The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, May 1844: Volume 23, Number 5 — John Shaqi
The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, May 1844: Volume 23, Number 5Various
History
The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, May 1844: Volume 23, Number 5
Various
Periodicals
We have always felt that Napoleon stepped down from his greatness when he
let them hurry him away alive to that island-prison; and there is
reasoning in this feeling itself, which most persons feel on reading of
his career, which his worshippers would do well to consider in its various
bearings; for if Napoleon, (when the royal guard, his last hope, was cut
to pieces at Waterloo, and crying to Bertrand, 'It is finished,' he turned
and fled,) had placed himself before the last cannon which sent
destruction to his foes, and let its ball end his career and life
together, who is there but would feel that he was acting truer to his
greatness, than to 'eat his heart away' a captive? If throughout his
career we had seen the brave fighter for country, for principle, for
right, instead of for self, this feeling would never arise. Place
WASHINGTON in a similar situation; imagine him to have believed it best to
gather all his country could give him of hardy defenders, and on the
result of one battle let his country's fate be decided. The battle is
fought and lost; his army is routed and cut to pieces; he has asked for
liberty with his whole strength, with his whole soul, and the answer is
'No!' written with bayonets in blood, and voiced by the enemy's cannon.
Would WASHINGTON have been true to _his_ greatness in placing himself
before the last cannon? No! emphatically, no! With Napoleon he might have
cried, 'It is finished,' but then with the same calm brow yet bursting
heart, he would have resigned his sword to his conquerors; and if the
scaffold were his fate, met it with quiet dignity; or if the dungeon,
there calmly await the Almighty's time when he might again raise his right
arm for his country; still as great in the prison or on the scaffold, as
when he was at the head of conquering armies. Napoleon's intellectual
character was perceptive rather than deep; and there is an intense
concentrativeness about him, a power of throwing the whole effort of his
soul into the environment of the moment, which is remarkable; and not less
so the facility with which he changes that concentration from place to
place, from subject to subject. Probably no man ever had his whole mind so
much under the control of his will, at his fingers' ends, as it were; 'the
eye to see and the will to do.' But revert we to CARLYLE.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account