HISTORIC DOUBTS
RELATIVE TO
NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE.


Long as the public attention has been occupied by the extraordinary
personage from whose ambition we are supposed to have so narrowly
escaped, the subject seems to have lost scarcely anything of its
interest. We are still occupied in recounting the exploits, discussing
the character, inquiring into the present situation, and even
conjecturing as to the future prospects of Napoleon Buonaparte.

Nor is this at all to be wondered at, if we consider the very
extraordinary nature of those exploits, and of that character; their
greatness and extensive importance, as well as the unexampled
strangeness of the events, and also that strong additional stimulant,
the mysterious uncertainty that hangs over the character of the man.
If it be doubtful whether any history (exclusive of such as is
confessedly fabulous) ever attributed to its hero such a series of
wonderful achievements compressed into so small a space of time, it
is certain that to no one were ever assigned so many dissimilar
characters.

It is true, indeed, that party-prejudices have drawn a favourable and
an unfavourable portrait of almost every eminent man; but amidst all
the diversities of colouring, something of the same general outline is
always distinguishable. And even the virtues in the one description
bear some resemblance to the vices of another: rashness, for instance,