e falls back on the concise, positive, technical
business style; any other would be harmful. The keen mind only reveals
itself through the brevity and imperious strength and rudeness of
the accent. For his armies and the common run of men, he has his
proclamations and bulletins, that is to say, sonorous phrases
composed for effect, a statement of facts purposely simplified and
falsified,[1165] in short, an excellent effervescent wine, good for
exciting enthusiasm, and an equally excellent narcotic for maintaining
credulity,[1166] a sort of popular mixture to be distributed just at
the proper time, and whose ingredients are so well proportioned that
the public drinks it with delight, and becomes at once intoxicated.--His
style on every occasion, whether affected or spontaneous, shows his
wonderful knowledge of the masses and of individuals; except in two or
three cases, on one exalted domain, of which he always remains ignorant,
he has ever hit the mark, applying the appropriate lever, giving just
the push, weight, and degree of impulsion which best accomplishes his
purpose. A series of brief, accurate memoranda, corrected daily, enables
him to frame for himself a sort of psychological tablet whereon he notes
down and sums up, in almost numerical valuation, the mental and moral
dispositions, characters, faculties, passions, and aptitudes, the strong
or weak points, of the innumerable human beings, near or remote, on whom
he operates.

IV. His Wonderful Memory.

His Three Atlases.--Their scale and completeness.

Let us try for a moment to show the range and contents of this
intellect; we may have to go back to Caesar to his equal; but, for lack
of documents, we have nothing of Caesar but general features--a summary
outline. Of Napoleon we have, besides the perfect outline, the features
in detail. Read his correspondence, day by day, then chapter by
chapter;[1167] for example, in 1806, after the battle of Austerlitz, or,
still better, in 1809, after his return from Spain, up to the peace of
Vienna; whatever our technical shortcomings may be, we shall find that
his mind, in its comprehensiveness and amplitude, largely surpasses all
known or even credible proportions.

He has mentally within him three principal atlases, always at hand, each
composed of "about twenty note-books," each distinct and each regularly
posted up.--

1. The first one is military, forming a vast collection of topographical
charts as m