A new force, extraordinary, is just apparent in history, a spiritual force analogous to that which formerly stimulated souls in Spain in the sixteenth century, in European the time of the crusades, and in Arabia in the time of Mahomet. It stimulates the faculties to excess, increases energy tenfold, transports man beyond or above himself, creates enthusiasts and heroes, blinding or rendering men crazy, and hence the irresistible conquerors and rulers. It stamps its imprint and leaves its memorials in ineffaceable characters on men and things from Cadiz to Moscow. It overrides all natural barriers and transcends all ordinary limits. "The French soldier," writes a Prussian officer after Jena,3353 "are small and puny. One of our Germans could whip any four of them. But, under fire, they become supernatural beings. They are swept along by an indescribable ardor of which there is not a trace among our soldiers.... What can you do with peasants whom nobles lead into battle, but whose danger they share without any interest in their passions or recompenses!"—Coupled with the physical needs which requires a certain amount of ease and of daily food, and which, if too strenuously opposed, produces passing jacqueries, there is a still more potent longing which, on suddenly encountering its object, seizes on it, clings to it, gorges it, and produces revolutions that last: this longing is the desire to contemplate one-self with satisfaction and complacency, forming of one's self a pleasing, flattering image, and of trying to impress and plant this image in the minds of others; in short, the ambition for a great self-esteem and of becoming greatly esteemed by others.3354 This sentiment, according to the quality of the person and according to circumstances, gives birth sometimes to the noblest virtues and the most sublime devotion, and at other times to the worst misdeeds and the most dangerous delirium: the man becomes transfigured, the sleeping god or demon which both live within him is suddenly aroused. After 1789, both appear and both together; from this date onward, says an eye-witness,3355 and, during one quarter of a century, "for most Frenchmen and in whatever class," the object of life is displaced; each has put it outside of himself; from now on, the essential thing for everybody is "to have lived," or "to have died for something," for an idea. A man becomes the slave of his idea, gives himself up to it; consequently, he has experienced the intense satisfaction of considering himself a noble being, of superior essence, foremost among the first, and of seeing himself regarded in that light and proclaimed and glorified as such.—This keen, profound and intense pleasure was first enjoyed by the French on listening to the Declaration of the Rights of Man; from then, and in good faith, they felt themselves citizens, philosophers, the destroyers of prejudices and wrongs, zealots in behalf of truth, liberty and equality, and then, when the war of 1792 came, the defenders of the country, missionaries and propagators of every grand principle.3356—Towards 1796, principles began to recede in the background;3357 in the ideal portrait which man makes of himself the liberator and benefactor of mankind gradually gives way to the admirable and admired hero capable of great achievements. This inner portrait of himself suffices for his happiness for some years to come: vanity3358 properly so called and a calculating ambition are not the incentives of action; if he obtains promotion it is without asking for it; his aspiration is simply to display himself, to be lavish of himself and live or die courageously and gaily3359 along with his comrade; to be considered, outside the service, the equal, friend and brother of his subordinates and of his chiefs.3360 Pillage, nevertheless, has begun; for, a long continuance of war depraves the conqueror; brutality, indifference to property and to life grows on him; if callous, or he wishes to become so, he eats, drinks and enjoys the passing hour; if provident and wary, he scrapes together what he can or levies contributions and hoards money.—Under the Empire, and especially towards 1808 and 1809, the ideal figure degenerates still more; from now on, it is the successful or the coming officer, with his rank and its accouterments, his gold-embroidered uniform and badges, exercising authority over so many hundreds and thousands of men and enjoying a certain notable sum of regular salaries, besides other gratifications bestowed on him by the master, along with the profits he can make out of the vanquished.3361 All that he now cares for is rapid promotion, and in any way, noble or ignoble, at first, of course, on the main road, that is in straining himself and risking his life, but likewise on a new road, in an affectation of zeal, in practicing and professing blind obedience, in abandoning all political ideas, in devoting himself no longer to France, but to the sovereign: sympathy for his comrades gives way to harsh rivalry; soldierly friendships, under the anticipation of advancement, die out. A vacancy due to death is for the benefit of survivors and they know it. "At Talavera," says Stendhal, "two officers stood together at their battery, while a ball comes and the captain falls. 'Good,' says the lieutenant, 'now FranÇois is dead and I shall be captain.' 'Not yet,' says FranÇois, who was only stunned and who gets up on his feet. These two men were neither unfriendly nor inimical, only the lieutenant wanted to rise a step higher in rank." And this shrewd observer adds: "Such was the furious egoism then styled love of glory and which, under this title, the Emperor had communicated to the French."

