of his ideal, the cry of his unquenchable | verse to Milton, and the Spenserian stanza soul. He became the greatest of war- to Byron.

riors and conquerors, or at least one of To his scheme, and his mode of pursuthe greatest, because, like a true painter ing it, there occur, however, certain strong or poet, he came down upon the practice objections; but all, or nearly all, founded of his art, from a stern and lofty concep- upon principles the truth of which he did tion, or hypothesis, to which everything not recognise. First, it is a scheme imrequired to yield. As Michael Angelo possible. No one human arm or mind subjected all things to his pursuit and can ever govern the world. There is but the ideal he had formed of it, painted One person before whom every knee shall the crucifixion by the side of a writhing bow, and whose lordship every tongue slave, and, pious though he was, would shall confess. Napoleon saw that there have broken up the true cross for pencils, is no help for the world, but in the absoso Napoleon pursued his ideal through lute dominance of a single mind; but he tempests of death-hail and seas of blood, did not see that this mind, ere it can keep and looked upon poison, and gunpowder, as well as gain dominion, and ere it can and men's lives, as merely the box of use that dominion well, must be divine. colours necessary to his new and terrible Who can govern even a child without art of war and grand scheme of conquest. perpetual mistakes? And how much less But were the art and the scheme, thus can one ungifted with divine knowledge frightfully followed out, worthy and noble? and power govern a world? Viewed in a Christian light, they hardly But, secondly, Napoleon mistook the were. The religion of Jesus denounces means for gaining his object. He thought war, in all save its defensive aspects. himself invested with immunities which But, when we try Napoleon by human he did not possess. The being who can standards, and compare his scheme with repeal the laws of justice and mercy— that of other conquerors, both seem tran- who can pursue plans of ultimate benescendently superb. He saw clearly that volence through paths of profound and there was no alternative between the blood-sprinkled darkness-who can comsurges of anarchy and the absolute go- mand the Canaanites to be extirpated, vernment of one master-mind. He saw and permit the people of Rabbah to be that what was called "balance of power" put under axes and saws of iron, and was a feeble and useless dream, and that raise up base, bad, or dubious characters, all things in Europe were tending either to work out his holy purposes, must be to anarchy or a new absolutism-either a being superior to man-must be God. to the dominion of millions, or of that Whereas the man, however endowed, who one who should be found a match for mil- violates all conventional as well as moral lions. He thought himself that one. laws in seeking his object—who can His iron hand could, in the first place, "break open letters, tell lies, calumniate grasp the great sceptre; and his wise and private character," as well as assassinate powerful mind would afterwards consoli- and poison, must be pronounced a being date his dominion by just and liberal in many respects inferior to mankind, a laws. "On this hint he spake"-in can- human Satan, uniting magnitude of object non. This purpose he pursued with an and of power to detestable meanness and undeviating energy, which seemed, for a maliciousness of character and of instruseason, sure and irresistible as one of the mentality. We ought, perhaps, to apolaws of nature. The unity of his tac-logise for bringing thus, even into momentique only reflected the unity of his plan. It was just the giant club in the giant hand. Of his system of strategy, the true praise is simply that it gave a fit and full expression to his idea-it was what heroic rhyme was to Dryden, blank

tary contrast, the Governor of the universe, and his mysterious but most righteous ways, and the reckless actions of the Emperor of the French.

A greater mistake still was committed by Napoleon, when he allied himself with

the princes of Europe, when he ceased pose them, and which, though as narrow to be the soldier and the Cæsar of demo- as intense, was, in comparison, fire from cracy, and when, above all, he sought to heaven. Perhaps, in truth, his inspiring found a house, and was weak enough to idea was not easily communicable to such believe that he could ever have a succes- men as those he led, who, shouting "Vive sor from his own loins equal to himself. la France," or "Vive l'Empereur," little Cromwells and Napoleons are but thinly imagined that he was paving, on their sown, and "not transferable" might be carcasses, his path to the title and the written on their brains. Here we see throne of an Omniarch. another proof of the gross miscalculation The theory of Napoleon, thus prohe made of his own, and indeed of human pounded, seems to explain some points nature. "My children must be as great in his character which are counted obas myself," was his secret thought: other-scure. It accounts for his restless diswise, "I am God, and gods must spring satisfaction with the success he did gain. from me." But it is not in human na- What were Belgium, Holland, and Italy ture to continue a hereditary series of to him, who had formed not the mere able and wise rulers, far less a procession dream, but the hope and design of a fifth of prodigies. From heaven must come monarchy? It explains his marvellous down the one immutable Man, who is triumphs. He fought not for a paltry without beginning of days or end of life, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and the days of whose years are for ever and ever.

