ng to civilize these men of the north, of whom Peter
had already made formidable warriors. She acted wisely, in so far as she
diminished for herself the danger of falling back into fresh barbarism;
if we allow that a second relapse into the darkness of the middle ages
is possible, war having become so scientific, that mind predominates in
it, so that to succeed in it, a degree of instruction is required, which
nations that still remain barbarous can only acquire by civilization.

But, in hastening the civilization of these Normans, Europe has probably
hastened the epoch of their next invasion. For let no one believe that
their pompous cities, their exotic and forced luxury, will be able to
retain them; that by softening them, they will be kept stationary, or
rendered less formidable. The luxury and effeminacy which are enjoyed in
spite of a barbarous climate, can only be the privilege of a few. The
masses, which are incessantly increasing by an administration which is
gradually becoming more enlightened, will continue sufferers by their
climate, barbarous like that, and always more and more envious; and the
invasion of the south by the north, recommenced by Catherine II. will
continue.

Who is there that can fancy that the great struggle between the North
and the South is at an end? Is it not, in its full grandeur, the war of
privation against enjoyment, the eternal war of the poor against the
rich, that which devours the interior of every empire?

Comrades, whatever was the motive of our expedition, this was the point
which made it of importance to Europe. Its object was to wrest Poland
from Russia, its result would have been to throw the danger of a fresh
invasion of the men of the north, at a greater distance, to weaken the
torrent, and oppose a new barrier to it; and was there ever a man, or a
combination of circumstances, so well calculated to ensure the success
of so great an enterprise?

After fifteen hundred years of victories, the revolution of the fourth
century, that of the kings and nobles against the people, was, in its
turn, vanquished by the revolution of the nineteenth century, that of
the people against the nobles and kings. Napoleon was born of this
conflagration; he obtained such complete power over it, that it seemed
as if that great convulsion had only been that of the bringing into the
world one man. He commanded the Revolution as if he had been the genius
of that terrible element. At his voice