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Title: Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, 1796-1812
Author: Emperor of the French Napoleon I
Editor: Henry Foljambe Hall
Release date: September 21, 2011 [eBook #37499]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37499
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NAPOLEON'S LETTERS
TO JOSEPHINE
"_When all the lesser tumults, and lesser men of our age, shall
have passed away into the darkness of oblivion, history will
still inscribe one mighty era with the majestic name of
Napoleon._"--LOCKHART (in Lang's "Life and Letters of J. G.
Lockhart," 1897, vol. i. 170).
NAPOLEON'S LETTERS
TO JOSEPHINE
1796-1812
FOR THE FIRST TIME COLLECTED AND
TRANSLATED, WITH NOTES SOCIAL,
HISTORICAL, AND CHRONOLOGICAL,
FROM CONTEMPORARY SOURCES
BY
HENRY FOLJAMBE HALL
F.R.HIST.S.
1901
LONDON: J. M. DENT & CO.
NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO.
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
At the Ballantyne Press
PREFACE
I have no apology to offer for the subject of this book, in view of
Lord Rosebery's testimony that, until recently, we knew nothing about
Napoleon, and even now "prefer to drink at any other source than the
original."
"Study of Napoleon's utterances, apart from any attempt to discover
the secret of his prodigious exploits, cannot be considered as lost
time." It is then absolutely necessary that we should, in the words of
an eminent but unsympathetic divine, know something of the "domestic
side of the monster," first hand from his own correspondence,
confirmed or corrected by contemporaries. There is no master mind that
we can less afford to be ignorant of. To know more of the doings of
Pericles and Aspasia, of the two Caesars and the Serpent of old Nile,
of Mary Stuart and Rizzio, of the Green Faction and the Blue, of
Orsini and Colonna, than of the Bonapartes and Beauharnais, is worthy
of a student of folklore rather than of history.
Napoleon was not only a King of Kings, he was a King of Words and of
Facts, which "are the sons of heaven, while words are the daughters of
earth," and whose progeny, the Genii of the Code, still dominates
Christendom.[1] In the hurly-burly of the French War, on the chilling
morrow of its balance-sheet, in the Janus alliance of the Second
Empire, we could not get rid of the nightmare of the Great Shadow.
Most modern works on the Napoleonic period (Lord Rosebery's "Last
Phase" being a brilliant exception) seem to be (1) too long, (2) too
little confined to contemporary sources. The first fault, especially
if merely discursive enthusiasm, is excusable, the latter pernicious,
for, as Dr. Johnson says of Robertson, "You are sure he does not know
the people whom he paints, so you cannot suppose a likeness.
Characters should never be given by a historian unless he knew the
people whom he describes, _or copies from those who knew him_."
Now, if ever, we must _fix_ and _crystallise_ the life-work of
Napoleon for posterity, for "when an opinion has once become popular,
very few are willing to oppose it. Idleness is more willing to credit
than inquire ... and he that writes merely for sale is tempted to
court purchasers by flattering the prejudices of the public."[2] We
have accumulated practically all the evidence, and are not yet so
remote from the aspirations and springs of action of a century ago as
to be out of touch with them. The Vaccination and Education questions
are still before us; so is the cure of croup and the composition of
electricity. We have special reasons for sympathy with the first
failures of Fulton, and can appreciate Napoleon's primitive but
effective expedients for modern telegraphy and transport, which were
as far in advance of his era as his nephew's ignorance of railway
warfare in 1870 was behind it. We must admire The Man[3] who found
within the fields of France the command of the Tropics, and who needed
nothing but time to prosper Corsican cotton and Solingen steel. The
man's words and deeds are still vigorous and alive; in another
generation many of them will be dead as Marley--"dead as a door-nail."
Let us then each to his task, and each try, as best he may, to weigh
in honest scales the modern Hannibal--"our last great man,"[4] "the
mightiest genius of two thousand years."[5]
H. F. HALL.
FOOTNOTES
[1] See _infra_, Napoleon's Heritage, p. xxiv., Introduction.
[2] Dr. Johnson (_Gentleman's Magazine_, 1760), in defence of Mary
Stuart.
[3] _L'Homme_, so spoken of during the Empire, outside military
circles.
[4] Carlyle.
[5] Napier.
INTRODUCTION
Difficulties of translation--Napoleon as lexicographer and
bookworm--Historic value of his Bulletins--A few aspects of
Napoleon's character--"Approfondissez!"--The need of a Creator--The
influence of sea power--England's future rival---Napoleon as average
adjuster--His use of Freemasonry--Of the Catholics and of the
Jews--His neglect of women in politics--Josephine a failure--His
incessant work, "which knew no rest save change of occupation"--His
attachment to early friendships--The Bonaparte family--His influence
on literary men--Conversations with Wieland and Mueller--Verdict of
a British tar--The character of Josephine--Sources of the Letters--The
Tennant Collection--The Didot Collection--Archibald Constable and
Sir Walter Scott--Correspondence of Napoleon I.--Report of the
Commission--Contemporary sources--The Diary--Napoleon's heritage.
Napoleon is by no means an easy writer to translate adequately. He
had always a terse, concise mode of speaking, and this, with the
constant habit of dictating, became accentuated. Whenever he could
use a short, compact word he did so. The greatest temptation has
been to render his very modern ideas by modern colloquialisms.
Occasionally, where Murray's Dictionary proves that the word was
in vogue a century ago, we have used a somewhat rarer word than
Napoleon's equivalent, as _e.g._ "coolth," in Letter No. 6, Series
B (_pendant le frais_), in order to preserve as far as possible the
brevity and crispness of the original. Napole Next |