# Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau — Representative Men character guide

> Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau in Representative Men by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mirabeau

**First appearance:** 0006-vi-napoleon-or-the-man-of-the-world

## Snapshot

A revolutionary orator whose genius Emerson measures not by effort but by ease — the man who does his best thing without trying.

## Who they are

Emerson uses Mirabeau to test a theory: that the truly great are not those who labor into a higher sphere of thought but those who simply open their eyes and see. Against men who must make painful corrections and watch for error, Mirabeau stands as the type who is what he is from nature and never reminds us of anyone else. His place in the book's argument is to show that service from superior men is indirect — a quality conveyed, not a lesson sold — and that a man in his rightful place is constructive, fertile, and magnetic, like a river making its own shores.

## In the story

### [Napoleon; or, the Man of the World](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/representative_men_se/chapters/vi-napoleon-or-the-man-of-the-world)

Cited as an example of a representative man who, like Napoleon, became a monopolizer of other minds, plagiarizing good thoughts and words from others as if they were his own.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/representative_men_se/characters/mirabeau
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/representative_men_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/representative_men_se/characters