The prairie news. [volume] (Okolona, Miss.) 1851-1875, 1859-04-14
ME3GBsE,EsAN; i
NAPOLEON.

This is the peculiarity of Napoleon--
he was profound, as well as brilliantly
successful. Unlike most conquerors, his
mind was big with great thought, which
Was never fully developed. He was not
raised, as many stupidly thought, upon
the breath Of popular triumph. 1t was
not "chance that made him king" or
that crowned him. or that Won his bat
Ties. He was camuiattce conquerur.-
Every victory, every peace, every law,
every movement, was the step of giant
STAIR winding upward toward universal
dominion. All Was systematic. All was
full Of purpose No rest was possible.
He might have MONDAY breathing times,
but there were no nightly. Onward
was the voice ever sounding behind him !;
nor was this the voice of his nation, ever
insaliate for novelty and conquest; nor
was ii the mere give, give" OF his rest
less ambition; it was the voice of his
ideal, the cry of his unquenchahIe soul.
He became the greatest of warriors and
conquerors, or at least one Of the great
est, because, like a true painter or poet,
he came darn upon the practice of his
art, from stern and lofty conception, or
hypothesis, to which everything was re-
quired to yield. AS Michael Angelo sub
jected all things to his pursuit, and the
ideal he had formed of it, painted the
crucifxion by the side of a writhing
slave, and, pious though he was, would
have broken up the true cross for pencils,
so Napoleon pursued his ideal through
tempests of death, hail and seas of blood,
and looked upon poison, and gunpowder,
and mems lives, as merely the box of
colors necessary to his new and terrible
art of war and grand scheme of conquest.
His powers have been, on the one hand,
unduly praised, and on the other, unduy
deprecated. His unexampled success
led to the first extreme, and bis own
downfall to the latter. While some have
talked of him as greater than Caesar, 9th.
ers think him clever impostor-a vul-
oar coniurer, with one trick, which was
at last discovered. Our nation lies be-
tween. He must, indeed stand at some
distance from Casar-the all-accomplish-
ed, the author, the orator-whose prac-
tical wisdom was equal to his genius
who wore over all his faculties, and
around his very errors and crimes, a
mantle of dignity-and whose one i'm
mortal bulletin, +" Veni, tidi, vici,"
stamps an image of the energy of his
character, the power of his talents, and
laconic severity of his taste. Nor can
he be equaIled to Hannibal, in rugged
daring of purpose, in originality OF con-
ception, in personal courage or in indo-
mitable perseverance, - Hannibal, who
sprang like bull dog at the throat of
the Roman power, and who held his
grasp till it was loosened in death. Bat
neither does he sink to the level of the
Tamerlances or Bajazets. His genius
scared above the sphere of such skilltul
marshals and martinets as Turenne and
Marlborough. They were the slaves of
their system Of strategy he was the king
of his. They fought battle as coolly
as they played a game of chess he was
full Of impulses and sudden thoughts,
which became the seeds of victory, and
conld set his soldiers on fire, even when
be remained calm himself. In our age,
the name of Wellington alone can bal