Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1897-12-11
4 GREAT GRIMM sc.
Az ENclisN w9aTEs,s HARSH EsTl,
MATE OF eoNAPARTe.

Attributes tho EapeIeonso Craze 10 ths
contagion Of Hero worship-ssA Juds-
ciai Wow, Calm and DispassiOnate
BASED on Plain Evidence"
Tho Napoleonio legend is topic full Of
vitality and absorbing interest. 1t holds
tho mind with a force and tenacity that
seem to deepen with illustration. The
more men hear Of Napoleon the moro they
desire to know. In his adopted country
for he was really no Frenchman--the cult
has been carried to absurd lengths. His
personality and his epoch, Ills transcendcnt
talents and what they achieved, his court
surroundings, the beginnings and end Of
his romantic and adventurous career from
the first rocketlike rise to his tragic down
fan, his apogee and his perigee have re-
cciyed universal, even fulsome atten-
ton in France. Art and literature, So
cicty and the stage, all alike do him great
hoeor. Painters seek their inspiration in
tho chief incidents in his history. Writers
Of every caliber have dealt with his life
and times in diaries and memoirs paste
and scissors records and thoughtful philo-
forhic essays toward q full appreciation of
his character. The fashions Of the directory,
tho consulate and tho empire have long
Ecen in favor with the fair sex. Furniture
and decorations of tho period are largely
initiated.
Nor does the crazo run riot in France
alone. Itreaches moro extrayagant heights
beyond the Atlantic--America worships
the Napoleonic idea. 1t lis the best draw"
possible in d free country with free poo
pie, who overlook the fact that he was the
\. - 4
known. In England, too, the country of
his peculiar and persistenta aversion, which
he never dared attack, but would have
ruined insidiously by his commercial sys-
tom, Napoleon enjoys unbounded popu-
larity. Every book ebout him is read with
avidity. New works calculating new
phases in his many sided character appear
continually and are welcomed widely.
Tho wills Of the academy year after year
bear witness TO the hold he has ON the
artistic imagination.
Tt IS easier TO ftate these Jaots than ~
explain them. They ara largely Cue. no
doubt, TO the contagion Of hero worship,
tho ready admiration accorded by the
crowd Of smaller men TO ono OF the great
giants OF the human g1cc; q tribute rem
dorCd with unFrudging enthusiasm. YET
little inconsideIately, even hlinGly, for
getting that its object moro Otter deserves
detestation than respect The effect OF all
this eulogy and panegyrie laid on so
thickly and with such large brush is to
obscure the truth, 10 cover up the faults,
the shortcomings, the really malignant
nature of the man himself He is present.
ed to us as tho mighty oonqueror, the in
comparable statesman, the farseeing large
minded administrator; we hear Of his un-
orring generalship his mastery manipu-
lation of his fellowmen from kings to con-
scripts; of his capaeious brain, in which
details innumerable were stored ready for
immediate use; of his kindly, winning
smile, his unfailing generosity to migrate
full relatiyos-everything in short, to his
credit, nothing of his crimes.
Fer if he were great genius, the great
est perhaps the world has seen, be was
also one of The greatest criminals. 1t may
seem to pass the bounds OF historical crit
ieism to call him a murderer, q brigand
and thief, yet the Indictment can be
maintained that he was all these, and on
tho largest scale. He sent men wholesale
totheir deaths; a couple Of million French
men, as many more OF other races-allies
or enemies-were butchered to create,
maintain or defend his power He re-
clear his way to the throne He began
his robberies in his first italian campaign;
after the spoliation Of specie and cash he
stole territories and crowns. He was
scourge to Europe; his path was bloodshed
and rapine as devastating as the cholera
or the black death. And ali this for per-
sonal ACKNOWLEDGMENT, the qualification
of his greed and lust of power, Of his in
satiable hunger for conquest, his cravings
for military renown. He was no patriot;
he had no country of his own. Since Cor
sica had discarded him, he fought for his
own hand, not for France. And France,
which he had raised for a short space to
pinnacle Of great glory, he left torn and
bleeding, depepulated, impoverished.
This is the truer estimate of one who
was, under some aspects, devil incarnate
"A monster in human form, as he has
been described in the pages Of Taine, Ian
frey, Seeley and few more. This is the
judicial view, calm and dispassionate,
based on the plain evidence Of acts and
conduct, rising superior to sentiment
Taine explains Napoleon as a fifteenth
century survival, q throw back" to an
other race in an earlier epoch. He is a
freak of nature reproducing the great
Italian tyrants, the all powerful condot-
tlefl, the 6OlUlefS OF fortune VINO, Striking
out boldly at great stakes, raised them
selves to thrones or persisted in the at
tempt. Napoleon was one by inheritance,
an Italian Of clear, straight descent a
child of the land that produced the Sforzas,
the Viscontis, the Borgias "a posthumous
brother of Dante and Michael Angelo, -
ranking with them in mental qualities.
"His genius says Taine, is Of the same
STATURE the same structure. He is one Of
the three sovereign minds of the Ital-
ian renaissance, except that while the
first two work on paper or marble the last
operates on the living being, on the sensi-
tive, suffering flesh Of humanity" 1t is
this which constitutes Napoleon an evil
doer. Crime has been well defined as
refusal TO abide By rules that men, for
their general pr0gaetion, agrsa "a call
binding. Napoleon accepted 40 snoh obi
cation He set all such rules st defiance;
his arrogant Ill embracing cgotism was
above the law. The eternal moi, tlo 'inl-
itloss selhshness, cold blooded and calcu
lating, that gathered in everything to lis
support, needed in his opinion no explana-
ton or justiacation.--New illustrated
Magazine.