Taine's Estimate of Napolean Bonaparte [pp. 384-397]

386 TAINE'S ESTIMATE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. [June,
of a code, and might is right. In his experience of the early
stages of the Revolution the same lesson was impressed upon his
mind. There he saw men devouring one another, and the only
concern was to get upon the strongest side. When he entered
upon the Italian campaign he put this principle into operation on
an extended scale and for his own benefit, judging other men
from his own nature. Selfishness was the only motive power he
recognized in any one. It might have different objects, but the
principle was the same. His object was ambition, was to rule.
It had been noticed of him while a boy that he would sit apart
on the playground from the other scholars. If he could not rule
them he would have nothing tQ do with them. The ruling passions of his army, he soon saw, were pleasure, rank, and military
glory, not devotion to republican ideas; and he determined to
gratify all as far as he could, and to thus bind them to his own
person. "On this common ground an understanding is reached
between the general and his army, and after a year's experience it is perfect. From their joint deeds a species of morality
is evolved, vague in the masses of the army, definite in the general. What they have but a glimpse of he sees. If he shoves his
comrades forward, it is on their natural incline. He does but
forestall them when, arriving at his conclusion from the start, he
comes to look upon the world as a great banquet open to every
comer, but where, to be well served, you must have long arms,
be served the first, and leave the others but the scraps."
This ambition to rule took such complete possession of the
man that he came to look upon it as natural, and he spoke his
thoughts before men not his intimates-before Miot, a diplomatist; before Melzi, a foreigner- who have recorded what he said.
He mocked openly at the Directory and the Republic, declaring
that they could not last, that they were impossible chimeras;
that what France wanted was glory, and that he intended to rule
or ruin. He went with the Jacobins when there was danger of
the Bourbons returning, and he explained his conduct by saying
that the Bourbons must be kept out, especially if Moreau or
Pichegru attempted to restore them, and that the time had not
come for his own seizure of absolute power-" the pear is not
ripe." Later he said: "My resolve is taken: if I cannot be master I will leave France." When he returned to Paris he meditates "the overthrow of the Directory, the dissolution of the
Councils, the making of himself dictator." Finding neither of
these plans workable,'he turns to Egypt. He deliberately strips
France of a fine army and exposes her fleet to destruction, in