To describe the character of Napoleon would be to repeat what we have said of Alexander; for whether the similarity was accidental, or arose from mental conformity (their Noses were remarkably alike), or was intentionally imitative on the part of the former,[20] it is certainly most striking. Ambition of future fame was far more the ruling passion of Napoleon than lust of present power. His mind, with all its imperfections and meannesses (as whose is without?), was too noble to be satisfied with mere personal aggrandizement. All the great mistakes of his life were occasioned by his obedience to the passion for future fame. When swayed by the mere desire of power, all his acts were successful. But when he saw all Europe (except one little pugnacious island) lying helpless at his feet, he began to revolve schemes which could not enhance, but might risk, his personal power. Then he attempted to realize his long-cherished dream of Eastern conquest—a conquest not to be held, but to be overrun; a conquest like that of Alexander, Nadir Shah, or Zinghis Khan. Often did he exclaim, “the seat of all fame is the east.” To realize this empty fame, he took the false step of invading Egypt. Foiled there, he still hoped to penetrate Asia by land, and gathered all his strength to overwhelm Russia, his last and greatest error. They greatly err who think these were mere schemes to keep France embroiled, lest peace should annihilate his power. They equally err who ridicule and attribute to a childish vanity his ambition to link himself by marriage with the imperial families of Europe. It was no childish vanity, but a politic endeavour to found a dynasty, which should hand down his name as its founder to the latest ages. They again who can see nothing better in the melancholy spectacle of Napoleon at St. Helena, engaged in falsifying records and altering figures to deceive the world, than a drivelling vanity, utterly miscomprehend the man. Fame, fame to the utmost limits of human duration, was to his last moment his highest ambition. Foiled in everything else, he yet hoped to secure fame. He knew that under his name the most eventful page in the History of Europe, since the fall of Rome, must be written, and he naturally desired “To be among the worthies of renown, And so sit fair with fame, with glory bright.” DANIEL.