THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS
another—men whom one and the same object, the same indestructible sentiment, should, amid the most fell debates, still reconcile, still reunite; men who in fact substitute the irascibility of self-interest for patriotism, and deliver up one another to the rage of popular prejudice!
As for me, but a few days ago it was proposed to carry me in triumph; and now, the cry is, through every street of Paris: "The Grand Treason of the Comte de Mirabeau!"[1] I did not want such a lesson to inform me that there is but a short distance from the capitol to the Tarpeian rock.[2] However, a man combating for reason, for his country, will not so readily acknowledge himself vanquished. He who feels within himself the consciousness of having deserved well of his country, and especially of being still of use to it; he who does not feed upon a vain celebrity, and who contemns the success of a day when looking forward to true glory; he who wishes to speak the truth, who has at heart the public welfare independently of the fickle movements of public opinion—such a man bears
- ↑ After Mirabeau had spoken on this subject a few days before the Extremists of the Left had vented their wrath in a pamphlet with this title, and caused it to be sold on the streets of Paris. Thiers says that, on the occasion of this speech, Mirabeau ascended the tribune in the presence "of an immense multitude assembled to hear him and declared, as he went up, that he would come down again either dead or victorious."
- ↑ The Tarpeian Bock in Rome, from which traitors were thrown, stood near the brow of Capitoline Hill, on which stood the Temple of Jupiter, the terminus of triumphal processions.
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