On this slope the slide is rapid and abject. Each, at first, thinks of himself; the individual makes of himself a center. The example, moreover, comes from above. Is it for France or for himself that Napoleon works?3362 So many immense enterprises, the conquest of Spain, the expedition into Russia, the installation of his brothers and relations on new thrones, the constant partition and rearrangement of Europe, all those incessant and more and more distant wars, is it for the public good and common safety that he accumulates them? What does he himself desire if not to push his fortunes still farther?—He is too much ambitious (trop ambitionnaire), say his own soldiers;3363 and yet they follow him to the last. "We have always marched along with him," replied the old grenadiers,3364 who had traversed Poland to penetrate into Russia; "we couldn't abandon him this time and leave him alone by himself."—But others who see him nearer by, those who stand first and next to him, do as he does; and, however high these have mounted, they want to mount still higher, or, otherwise, to keep their places, or, at least, provide for themselves and hold on to something substantial. MassÉna has accumulated forty millions and Talleyrand sixty;3365 in case of a political crash the money remains. Soult tried to have himself elected king of Portugal,3366 and Bernadotte finds means to have himself elected king of Sweden. After Leipsic, Murat bargains with the allies, and, to retain his Neapolitan kingdom, he agrees to furnish a contingent against France; before the battle of Leipsic, Bernadotte is with the allies and fights with them against France. In 1814, Bernadotte and Joseph, each caring for himself, the former by intrigues and with the intriguers of the interior, also by feeling his way with the foreign sovereigns while the latter, in the absence of Napoleon, by "singular efforts" and "assiduities" beforehand with Marie Louise thinks of taking the place of the falling emperor.3367 Prince Eugene alone, or almost alone, among the great personalities of the reign, is really loyal, his loyalty remaining always intact exempt from concealed motives and above suspicion. Everywhere else, the coming crash or sinister rumors are heard or anticipated; alarm descends from high places, spreads through the army and echoes along the lines of the lowest ranks. In 1815, the soldier has full confidence in himself and in Napoleon; "but he is moody, distrustful of his other leaders.... Every march incomprehensible to him makes him uneasy and he thinks himself betrayed."3368 At Waterloo, dragoons that pass him with their swords drawn and old corporals shout to the Emperor that Soult and Vandamme, who are at this moment about going into battle, are haranguing their troops against him or deserting him; that General DhÉnin, who has repulsed a charge of the enemy and whose thigh is fractured by a cannon-ball, has just passed over to the enemy. The mechanism which, for fifteen years, has worked so well, breaks down of itself through its own action; its cog-wheels have got out of gear; cracks show themselves in the metal which seemed so sound; the divinations of popular instinct verify this; the exaggerations of the popular imagination expand it and suddenly the whole machine rattles down to the ground.

All this is due to Napoleon having introduced into it the craving for success as central motor, as the universal main-spring, unscrupulous ambition, in short, a crude egoism, and in the first place his own egoism, 3369 and this incentive, strained to excess,3370 puts the machine out of order and then ruins it. After him, under his successors, the same machinery is to work in the same manner, and break down in the same way, at the expiration of a more or less extensive period. Thus far, the longest of these periods has lasted less than twenty years.

3301 (return)
[ "Most of the French provinces down to the time of Richelieu still possessed a special representative body which consented to and levied the taxes; most of these bodies were supported by the all-powerful minister and replaced by intendants who, from that time on, administered, or rather exhausted, the country, divided into thirty-two generalities. A few provinces, however, Brittany, Burgundy, Languedoc, a part of Provence, Flanders, Artois, and some small districts in the Pyrenees kept their old representative body and were called pays d'État, whilst other provinces were designated, by a strange abuse of language, under the name of pays d'Élection." (Translated from" Madame de StaËl et son Temps," vol. I., p. 38.) TR.]

