Courage becomes but a habit

In January 1793, six months before her arrest, Manon Roland wrote the following letter to her friend Johann Kasper Lavater in Zurich. She had first met Lavater in France, and then during her visit to Switzerland with her husband in the 1780s. She was, like many of her contemporaries, impressed with his science of physiognomy, using a person's facial features to make deductions about their character. Lavater used his science to draw conclusions about criminology, and this is perhaps the source of the advice he sent Roland  via the intermediary of his wife. 

​Manon's letter to Lavater gives a vivid impression of what life at the onset of the Terror must have been like for those who did not sympathize with the Commune: constant fear, and the conviction that one must continue to defend liberty, at any cost. ​

January  1793 to Lavater, in Zurich
 
Do not attribute my silence, my dear Lavater, to a lack in my friendship. The violent situation in which we are does not leave us one moment of liberty. Always in the midst of a storm, under the people’s blade, we are lit only by lightening, and without a peaceful conscience which is always strong, one could easily tire of life. But with a forceful soul, one can become accustomed to arguing for the most difficult ideas, and courage becomes but a habit. 
I do not have time to discuss them with you, but I wanted to let you know that I was very touched to receive the observations [on the laws against emigration] you wrote me. I gave them to legislators who will be able to speak in their favour. I am sending you my portrait and my eternal affection. My dear husband sends his regards and continues his work as a good man would. Proscription floats above our heads, but we must keep on rowing, as far as the end, if possible, and be ostracized even, if that is such must be the reward of virtue. 
 
Roland, née Phlipon.