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battle-field, nor for the possession of an island, but to gain a planet, to float his standard in the breezes of the whole earth! Hence an enthusiasm, a secret spring of But, thirdly, taking Napoleon on his ardour, a determination and a profundity own godless ground, in seeking his great of resource, which could hardly be resisted. object, he neglected some important ele- How keen the eye and sharpened almost ments of success. He not only commit- to agony the intellect, of a man gambling ted grave errors, but he omitted some for a world! It explains the strange wise and prudent steps. He reinstated gloom, and stranger gaiety, the oddness the crosier, and re-crowned the Pope, in- of manner, the symptoms which made stead of patronising a moderate Protes- many think him mad. The man, maktantism. He was more anxious to attacking a fool of the world, became often himaristocrats than the spirit of oligarchy. self the fool of a company, who knew not He sought rather to crush than to trans- besides that he was the fool of an idea. fuse the Jacobin element. He contrived elaborately to disguise his real purpose, the dream of his imagination, under the trappings and pretensions of vulgar ambition, and thus created a torrent of prejudice against himself. He made the contest against Russia assume the aspect of a strife between two butchers for a very fair heifer, rather than that of civilisation bearding, since it could not interpenetrate, barbarism-of the hunter seeking the bear in his den. The enthusiasm he kindled was chiefly that of the love of martial glory, or of attachment to his flag and person, not of the "idea" which possessed his own breast. Hence the ardour of his army, being of the "earth earthy," yielded quickly to the first gush of genuine patriotism which arose to op

The thought of universal dominion-the feeling that he was made for it, and tending to it—this made him sometimes silent when he should have spoken, and sometimes speak when he should have been silent-this was a wierd wine which the hand of his Demon poured out to him, and of which he drank without measure and in secret. It explains the occasional carelessness of his conduct. It explains the truth and tenderness, the love of justice and the gleams of compassion, which mingled with his public and private conduct. He was too wise to underrate, and too great not to feel, the primary laws of human nature. And he intended that, when his power was consolidated, these should be the laws of his empire. His progress was a voyage

through blood, toward mildness, peace, and justice. But in that ocean of blood there lay an island, and in the island did that perilous voyage terminate, and to it was our daring hero chained, till his soul departed. Against one island had this continental genius bent all the fury and the energy of his nature, and in another island was he for a time imprisoned, and in a third island he breathed his last.

vici," stamps an image of the energy of his character, the power of his talents, and the laconic severity of his taste. Nor can he be equalled to Hannibal, in rugged daring of purpose, in originality of conception, in personal courage, or in indomitable perseverance-Hannibal, who sprang like a bulldog at the throat of the Roman power, and who held his grasp till it was loosened in death. But neither Our theory, in fine, accounts for the does he sink to the level of the Tamercalm firmness with which he met his re- lanes or Bajazets. His genius soared verses. His empire, indeed, had fallen, above the sphere of such skilful marbut his idea remained intact. He might shals and martinets as Turenne and Marlnever express it in execution; but he had borough. They were the slaves of their thrown it down on the arena of the world, system of strategy; he was the king of and it lies still in that "court of the Gen- his. They fought a battle as coolly as tiles." It has started anew, in these de- they played a game of chess; he was full generate days, an invigorating thought, of impulses and sudden thoughts, which the thought of a single ruler for this dis- became the seeds of victory, and could tracted earth; a thought which, like lea- set his soldiers on fire even when he reven, is sure to work on till it leaven all mained calm himself. In our age, the the lump; and is to be fulfilled in a way name of Wellington alone can balance of which many men dream not. Napo- with his. But, admitting the Duke's leon, though he failed in the attempt, great qualities, his iron firmness, his profelt, doubtless, the consolation of having found knowledge of his art, and the made it, and of having thereby established almost superhuman tide of success which for himself an impersonal and imperishable glory. The reality of empire departed when he resigned; but the bright prophetic dream of empire only left him when he died, and has become his legacy to the world.

