留美博士：朱学勤剽窃Blum 中英对照系列之三

朱学勤：《道德理想国的覆灭》

第七章第五节：276至283页

Carol Blum: Rousseau and the Republic of Virtue

布鲁姆：《卢梭与德性共和国》

第八章第一节、霜月批判——百科全书派雪上加霜

　　卢梭的信徒与启蒙遗老之间的论战始终在进行。

革命初起时，孔多塞这样的启蒙运动后继者尚在政治中心公开活动，（1. Blum：229页最后一段第3行至230页第1行）但其他百科全书派成员年事已高，亦因外界卢梭声望日隆，大多隐居民间，深居简出。（2. Blum：229页最后一段第1行至第3行）８０岁高龄的修道院长雷诺尔，自１７８１年５月２５日逃避巴黎市议会的逮捕令，一直隐匿于马赛，闭门著述。（3. Blum：230页第6行至第7行,第8行至第10行）１７９０年８月，斐扬派倾慕其启蒙思想家的声名，宣布旧时代对他的逮捕令撤销无效，邀其进入巴黎，登上议会讲坛讲演。（4. Blum: 230页第14行至第16行） 不料这位白发老翁上台后，向着底下正仰头瞻仰他作为百科全书派化身之风采的众议员轻蔑地扫了一眼，随即就连珠炮般猛烈抨击自１７８９年以来所发生的所有变化…… （5. Blum: 230页第一段倒数第6行至倒数第3行）

（以上全段翻译自Blum，全部没有标明来源）

　　罗伯斯庇尔站起发言：

　　你们看，（自由的）敌人是如何懦弱，他们不敢亲临前线甘冒矢石，却在这里举起他们的遁词。用心险恶者把这个有名望的老人从坟墓边拖了回来，以利用他的弱点。他们唆使他当众背弃了本来是构成他威望基础的那些教义和原则。3（6. Blum: 230页第二段全段; 注：朱文这里标注了Blum）

　　在罗伯斯庇尔建议下，议会把这个“昏瞆老人”轰了出去。（7. Blum: 230页第三段第1行至第3行）从此，罗伯斯庇尔对百科全书派的厌恶公开化，与他们结下了怨恨。8. Blum: 230页第三段第4行至第6行）

　　１７９２年４月，罗伯斯庇尔出版了《宪法保卫者》杂志。（9. Blum: 231页第一段第1行至第2行）他攻击的第一个靶子，就是米拉波曾在议会发言中多次提及的孔多塞与达朗贝尔的友谊。（10. Blum: 231页第一段第8行至第10行；注：此处朱抄错了，Blum原文中说提及他们友谊的是Brissot，不是米拉波Mirabeau，下面的Blum引文中也是Brissot先生）罗伯斯庇尔这一次公开数落百科全书派当年排斥迫害卢梭的恶迹：

　　米拉波先生，（朱抄错了，应是Brissot先生）他对他的那帮朋友推崇倍至，提醒我们回忆孔多塞与达朗贝尔的友谊以及他的学术名望，谴责我们以轻率的语气评论那些他称之为爱国主义和自由主义导师的人们。可是就我而言，我从来就认为，在那些方面，我们除了自然之外，别无导师可言。我愿意指出这一点，那就是革命已经砍掉了许多旧制度下大人物的脑袋。如果说这些院士、数学家遭到攻击和耻笑，那是因为他们曾巴结过那些大人物，并对那么多的国王奉迎拍马，以求飞黄腾达。谁都知道他们是多么的不可饶恕：他们迫害过让·雅克·卢梭的美德和自由精神！卢梭那神圣的面容我曾亲眼目睹，按我的判断，唯有他才是那个时代众多名人中唯一的、真正的哲学家。他才应该得到公认的荣誉，而这种荣誉恰恰就被那些政治上的雇佣文人和心怀忌恨的英雄们用种种阴谋手段肆加践踏！4（11. 这段全段见Blum: 231页第二段全段）

