of history, free from the
popular prejudices which assailed Napoleon's origin and advent to
power, cannot but concede the great possibilities of this view.

It was only statesmen like Fox who had unconfused perception, and
inveighed against the stupidity of ministers acclaimed by an ignorant
public as demigods. Napoleon's starting-points were to "Surmount
great obstacles and attain great ends. There must be prudence, wisdom,
and dexterity." "We should," he said, "do everything by reason and
calculation, estimating the trouble, the sacrifice, and the pleasure
entailed in gaining a certain end, in the same way as we work out any
sum in arithmetic by addition and subtraction. But reason and logic
should be the guiding principle in all we do. That which is bad in
politics, even though in strict accordance with law, is inexcusable
unless absolutely necessary, and whatever goes beyond that is
criminal." These were briefly the general principles on which he
shaped his ends, and they are pretty safe guides. His mentality, as I
have said, was so complete that it covered every subtle and charming
form of thought and knowledge, even to the smallest affairs of life.
No theologians knew more than he or could converse so clearly on the
many different religions; and he was as well versed in the intricacies
of finance and civil law as he was in the knowledge of art,
literature, and statecraft.

His memory was prodigious, and a common saying of his was that "A head
without a memory was like a fort without a garrison." He never used a
word that was not full of meaning. The unparalleled amount of
literature that surrounds his name teems with concise, vivid sentences
on every conceivable subject, and the more they are read and studied,
the more wonderful appears their wisdom. On the eve of a great battle,
his exhortations to his soldiers were like magic, burning hot into
their souls, making them irresistible. The popular idea in the
country in his time, when passion ran rampant, and indeed, in a hazy
way, affects some people's minds now, was that he and his family were
mere perfidious Corsicans without mental endowments or character, and
unworthy of the stations in life in which his genius had placed them.
His sisters have been caricatured as having the manners of the
kitchen, and loose morals, and his brothers as mediocrities. A great
deal of the same stuff is now written about other people who have
occupied and do occupy high stations