" Note that for the past four years, in the
Constituent Assembly, in the Legislative Assembly, in the Convention,
at the Hotel de-Ville, in the Jacobin Club, wherever Robespierre
speaks, the galleries have never ceased to shout, yell and express
their opinion. Such a positive, palpable experience would open
anybody's eyes; his are closed through prejudice or interest; even
physical truth finds no access to his mind, because he is unable to
comprehend it, or because he has to keep it out. He must,
accordingly, be either obtuse or a charlatan. Actually he is both,
for both combine to form the pedant (cuistre), that is to say, the
hollow, inflated mind which, filled with words and imagining that
these are ideas, revels in its own declamation and dupes itself that
it may dictate to others.
Such is his title, his personality and role. In this artificial and
declamatory tragedy of the Revolution he takes the leading part; the
maniac and the barbarian slowly retire in the background on the
appearance of the cuistre; Marat and Danton finally become effaced, or
efface themselves, and the stage is left to Robespierre who attracts
all the attention.[87] - If we want to understand him we must look at
him as he stands in the midst of his surroundings.
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