Evening star., 1943-06-27
NupoIeon's S Decline

NopoIeon's Decline
What happens when the star OF a
conqueror begins to fade? One pos
sible answer is provided by great
British soldier and student of history,
Field Marshal Viscount Wolseley, in
classic work published in 1895.
There was, he says: "An unquestioned
falling of in Napoleon's brain power
as well as in his bodily vigor towards
the end of his marvellous career"
Such a development, of course, is
common in the experience of thou
sands of men who do not aspire to
dictate to the universe. In the case
of Bonaparte, however, decline OF
physical and mental health had con-
notations of exceptional significance.
On at least three critical occasions
in the last four years of struggle of
Napoleon to dominate Europe, "a
mysterious malady" interferred with
his proceedings. That ailment, Lord
Wolseley explains, usually followed
upon periods of enormous exer-
ton and generally during great
exposure. 1t may, perhaps, be best
defined as a sudden attack Of
lethargy or physical and moral pros
tration, sometimes accompanied by
acute bodily path. Its effects, as
known to lookers-on, were that, at
some critical moment of battle, his
wonderful power Of quick and correct
decision seemed to desert him; so
much so that for the time being he
almost abandoned the reins to
chance"
Lord WolseIey mentions the fact
that Napoleon Throughout his active
life ." always worked at very high
pressure, and so overstrained the
machinery of his mind and body that
both deteriorated with more than
ordinary rapidity - Even those
who hate his memory will admit that
his brain was almost superhuman in
its grasp Of subjects that interested
him. Probably no other man has
ever dealt so energetically for an
equal number of years, and with such
direct responsibility, with so great a
variety of involved and complicated
public questions of the first magni-
tude. But during this process, his
clear, nimble brain had suffered from
exhausting anxieties and the unceas-
ing work they entailed. His splendid
constitution gradually yielded to the
frequent exposure and constant
fatigues, by night and day, which the
peculiar nature of his position i'm
posed upon him."
At forty-four, Lord Wolseley de-
clares, Napoleon's health already was
wrecked. "The more I study his
grandly conceived plan Of campaign
for 1915 the more convinced am
that the overwhelming defeat in
which it ended was primarily the
result of bodily disease and the
failure OF mental power which re-
suited from it at supreme moments
when rapid and energetic decision
was imperatively necessary for sue
cess. = His fatigued and lethargic
condition on the early morning of the
seventeenth (of June) accounts for
the many hours of daylight that were
trifled away. We know that
during the progress of the battle (of
Waterloo) itself he remained seated
for hours motionless at table placed
for him in the open, often asleep with
his head resting upon his arms; that
also when flying beaten from the
field he suffered so much from
drowsiness it was with difficulty his
attendants prevented him from tum-
bling from his horse"
Few contemporaries of Adolf Hitler
will be inclined to concede him any
degree of genius comparable with
that of Napoleon, but Der F6ehrer
and the Corsican at least have this
in common: Both are mortal and
the one may "crack up" as did the
other.