　　百科全书派当年与欧洲各王室之间的关系，确实不如卢梭的民粹主义道德实践那么漂亮；⑤百科全书派当年不宽容卢梭，也是事实。但是，这种哲学家内部的理论纷争是否到了迫害程度，未必如罗伯斯庇尔所言。罗伯斯庇尔令人不安处，是他的这种强烈暗示：“革命已经砍掉了许多旧制度下大人物的脑袋。”罗伯斯庇尔所使用的“砍掉”这一字眼——正是当时民间流传的“断头台”一词俚语。这种独尊卢梭罢黜百家的肃杀之气，预示着后来的“焚书、坑儒”（前文已述）一连串极端行动，已难以避免。

　　孔多塞试图起来反抗。他指斥罗伯斯庇尔：“当一个人在他的内心或内心情感中毫无思想可言时，当他毫无知识可以填补他智慧的空白时，当他连把单词联接起来的这点可怜能力都不具备的时候，尽管他尽其所能设想自己是一个伟人，还有什么事情可以留给他做呢？通过好勇斗狠的行为，他只能赢得土匪，强盗的喝采。” （12. Blum: 234页最后一段第5行至235页第1行；朱没有给出来源，让人对其引号不知所以）

　　德穆兰则主张在卢梭与伏尔泰之间应妥协调和。他提出，法国应该弥平它的英烈们之间曾经存在过的敌意。（13. Blum: 229页第5行至第7行）他说：“伏尔泰和让·雅克的遗骸都应该被保存为民族的财产。现在，各民族分裂为成千个碎片，同一民族内，某种碎片被一部分人认为是圣灵遗迹，同时又被另一种人视为渎神之物，可厌之物。然而，这本来是一座神殿（指先贤祠——本书）。人们瞻仰这一神殿和它所收纳的各种遗物时，本不该争吵。这是古罗马的神殿，应该把所有的崇拜所有的宗教融合在一起”。6（14. Blum: 229页第9行至第14行；注：此处朱书标注引文来自Blum 227页，但应该是229页）

　　德穆兰此言未免天真。当时对卢梭和伏尔泰、百科全书派的褒贬，正反映着现实政治生活中的严重对立，人们怎么会听得进调和者的声音？（15. Blum: 229页第三段第1行至第5行）

　　１７９２年１２月５日，雅各宾俱乐部集会。罗伯斯庇尔在这次集会中发表重要讲话，公开号召打倒百科全书派，（16. Blum: 233页倒数第3行至倒数第1行）推倒雅各宾俱乐部中的爱尔维修胸像。当时雅各宾俱乐部中共有四座胸像：米拉波、布鲁图斯，卢梭和爱尔维修。（17. Blum: 233页倒数第1行至234页第2行）（这一段朱也没有标明来源）罗伯斯庇尔说：

　　我看只有两个人值得敬仰：布鲁图斯和卢梭。爱尔维修是一个阴谋家，一个可怜的诡辩家，一个非道德行为的始作俑者，是正直的让·雅克·卢梭的最无情的迫害者！只有卢梭才值得我们敬仰。如果爱尔维修还活着，决难想象，他会加入自由的事业。他只会加入那群所谓诡辩家的阴谋集团，那些人今天正在反对祖国！⑦。（18. Blum: 234页第二段全段）

罗伯斯庇尔的建议获得一致通过。（19. Blum: 234页第三段第1行）在一片欢呼鼓噪声中，米拉波和爱尔维修的胸像被推倒，踩得稀烂。（20. Blum: 234页第三段第2行至第4行）

