The San Francisco call., 1908-11-29

~ France" =" Napoleon etc Published by
the Neale company. New York Price Sl-5o-
~ EADERs familiar with the Ma
poIeonv Of Thomas E. Watson.
and also his STORY Of France
know that he is not only keen
and careful investigator. but vigor-
Gus and graphic writer OF brilliance
and dash combined with unusual
charm. So unusual is this charm that
one has almost to think twice to realize
that his work is history and not highly
imaginative fiction.
Napoleon" is a thorough study ana
IS more discriminating and more in
telligent than amy other work on the
f-roar .C0rsican WatsOns histories are
characterized by the sanity and calm
ness with which he handles his sub
-rcts and his treatment comes as ctose
ro being unbiased as any human work
well can.
After reading Waterloo one teels
that he not only knows the whole
story Of that wonderful three days
struggle. hut that he never knew any
thing about it before. Mr.. Watson does
ro- unveil any new facts; hundreds Of
stories about the battle have been writ
ten, but he takes stand not noted
before. He says Napoleons executive
ability had degenerated. as had also
the executive ability of his generals
In the first chapter few paragraphs
show this plainly:
"Tn the scre and yellow leaf Of life,
but stiu Titanic in his proportions, the
emperor. once the charity boy Of Bri-
enne-he who fought the whole school
when the young aristocrats Of France
made fun Of his shabby clothes and
Corsican birth, stood at bay against
world in arms.
"Feudausm against him. caste
AGAINST him. hereditary aristOcracy
against him, the divine right Of kings
against him. and. above all, the lg-
norance. the prejudice and the un-
willingness Of mankind 10 be forced
out Of old ruts, We're against him.
Against him was a church hierarchy
which painted for ancient powers and
fmmunities and wealth. Against him
were the privileged few Of every gov
ernment on earth-thOse who feast on
class legislation and resent Interrupt
tion. Against him were all those who
denied the right Of a nation 10 choose
its own ruler, those who hated the
dogma that the true foundation to
government is the consent Of the gov
erned To meet 50 powerful combl-
nation. the one sure resource was that
from which Napoleon shrank in horror
AN appeal TO the JacObins, the sans
culottes, the fierce men Of the masses
who hated the priest and the aristo-
crat"
Napoleon had many talks in Paris
with that noble old revolutionary pa
triot. Carnot, and he remarked mourn
fully 70 him as he made ready TO
leave Paris for the army:
when one has had misfortunes one
no longer has the confidence which is
necessary to success
So that it can be seen what Ma
poleon's own frame Of mind was before
the great battle.
Every detail Of the battle is gone
over carefully in this account. One
feels az il It had all happened yester-
day, it is so vivid.
In q, recent letter Mr.. Watson writes;
sTn waterloo I have not used any OF
the material used in Napoleon, ex-
cepting the general line Of the nara
tive. se@ IN fact my reason for
writing Waterloo was that so much
new NapOleonic material is now avail
able which had not come TO light when
my Napoleon was written" But it is
hard TO consider sources and Eau
tborfties" when we come 10 Napoleon's
last battlefield. It is all right oi
course the historian must be careful
and he must know the facts, but
wen. here IS Napoleon
Mr. WatsOn's English is forceful and
AT times he even uses the collOquial
brt the result never offends ia fact
some viii even consider his style
strengthened by its very unconven-
fIonaIity tt is great book and de-
serves a high place in French history