of a generation which thought in terms made current by the philosophy
of the eighteenth century. His period was the most tumultuous and yet
the most fruitful in the world's history. But the progress made in it
was not altogether direct; rather was it like the advance of a
traveler whirled through the spiral tunnels of the St. Gotthard.
Flying from the inclemency of the north, he is carried by the
ponderous train due southward into the opening. After a time of
darkness he emerges into the open air. But at first sight the goal is
no nearer; the direction is perhaps reversed, the skies are more
forbidding, the chill is more intense. Only after successive ventures
of the same kind is the climax reached, the summit passed, and the
vision of sunny plains opened to view. Such experiences are more
common to the race than to the individual; the muse of history must
note and record them with equanimity, with a buoyancy and hopefulness
born of larger knowledge. The movement of civilization in Europe
during the latter portion of the eighteenth century was onward and
upward, but it was at times not only devious, slow and laborious, but
fruitless in immediate results.

We must study the age and the people of any great man if we sincerely
desire the truth regarding his strength and weakness, his inborn
tendencies and purposes, his failures and successes, the temporary
incidents and the lasting, constructive, meritorious achievements of
his career. This is certainly far more true of Napoleon than of any
other heroic personage; an affectionate awe has sometimes lifted him
to heaven, a spiteful hate has often hurled him down to hell. Every
nation, every party, faction, and cabal among his own and other
peoples, has judged him from its own standpoint of self-interest and
self-justification. Whatever chance there may be of reading the
secrets of his life lies rather in a just consideration of the man in
relation to his times, about which much is known, than in an attempt
at the psychological dissection of an enigmatical nature, about which
little is known, in spite of the fullness of our information. The
abundant facts of his career are not facts at all unless considered in
the light not only of a great national life, but of a continental
movement which embraced in its day all civilization, not excepting
that of Great Britain and America.

The states of Europe are sisters, children of the Holy Roman Empire.
In the formation of strong nat