（此段朱照搬翻译，没有标明来源）

　　接下来的一个月，民间开始出现反百科全书派浪潮。一个主题被反复强调：只有投身于卢梭式美德的雅各宾派才是“人民”，而反对卢梭者，不是阴谋家，就是人民的敌人。（21. Blum: 234页第四段第1行至第4行；朱照搬翻译，没有给出注释）圣鞠斯特宣称，在人民的敌人里，他能辨别出这样一类人：（22. Blum: 234页第四段第5行至第6行）“他们曾忌恨并阴谋迫害过让·雅克。”连德国来的无政府主义革命家克劳茨也来凑趣，说那些百科全书派尚存者“抱着团来惩治我，就像他们惩治过让·雅克一样。”8（23. Blum: 234页第四段最后五行）

１７９３年春，卢梭遗孀泰勒丝来到国民公会，要求给予卢梭以置身先贤祠的荣誉。（24. Blum: 227页第三段第1行至第3行）而在此之前，在斐扬派时期，１７９１年７月１１日伏尔泰遗骸已移入先贤祠。卢梭与伏尔泰能否置于一堂，成了现实政治中如何对待卢梭及其思想的敏感问题。阿马尔出面接待泰勒丝，慨然允诺：“民族的代表们将再也不会延期偿还卢梭的恩典了。” （25. Blum: 227页第三段第4行至第6行）国民公众经过激烈辩论，议决把卢梭遗骸送入先贤祠。（26. Blum: 228页第1行至第2行）

（此段全部照搬翻译，没有一处给出注释）

　　１７９３年５月，吉伦特派垮台，启蒙遗老进入地下状态。（27. Blum: 235页第5行至第6行）孔多塞隐匿不出，格里姆逃亡哥特，波麦赛逃亡英格兰，马蒙特尔隐居于诺曼底，留在巴黎的人只能秘密聚会，不定期见面。（28. Blum: 235页第6行至第9行）专门研究这一问题的史学家卡夫克罗列了当时３８个人的命运，得出结论：“百科全书派的合决不是恐怖政策的合。” （29. Blum: 229页第三段第5行至第10行）当时最著名的百科全书派地下活动者有三个：孔多塞、雷诺尔和修道院院长摩莱勒。（30. Blum: 229页最后三行）这群幸存者在爱尔维修遗孀家里，秘密活动。这些人有：都德特夫人（卢梭晚年曾与之交恶，见《忏悔录》下卷——本书）、米拉波私人医生彼埃尔·卡布尼，以及前文所述那个给科黛作诗悼亡的诗人舍尼埃。（31. Blum: 232页第三段第6行至第11行）时人称他们为“卢梭式民主的敌人”。（32. Blum: 232页第三段第12行至第13行；注：原文并不是“时人”，而是一个叫Sergio Moravia的人这样说）（以上这么多内容照搬翻译，没有一处注释）摩莱勒回忆说：１７９３年底的一个夜晚，他在杜伊勒里宫附近一家餐馆里就餐，正好旁听到邻桌上的一场谈话，谈的是各区正在散发“爱国公民证书”，以甄别“正义者”与“邪恶者”。（33. Blum: 232页最后一行至233页第6行）一个人对另一个人说：“他们给了一个著名贵族一张爱国公民证！” （34. Blum: 233页第6行至第7行）此人越说越愤怒：“那个贵族就是埃贝尔·摩莱勒！他写过一本反对卢梭的书，我把他们从杜伊勒里区刚刚驱逐出来！” （35. Blum: 233页第7行至第9行）摩莱勒一听此言，赶紧拉下帽檐，悄悄溜走。⑨（36. Blum: 233页第9行至第10行；此处朱的脚注标注为：参见卡夫克：“恐怖与百科全书派”，载法国近现代史，196年14期284-295页，其实朱搞混了，这个脚注应该是Morellet, Memoires (Paris: Ladvocat, 1821), 2:97。朱抄的这个脚注内容也来自Blum，但Blum原文本用于上面的第29个标注，但朱文在第29处没有给脚注，却把它搬到这里来了，搞错了；另外年份是1967年，不是196年，朱也抄错了）