3302 (return)
[ Cf. on the antiquity of this sort of mind, evident from the beginning of society and of French literature, my "History of English Literature," vol. I., and "La Fontaine et ses fables," pp.10 to 13.]

3303 (return)
[ In relation to this sentiment, read La Fontaine's fable of "The Rat and the Elephant." La Fontaine fully comprehended its social and psychological bearing. "To believe one's self an important personage is very common in France.... A childish vanity is peculiar to us. The Spaniards are vain, but in another way. It is specially a French weakness."]

3304 (return)
[ Beugnot, "MÉmoires," I., 317. "This equality which is now our dominant passion is not the noble kindly sentiment that affords delight by honoring one's self in honoring one's fellow, and in feeling at ease in all social relationships; no, it is an aversion to every kind of superiority, a fear lest a prominent position may be lost; this equality tends in no way to raise up what is kept down, but to prevent any elevation whatever."]

3305 (return)
[ D'Haussonville, "l'Église romaine et le Premier Empire," I., chs X. and XI.]

3306 (return)
[ Decree of March 17, 1808, on the organization of the Israelite cult. The members of the Israelite consistories and the rabbis must be accepted by the government the same as the ministers of the other cults; but their salary, which is fixed, must be provided by the Israelites of the conscription; the State does not pay this, the same as with curÉs or pastors. This is not done until under the monarchy of July, when the assimilation of the Israelite with the other Christian cults is effected.]

3307 (return)
[ "Travels in France during the years 1814 and 1815 "(Edinburgh, 1806) I., 176. "The nobility, the great landed proprietors, the yeomanry, the lesser farmers, all of the intermediate ranks who might oppose a check to the power of a tyrannical prince, are nearly annihilated."—Ibid., 236. "Scarcely an intermediate rank was to be found in the nation between the sovereign and the peasant."—Ibid., II. 239. "The better class of the inhabitants of the cities, whether traders and manufacturers or the bourgeoisie of France, are those who were the most decided enemies of Bonaparte."]

3308 (return)
[ Napoleon, desirous of forming an opinion of him, said to Roederer, "Send me his books." "But," said Roederer, "he is only a translator." "No matter," replied Napoleon, "I will read his prefaces,"]

3309 (return)
[ Cf. the "Dictionnaire biographique," published at Leipsic, 1806-1808 (by Eymory) 4 vols., and the "Almanach impÉrial" for 1807 to 1812; many other historic names are found there, and among these the ladies of the palace. In 1810, Comte de la Rochefoucauld is ambassador to Holland and Comte de Mercy-Argenteau ambassador to Bavaria.]

3310 (return)
[ "The Revolution," II., 323. (Ed. Laffont I. 773, note 1)]

3311 (return)
[ "The Revolution," vol. III., PP. 318~322. (Ed. Laff. II. pp. 237-240.)]

3312 (return)
[ "The Ancient RÉgime," pp. 116-119, 128. (Ed. Laff. I. pp. 90-92, 100-101.)]

3313 (return)
[ De Tilly, "MÉmoires," I., 153. "The difference between the tone and language of the court and that of the city was about as great as that between Paris and the provinces."]

3314 (return)
[ Hence the lack of success of the Maupeou parliament.]

3315 (return)
[ See the collections of songs previous to the Revolution, especially military songs such as "MalgrÉ la bataille,"—"Dans les gardes franÇaises," etc.—At the time of the Restoration, the pastoral or gallant songs of Florian, Bouffiers and Berquin were still sung in bourgeois families, each person, young or old, man or woman, singing one at the dessert. This undercurrent of gayety, geniality and amiability lasted throughout the Revolution and the Empire. ("Travels through the South of France, 1807 and 1808," p.132, by Lieutenant-Colonel Pinkney, of the United States.) "I must once for all say that the Memoirs of Marmontel are founded in nature." He cites a great many facts in proof of this, and testifies in all classes to a prompt and social nature, a natural benevolence or habitual civility which leads them instinctively, and not unfrequently impertinently, into acts of kindness and consideration."—The same impression is produced on comparing the engravings, fashion-plates, light subjects and caricatures of this period with those of the present epoch. The malicious sentiment begins only with BÉranger; and yet his early pieces ("Le Roi d'Yvetot," "le SÉnateur") display the light air, accent and happy, instead of venomous, malice of the old song. Nobody now sings in the lower bourgeoisie or in gatherings of clerks or students, while, along with the song, we have seen the other traits which impressed foreigners disappear, the gallantry, the jesting humor, the determination to regard life as so many hours (une serie de quarts d'heures, each of which may be separated from the others, be ample in themselves and agreeable to him who talks and to him or her who listens.]

