iod, was a true Democrat. And
yet by the nature of him, fostered too by his military trade, he knew
that Democracy, if it were a true thing at all could not be an
anarchy: the man had a heart-hatred for anarchy. On that Twentieth of
June (1792), Bourrienne and he sat in a coffee-house, as the mob
rolled by: Napoleon expresses the deepest contempt for persons in
authority that they do not restrain this rabble. On the Tenth of
August he wonders why there is no man to command these poor Swiss;
they would conquer if there were. Such a faith in Democracy, yet
hatred of Anarchy, it is that carries Napoleon through all his great
work. Through his brilliant Italian Campaigns, onwards to the Peace of
Leoben, one would say, his inspiration is: 'Triumph to the French
Revolution; assertion of it against these Austrian Simulacra that
pretend to call it a Simulacrum!' Withal, however, he feels, and has a
right to feel, how necessary a strong Authority is; how the Revolution
cannot prosper or last without such. To bridle-in that great
devouring, self-devouring French Revolution; to _tame_ it, so that its
intrinsic purpose can be made good, that it may become _organic_, and
be able to live among other organisms and _formed_ things, not as a
wasting destruction alone: is not this still what he partly aimed at,
as the true purport of his life; nay what he actually managed to do?
Through Wagrams, Austerlitzes; triumph after triumph,--he triumphed so
far. There was an eye to see in this man, a soul to dare and do. He
rose naturally to be the King. All men saw that he _was_ such. The
common soldiers used to say on the march: "These babbling _Avocats_,
up at Paris; all talk and no work! What wonder it runs all wrong? We
shall have to go and put our _Petit Caporal_ there!" They went, and
put him there; they and France at large. Chief-consulship,
Emperorship, victory over Europe;--till the poor Lieutenant of _La
Fere_, not unnaturally, might seem to himself the greatest of all men
that had been in the world for some ages.

But at this point, I think, the fatal charlatan-element got the upper
hand. He apostatised from his old Faith in Facts: took to believing in
Semblances; strove to connect himself with Austrian Dynasties,
Popedoms, with the old false Feudalities which he once saw clearly to
be false;--considered that _he_ would found "his Dynasty" and so
forth; that the enormous French Revolution meant only that! The man
was 'given-up to str