" - Having said or
thought this, he is ripe for the scaffold.
III. Robespierre.
Robespierre. - Mediocrity of his faculties. - The Pedant. -
Absence of ideas. - Study of phrases. - Wounded self-esteem. - His
infatuation. - He plays victim. - His gloomy fancies. - His
resemblance to Marat. -Difference between him and Marat. - The
sincere hypocrite. - The festival in honor of the Supreme Being, and
the law of Prairial 22. - The external and internal characters of
Robespierre and the Revolution.
Even with the firm determination to remain decapitator-in-chief,
Danton could never be a perfect representative of the Revolution. It
is an armed but philosophical robbery; its creed includes robbery and
assassination, but only as a knife in its sheath; the showy, polished
sheath is for public display, and not the sharp and bloody blade.
Danton, like Marat, lets the blade be too plainly visible. At the
mere sight of Marat, filthy and slovenly, with his livid, frog-like
face, with his round, gleaming and fixed eyeballs, and his bold,
maniacal stare and steady monotonous rage, common-sense rebels; no-one
selects a homicidal maniac as a guide.
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