3316 (return)
[ Read the novels of Pigault-Lebrun: books of the epoch the best adapted to the men of the epoch, to the military parvenus, swift, frank, lusty and narrow-minded.]

3317 (return)
[ Candide (RÉcit de la Vieille).]

3318 (return)
[ "Souvenirs", by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis, duc), chancelier de France, Librarie Plon, Paris 1893. "I am sure that his imagination was more taken with Ghengis-Khan than with Caesar."]

3319 (return)
[ "The Revolution," II., 12, 22. (Laff. I. pp. 574, 582.) (Articles by Mailet-Dupan, "Mercure de France," Dec. 30, 1791, and April 7, 1792.)—Napoleon, "MÉmorial" (Sept. 3, 1816), thinks so too and states the essential characteristic of the Revolution. This consisted in "telling everybody who held office, every one who had a place or a fortune: 'Get out.'"]

3320 (return)
[ Roederer, III., 534 (January 1809, on Normandy), "Children in every situation think of becoming soldiers to get the cross (legion of honor), and the cross secures the chevalier. The desire of distinction, of passing ahead of some one else, is a national sentiment."]

3321 (return)
[ "The Revolution," II., 248. (Laff. I. p. 747.)]

3322 (return)
[ Napoleon, "MÉmoires "(edited by M. de Montholon, III., 11-19), on the extraordinary ignorance of Cartaux.—Ibid., 23, on Doppet's incapacity, the successor of Cartaux.]

3323 (return)
[ "The Revolution," III., 310. (Laff. II. pp. 178-179.)]

3324 (return)
[ They called themselves exclusives under the Directory.—Cf. "The Revolution, II.", 23, 187, 196, 245, 297-303, 340-351, 354; book III., ch, 2 and 3, and book IV. (Ed. Laff. I. pp. 582, 701, pp. 709-710, 745, 782-787, 821-823 and in Vol. II. pp. 131-167, pp. 167-215 and pp 311-357.)]

3325 (return)
[ The declaration of Human Rights in 1789 stated that: "art. 1st, § 5. Tous les citoyens sont egalement admissible aux emplois publics. Les peuples ne connaissent d'autres motifs de prÉference, dans Élections, que les vertus et les talents." Virtue in French is virtue in English while talent in French must be translated as being both talent and skill. (SR.)]

3326 (return)
[ Madame de RÉmusat, passim.—Roederer, III., 538 (January 1809). (Words of Napoleon) "I took a few of the old court into my household. They remained two years without speaking to me and six months without seeing me... I don't like them—they are no good for anything—their conversation is disagreeable to me."]

3327 (return)
[ NapolÉon, "MÉmoires."]

3328 (return)
[ Roederer, "MÉmoires."]

3329 (return)
[ Taine uses the French expression "esprit" which might both mean spirit, wit, mind or sense.]

3330 (return)
[ Roederer, "MÉmoires, "III., 281. "Men, under his government, who had hitherto been considered incapable are made useful; men hitherto considered distinguished found themselves mixed in with the crowd; men hitherto regarded as the pillars of the State found themselves useless ... An ass or a knave need never be ambitious to approach Bonaparte, they will make nothing out of him."]

3331 (return)
[ FiÉvÉe, "Correspondance," III., 33.—Roederer, III., 381.]

3332 (return)
[ Beugnot, "MÉmoires," II., 372.]

