#saint-just

French revolutiofying even more stuff that lives rent free in my head to prove my sanity

Neither Robespierre nor Saint-Just had the least suspicion that their action might depend on something other than their will and energy. They had faith in the beneficent influence of laws and institutions; but the most rigorous laws are incapable of turning aside the course of history. Robespierre's case measures the inability of a man, however great, to pass beyond the frontiers of his epoch. Nevertheless, however great Robespierre's ultimate failure, he remains in more than one sense the incarnation of the popular Revolution. The middle class has been well aware of this. It has concentrated its hatred against him, turned him into the scapegoat of the Revolution, and piled up round his figure those errors and prejudices which the historian must destroy if he is to restore the real picture of Robespierre. He will forever remain "the Incorruptible." He made a great mark on history. His mere name can still make men devote themselves unswervingly, to the point of supreme sacrifice, to serving the ideal of fraternal equality which for him was the essence of the Republic of the Year II. Michelet was often unjust to Robespierre, but he was not mistaken in concluding his History of the French Revolution with the following passage: "A few days after Thermidor, a man who is still alive and was then ten years old, was taken by his parents to the theatre. After the performance he admired the long file of brilliant carriages, which he observed for the first time. Men in livery, hat in hand, addressed the spectators as they left: 'Do you need a carriage, master?' The child did not understand these new words too clearly. He asked for an explanation, and was told merely that there had been a great change since the death of Robespierre."