Synthesized answer
Robespierre explains that the “splendor of the goal” of freedom and equality inspires “benevolent and noble impulses” because it aims to awaken “all benevolent and noble impulses” and make “the noblest ambition that of being useful to our country” [2]. This ambition replaces egotism with morality and avarice with the love of glory, creating a society of “honest men” and “manly greatness” [2]. Thus, the goal’s nobility draws in those who genuinely seek a just and virtuous republic.
However, the same splendor also attracts “perfidious and vicious individuals” who see the Revolution as a “trade” and the Republic as “booty” [1]. These are “advocates of tyranny” who think of “plunder” and join only to exploit the upheaval for personal gain [1]. Robespierre notes that such people began the struggle but abandoned it “when our path was but half accomplished, because they did not pursue the objects we were pursuing” [1]. The goal’s grandeur thus becomes a weakness by uniting these corrupt elements against the true patriots.
The paradox is that the very ambition for a sublime, free society both galvanizes the virtuous and lures the self-interested, who then conspire with foreign enemies…
Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.
From the book
of empty show, manly greatness instead of the depravity of the great, a sublime, powerful, victorious and happy people! The splendor of the goal pursued by our Revolution is simultaneously the source of our strength and our weakness. It is the source of our weakness, because it unites all the perfidious and vicious individuals, all the advocates of tyranny who think of plunder, who think to find in the Revolution a trade and in the Republic a booty. Thus we may explain the disaffection of many persons who began the struggle together with us, but who have left us when our path was but half…
for the needs of the fatherland, than by any precise theory. What is the purpose, what is the goal for which we strive? We wish a peaceful enjoyment of freedom and equality, the rule of that eternal justice whose laws are graven not in marble or in stone, but in the hearts of all men. We wish a social order that shall hold in check all base and cruel passions, which shall awaken to life all benevolent and noble impulses, that shall make the noblest ambition that of being useful to our country, that shall draw its honorable distinctions only from equality, in which the generality shall…
rotect crime? … If tyranny prevails for but a single day, all the patriots will have been wiped out by the next morning. And yet some persons dare declare that despotism is justice and that the justice of the people is despotism and rebellion. … Either we or our enemies must succumb. "Show consideration for the Royalists!" shout some persons; "have compassion with the criminal!" "No, I tell you; have compassion with innocence, compassion with the weak, and compassion with humanity! …" The whole task of protecting the Republic is for the advantage of the loyal citizen. In the Republic, only…
are involved a single indissoluble struggle? Are the enemies within not the allies of those who attack us from without? The murderers who rend the flesh of their country at home; the intriguers who seek to purchase the conscience of the representatives of the people; the traitors who sell themselves; the pamphleteers who besmirch us and are preparing for a political counter-revolution by means of a moral counter-revolution;—are all these individuals any less dangerous than the tyrants whom they serve? All those who would intervene between these criminals and the sword of justice are like unto…
ody. … We should commit an unpardonable act of levity if we should regard a few victories as the end of all our dangers. Just cast your eyes on our actual situation, and you will feel that caution and energy were never more necessary than now. A disguised ill-will sabotages the measures of the government at every step. For such is the fatal influence of the foreign courts, and because this influence is a hidden one, it is nonetheless active and nonetheless dangerous. The intimidated criminals are concealing their steps with greater cleverness. The internal enemies of the nation have divided…
More questions about this book
- Explain Robespierre's desired "social order" by contrasting his vision for "morality in the place of egotism" and "reason in the place of the slavery of tradition." How does he believe these shifts will specifically enable "the generality [to] safeguard the welfare of the individual"?
- How does Robespierre reconcile the pursuit of "eternal justice whose laws are graven... in the hearts of all men" with the practical necessities of a "revolutionary government" that he implies must "stifle the domestic" opposition? What inherent tensions arise from these two principles in his argument?
- If you were explaining Robespierre's core argument to a friend, how would you describe the relationship between individual character (e.g., "honest men," "manly greatness") and the ultimate success of the French Republic, according to his speech?
- Robespierre envisions a "sublime, powerful, victorious and happy people." Based on his critique of those who "think of plunder" or are "friends of the tyrants," who does he implicitly include in—and exclude from—this ideal "people" who will enjoy the "peaceful enjoyment of freedom and equality"?