3333 (return)
[ Lefebvre, a former sergeant in the French guards, who became marshal of the empire and Duc de Dantzig, with 150,000 francs a year, received the visit of a comrade who, instead of having mounted the ladder as he had done, had remained at the bottom of it. The marshal, a fine fellow, welcomed his comrade heartily, and showed him over his hotel. The visitor's face gradually grew somber, and bitter words escaped from his lips; he often murmured, "Ah, how lucky you are!"—At last, the marshal, impatient, said to him, "Well, I will make all this over to you on one condition."—"What is it?"—"You must go down into the court. I will post two grenadiers at the window with their guns, and they shall fire at you. If they miss, you shall have the hotel and everything in it."—"Ah, no, thanks!"—"My friend, more shots than these have been fired at me and nearer by!"]

3334 (return)
[ Roederer, III., 332 (Aug. 2, 1800).]

3335 (return)
[ Papers of Maine de Biran. (Note communicated by M. Naville.) Letter of Baron Maurice, prefect of Dordogne, to M. Maine de Biran, sub-prefect of Bergerac, transmitting to him by order of the minister of the interior a blank form to be filled up by him presenting the "Statistics of young ladies belonging to the most notable families of the arrondissement." The form annexed contained several columns, one for names and given names, others for the future inheritance of real and personal estate, etc. A clever or energetic prefect, provided with this list, was able and was expected to take an active part in marriages and see that all the large dowries were appropriated on the right side.—"Memoires de Madame de———," part 3rd, ch. VIII., p. 154. (These very instructive memoirs by a very sincere and judicious person are still unpublished. I am not authorized to give the name of the author.) "It was at this time that the emperor took it into his head to marry as he saw fit the young girls who had more than 50,000 livres rental." A rich heiress of Lyons, intended for M. Jules de Polignac, is thus wedded to M. de Marboeuf. M. d'Aligre, by dint of address and celerity, evades for his daughter first M. de Caulaincourt and then M. de Faudoas, brother-in-law to Savary, and in stead weds her to M. de Pommereu.—Baron de Vitrolles, MÉmoires, I. 19. (His daughter was designated by the prefect of the Basses-Alpes.)—Comte Joseph d'Estourmel, "Souvenirs de France et d'Italie," 239. (Details of this description of the young ladies to be married and the circular from the duke de Rovigo, minister of police.) the eight column of the form was "reserved to describe the physical charms and deformities, the talents, the conduct and the religious principles of each of the young ladies."]

3336 (return)
[ "Statistiques des PrÉfets." (Doubs, by Debry, p. 60; Meurthe, by Marquis, p. 115, Ain, by Bossi, p.240.)]

3337 (return)
[ "Statistique de l'Ain," by Bossi, p. 1808. From 1140 in 1801, the number of employees and others under state pay amounts to 1771 in 1806. This increase is attributed by the prefect to causes just stated.]

3338 (return)
[ Napoleon, "Correspondance." (Note of April 11, 1811.) "There will always be at Hamburg, Bremen and Lubeck from 8,000 to 10,000 French, either employees or gendarmes, in the customs and depots."]

3339 (return)
[ One officer may be counted to every 50 men in the infantry; in the cavalry 1 officer to every 25 or 30 men,—This ratio of one officer to every fifty men indicates that, among the 1,700,000 men who perished between 1804 and 1815, there were 24,000 officers, which gives about 3,000 vacancies per annum, to which must be added the vacancies due to the wounded, disabled and and retired. It must be noted, moreover, that the death or retirement of an officer above the grade of second-lieutenant makes several vacancies, vacancies which are more numerous the higher the rank. When a captain is killed there are three promotions and so on.]

3340 (return)
[ "The Revolution" III., 335. (Laff. II. p. 250)—Already, in 1795, the need of competent and specialized men was so great that the government sought, even among royalists, for financial and diplomatic heads of these services; it made offers to M. Dufresne and to M. de Rayneval.—Ib. 406.—(Cf. "MÉmoires" by Gaudin, Miot de Melito and Mollien.)]

3341 (return)
[ Words of Bouquier, reporter of the law on education (session of the Convention, Frimaire 22, year II).]

3342 (return)
[ The reader is recommended to do as I have done and consult biographies on point, also the souvenirs of his grandparents. (H.A.Taine.)]

