New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1890-12-21

The fifth volume of NJ Tane's great work opens
with remarkable study OF Napoleon Bona art". IL
is careful thorough analysis of his character, and
presents him more impartally and comprchenslvely
than any previous writer has done. NJ. Tame Is
not the originator of the parallel he here draws
between Napoleon and the Italian despotS OF the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries but he carries
the comparison much further than did those VINO
first suggested IT, and he hcghtens the effectiveness
of the analogy. If there is a fault IN THIS part
of the analysis, il consists in attaching 100 mucl
significance TO the resemblance, real or iahcled'
between Bonapartc and tie contemporaries oil
Dante and of Michael Angelo. For-and no one
has shown this so clearly as NJ. Taine himsef-the
greatest fact in Napolcons case was his unnkeness
10 any man of whom we possess competent
knowledge. As Madame dc Stael said in the pcne'
tratng and fine estimate here cited, Napoleon
seemed either more or less than n man, but not as
the peer and fellow of human beings. What was
most akin in him 10 the Italian dcspots OF the
Renaissance NJ. Taine points out with his char
acteristic lucidity. saying: If we examine the
contemporaries of Dante and Michael Angelo
closely we observe that they differ from ourselves
more in character than in spirit. Three hundred
years of police. of courts and gendarmeS, of social
discipline, Of pacific manners and inherited clvillza-
tion have deadencd in us the strength ana I'M
petuosity of our native passions; these were intact
in Italy at the time Of the Renaissance; the
emotions of man then stronger and deepe'
than al present his desires more vehement and
unrulv his volition more energetic aud tenacious
than ours; whatever was the motive force OF TIE
individual. pride, ambition, jealousy, hate, love.
envy sensuality, this interior spring collcd
itself and discharged itself with vigor and
violence which have disappeared. They recur in
.l,o fIirV
play of the nervous engine is alike with him and
his Italian ancestors: never was there, not even
among the Borgas and Maatcstas more sensitive
and impulsive brain, brain capable oil Such
electric charges or one in which the internal
storm was more sustained and resoundng, more
sudden in lightning flashes, or more irresistible III
its explosions"
This vigorous, primitive nature found in the
soil of France prepared by the storms of the
Revolution a medium more favorable than the
old field of the Middle Ages. Napoleon was alone
here; he had not, like his Italian ancestors 10
encounter the rivalry of his own species; nothing
repressed him: he could absorb all the juices Of
the EARTH all the air and the sunlight IN space
and develop into the colossal form which was de'
MED 10 his predecessors, who, while perhaps
equally virile and certainly equally absorbent,
were born in a less nourishing region and checked
surface effectiveness of this parallel is obvious,
hut it is questionable whether a closer eXamina-
ton would justify the extent TO which NJ. Iaine
carried it. To say that Napoleon ranks with
Dante and Michael Angelo as the three great ltal-
ians Of the Renaissance has the apparent felclty
of brilliant observation; hut none the less Napo-
leon stands by himself, and all attempts to lkcn
him TO others fail signally, this volume demon
strates most conclusivelv. Thus NJ. Tame remarks
that a dominant note in the character of the tal-
ian despots and petty princes was the force and
lucidity of their Intellectual equipment BIT
there is no evidence so much as to suggest an in
tellectual parallel between any Of them and
Napoleon, for the manner in which his intellect
"functioned7 unique that one is almost
warranted in tcrming it superhuman. Let VI.
Taine furnish all the evidence of this and his
magazine Of facts is certainly full one. lie tells
how Napoleon carried in his head three mighty
portfolios or aliases in which the military. tnan-
cal and executive details of his Empire were
ranged mcthodcally; how every detail in every
department Of government was Al its owners COM
mand constantly: how he perpe'ually co.. founded
his subordnatcs by exhibiting a fuller knowledge
of their work than they possessed themselves;
how from hour to hour he knew where every bat
TALON regiment and company. every gun and
every horse in the army stationed: how he
could always bring his vast knowledge 10 bear on
the affair of the moment. and how the most sud-
den exigency always found him prepared with a
plan.
This marvellous memory was co-ordinated with
an energy that could not be wcaried lie wore
ont all his lieutcnantS, all the statesmen, s"crc-
taries men of affairs, who had 10 do with him.
He worked eighteen hours ont Of the twcnty-four,
and without showing the least fatigue. lie would
keep his Council in session sometimes from % al
night until ) the next morning. and when all the
rest were dropping with sleep he would be as
fresh as ever, and ready for discussion. lie
knew the affairs of sixty millions Of people. and
not only public, but, 10 a large extent, private
affairs. No ruler the world has ever known dis
played so amazing fccunditY Of resources, so In
eXhaustible a power of assimilation super
human an energy, imposing personal in
fuence. VI. Tainc eNpatiates upon this last char
acteristic and il is indeed of the highest slgni-
canoe, for il tends 10 explain 10 generations who
knew not the man the extraordinary effect his
mere presence had upon all who came in contact
with him VI. Tainc is doubtless right in looking
10 his Corsican birth and early training for the
bent which NapoeOn's mind took. Reared amid
sem-Savage people, GIVEN over 10 Nendctias
fcuds, perpetual warfare: a people at one,
naughty, proud. fierce. trcacherous and cruel who
retained and believed in all the strata2cms anC
crafty manoeuvrcS of the Middle Ages: who hcic
that mcndacty, deceit, perjury duplicity, were
jnstifabe in dealing with an enemy, and wh'
Systematically Geied all laws Viii h ntcrfcrcd will
their hereditary anarchY,-it was inevitable thl
Napoleon should acquire peculiar views and ten
denotes, and it is perfectly clear that these view
and tendencies Were directly in the line Of In
Renaissance analogy which VI. Taine seeks TO cS
tablish.
But entirely distinct and apart from all thi
is the fact that from the opening of his care"
Napoleon inspired fear in all who approaches
him. What this fear Madame de Stac Ia
told u.s. and 1T would not be possible 10 inproV
on her vivid description or her piercing analyst
Of the strange character before which She fcl
herself humhcd and subjected. She saw hin
first on his return 10 France after the Treaty q
Campo- Formo. 10 feeling Of admiration. Sd