followed him, he never displayed such dazzling genius, and, without enthusiasm in himself, seldom kindled it in others. He was a clear steady star; Napoleon, a blood-red meteor, whose very downfal is more interesting than the other's rising. Such, we think, were Napoleon's pur- Passing from comparisons, Napoleon pospose and its partial fulfilment. His sessed a prodigal assortment of faculpowers, achievements, and private cha- ties. He had an intellect clear, rapid, racter remain. His powers have been, and trenchant as a scimitar; an imaginaon the one hand, unduly praised, and, tion fertile in resources, if incorrect in on the other, unduly depreciated. His taste; a swift logic; a decisive will; a unexampled success led to the first ex-prompt and lively eloquence; and pastreme, and his unexampled downfal to sions often concentrated and quiet as a the latter. While some have talked of charcoal furnace. Let us not forget his him as greater than Cæsar, others think wondrous faculty of silence. He could him a clever impostor, a vulgar conjurer, talk, but he seldom babbled, and seldom with one trick, which was at last dis- used a word too much. His conversation covered. Our notion lies between. He must, indeed, stand at some distance from Cæsar-the all-accomplished, the author, the orator-whose practical wisdom was equal to his genius-who wore over all his faculties, and around his very errors and crimes, a mantle of dignity-and whose one immortal bulletin, “Veni, vidi,

was the reflex of his military tactics. As in the field he concentrated his forces on a certain strong point, which when gained, all was gained; so in conversation he sprang into the centre of every subject, and, tearing out its heart, left the minor members to shift for themselves. Profound in no science save that of war,

what he knew, he knew thoroughly, and sions to the "sun of Austerlitz," which, could immediately turn to account. He as if to the command of another Joshua, called England a "nation of shopkeepers;" seemed to stand still at his bidding-his but he was as practical as a shopkeeper belief in destiny, and the other superstihimself the emperor of a shopkeeping tions which, like bats in a mid-day marketage. Theorisers he regarded with con- place, flitted strangely to and fro through siderable contempt. Theories he looked the clear and stern atmosphere of his soul, at, shook roughly, and asked the in- and prophesied in silence of change, ruin, exorable question, "Will they stand?" and death. Glimpses of truth came often on him like Like all men of his order, Napoleon inspiration. "Who made all that, gen- was subject to moods and fits, and pretlemen?" was his question at the athe-sents thus, in mind, as well as in characistic savans, as they sailed beneath the ter, a capricious and inconsistent aspect. starry heavens, and denied the Maker. Enjoying the keenest and coldest of inThe misty brilliance, too often disguising tellects, and the most iron of wills, he little, of such a writer as Madame De had at times the fretfulness of a child, Stael was naught in his eyes. How, had and at other times the fury of a demon. he been alive, would he have laughed He was strong, but surrounded by conover the elegant sentimentalism of La- temptible weaknesses. Possessing the martine, and with a strong contemptuous French empire, he seemed himself at breath blown away, like rolled shavings, times "possessed"-now of a miserable his finest periods! Yet he had a little imp, and now of a master-fiend. Now corner of literary romance in his heart. almost a demigod, he is anon an idiot. He loved Ossian's Poems. For this his Now organising and executing with equal taste has been questioned; but to literary wisdom and energy complicated and stutaste Napoleon did not pretend. He pendous schemes, he falls frequently into could only criticise the arrangements of a blunders which a child might have avoidbattle, was the author of a new and ele- ed. You are reminded of a person of gant art of bloodshed, and liked a terribly majestic stature and presence, who is terse style of warfare. But, in Ossian, he suddenly seized with St Vitus's Dance. found fire amid fustian; and partly for How strange the inconsistencies and folthe fustian, and partly for the fire, he lies of genius! But not a Burns, seeing loved him. In fact, Ossian is just a two moons from the top of a whisky-barFrenchified version of Homer; and no rel-nor a Coleridge, dogged by an unwonder that it pleased at once Napoleon's employed operative, to keep him out of a martial spirit and his national taste. The druggist's shop-nor a Johnson, standing ancient bard himself had been too simple. in the rain to do penance for disobedience M'Pherson served him up with flummery, to his father-nor a Hall, charging a lady and he went sweetly down the throat of to instruct her children in the belief of our melodramatic hero. ghosts-nor a Byron, shaving his brow Napoleon's real writings were his bat- to make it seem higher than it was, tles. Lodi let us call a wild and passion- or contemplating his hands, and saying, ate ode; Austerlitz an epic; and Water- "These hands are white"-is a more loo a tragedy. Yet, amid the bombast striking specimen of the follies of the and falsetto of his bulletins and speeches, wise, of the alloys mingled with the there occur coals of genuine fire, and "most fine gold,” than a Napoleon, now gleams of lofty genius. Every one re-playing for a world, and now cheating one members the sentence, "Frenchmen, re- of his own officers at whist. member that from the top of these pyra- We sometimes envy those who were mids forty centuries look down upon your privileged to be contemporaries of the actions;" a sentence enough to make a battles of Napoleon, and the novels of man immortal. In keeping with the Sir Walter Scott, while each splendid genius discovered in this, were his allu-series was yet in progress. The first

