for it, his discoveries in Physics will render him
immortal[3110]:

"They will at least effect a complete transformation in Optics.... The
true primitive colors were unknown before me."

He is a Newton, and still better. Previous to his appearance "the place
occupied by the electrical fluid in nature, considered as an universal
agent, was completely ignored. .. I have made it known in such a way as
to leave no further doubt about it."[3111] As to the heat-engendering
fluid, "that substance unknown until my discovery, I have freed
the theory from every hypothesis and conjecture, from every alembic
argument; I have purged it of error, I have rendered it intuitive; I
have written this out in a small volume which consigns to oblivion all
that scientific bodies have hitherto published on that subject."[3112]
Anterior to his treatise on "Man," the relationships between moral and
physics were incomprehensible. "Descartes, Helvetius, Hailer, Lecat,
Hume, Voltaire, Bonnet, held this to be an impenetrable secret, 'an
enigma.'" He has solved the problem, he has fixed the seat of the soul,
he has determined the medium through which the soul communicates with
the body.[3113]--In the higher sciences, those treating of nature
generally, or of human society, he reaches the climax. "I believe that
I have exhausted every combination of the human intellect in relation
to morals, philosophy and political science."[3114] Not only has he
discovered the true theory of government, but he is a statesman, a
practical expert, able to forecast the future and shape events. He makes
predictions, on the average, twice a week, which always turn out right;
he already claims, during the early sessions of the Convention, to have
made "three hundred predictions on the leading points of the Revolution,
all justified by the event."[3115]--In the face of the Constituents who
demolish and reconstruct so slowly, he is sufficiently strong to take
down, put up and complete at a moment's notice.

"If I were one of the people's tribunes[3116] and were supported by a
few thousand determined men, I answer for it that, in six weeks, the
Constitution would be perfected, the political machine well agoing,
and the nation free and happy. In less than a year there would be a
flourishing, formidable government which would remain so as long as I
lived."--If necessary, he could act as commander-in-chief of the army
and always be victorious: having twice seen the Vendeans