antatas
and the decoration of his reign. Wit in itself, not alone the wit which
gives birth to brilliant expressions and which was considered a prime
accomplishment under the old regime, but general intelligence, has for
him only a semi-value.[3328] "I am more brilliant[3329], you may say?
Eh, what do I care for your intelligence? What I care for is the
essence of the matter. There is nobody so foolish that is not good for
something--there is no intelligence equal to everything." In fact,
on bestowing an office it is the function which delegates; the proper
execution of the function is the prime motive in determining his choice;
the candidate appointed is always the one who will best do the work
assigned him. No factitious, party popularity or unpopularity, no
superficial admiration or disparagement of a clique, of a salon, or of
a bureau, makes him swerve from his standard of preference.[3330]
He values men according to the quality and quantity of their work,
according to their net returns, and he estimates them directly,
personally, with superior perspicacity and universal competency. He
is special in all branches of civil or military activity, and even
in technical detail; his memory for facts, actions, antecedence and
circumstances, is prodigious; his discernment, his critical analysis,
his calculating insight into the resources and shortcomings of a mind
or of a soul, his faculty for gauging men, is extraordinary; through
constant verifications and rectifications his internal repertory, his
biographical and moral dictionary, is kept daily posted; his attention
never flags; he works eighteen hours a day; his personal intervention
and his hand are visible even in the appointment of subordinates. "Every
man called to take part in affairs was selected by him;"[3331] it is
through him that they retain their place; he controls their promotion
and by sponsors whom he knows. "A minister could not have dismissed a
functionary without consulting the emperor, while the ministers could
all change without bringing about two secondary changes throughout the
empire. A minister did not appoint even a second-class clerk without
presenting a list of several candidates to the emperor and, opposite to
it, the name of the person recommending him." All, even at a
distance, felt that the master's eyes were on them. "I worked," says
Beugnot,[3332] "from night to morning, with singular ardor; I astonished
the natives of the country who did