Page:Works of Heinrich Heine 07.djvu/218

198 this fashion many deep thinkers are not contented with considering Mirabeau as the cause of the overthrow of the French monarchy, but declare that he was compelled by want of money and debt to seek relief in overthrowing the existing state of affairs. I will no longer discuss such absurdity, yet I must mention it, because it may be that in a later time it may develop itself in fullest bloom. Mirabeau is now regarded as peculiarly the representative of that first phase of the Revolution which begins and ends with the National Assembly.

As such he has become a popular hero. He is discussed daily; he is seen chiselled and painted everywhere; he is set forth in all French theatres in all his forms, poor and wild, loving and hating, laughing and gnashing his teeth, a reckless, bankrupt god, whom heaven and earth obeyed, and who was capable of gambling away his last fixed