". . . . "Let this maxim be first adopted
that the people are good and that its delegates are corruptible.". .
. XXX., 464. (Speech, Dec.25, 1793): "The virtues are the appanages
of the unfortunate and the patrimony of the people."
[87] Cf. passim, Hamel, "Histoire de Robespierre," 3 vols. An
elaborate panegyric full of details. Although eighty years have
elapsed, Robespierre still makes dupes of people through his attitudes
and rhetorical flourishes. M. Hamel twice intimates his resemblance
to Jesus Christ. The resemblance, indeed, is that of Pascal's Jesuits
to the Jesus of the Gospel.
[88] "The Ancient Regime," p.262.
[89] Garat, "M?moires," 84. Garat who is himself an ideologist, notes
"his eternal twadle about the rights of man, the sovereignty of the
people, and other principles which he was always talking about, and on
which he never gave utterance to one precise or fresh idea."
[90] Read especially his speech on the constitution, (May 10, 1793),
his report on the principles of Republican Government, (Dec.15, 1793),
his speech on the relationship between religious and national ideas
and republican principles (May 7, 1794) and speech of Thermidor 8.
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