[73]
In order to set the machine up, he cleared the ground, fused the
metal, hammered out the principal pieces, filed off the blisters,
designed the action, adjusted the minor wheels, set it agoing and
indicated what it had to do, and, at the same time, he forged the
armor which guarded it against strangers and outside violence. The
machine being his, why, after constructing it, did he not serve as its
engineer?
Because, if competent to construct it, he was not qualified to manage
it. In a crisis, he may give a helping hand, win the support of an
assembly or a mob, direct, high-handedly and for a few weeks, an
executive committee. But regular, persistent labor is repugnant to
him; he is not made for bookkeeping,[74] for paper and administrative
work. Never, like Robespierre and Billaud can he attend to both
official and police duties at the same time, carefully reading minute
daily reports, annotating mortuary lists, extemporizing ornate
abstractions, coolly enunciating falsehoods and acting out the
patient, satisfied inquisitor; and especially, he can never become the
systematic executioner. - On the one hand, his eyes are not obscured
by the gray veil of theory: he does not regard men through the
"Contrat-Social" as a sum of arithmetical units,[75] but as they
really are, living, suffering, shedding their blood, especially those
he knows, each with his peculiar physiognomy and demeanor.
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