courage and the he said u do not know the of time i should him in hie earlier as a model of prudence his power does consist in any or force in any enthusiasm like ma s or singular power of persuasion bat in the exercise of common sense on each emergency instead of abiding by and customs the lesson he teaches is that which vigour always teaches that there is room for it to what heaps of cowardly doubts is not man s life an answer he appeared it waa the belief of all military men that there be new in war as iti is the belief of men today that nothing new can be undertaken in or church or in letters on in trade or in or in our social and customs and as it is all times the belief oi society that the world is need up but knew better than society and moreover knew that he knew better think all men know better than they do know that the institutions we so commend are go carts and bat they not trust their relied on his own sense and did not care a for other people s the world treated his ve men just as it treats everybody s � made infinite objection all the but he snapped his finger at their objections what great difficulty he remarks in the profession of the land commander is the necessity of feeding so many men and animals if he allows himself to be guided by the he will never stir and all his will fail an example of his common sense is what he says of the passage of the in winter which all writers one repeating after the other had described as the winter says napoleon is not the most season for the passage of lofty mountains the snow is then firm the weather settled and there is nothing to fear from the real only danger to be apprehended in the on those high mountains there are often very fine days in december of a dry cold with extreme calmness in the air bead his account too of the way in which battles are gained in all battles a moment occurs when the troops after having made the greatest efforts feel inclined to run that terror proceeds from a want of confidence in their own courage and it only requires a slight opportunity a pretence to restore confidence to them the art is to give rise to the opportunity and to invent the pretence at i won the battle with twenty five i seized that moment of and giving to every man a trumpet gained the day with this handful you see that two armies are two bodies which meet and endeavour to frighten each other a moment of panic occurs and that moment must be turned to advantage when a man has been present in many actions he that moment without difficulty it is as easy as casting up an addition this of the nineteenth century added to napoleon his gifts a capacity for speculation on general topics he delighted in running through the range of practical of literary and of abstract questions his opinion is always original and to the purpose on the voyage to egypt he liked after dinner to fix on three or four persons to support a proposition and as many to oppose it he gave a subject and the turned on questions of religion the different kinds of government and the art of war one day he asked whether the were inhabited on another what was the age of the world then he proposed to consider the probability of the destruction of the globe either by water or by fire at another time the truth or of and the interpretation of dreams he was very fond of talking of religion in he conversed with bishop of on matters of there were two points on which they could not agree namely that of hell and that of salvation out of the pale of the church the emperor told that he disputed like a devil on these two points on which the bishop was inexorable to the philosophers he readily yielded all that was proved against religion as the work of men and time but he would not hear of one fine night on deck amid a clatter of pointed to the stars and said you may talk as long as you please gentlemen but who made all that he delighted in the conversation of men of science particularly of and but the men of letters he they were of phrases of medicine too he was fond of talking and with those of its whom he most esteemed with at paris and with at st believe me he said to the last we had better leave off all these life is a fortress which neither you nor i know anything about why men throw obstacles in the way of its defence its own means are superior to all the apparatus of your candidly agreed me that all year filthy are good for nothing medicine is a collection of uncertain the of which taken are than useful to mankind water air and cleanliness are the chief articles in my his dictated to count and general at st hare great value after all the that it seems is to be made from them on account of his known he has the good nature of strength and superiority i admire his simple dear narrative of his battles � good as caesar s his good natured � and sufficiently respectful account of sad his other and his own equality as a writer to his varying subject the most agreeable portion is the campaign in egypt he had hours of thought and wisdom in intervals of leisure either in the camp or the palace napoleon appears as a man of directing on abstract questions the native appetite for truth 