For whilst society is struggling to realize liberty, the great men who place themselves at its head, imbued with the principles of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, think only of subjecting it to the philanthropic despotism of their social inventions, and making it bear with docility, according to the expression of Rousseau, the yoke of public felicity as pictured in their own imaginations.
This was particularly the case in 1789. No sooner was the old system destroyed than society was to be submitted to other artificial arrangements, always with the same starting point—the omnipotence of the law.
SAINT-JUST—
The legislator commands the future. It is for him to will
for the good of mankind. It is for him to make men what he
wishes them to be.
ROBESPIERRE—
The function of Government is to direct the physical and
moral powers of the nation towards the object of its
institution.
BILLAUD VARENNES—
A people who are to be restored to liberty must be formed
anew. Ancient prejudices must be destroyed, antiquated
customs changed, depraved affections corrected, inveterate
vices eradicated.
For this, a strong force and a vehement impulse will be necessary.... Citizens, the inflexible austerity of Lycurgus created the firm basis of the Spartan republic. The feeble and trusting disposition of Solon plunged Athens into slavery. This parallel contains the whole science of Government.