r the
Empire is small; it is the same person in two costumes: at first in the
carmagnole, and later in the embroidered coat. If a rude, poor puritan,
like Cambon or Baudot, refuses to don the official uniform, if two
or three Jacobin generals, like Lecourbe and Delmas, grumble at the
coronation parade, Napoleon, who knows their mental grasp, regards them
as ignoramuses, limited to and rigid inside a fixed idea.--As to the
cultivated and intelligent liberals of 1789, he consigns them with a
word to the place where they belong; they are "ideologists"; in other
words, their pretended knowledge is mere drawing-room prejudice and the
imagination of the study. "Lafayette is a political ninny," the eternal
"dupe of men and of things."[1243] With Lafayette and some others, one
embarrassing detail remains namely:

* impartiality and generosity,

* constant care for the common good,

* respect for others,

* the authority of conscience,

* loyalty,

* and good faith.

In short, noble and pure motives.

Napoleon does not accept the denial thus given to his theory; when
he talks with people, he questions their moral nobleness. "General
Dumas,"[1244] said he, abruptly, to Mathieu Dumas, "you were one of the
imbeciles who believed in liberty?" "Yes, sire, and I was and am still
one of that class." "And you, like the rest, took part in the Revolution
through ambition?" "No, sire, I should have calculated badly, for I am
now precisely where I stood in 1790."

"You were not sufficiently aware of the motives which prompted you; you
cannot be different from other people; it is all personal interest. Now,
take Massena. He has glory and honors enough; but he is not content.
He wants to be a prince, like Murat and like Bernadotte. He would
risk being shot to-morrow to be a prince. That is the incentive of
Frenchmen."--

His system is based on this. The most competent witnesses, and those who
were most familiar with him certify to his fixed idea on this point.

"His opinions on men," writes M. de Metternich,[1245] "centered on one
idea, which, unfortunately for him, had acquired in his mind the force
of an axiom; he was persuaded that no man who was induced to appear on
the public stage, or who was merely engaged in the active pursuits
of life, governed himself, or was governed, otherwise than by his
interest."

According to him, Man is held through his egoistic passions, fear,
cupidity, sensuality, self-esteem, and emulation