　　１７９３年１１月２１日，即霜月１日，罗伯斯庇尔在雅各宾俱乐部正式发动了反无神论运动。（37. Blum: 240页第二段倒数第4行至倒数第3行）演说一开始，他就以黑白对分法，把“贵族式”的无神论和人民所广泛接受的“伟大的主宰关心受压迫的无辜者”的观点对立起来，（38. Blum: 240页第二段最后三行）顿时激起旁听席上一阵掌声。罗伯斯庇尔迅速把掌声变为他的论据：“给我鼓掌的是人民，是不幸者。如果有人指责我的话，那一定是富人，是罪犯。”他暗示：国民公众将采取恢复宗教信仰的重大步骤，并打击那些渎神者、非道德者。这就是著名的９３年霜月演说10。

　　“霜月演说”无异于发布对百科全书派的讨伐令。（39. Blum: 243页第3行至第4行）百科全书派雪上加霜，更难生存。继此之后，罗伯斯庇尔又发表“花演说”，对百科全书派施以最后一击。（40. Blum: 235页第四段第1行至第3行）

　　１７９２年以来共和国境内的非基督教化运动，始终刺激罗伯斯庇尔的道德忧患与宗教情怀。在他看来，渎神者是渎德者，百科全书派的无神论抽空了共和国的道德基础。（41. Blum: 243页第7行至第9行）１７９４春丹东事件更使他把这笔帐记在百科全书派宣扬的世俗功利主义上。（42. Blum: 245页第三段第7行至第8行）处死丹东的当天，巴雷尔曾宣布罗伯斯庇尔正在起草一项道德救国的宏伟计划。１７９４年５月７日，罗伯斯庇尔代表救国委员会向国民公会提出了这一计划，其中最富道德义愤的那一部分，就是对百科全书派排炮般的攻击：（43. Blum：235页第四段第1行至第5行）

　　这一派人在政治方面，一直轻视人民权利；在道德方面，远远不满足于摧毁宗教偏见；……这一派人们以极大的热情传播唯物主义思想……。实用哲学的很大一部分就渊源于此，它把利己主义化成体系，把人类社会看作诡计的一场战斗，把成功看作正义和非正义的尺度，把正直看作一种出于爱好或者出于礼貌的事情，把世界看作灵巧的骗子的家产。……人们已经注意到，他们中的好些人同奥尔良家族有密切的联系，而英国宪法在他们看来，是政治的杰作和社会幸福的·最·高·点。 （这一段不在Blum中）

　　在我讲到的那个时期里，……有一个人（指卢梭——本书）以其高尚的心灵和庄严的品格，显得无愧于是克尽职责的人类导师。……他的学说的纯正性来自自然和对邪恶的深刻的憎恨，同样也来自他对那些盗用哲学家的名义搞阴谋的诡辩家的无法抑制的蔑视，而这，引起了他的敌人和假朋友对他的仇恨和迫害。啊！如果他曾是这场革命的见证人……，谁能怀疑他的高贵的心灵充满激情地关注着正义和平等的事业呢！然而，他的卑怯的对手们为革命干了些什么呢？他们……与革命为敌，…… 腐蚀公共舆论，……把自己出卖给一些叛乱集团，尤其出卖给奥尔良派！11（44. 以上两段朱注出了引文来自王养冲、陈崇武，问题不大；后面这段也出现在Blum 235页的最后一段最后四行和236页的第二段）

这是法国革命期间，对百科全书派所作的一次最猛烈最全面的讨伐。卢梭和启蒙思想家的理论是非，已经上升到革命与反革命的高度，百科全书派再也生存不下去了。（45. Blum：233页第二段第1行至第4行；此处朱文缩简）爱尔维修遗孀的地下沙龙被迫解散，启蒙遗老非逃即亡，他们中的大多数人后来还是走上了断头台。（46. Blum：233页第一段最后五行；此处朱文缩简）启蒙主流哲学留给法国大革命的最后一丝影响，只有花月广场上那尊无神论模拟像，等着罗伯斯庇尔付之一炬了。

