III. — Mir<iheau an Opponent of Absolutism. 

 By FRED MORROW FLING. 



One of Mirabeau's more striking characteristics was the 

 supreme confidence that he ever displayed in the justice of un- 

 iversal historv.^ Without any misgivings he submitted his 

 work to the judgment of posterity. His confidence was not 

 misplaced, for to-day he is universally recognized as the master 

 mind of the National Assembly and incomparably the ablest 

 man that the first period of the French Revolution produced.^ 



But it has not taken the civilized world a century to discover 

 that Mirabeau was great. It was convinced of that at the time 

 of his death when the French people honored him as it had 

 never honored its kings. ^ It has, however, taken thoughtful 

 minds several generations to discover just wherein his great- 

 ness consisted and to produce an approximately true likeness 

 of this strangest of mortals.* Nor can it be said that this task 



1 "Mirabeau aimait la gloire ; il savait qu'il Tobtiendrait ui: jour. 

 'Souvenez-vous,' ecrivait-il quelques heures avant sa mort, 'que la seule 

 dedicace qui nous soit venue de Tantiquite, celle d'Eschyle, ne porte que 

 ces mots : Au Temps. Eh bien, cette dedicace est la devise de quiconque 

 aime sincerement et avant tout la gloire. Au Temps. lis auront beau 

 faire, je serai moissonne jeune et bientot, ou le Temps repondra pour moi. 

 car j'ecris et j'ecrirai pour le Temps et non pour les partis'." Reynald, H. : 

 Mirabeau et la constituante, p. 385. 



"Patience encore une fois ! le temps f era justice h tous." Reynald, p. 90. 



2 "Nul, a son epoque, n'a possede au m6me degre les qualit^s de Tora- 

 teur et de Thomme d'Etat." Reynald, p. 382. 



"Mais quel homme que cekii-la, combien superieur a tous les autres ! 

 Comme il domine de haut ceux qui lui ont succede ! Pour trouver son 

 egal, il f aut aller jusqu'^ Bonaparte."' Mezieres, A.: Vie de Mirabeau, p 325. 



=» "The funeral of Mirabeau (attended, it is said, by more than one hun- 

 dred thousand persons, in solemn silence) has been an imposing spectacle." 

 The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, N, Y.. 1888, I. 398. ^ 



* "Endlich bleibt fiir immer das psychologische Problem bestehen, wie 

 sich so viel Monstrositat des Menschlichen mit so viel politischem Genius 

 verbinden kounte." Stern. A.: Das Leben Mirabeaus, I. p. VIII, 



Univeksity Studies, Vol. II, No. 1, July, 1894 4:5 



