Amidst so many ranters and scribblers whose logic is mere
words and whose rage is blind, who grind out phrases like a hand-
organ, or are wound up for murder, his intellect, always capacious and
supple, went right to facts, not to disfigure and pervert them, but to
accept them, to adapt himself to them, and to comprehend them. With a
mind of this quality one goes far no matter in what direction; nothing
remains but to choose one's path. Mandrin, under the ancient r?gime,
was also, in a similar way, a superior man;[53] only he chose the
highway.
Between the demagogue and the highwayman the resemblance is close:
both are leaders of bands and each requires an opportunity to organize
his band. Danton, to organize his band, needed the Revolution. - "Of
low birth, without patronage," penniless, every office being filled,
and "the Paris bar exorbitantly priced," admitted a lawyer after "a
struggle," he for a long time wandered jobless frequenting the coffee-
houses, the same as similar men nowadays frequent the bars. At the
Caf? de l'?cole, the proprietor, a good natured old fellow "in a small
round wig, gray coat and a napkin on his arm," circulated among his
tables smiling blandly, while his daughter sat in the rear as
cashier.
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