注释：

③此事可参见布罗姆：《卢梭和道德共和国》，Ｐ ２３０。

④《罗伯斯庇尔全集》，第４卷，Ｐ３５—３７。

⑤启蒙哲学家与旧王朝、诸王室的关系，可参见索布尔１９８１年暑

假来华东师大讲演稿。尤其是《哲学家与革命》一章，材料更为翔实。

⑥同③，Ｐ ２２７。

⑦《罗伯斯庇尔全集》，第９卷，Ｐ１４３—１４４。

⑧饶勒斯：《法国革命社会史》，第８卷，ＰB ７４。

⑨参见卡夫克：“恐怖与百科全书派”，载法国《近现代史》杂志

１９６年第１４期，Ｐ２８４—２９５。

10. 瓦尔特：《罗伯斯庇尔》，Ｐ３９１—３９２。

11. 参见①Ｐ２５８—２５９。

1. Blum: 229-230: three of the best known intellectuals of the ancien regime, Condorcet, the Abbe Raynal, and the Abbe Morellet, overtly refused to accept the revisionist interpretation of the Enlightenment which some Jacobins were attempting to propagate.

2. Blum. P. 229: the majority of former Encyclopedists and other philosophes left letters and memoirs recounting efforts to make themselves inconspicuous during the Terror,

3. Blum. P. 230: He persuaded the Abbe Guillaume-Thomas Raynal, one of the fabled names of the philosophic group, to leave his retreat in Marseilles. The abbe, in August 1790, was still technically wanted under an arrest order from the parlement of Paris

4. Blum. P. 230: The Assembly, moved at the thought of the old warrior's long struggles on behalf of freedom, declared the decree against him void and invited him to speak before the deputies.

5. Blum. P. 230: Opposition incarnate in one human being, the elderly radical looked down on the adoring faces of the delegates and delivered a blast of venom against everything which had taken place since 1789.

6. Blum. P. 230: Robespierre handled the momentary ontological panic of the Assembly with great aplomb: "You see," Malouet quotes him as saying, "how the enemies [of liberty] dare not risk a frontal attack and are obliged to resort to subterfuge. The wretches drag forth a respectable old man from the edge of his tomb, and abusing his weakness, they make him abjure the doctrine and the principles which founded his*reputation."13

7. Blum. P. 230: Rather than parrying Raynal's attack, Robespierre's response simply dismissed him as a befuddled dotard and indeed the abbe's eighty years,

8. Blum. P. 230: Nonetheless, Robespierre subsequently expressed increasing rancor toward the entire group of philosophes,

9. Blum. P. 231: in April 1792, he began publishing a journal, Le Defenseur de la Constitution (a misnomer since it had no bearing on the constitution)

10. Blum. P. 231:  In the first issue Robespierre took on Brissot, who had just made a speech in praise of Condorcet's long friendship with the Encyclopedist d'Alembert.

11. Blum. P. 231: M. Brissot, in the panegyric of his friend, while reminding us of Condorcet's liaisons with d'Alembert and his academic glory, has reproached us for the temerity with which we judge men whom he calls our masters in patriotism and liberty. For my part I would have thought that in those respects we had no other masters than nature. I could point out that the revolution has cut down many a great man of the old regime [here Robespierre used the sinister word 'rapetiss£' which was a colloquial term for guillotining] and if the academicians and mathematicians whom M. Brissot proposes to us as models attacked and ridiculed priests, they nevertheless courted the great and adored the kings in whose service they prospered; and who is unaware of how implacably they persecuted virtue and the spirit of liberty in the person of this Jean-Jacques Rousseau whose sacred image I see before me, of this true philosopher who alone, in my opinion, among all the famous men of those times, deserved the public honors which have been prostituted since by intriguers upon political hacks and contemptible heroes. [4: 35-37朱文脚注照搬Blum此引文出处

12. Blum. P. 234: Of Robespierre he charged: "When a man has no thoughts in his head or feelings in his heart, when no learning makes up for his lack of wits, when he is incapable, despite his best efforts, of rising to the petty talent of combining words, and nevertheless he aspires to be a great man, what is there for him to do? By outrageous acts he must earn the protection of brigands."19

13. Blum. P. 229: attempted to reconcile Rousseau with the philosophes in the tomb. Camille Desmoulins described the Republic's need to gloss over its heroes' antagonisms and to weld them into a posthumous united front.

