ROBESPIERRE. Happiness! There is the fatal word with which you draw to you every form of selfishness and covetousness. Who does not wish for happiness? We are not offering the happiness of Persepolis to the people, but the happiness of Sparta. Happiness is virtue. But you have abused the meaning, and awakened in the minds of cowards a desire for that criminal happiness, which consists in forgetting others, and in enjoying what is unnecessary. A shameful conception! It would soon extinguish the sacred flame of the Revolution! Let France learn to suffer, let her be happy in suffering for the cause of freedom, in sacrificing her comforts, her peace, her affections, for the happiness of the whole world! CAMILLE [_beginning politely but airily, and at the end becoming clear, forceful, and decisive_]. Maximilien, as I listen to you, I am reminded of a passage from Plato: "'When I listen to you,' said the good general Laches, 'when I listen to a man who speaks well of virtue, a man who is a real man of the people, worthy of what he speaks of, I experience an ineffable pleasure. It seems to me that he is the only musician who makes perfect harmony; for his practice is in accord with his theory, not according to the Jacobin or Genevese fashion, but the French, which alone deserves the name of Republican harmony. When such a man speaks to me, he fills me with joy, and no one doubts that I am drunk with his talk. But he who sings of a virtue which he practises not, cruelly afflicts me, and the better he appears to speak, the greater aversion do I feel for music.'" [DESMOULINS _turns his back on_ ROBESPIERRE, _who rises, without a word or a gesture, and starts to go._ LUCILE, _who is concerned at the turn in the conversation, and who keeps her eyes fastened on_ ROBESPIERRE, _takes his hand and tries to pass off the matter as a joke._] LUCILE [_pointing to_ CAMILLE]. He must always be contradicting, the naughty boy! If you only knew how angry he makes me sometimes! Dear Maximilien, you two are always the same. You used to argue like that when you were at school in Arras. [ROBESPIERRE, _with a glacial look, does not answer, but starts for the door_.] DANTON [_goes toward_ ROBESPIERRE_--with true sincerity_]. Robespierre, we are all three of us in the wrong. Let us be men, submitting only to reason, and let us sacrifice our petty quarrels for the good of the nation. See, I come to you, I offer you my hand. Forgive my impatience. ROBESPIERRE. Danton believes a word can make up for his insults. It is easy for the offender to forget. DANTON. Perhaps I do wrong in offering to be generous to my enemies, but the Republic demands it. She needs my energy and your virtue. If you dislike my energy, remember that I dislike your virtue. We are quits. Do as I do, hold your nose and save the nation. ROBESPIERRE. I believe no man indispensable to the nation.