ved as a messenger of divine vengeance
to chastise the objects of divine indignation. He lived to show to the
world what a splendid prize human energy could win; and yet to show
how vain, after all, was military glory, and how worthless is the
enjoyment of any victory purchased by the sufferings of mankind. He
lived to point the melancholy moral, that war, for its own sake, is a
delusion, a mockery, and a snare, and that the greater the elevation
to which unlawful ambition can raise a man, the greater will be his
subsequent humiliation; that "pride goeth before destruction, and a
haughty spirit before a fall."

[Sidenote: Reflections on Napoleon's Fall.]

The allied sovereigns of Europe insisted on the restoration of the
works of art which Napoleon had pillaged. "The bronzed horses, brought
from Corinth to Rome, again resumed their old station in the front of
the Church of St. Mark; the Transfiguration was restored to the
Vatican; the Apollo and the Laocoon again adorned St. Peter's; the
Venus was enshrined with new beauty at Florence; and the Descent from
the Cross was replaced in the Cathedral of Antwerp." By the treaty
which restored peace to Europe for a generation, the old dominions of
Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain, Holland, and Italy were restored, and
the Bourbons again reigned over the ancient provinces of France.
Popular liberty on the continent of Europe was entombed, and the
dreams of revolutionists were unrealized; but suffering proved a
beneficial ordeal, and prepared the nations of Europe to appreciate,
more than ever, the benefits and blessings of peace.

* * * * *

REFERENCES.--The most complete work, on the whole, though
full of faults, and very heavy and prosaic, is Alison's
History of the French Revolution. Scott's Life of Napoleon
was too hastily written, and has many mistakes. No English
author has done full justice to Napoleon. Thiers's Histories
are invaluable. Napier's History of the Peninsula War is
masterly. Wellington's Despatches are indispensable only to
a student. Botta's History of Italy under Napoleon.
Dodsley's Annual Register. Labaume's Russian Campaign.
Southey's Peninsular War. Liborne's Waterloo Campaign.
Southey's Life of Nelson. Sherer's Life of the Duke of
Wellington. Gifford's Life of Pitt. Moore's Life of Sir John
Moore. James's Naval History. Memoirs of the Duchess
d'Abr