XVIII. surveyed with a more keen and searching glance the CHAP. annals of the olden time, or more ably and lucidly illustrated the successive migrations and settlement of the great families of mankind, as well as the distinctive marks which in every age have characterised the dispositions of their descendants. If any additional refutation were awanting of the long popular delusion of the Revolution, that man is the creature of institutions, or any farther confirmation of the profound observation of Montesquieu, that institutions are the creature of man, it would be found in his learned and interesting pages. His style is graphic, his mind at once dramatic and pictorial-great qualities in a historian, especially when accompanied by the industry and research which distinguish his writings. The signet-mark of genius is everywhere conspicuous. Unfortunately, that of judgment and wisdom is frequently awanting. There are many philosophic views, as well as much brilliant expression, in his history of the early periods of the French monarchy; but in his History of the Revolution, now in the course of publication at Paris, although these qualities are not awanting, there is such an intermixture of violence, prejudice, and passion, as must deprive that work not merely of all weight with future times, but even of all influence in promoting the views of the extreme democratic party to which he is attached. histories moirs. The number and extraordinary merit of the historical 41. works which have now been noticed, all of which have Military issued from the press of Paris during the Restoration, and memay well excite surprise, and is the clearest indication both of the strong bent to historical and political subjects which the public mind has undergone since the Revolution, and of the reaction against the innovating doctrines which has taken place from the experience of their effects. But these works, numerous and able as they are, exhibit but a partial picture of the extent of this bent, or the deep hold which, from the intensity of former emotions, political works have VOL. III. 2 R XVIII. CHAP. taken of the general mind. The military histories and memoirs exhibit it in its full proportions, and they constitute a branch of literature so peculiar to France, and which has been worked of late years with such effect, that no account of the public thought in that country, during that period, can be considered as complete which does not bring it prominently forward. Both species of composition, indeed, have been long cultivated with signal success in France, as the military histories of Folard and Guibert, and Petito's collection of a hundred and sixty volumes of memoirs, prove; but the ability brought to bear upon them since the Revolution has been so remarkable that all former productions are thrown into the shade. 42. In the very first rank, in both departments, is to be Napoleon placed a man whose celebrity as an actor of history has Buonaparte. been such that he is scarcely ever considered in his proper place as a narrator of its events-NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. His genius, however, was such that it is hard to say whether it shines forth with most lustre in his own actions, or in criticising those of others-in military and political measures, or in the narrative of his own or his predecessors' achievements. In both, not only do the same clear intellect and brilliant imagination, but the same luminous view and burning thought, appear conspicuous. The great characteristics of his compositions, as of those of all men of the highest class of intellect, are clearness and force in ideas, and brevity and vigour in language. Burke is not more powerful in expression, Johnson more lucid in thought. But in addition to this, he had an ardent and poetical imagination, and it is easy to see from his expressions and style of expression, that if he had not equalled Alexander in the lustre of his conquests, he was qualified to have rivalled Homer in the brilliancy of his conceptions. Much doubt was at first expressed, on their appearance, as to whether the St Helena Memoirs were his genuine composition; but time has now vindi XVIII. cated the author's opinion, expressed at the time, that it CHAP. was surprising there should be any doubt on the subject, for nature did not in general produce two Napoleons in the same generation. 43. It is not to be supposed, however, from this, that either Napoleon's Memoirs, dictated to Generals Montholon and His merits Gourgaud at St Helena, or his conversations, recorded and defects. by Las Cases and Drs O'Meara and Antomarchi at the same place, are unexceptionable works. On the contrary, in all the characteristic faults of his mind are conspicuous; and in the last, which were not revised by himself, and where his words were probably not reported with the fidelity of a Boswell, there is much reason to suspect the interpolation, in some places, of the impassioned ideas and ulcerated feelings of his attendants. But there can be no doubt that, in the main, they are a faithful transcript of his thoughts, if it was from nothing else than the brilliant genius, and identity with his acknowledged compositions, which they exhibit. With regard to his own Memoirs, there is no doubt their authenticity