Prev | Current Page 361 | Next

Taine, Hippolyte, 1828-1893

"The French Revolution - Volume 3"

516.) "He regarded himself as a privileged being,
destined to become the people's regenerator and instructor."
[124] Speech of May 16, 1794, and of Thermidor 8, year II.
[125] Buchez et Roux, X., 295, 296. (Session June 22, 1791, of the
Jacobin Club.) - Ibid., 294. - Marat spoke in the same vein: "I have
made myself a curse for all good people in France." He writes, the
same date: "Writers in behalf of the people will be dragged to
dungeons. 'The friend of the people,' whose last sigh is given for
his country, and whose faithful voice still summons you to freedom, is
to find his grave in a fiery furnace." The last expression shows the
difference in their imaginations.
[126] Hamel, II., 122. (Meeting of the Jacobin Club, Feb.10, 1792.)
"To obtain death at the hands of tyrants is not enough - one must
deserve death. If it be true that the earliest defenders of liberty
became its martyrs they should not suffer death without bearing
tyranny along with them into the grave." - Cf., ibid., II., 215.
(Meeting of April 27, 1792.)
[127] Hamel, II., 513. (Speech in the Convention, Prairial 7, year
II.)
[128] Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 422, 445, 447, 457.


Pages:
349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373