"He had read and meditated very little,"
says a learned and philosophical witness;[45] "his knowledge was
scanty and he took no pride in investigation; but he observed and saw
. . His native capacity, which was very great and not absorbed by
other things, was naturally closed to vague, complex and false
notions, and naturally open to every notion of experience the truth of
which was made manifest." Consequently, "his perceptions of men and
things, sudden, clear, impartial and true, were instinct with solid,
practical discretion." To form a clear idea of the divergent or
concordant dispositions, fickle or earnest, actual or possible, of
different parties and of twenty-six millions of souls, to justly
estimate probable resistances, and calculate available forces, to
recognize and take advantage of the one decisive moment, to combine
executive means, to find men of action, to measure the effect
produced, to foresee near and remote contingencies, to regret nothing
and take things coolly, to accept crimes in proportion to their
political efficacy, to dodge before insurmountable obstacles, even in
contempt of current maxims, to consider objects and men the same as an
engineer contracting for machinery and calculating horse-power[46] -
such are the faculties of which he gave proof on the 10th of August
and the 2nd of September, during his effective dictatorship between
the 10th of August and the 21st of September, afterwards in the
Convention, on the first Committee of Public Safety, on the 31st of
May and on the 2nd of June:[47] we have seen him busy at work.
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