"[32]
III. The Committee of Public Safety.
The Men who do the work. - Carnot, Prieur de-la-C?te d'Or, Jean Bon
Saint Andr?, Robert Lindet.
On a man becoming a slave, said old Homer, the Gods take away the half
of his soul; the same is true of a man who becomes a tyrant. - In the
Pavilion de Flore, alongside of and above the enslaved Convention, sit
the twelve kings it has enthroned, twice a day,[33] ruling over it as
well as over France.[34] Of course, some guarantee is required from
those who fill this place; there is not one of them who is not a
revolutionary of long standing, an impenitent regicide, a fanatic in
essence and a despot through principle; but the fumes of omnipotence
have not intoxicated them all to the same degree. - Three or four of
them, Robert Lindet, Jean Bon St. Andr?, Prieur de la C?te-d'Or and
Carnot, confine themselves to useful and secondary duties; this
suffices to keep them partially safe. As specialists, charged with an
important service, their first object is to do this well, and hence
they subordinate the rest to this, even theoretical exigencies and the
outcries of the clubs.
Lindet's prime object is to feed the departments that are without
wheat, and the towns that are soon to be short of bread.
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