404 ROBESPIERRE ; 
racter and habits in private life; and that we should extend our re- 
searches, likewise, into the psychological history of the rise and pro- 
gress of those chimerical designs, as holding up a mirror to reformers 
of the present day, from which their own likenesses may be reflected 
(are form mania, more or less, pervading all countries at this mo- 
ment), and likewise manifesting with what facility reforms may 
become prejudicial to the well-being of a nation, if due attention be 
not paid to their probable tendency and effects, whether they are 
suited to the wants and pursuits, and will be satisfactory to the feel- 
ings, of the people, for whose benefit they are designed. 
Oelsner, to whom we have above alluded, relates an anecdote 
which throws considerable light on the workings of Robespiérre’s 
mind, in the early part of his political career. Robespiérre, who 
was then a member of the Constitutional Assembly, being present 
at a party where, among other topics, the different forms of govern- 
ment which existed in the world became the subject of conversation, 
appeared to take little interest in the discussion, amusing himself by 
playing with a large dog belonging to one of the party: a sneer or 
contemptuous curl of the lip, however, was occasionally visible, 
showing that he was not wholly indifferent or a stranger to what 
was passing. At length, on being invited by one of the party to 
state his opinion, and acquaint them with what description of laws 
he would govern the French, if he were called upon to rule over 
them, he laconically replied, “ The Laws of Lycurgus.” The as- 
tonishment of the company was indeed great when they heard a re- 
presentative of the people avowing a political creed, not only in 
itself absurd, but altogether at variance with the known desires, 
feelings, and tastes of the nation; and having enumerated their 
objections to Robespiérre’s positions, they pressed him to state the 
arguments on which his opinion was founded: but he was again 
engaged at play with the dog, and the same repulsive sneer, so pecu- 
liar to him, being repeated, was the only reply they could obtain. 
In comparing this decisive and brief expression of his opinion 
with his speeches (especially those delivered when he held highly 
elevated positions and commanded corresponding influence), which 
abound with allusions to the civic virtues and heroic patriotism of 
the ancients, so well delineated in Plutarch, no doubt can be enter- 
tained that from early life he was impressed with the feasibility of 
his absurd and fatal desire to regenerate society, by having recourse 
not to progressive measures, but to a retrogade march of thousands 
of years, when civiJization was scarcely in its dawn. 
Athens, in the zenith of its glory, holding the proudest political 
