appears as if one is dealing directly with the Emperor. Consider these
few words--in the presence of the Emperor; they carry an immeasurable
weight in the scales of contemporaries. For them, he has every
attribute of Divinity, not only omnipotence and omnipresence, but again
omniscience, and, if he speaks to them, what they feel far surpasses
what they imagine. When he visits a town and confers with the
authorities of the place on the interests of the commune or department,
his interlocutors are bewildered; they find him as well informed as
themselves, and more clear-sighted; it is he who explains their affairs
to them. On arriving the evening before, he calls for the summaries of
facts and figures, every positive and technical detail of information,
reduced and classified according to the method taught by himself and
prescribed to his administrators.[4139] During the night he has read
all this over and mastered it; in the morning, at dawn, he has taken
his ride on horseback; with extraordinary promptness and accuracy, his
topographical glance has discerned "the best direction for the projected
canal, the best site for the construction of a factory, a harbor, or a
dike."[4140] To the difficulties which confuse the best brains in the
country, to much debated, seemingly insoluble, questions, he at once
presents the sole practical solution; there it is, ready at hand, and
the members of the local council had not seen it; he makes them touch it
with their fingers. They stand confounded and agape before the universal
competence of this wonder genius. "He's more than a man" exclaimed the
administrators of Dusseldorf to Beugnot.[4141] "Yes," replied Beugnot,
"he's the devil!" In effect, he adds to mental ascendancy the ascendancy
of force; we always see beyond the great man in him the terror-striking
dominator; admiration begins or ends in fear; the soul is completely
subjugated; enthusiasm and servility, under his eye, melt together into
one sentiment of impassioned obedience and unreserved submission.[4142]
Voluntarily and involuntarily, through conviction, trembling, and
fascinated, men abdicate their freedom of will to his advantage. The
magical impression remains in their minds after he has departed. Even
absent, even with those who have never seen him, he maintains his
prestige and communicates it to all who command in his name. Before the
prefect, the baron, the count, the councilor of state, the senator
in embroidered u