idy they are historically linked to
shall be whitewashed and atoned for.

Napoleon believed that "No physical force ever dies; it merely changes
its form or direction"--and could we but get a glimpse behind the
veil, we might see his imperishable soul fleeting from sphere to
sphere, struggling with cruel reactionary spirits who forced him into
eternity before the work he was sent to do was completed.

Wieland, the German writer, had an interview with him on the field of
Jena. He says:--"I was presented by the Duchess of Weimar. He paid me
some compliments in an affable tone, and looked steadfastly at me. Few
men have appeared to me to possess in the same degree the art of
reading at the first glance the thought of other men. He saw in an
instant that, notwithstanding my celebrity, I was simple in my manners
and void of pretension, and as he seemed desirous of making a
favourable impression on me, he assumed the tone most likely to attain
his end. I have never beheld anyone more calm, more simple, more mild,
or less ostentatious in appearance; nothing about him indicated the
feeling of power in a great monarch; he spoke to me as an old
acquaintance would speak to an equal, and what was more extraordinary
on his part, he conversed with me exclusively for an hour and a half,
to the great surprise of the whole assembly."

Then Wieland goes on to relate what the conversation was. Napoleon
"preferred the Romans to the Greeks. The eternal squabbles of their
petty republics were not calculated to give birth to anything grand,
whereas the Romans were always occupied with great things, and it was
owing to this they raised up the Colossus which bestrode the world....
He was fond only of serious poetry, the pathetic and vigorous
writers, and above all, the tragic poets."

Wieland had been put so much at his ease (so he says) that he ventured
to ask how it was that the public worship Napoleon had restored in
France was not more philosophical and in harmony with the spirit of
the times. "My dear Wieland," was the reply, "religion is not meant
for philosophers! they have no faith either in me or my priests. As to
those who do believe, it would be difficult to give them, or to leave
them, too much of the marvellous. If I had to frame a religion for
philosophers, it would be just the reverse of that of the credulous
part of mankind."[13]

Mueller, the Swiss historian's private interview with him at this
period is quite remarkable,