
Three men among the Jacobins, Marat, Danton and Robespierre, had
deserved preeminence and held authority: - that is because they, due
to a deformity or warping of their minds and their hearts, met the
required conditions. -
Of the three, Marat is the most monstrous; he is nearly a madman, of
which he displays the chief characteristics - furious exaltation,
constant over-excitement, feverish restlessness, an inexhaustible
propensity for scribbling, that mental automatism and single-
mindedness of purpose constrained and ruled by a fixed idea. In
addition to this, he displays the usual physical symptoms, such as
insomnia, a pallid complexion, hot-headed, foulness of dress and
person,[1] with, during the last five months of his life, rashes and
itching all over his body.[2] Issuing from ill-matched stock, born of
a mixed blood and tainted with serious moral agitation,[3] he carries
within him a peculiar germ: physically, he is a freak, morally a
pretender, and one who covet all places of distinction.
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