NAPOLEON.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3671, 28 July 1927, Page 4

NAPOLEON.

A FAMOUS FIGURE.

STILL -REMAINS IDOL OF FRANCE.

Not for many years will men cease writing about Napoleon. He cannot be driven off the field, as he was at Waterloo. There is for him no St. Helena of literature. No doubt he has been called by hard names, and probably has deserved them all. He was Jupiter Scapin, a sort of Scamp Jupiter, says Emerson, but the Jupiter overshadows the scamp. His manners were coarse, says the same authority; he was unscrupulous, selfish, cheated at cards, was no gentleman, but an imposter and a rogue. His Scottish critic, Carlyle, finds a kind of sincerity in the man, because, like Carlyle’s favourite, Frederick, he plied authority, and proved that he was the man to whom it naturally belonged. Yet Carlyle deemed him greatly inferior to Cromwell, whom Napoleon sneered at for a hypocrite. Liar and quack are among the names Carlyle hurls at the Man of Destiny who lived “in a turbid atmosphere of French fanfaronade.” The grim 'Scot’s picture of Napoleon’s surprise that the 'world should keep moving on its axis while he is flung out on the rock is a piece pf realism that will not readily fade from memory. Since the far-off days of Emerson and Carlyle, other hands painted the Emperor’s portrait. The gallery grows and additions are made from every country. Napoleon straddles across the world of books as lie. once strode over Europe with his armies. He speaks to authors as once lie did to his generals, and all alike are bent on obedience. True at this distance men are able to study this wreck 'called, Napoleon in a clearer light and Avith higher justice made possible by better perspective, and it is this possibility which ensures an honest reading of any new book which offers. The soul that tenanted this body and used it as an instrument was extraordinary endowed with selfconfidence, energy and imagination. The ordinary mortal Avants to knoAv what made Napoleon such a'figure in history, and Mr. Ludwig explains everything by three gifts. One observes that the qualities were born with the man, and that inheritance in turn created a neAV environment. He became great because he avus born great. True, he developed Avhatever gifts he inherited, but the possession of them initially made their development possible. His self-confidence appears in all he says. “I am not as other men; the laAvs of morality and convention cannot be applied to me.” There is a claim of divine .right to do wrong. When he was epnsul lie said: “I alone, because of my position, know what government is.” Perhaps no man ever made so much use of the capital “I” as did Napoleon. Was it. pure ambition which thus expressed itself?” “I have no ambition Avhatever,” he said to a friend. One examines his utterances Avlien Emperor and toying with the idea, of .founding a dynasty, and finds it difficult to take Napojcon at his own valuation. His self-esteem and egotism appear in his refusal .to let lothei's lye ill a footing with himself. He brings the Pope to Notre Dame for the coronation, and then, turning his back upon the Pope, crowns himself and the kneeling Josephine. He is unquestionably a statesman, but is led by bis desire for greatness into the idea of an hereditary succession. He helped to dethrone kings, and was afterwards anxious to found a new monarchy. “I am a Roman Emperor in the best line of the Caesars.”

He hungers for glory and thirsts for Immortality. “The love for glory is like the bridge which Satan tried (to build across ebaos in order to make his way into Paradise. Glory is a connecting link between past and future, from which an abyss separates him. I leave to my son nothing but my name.” ; The man’s energy was almost supernatural. He was always at work, foreseeing all eventualities, turning things (over [in Ids mind whether at the table or in the theatre. Details of accounts had to be submitted to him. Speed Avas his slogan. Someone suggests a method of water supply and Avas ordered to see that 500 men start work on it next day. His memory was phenomenal. He met a troop of. soldiers who had lost their way and at once put them right, though 200,000 were on the march. He arranged things in his head, as in a wardrobe, and the contents never got mixed. Genius, lie said, was . industry. Courage was so conspicuous in him that be believed he Avas almost alone in possessing “two-o’clock-in-thc-morning courage,” that is, courage in the face of sudden and unforeseen events. No 'mortal ever conquered more men than did Napoleon. He believed money could do anything; denied that ideal motives existed.

He had an Imagination which conjured up for him a vision of the United States of Europe. He thought England the next greatest to France, but never forgave it for sending him to St. Helena. His life there Avas a blend of bravado and ■heroics. He felt ho should have died at Moscow or Waterloo. “Taking it all in all, Avhat a ballad my life has been.”

Behind locked doors three weeks before he dies, he dicates his will, and aftenvards spends five hours in a cold sweat writing it with his own hand. Bom on an island, he died on an island. A terrific storm

arose, uprooted some trees he had planted, and as the sun sank into Ihe sea Napoleon’s heart ceased beating.