Italian campaign might have made the blood of Burke (opposed though he was) dance on his very death-bed, for there he was lying at the time. And how grand, for a poetic ear, to have heard the news of Jena, and Austerlitz, and Wagram, and Borodino, succeeding each other like the boom of distant cannon, like the successive peals of a thunderstorm! Especially when that dark cloud of invasion had gathered around our own shores, and was expected to burst in a tempest of fire, how deep must have been the suspense, how silent the hush of the expectation, and how needless, methinks, sermons, however eloquent, or poems, however spirit-stirring, to concentrate, or increase, or express, the land's one vast emotion !

though not very much, of misty exaggeration and false glory to brush away. Latterly, they lose greatly that air of romance and miracle which surrounded the first campaigns of Italy. The boy, who had been a prodigy, matures into the fullgrown and thoroughly-furnished man. The style, which had been somewhat florid, but very fresh and powerful, becomes calmer and rather less rapid. Napoleon, who had fought at first with an energy that seemed desperation, with a fire that seemed superhuman, against great odds of experience and numbers, fights now with many advantages on his side. He is backed by vast, trained, and veteran armies. He is surrounded by generals only inferior to himself, and whom he has himself reared. And, above all, he Looking back, even now, upon the is preceded by his Gorgon-headed Fame, achievements of Napoleon, they seem carrying dismay into the opposing ranks, still calculated to awaken wonder and nerving his own men into iron, and stifffear-wonder at their multitude, their ening his enemies into stone. And, variety, their dream-like pomp and speed, although longer and sterner ever became their power and terrible beauty, and that the resistance, the result of victory was they did not produce a still deeper im- equally sure. And now he has reached pression upon the world's mind, and a still a climax; and yet, not satisfied therestronger reverberation from the world's with, he resolves on a project, the greatpoetry and eloquence; and fear, at the est and most daring ever taken or even power sometimes lent to man, at its entertained by him. It is to disturb the abuse, and at the possibilities of the fu- Russian bear in his forests. For this ture. Another Napoleon may rise, abler, purpose he has collected an army, rewickeder, wiser, and may throw heavier minding you of those of Jenghiz Khan barricades of cannon across the path of or Tamerlane, unparalleled in numbers, the nations, crush them with a rougher magnificent in equipment, unbounded in rod, may live to consolidate a thicker confidence and attachment to their chief, crust of despotism over the world, may led by officers of tried valour and skill, fight another Austerlitz without a Water- and wielded and propelled by the genius loo, and occupy another St Cloud without of Napoleon, like one body by one living another St Helena; for what did all those soul. But the "Lord in the heavens did far-heard cannon proclaim, but "How laugh;" the Lord held him and his force much is possible to him that dareth "in derision." For now his time was enough, that feareth none, that getteth fully come. And now must the decree a giant's power, and useth it tyrannously of the Watchers and the Holy Ones, long like a giant that can by individual registered against him, begin to obtain might, reckless of rights, human or di- fulfilment. And how did God fulfil it? vine, rise and ride on the topmost billow He led him into no ambuscade. He overof his age?"* whelmed him with no superior force. He raised up against him no superior genius. But he took his punishment into his own hand. He sent winter before its time, to destroy him and his "many men so beautiful." He loosened snow, like a

In looking more closely and calmly at those battles of Napoleon, we have a little, *This paragraph, written early in 1851,

has since received two emphatic commentsneed we name Louis Napoleon and Nicholas?