402 ROBESPIERRE ; 
words, a man cannot make up his mind to become a fanatic. Genu- 
ine enthusiasm, which in its rapid, but ill-directed, flight, terrifies 
and confounds its opponents, is intrinsically a part of, as it is origi- 
nally acquired from, virtue—from, in fact, a moral conviction of 
being in the right: an impression so influential in awakening the 
dormant susceptibilities of its votaries, that it may become contagi- 
ous when carried to unreasonable, and even to outrageous excess. 
Selfish motives, and that artificial circumscribed enthusiasm which 
is nearly allied to, if it does not wholly arise from, mere personal 
caprice, carry with them the germs of their own extinction. An 
egotist, who seeks his own personal gratification alone, may attain 
his object of corrupting or destroying ; but he cannot, whilst pur- 
suing this merely selfish course, kindle the mental powers, or influ- 
ence the understanding, so as to convince the crowd: nay, it may be 
doubted whether he would be capable of rousing this spirit of en- 
thusiasm even within his own breast. He may deceive the judg- 
ment, but he cannot by such means create within them the moral 
conviction of wrong. ‘This assertion is verified in the historical nar- 
rations of all great revolutions, wherein the powerful voice of the 
people was raised in asserting and claiming their just rights, as dis- 
tinguished from the arrogated prerogatives of the few: and this is 
more particularly remarkable in the events of the French Revo- 
lution. 
Those feelings which lead us to aspire to freedom and equality 
are inherent in our nature, the latter being somewhat sanctioned by 
the Almighty himself, in whose eyes all are equal; and were it not 
for this influential moral conviction, which, when disturbed, electri- 
fies whole nations, instinctively stimulating them to revolutionary 
actions, the great mass of the population would ever remain in a 
state of hopeless degradation, mere beasts of burden, governed by 
the absolute power,.and lashed by the iron rod, of their despotic 
rulers. Revolutions are frequently grounded in justice, and are 
often forced on the people by circumstances of an urgent and impe- 
rative nature, having an injurious tendency only when the multi- 
tude, actuated by a fearful spirit of revenge and retaliatory fury, 
are no longer guided by reason, but forgetting the noble cause, and 
losing sight of the object desired, fasten, like a ferocious beast, on 
both friend and foe. It is true that reason at last checks the blood- 
shed, restoring both order and safety ; but we must nevertheless 
lament the fatal march of events by which so many innocent vic- 
tims are sacrificed to the popular frenzy ; and moreover we cannot 
be insensible to the melancholy lesson thereby afforded—that the 
— so 
