thus shaping the
exterior we reach the interior, and through outward civism we prepare
internal civism. Both are obligatory, but the latter much more so than
the former; for that is the fundamental principle,[21117] "the incentive
which sustains and impels a democratic and popular government." It
is impossible to apply the social contract if everybody does not
scrupulously observe the first clause of it, namely, the complete
surrender of himself to the community; everybody, then, must give
himself up entirely, not only actually but heartily, and devote himself
to the public good, which public good is the regeneration of Man as we
have defined it. The veritable citizen is he who thus marches along
with us. With him, as with us, abstract truths of philosophy control the
conscience and govern the will. He starts with our articles of faith and
follows them out to the end; he endorses our acts, he recites our creed,
he observes our discipline, he is a believing and practicing Jacobin,
an orthodox Jacobin, unsullied, and without taint of heresy or schism.
Never does he swerve to the left toward exaggeration, nor to the right
toward toleration; without haste or delay he travels along the narrow,
steep and straight path which we have marked out for him; this is the
pathway of reason, for, as there is but one reason, there is but one
pathway. Let no one swerve from the line; there are abysses on each side
of it. Let us follow our guides, men of principles, the pure, especially
Couthon, Saint-Just and Robespierre; they are choice specimens, all
cast in the true mold, and it is this unique and rigid mold in which all
French men are to be recast.

***** ]

[Footnote 2101: This and the following text are taken from the
"Contrat-Social" by Rousseau. Cf. "The ancient Regime," book III., ch..
IV.]

[Footnote 2102: This idea, so universally prevalent and precocious, is
uttered by Mirabeau in the session of the 10th of August, 1789. (Buchez
et Roux, II., 257.) "I know of but three ways of maintaining one's
existence in society, and these are to be either a beggar, a robber or a
hireling. The proprietor is himself only the first of hirelings. What we
commonly call his property is nothing more than the pay society awards
him for distributing amongst others that which is entrusted to him
to distribute through his expenses and through what he consumes;
proprietors are the agents, the stewards of the social body."]

[Footnote 2103: Re