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But of such themes forbear to tell--
May never War awake this bell
To sound the tocsin or the knell--
Hush'd be the alarum gun.
Sheath'd be the sword! and may his voice
But call the nations to rejoice
That War his tatter'd flag has furl'd,
And vanish'd from a wiser world--
_Hurra! the work is done!_
Still may he ring when struggles cease--
Still may he ring for joy's increase,
For progress in the arts of peace,
And friendly trophies won;
When rival nations join their hands,
When plenty crowns the happy lands,
When Knowledge gives new blessings birth,
And Freedom reigns o'er all the earth--
_Hurra! the work is done!_
MACKAY.
[Illustration: FOUNDING OF THE BELL.]
* * * * *
NAPOLEON.
With his passions, and in spite of his errors, Napoleon was, taking him
all in all, the greatest warrior of modern times. He carried into battle
a stoical courage, a profoundly calculated tenacity, a mind fertile in
sudden inspirations, which, by unlooked-for resources, disconcerted the
plans of his enemy. Let us beware of attributing a long series of
success to the organic power of the masses which he set in motion. The
most experienced eye could scarcely discover in them any thing but
elements of disorder. Still less, let it be said, that he was a
successful captain because he was a mighty Monarch. Of all his
campaigns, the most memorable are the campaign of the Adige, where the
general of yesterday, commanding an army by no means numerous, and at
first badly appointed, placed himself at once above Turenne, and on a
level with Frederick; and the campaign in France in 1814, when, reduced
to a handful of harrassed troops, he combated a force of ten times their
number. The last flashes of Imperial lightning still dazzled the eyes of
our enemies; and it was a fine sight to see the bounds of the old lion,
tracked, hunted down, beset--presenting a lively picture of the days of
his youth, when his powers developed themselves in the fields of
carnage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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