A crust of absurd habits and perverse inclinations, a sort of artificial and supplementary being, has covered over their original nature .-- And, on the other hand, the better side of their original nature has had no chance to develop itself, for lack of use.

Separated from the other, these two parts of its nature have not acquired the sentiment of community; they do not know, like their brethren of the prairies, how to help each other and subordinate private interests to the interests of the flock.

Each pulls his own way, nobody cares for others, all are egoists; social interests have miscarried .-- Such is Man nowadays, a disfigured slave that has to be restored.

Our task, accordingly is two-fold: we have to demolish and we have to construct; we must first set free the natural Man that we may afterwards build up the social Man.
It is a vast enterprise and we are conscious of its vastness.
"It is necessary," says Billaud-Varennes,[2120] "that the people to which one desires to restore their freedom should in some way be created anew, since old prejudices must be destroyed, old habits changed, depraved affections improved, superfluous wants restricted, and inveterate vices extirpated." But the task is sublime, as the aim is "to fulfill the desires of nature,[2121] accomplish the destinies of humanity, and fulfill the promises of philosophy".--"Our purpose," says Robespierre,[2122] "is to substitute morality for egoism, honesty for honor, principles for custom, duties for etiquette, the empire of reason for the tyranny of fashion, contempt of vice for indifference to misfortune, pride for arrogance, a noble mind for vanity, love of glory for the love of profit, good people for high society, merit for intrigue, genius for intellectual brilliancy, the charm of contentment for the boredom of voluptuous pleasure, the majesty of Man for the high-breeding of the great, a magnanimous, powerful and happy people for an amiable, frivolous and wretched people, that is to say, every virtue and miracle of the Republic in the place of the vices and absurdities of the monarchy." We will do this, the whole of it, whatever the cost.

Little do we care for the present generation: we are working for generations to come.
"Man, forced to isolate himself from society, anchors himself in the future and presses to his heart a posterity innocent of existing evils."[2123] He sacrifices to this work his own and the lives of others.
"On the day that I am persuaded," writes Saint-Just, "that it is impossible to render the French people kind, energetic, tender and relentless against tyranny and injustice, I will stab myself." -- "What I have done in the South I will do in the North," says Baudot; "I will convert them into patriots; either they or I must die."-- "We will make France a cemetery," says Carrier, "rather than not regenerate it our own way." In vain may the ignorant or the vicious protest; they protest because they are ignorant or vicious.