Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 7.djvu/126

 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!" I did not want such a lesson to inform me that there is but a short distance from the capitol to the Tarpeian rock. 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