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of that mind, which _knew no rest save change of occupation_, and of
"that universal intelligence from which nothing escaped." The chief
fault in Napoleon as a statesman was intrinsically a virtue, viz., his
good nature. There was, as Sir Walter Scott has said, "gentleness and
even softness in his character. It was his common and expressive
phrase that the heart of a politician should be in his head; but his
feelings sometimes surprised him in a gentler mood."

To be a relation of his own or his wife's, to have been a friend in
his time of stress, was to have a claim on Napoleon's support which no
subsequent treachery to himself could efface. From the days of his new
power--political power, first the Consulate and then the Empire--he
lavished gifts and favours even on the most undeserving of his early
comrades. Fouche, Talleyrand, Bernadotte were forgiven once, twice,
and again, to his own final ruin. Like Medea, one of whose other
exploits he had evoked in a bulletin, he could say--but to his honour
and not to his shame--

 "Si possem, sanior essem.
 Sed trahit invitam nova vis; aliudque Cupido,
 Mens aliud suadet. Video meliora, proboque
 Deteriora sequor."

Treachery and peculation against the State was different, as Moreau,
Bourrienne, and even Massena and Murat discovered.

As for his family, they were a flabby and somewhat sensual lot, with
the exception of Lucien, who was sufficiently capable to be hopelessly
impracticable. He was, however, infinitely more competent than the
effeminate Joseph and the melancholy Louis, and seems to have had more
command of parliamentary oratory than Napoleon himself.

Napoleon's influence on literary men may be gauged by what Wieland[9]
and Mueller[10] reported of their interview with him at Erfurt. That
with Wieland took place at the ball which followed the entertainment
on the field of Jena. "I was presented," he says, "by the Duchess of
Weimar, with the usual ceremonies; he then 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 thoughts 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 any one 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."
Wieland has related part of their conversation, which is, as it could
not fail to be, highly interesting. They touched on a variety of
subjects; among others, the ancients. Napoleon declared his
preference of the Romans to the Greeks. "The eternal squabbles of
their petty republics," he said, "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." This preference was characteristic; the
following is anomalous: "He preferred Ossian to Homer." "He was fond
only of serious poetry," continues Wieland; "the pathetic and
vigorous writers; and, above all, the tragic poets. He appeared to
have no relish for anything gay; and in spite of the prepossessing
amenity of his manners, an observation struck me often, he seemed to
be of bronze. Nevertheless, he had put me so much at my ease that I
ventured to ask how it was that the public worship he had restored
in France was not more philosophical and in harmony with the
spirit of the times? 'My dear Wieland,' he replied, '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.'"[11]

Mueller, the celebrated Swiss historian, who had a private interview
with Napoleon at this period, has left a still fuller account of the
impression he received. "The Emperor[12] began to speak," says Mueller,
"of the history of Switzerland, told me that I ought to complete it,
that even the more recent times had their interest. He proceeded from
the Swiss to the old Greek constitutions and history; to the theory of
constitutions; to the complete diversity of those of Asia, and the
causes of this diversity in the climate, polygamy, &c.; the opposite
characters of the Arabian and the Tartar races; the peculiar value of
European culture, and the progress of freedom since the sixteenth
century; how everything was linked together, and in the inscrutable
guidance of an invisible hand; how he himself had become great through
his enemies; the great confederation of nations, the idea of which
Henry IV. had; the foundation of all religion, and its necessity; that
man could not bear clear truth, and required to be kept in order;
admitting the possibility, however, of a more happy condition if the
numerous feuds ceased, which were occasioned by too complicated
constitutions (such as the German), and the intolerable burden
suffered by states from excessive armies." These opinions clearly mark
the guiding motives of Napoleon's attempts to enforce upon different
nations uniformity of institutions and customs. "I opposed him
occasionally," says Mueller, "and he entered into discussion. Quite
impartially and truly, as before God, I must say that the variety of
his knowledge, the acuteness of his observations, the solidity of his
understanding (not dazzling wit), his grand and comprehensive views,
filled me with astonishment, and his manner of speaking to me, with
love for him. By his genius and his disinterested goodness, he has
also conquered me." Slowly but surely they are conquering the world.
Of his goodness we have the well-weighed verdict of Lord Acton, that
it was "the most splendid that has appeared on earth." Of his
goodness, we may at least concur in the opinion of the old British tar
at Elba, quoted by Sir Walter, and evidently his own view, that "Boney
was a d--d good fellow after all."

With regard to the character of _Josephine_ opinions still differ
about every quality but one. Like the friend of Goldsmith's mad dog--

 "A kind and gentle heart she had
 To comfort friends and foes:"

either her brother Mason Cambaceres, or her brother Catholic and
unbrotherly brother-in-law Lucien.

From early days she had learnt "how to flirt and how to fib." Morality
was at a low ebb during the French Revolution, when women often saved
their necks at the expense of their bodies, and there is unfortunately
no doubt that Josephine was no exception. It is certain, however, f

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