of a sovereignty of the poorest strata of the population; the Hébertistes of a republic safeguarded by an equality of possessions; and each of these factions went to the scaffold with its illusions, embracing death in a complete faith in the "correctness" and "immortality" of its ideas. And yet, the entire significance of the Revolution was achieved after four decades of the most confused and contradictory struggle; a united France, the great nation; the bourgeoisie had consolidated itself. But this is not the only result to be noted on a national or an international scale. It is self-evident that the domination of the Jacobins, as well as the domination of Robespierre, embraced within it the entire illusion of the petty bourgeoisie. But it also bears within it the elements of a new society. The Revolution shot beyond its goal, and that which lay beyond its goal is not mere insanity; this advance is rather the beginning of the new revolutionary principle, namely, it is that which the proletariat has inherited from the French Revolution. Robespierre's demands, were taken over by Babeuf in his Conspiracy of Equals, it was further disseminated by Buonarroti, it became a constituent part of French socialism; it became the ideological basis of the revolutions of 1830, 1848, 1870.[1] It was critically annexed by Karl Marx; and thus Robespierre and the Jacobins are a part. of the tradition of the
- ↑ P. Buonarroti: Observations sur M. Robespierre.