14. Blum. P. 229: "the remains of Voltaire and of Jean-Jacques will be transferred there as national property. Nations are divided between a thousand sects, and in the same nation what is the holy of holies for one sect is for another a place of blasphemy and abomination. But there will be no dispute between men over the holiness of this temple and its relics. This basilica will reunite all in its cult and its religion" (Revolutions de France et de Brabant, 72: 321). 此处朱书标注引文来自Blum 227页，但应该是229页

15. Blum. P. 229: It is not always enough to bury a quarrel, however; one must first be certain it is dead. Such was not the case, despite the shared apotheosis of Voltaire and Rousseau, not only because of the profound vibrations of their fundamental discord, but because certain philosophes inconveniently lived on.

16. Blum. P. 233: In a speech at the Jacobin Club on December 5, 1792, Robespierre moved from verbal denunciation to symbolic act.

17. Blum. P. 233-234: He demanded that of the four busts decorat-ing the hall, those of Mirabeau, Brutus, Rousseau, and Helvetius, two be struck down.

18. Blum. P. 234: I see here only two men worthy of our homage: Brutus and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Mirabeau must fall. Helvetius must fall. Helvetius was a schemer, a miserable wit (bel esprit), an immoral creature, one of the crudest persecutors of the good Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who is the only one worthy of our homage. If Helvetius were alive today, don't go believing he would have embraced the cause of liberty: he would have joined the crowd of conniving so-called wits who today are devastating the fatherland.9：143-44朱文脚注照搬Blum此引文出处

19. Blum. P. 234: This speech touched off a wild display of approval at the club,

20. Blum. P. 234: In the midst of shouting and applause, ladders were brought in, the busts of Mirabeau and Helvetius were thrown down and smashed

21. Blum. P. 234： "Men of letters" and "wits" were, from this point on, in Jacobin texts, synonymous with traitors. In the months that followed, one theme was constantly reiterated: the Jacobins who embraced Rousseau's "virtue" were the people.

22. Blum. P. 234: Saint-Just declared that in his enemies he recognized the same people whose

23. Blum. P. 234: "envy and malice persecuted the good Jean-Jacques," and Anacharsis Clootz claimed, shortly before he himself was denounced by Robespierre as a foreigner and atheist, that "they want to punish me corporally as they did Jean-Jacques" (Jaures, 8: 74). 朱文脚注照搬Blum此引文出处

24. Blum. P.227: Therese appeared before the Convention, accompanied by a deputation of the Republican Society of the Commune of Franciade (formerly Saint Denis), demanding the honors of the Pantheon for Rousseau.

25. Blum. P. 227: The presiding officer, Amar, responded to the visitors by declaring that "the national representatives would not delay paying the debt they owed to the most intrepid defender of the rights of the people;

26. Blum. P. 228: the Convention decreed that Rousseau's remains be brought to the Pantheon

27. Blum. P. 235: When the Terror moved into its most active phase with the fall of the Gironde in May of 1793, Condorcet went into hiding.