is unquestionable, and they exhibit his mind in its real proportions, with all its great talents and equally great deficiencies. Clearness and force of intellectual vision are the most remarkable features of the former, prejudice and prepossession of the latter. He saw his own side of every question with the utmost force, and expressed his views upon it with the greatest precision and vigour; but he was by no means equally accessible to considerations on the other side. Having made up his mind on any subject, he immediately closed the door against every opposite argument or fact; or rather, he closed the door when he began to think, and formed his opinions from his preconceived ideas alone. Hence the uniform vigour and clearness of his thoughts, and their frequent error and dangerous tendency-peculiarities which are not only conspicuous in his writings, but are the real explanations of his long-continued success and ultimate fall. Truth, in contested questions, is never to be elicited but XVIII. CHAP. by the attentive consideration and impartial weighing of both sides. It is well known what sort of decision a judge will give who makes up his mind upon hearing one party only. Durable success is to be attained in action in no other way. Temporary triumph may attend the adoption of one-sided ideas, but the reaction is generally as violent as the action. Hence it is that so many of the greatest men recorded in history have also been in the end the most unfortunate. 44. gard of truth, In one respect, however, there is a peculiarity in NaHis disre- poleon's writings which is less excusable, and the influence of which appears not less in the chequered events of his life. This is his entire disregard of truth when it interfered with his preconceived ideas, and the unblushing, or perhaps it should rather be said, unconscious effrontery with which he continued the most mendacious statements, after their falsehood had been demonstrated, not merely to others, but to himself. So far did he carry this extraordinary peculiarity, that we are told by his private secretary and panegyrist Meneval, that he formed an idea to himself, often totally unfounded, of the strength of the various corps and divisions in his army; and having done so, he issued his orders, and formed his expectations of them, as if they were of that strength, without the slightest regard to the returns of the commanders, which showed they were not of half the amount.* Unconquerable adherence to error, in point of fact, in the face of the clearest evidence, is, in like manner, often so characteristic of his writings, where any of his marked prepossessions is concerned, that one is apt to imagine that the account of the peculiarity given by his panegyrists is the true one, that his imagination was so ardent that his wishes were, literally "Dans le calcul des hommes qui devaient composer ses bataillons, ses régiments ou divisions, il enflait toujours le résumé total. On ne peut pas croire qu'il voulût se faire illusion à lui-même, mais il jugeait nécessaire de donner le change sur la force de ses corps. Quelques représentations qu'on lui fit, il repoussait l'évidence, et persistait opiniâtrément dans son erreur volontaire de calcul."-MENEVAL, Vie privée de Napoléon, iii. 121. speaking, the father to his thoughts, and that what he CHAP. desired he really believed to be true. Like insane per sons, he often reasoned on imaginary conceptions as if they had been real facts; but, unlike them, assuming the facts to be true, none ever drew from them more just conclusions, or argued with more mathematical rigour in regard to their probable consequences. XVIII. 45. Jomini. Inferior to Napoleon in genius, and greatly so in vigour and condensation of expression, GENERAL JOMINI is much General his superior in impartiality and solidity of judgment. His History of the Wars of the Revolution, in sixteen volumes; his Life of Napoleon, in four volumes; and that of Frederick the Great, in three volumes, are perhaps the most just and discriminating works on military strategy which modern Europe has produced. He traces with admirable sagacity and distinctness the most important events in war to the application or neglect of a few leading principles; and he does this in so simple and perspicuous a manner, that his views can be perfectly apprehended, not merely by the military, but the ordinary reader. He wants the vigour and brevity of Napoleon's expression, and his annals of the wars of the Revolution are characterised by the ordinary defect in military histories-undue length, and too great attention to subordinate details. He became conscious, however, of this defect, and in his Life of Napoleon events are simplified and massed as much as the most ardent admirers of breadth in composition could desire. Appreciated in the very highest degree by all military readers, his writings are not so generally read as they should be in France, from the circumstance of the author, a Swiss by birth, having left the service of Napoleon, and entered that of Russia, on the eve of the battle of Bautzen. It is natural that it should be so; but Jomini merely went over himself; he did not, like Ney or Marlborough, employ his power to destroy the prince who had bestowed it; and when the passions of the moment have |