3343 (return)
[ Thibaudeau, "MÉmoires sur la Consulat," p.88. (Exposition of motives by Roederer to the corps LÉgislatif, FlorÉal 25, year X.) "After all, it is the creation of a new currency of quite different value from that which issues from the public treasury, a currency of unchangeable worth and of an inexhaustible mine, since it lies in French honor; a currency which can solely reward actions regarded as above any recompense."]

3344 (return)
[ Thibaudeau, ibid., 83. (Address by the First Consul to the council of State, FlorÉal 14, year X.)—Also "MÉmorial": "Old and corrupt nations are not governed the same as young and virtuous ones; sacrifices have to be made to interest, to enjoyments, to vanity. This is the secret of the return to monarchical forms, to titles. crosses, ribbons, harmless baubles suited to exciting the respect of the multitude while at the same time enforcing self-respect."]

3345 (return)
[ "La LÉgion d'honneur," by M. Mazas, passim. Details on the nomination ceremonials. "The veritable date was July 15th, as the 14th was Sunday. Augereau and about sixty officers, "bad fellows" who disliked the mass, refused to go into the chapel and remained outside in the court."]

3346 (return)
[ Several generals, Lecourbe, Souham, etc., were excluded as being too republican or suspect and hostile. Lemercier, Ducis, Delille, and Lafayette refused. Admiral Truguet, through pique and discontent, had at first declined the grade of grand-officer, but finally changed his mind and became at first commander and then grand-officer.]

3347 (return)
[ "Les Cahiers du capitaine Coignet," passim and pp. 95, 145. "When the ceremony was over, handsome women who could get at me to examine my cross, asked me if they might give me a kiss."—At the Palais Royal the proprietor of a cafÉ says to him: "Order whatever you want, the Legion of Honor is welcome to anything."]

3348 (return)
[ Mazas, ibid., p. 413.—Edmond Blanc, "NapolÉon, ses institutions civiles et administratives," p. 279.—The number of decorated, at first, was to be 6,000. In 1806, the emperor had nominated 14,500, and taking his entire reign, until his fall, about 48,000. The real force of legionaries, however, then living does not surpass at this time 30,000, of which only 1,200 are in civil careers. At the prÉsent time, December 1, 1888 (documents furnished by the records of the LÉgion d'honneur), there are 52.915 decorated persons, of which 31,757 are soldiers and 21,158 civilians. Under the empire there was in all 1 cross to every 750 Frenchmen; at that time, out of 50 crosses there were 2 for civil services, while in our day there are nearly 20. (QUID informs us that on 30-11-1994 the strength amounted to 207,390 persons. SR.)]

3349 (return)
[ Edmond Blanc, ibid., 276-299, 325 and 326. (List of titles of prince and duke conferred by the emperor, and of gifts of 100,000 francs rental or of above that sum.)]

3350 (return)
[ Mathieu Dumas, "MÉmoires," III., 363.]

3351 (return)
[ Napoleon, "MÉmoires."]

3352 (return)
[ Compare with the Brothers Grimm's fairytale: "The Fisherman and his Wife."]

3353 (return)
[ Thiers, "Histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire," V. III., p. 210.]

3354 (return)
[ Thiers, ibid., p.195 (October 1806). Napoleon, in one of his bulletins, had mentioned Murat's cavalry alone, omitting to mention the infantry of Lannes, which behaved as well. Lannes, disappointed, did not dare read this bulletin to his men, and spoke to the emperor about it. 'What reward can they look for if they don't find their names published by the hundred-tongued voice of Fame which is under your control!" Napoleon replies: "You and your men are children—glory enough for all!... One of these days your turn will come in the bulletins of the grand army." Lannes reads this to his troops on the great square of Stettin and it is received with outbursts of enthusiasm.]

3355 (return)
[ Madame de RÉmusat. III., 129.]

3356 (return)
[ "The Revolution," pp. 356-358. (Laff. I. pp. 825-826.)—Marmont, "MÉmoires," I. 122. (Letter to his mother, January 12, 1795.) "Behold your son zealously fulfilling his duties, deserving of his country and serving the republic.... We should not be worthy of liberty if we did nothing to obtain it."]

