Excerpt from Napoleon: Illustrated With Prints From Contemporary and Other Portraits

Napoleon has not lacked biographers! Every phase of his life has been minutely chronicled. Every aspect of his character has been dissected. Among those who in his lifetime came within the circle of his amazing influence, who fought with him in his great wars, or worked under him in the affairs of State, many poured out on paper their memories of this overpowering personality. Many hated him, among those who had received the greatest favours from him it is remarkable how many returned his favours by venomous and lying hatred - but they were bound to admit the immensity of his genius, and often there slips into their narrative some anecdote which reveals the man's generosity and magnanimity.

Even now, when his dust has lain long in the tomb, and when all that was the work of his brain has been changed or modified by new men and new forces, the name of Napoleon still stirs people with a kind of passion. His memory is worshipped by some with akind of idolatry. To them he has become a species of demi-god, an heroic myth. Others still write and speak of him as though he had done them personal injury. In this country we have not yet forgotten the tradition of the Corsican Ogre. There are still good people, who do not ordinarily use strong or harsh words, who denounce Napoleon as an incarnate hend - as a cold, ruthless, heartless man, even as a madman intoxicated by the smell of blood. Yet that tradition is dying. We, at least, who conquered him and sent him to a miserable exile can afford to be generous now. But we cannot afford to forget him, or to ignore him as the greatest and most extraordinary revelation of the power of personality. It is well that men of intellect and leadership like Lord Rosebery should still seek to discover the secrets of his mind, knowing that in Napoleon's life and character there are the secrets of all great leadership, of all mastery over other men, and over circumstances which seem like Pate itself.

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