28. Blum. P. 235: Condorcet went into hiding. A number of other intellectuals of the old regime were abroad, imprisoned, or dead. Grimm had fled to Gotha, Beaumarchais to England, Marmontel was hoping to escape notice in Normandy,

29. Blum. P. 229: Frank A. Kafker, in an effort to determine whether the Encyclopedists who had survived into the Terror were active supporters of it, examined the revolutionary fortunes of thirty-eight men who had contributed to the great dictionary and concluded:

30. Blum. P. 229: three of the best known intellectuals of the ancien regime, Condorcet, the Abbe Raynal, and the Abbe Morellet,

31. Blum. P. 232: Pierre Cabanis who had been Mirabeau's physician, Constantin de Volney, the Abbe Sieves, Andre Chenier, Condorcet for a time and Mme Condorcet after her husband went into hiding, Mme d'Houdetot, who had so inflamed Rousseau, M. d'Houdetot, and a handful of others banded together in Auteuil at the home of Mme Helvetius, the widow of the wellknown materialist philosopher.

32. Blum. P. 232: Sergio Moravia has characterized them as "adverseries of Rousseauvian democracy,"

33. Blum. P. 232-233: Abbe Morellet. He recounts how one evening while dining near the Tuileries he overheard one of Hebert's dinner companions telling the Pere Duchesne that the sections were dispensing certificates of "civisme" too casually. These certificates, awarded by neighborhood committees, were necessary for survival in revolutionary Paris, for without one a person was liable to arrest as a "suspect"

34. Blum. P. 233: "They gave one to a well-known aristocrat,"

35. Blum. P. 233: Pere Duchesne's friend announced indignantly, "the Abbe Morellet whom I had thrown out of the Tuileries section for having written against J.-J. Rousseau."17

36. Blum. P. 233: Morellet recounts scuttling from the restaurant only to risk his neck朱文此处的脚注抄错

37. Blum. P. 240: On 1 frimaire, at the Jacobins, Robespierre began his crusade against "atheism."

38. Blum. P. 240: From the beginning he meant to oppose atheism, which was "aristocratic," to the idea of a "great Being who watches over oppressed innocence," an idea that was "completely plebeian."3

39. Blum. P. 243: Within this context Robespierre began to formulate the attack on the philosophes which was discussed in the previous chapter.

40. Blum. P. 235: At the meeting of the Jacobin Club on 18 floreal (1794), three months before Thermidor, Robespierre put the finishing touches on his indictment of the now defunct "coalition" formed by the philosophes

41. Blum. P. 243: To have denied the existence of God and the communion of believers in favor of some individualistic rational doctrines was to undermine the foundation of the republic of virtue.

42. Blum. P. 245: he came to Danton, with an accusation which defined the orator's corruption:

43. Blum. P. 235: At the meeting of the Jacobin Club on 18 floreal (1794), three

months before Thermidor,Robespierre put the finishing touches on his indictment of the now defunct "coalition" formed by the philosophes in anticipation of the Revolution, which, according to him, they had foreseen. Among the philosophes before the Revolution, he said:

44. Blum. P. 235: Among those who were outstanding in the world of letters there was one man who, by the loftiness of his soul and the grandeur of his character, showed himself worthy of the ministry of preceptor of the human race. [10: 454—55] depicted in strokes of flame the charms of virtue... The purity of his doctrine, imbibed from nature and from a profound hatred of vice, as well as his invincible contempt for the scheming intriguers who usurped the name of philosophes, called forth the hatred and persecution of his rivals and false friends. Ah! Had he been the witness of this revolution of which he was the precursor, who can doubt that his generous soul would have embraced the cause of justice and equality with transports of joy? But what did his cowardly adverseries do? They fought against the Revolution. [10: 455-56]

45. Blum. P. 233: The existence of this group with its lingering aura of political heroism, intellectual prestige, impeccable elegance and ironic snobisme drew fire from Robespierre as much as it had from Rousseau, and on much the same grounds.

46. Blum. P. 233: he escaped the fate which befell other members of the group in Auteuil, like the poet Andre Chenier, who was executed, and the luckless aphorist Sebastien-Roch Chamfort, who attempted suicide three different ways and yet managed to survive his last attempt for a few months.