3357 (return)
[ Compare the "Journal du sergent Fricasse," and "les Cahiers du capitaine Coignet." Fricasse is a volunteer who enlists in the defence of the country; Coignet is a conscript ambitious of distinguishing himself, and he says to his masters: "I promise to come back with the fusil d'honneur or I shall be dead."]

3358 (return)
[ Marmont, I., 186, 282, 296. (In Italy, 1796.) "At this epoch, our ambition was quite secondary; we were solely concerned about our duties and amusements. The frankest and most cordial union existed amongst us all.... No sentiment of envy, no low passion found room in our breasts. (Then) what excitement, what grandeur, what hopes and what gayety!... Each had a presentiment of an illimitable future and yet entertained no idea of personal ambition or calculation."—George Sand, "Histoire de ma vie." (Correspondence of her father, Commander Dupin.)—Stendhal, "Vie de NapolÉon." "At this epoch (1796), nobody in the army had any ambition. I have known officers to refuse promotion so as not to quit their regiment or their mistress."]

3359 (return)
[ Roederer, III., 556. (Burgos, April 9, 1809, conversation with General Lasalle written down the same evening.) "You pass through Paris?" "Yes, it's the shortest way. I shall get there at five in the morning; I shall order a pair of boots, get my wife with child and then leave for Germany."—Roederer remarks to him that one risks one's life and fights for the sake of promotion and to profit by rising in the world. "No, not at all. One takes pleasure in it. One enjoys fighting; it is pleasure enough in itself to fight! You are in the midst of the uproar, of the action, of the smoke. And then, on acquiring reputation you have had the fun of making it. When you have got your fortune you know that your wife and children won't suffer. That is enough. As for myself, I could die to-morrow." (The details of this conversation are admirable; no document gives a better idea of the officer of the epoch.)]

3360 (return)
[ Compare with the idea of an ideal Chaver (kibbutznik).: Melford E. Spiro, wrote "Kibbutz. Venture in Utopia." 60 and described how the Israeli kibbutzim as early as 1917 wanted the ideal kibbutzim to be:

3361 (return)
[ Balzac has closely studied and admirably portrayed this type in a "MÉnage de GarÇon."—See other similar characters in MÉrimÉe ("Les MÉcontens," and "les Espagnols en Danemark"); in Stendhal ("le Chasseur vert"). I knew five or six of them in my youth.]

3362 (return)
[ Words of Marshal Marmont: "So long as he declared 'Everything for France,' I served him enthusiastically; when he said, 'France and myself' I served him zealously; when he said, 'myself and France,' I served him with devotion. It is only when he said, 'Myself without France,' that I left him."]

3363 (return)
[ An expression found by Joseph de Maistre.]

3364 (return)
[ An expression heard by Mickiewicz in his childhood.]

3365 (return)
[ These sums are given, the former by MÉrimÉe and the latter by Sainte—Beuve.]

3366 (return)
[ M. de Champagny "Souvenirs," III., 183. Napoleon, passing his marshals in review, said to him (1811): "None of them can take my place in the command of my armies; some are without the talent, and others would carry on war for their own benefit. Didn't that burly Soult want to be king of Portugal?" "Well, sire, war need not be carried on any longer." "Yes, but how maintain my army? And I must have an army."]

3367 (return)
[ "Souvenirs", by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis, duc), chancelier de France. in VI volumes, Librarie Plon, Paris 1893. IV., 112. (According to the papers of Savary, many of Napoleon's letters and statements by M. de Saint-Aignan.)]

3368 (return)
[ "MÉmorial," Aug.26, 1816.]

3369 (return)
[ The driving motor of unlimited capitalism as well, a driving force only to be tempered by the law and by a desire for social admiration of different kinds. (SR.)]

3370 (return)
[ "Travels in France during the years 1814 and 1815." (Edinburgh, 1816, 2 vols.)—The author, a very good observer, thus sums up the principle of the system: "To give active employment to all men of talent and enterprise." There is no other condition: "Birth, education, moral character were completely set aside."—Hence the general defect of the system. "The French have literally no idea of any duties which they must voluntarily, without the prospect of reward, undertake for their country. It never enters their heads that a man may be responsible for the neglect of those public duties for the performance of which he receives no regular salary."]