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NAPOLEON.
CHAPTER I.
TAINE'S PORTRAIT.[1]
I begin the series of portraits by giving that of Taine. It is the most finished and the most powerful. Indeed, I know scarcely any portrait in literature in which there is more dazzling literary skill; but it is a portrait by an avowed and a bitter enemy. It is too peremptory and too consistent; above all, it is a portrait drawn by what I may call a literary absolutist—the artist who insists that human figures should follow the rigidity of a philosopher's scientific rules.
I.
NAPOLEON AN ITALIAN.
The first point which Taine brings out is that this mighty despot, who ruled France as she had never been ruled before, was not even a Frenchman. Not only in blood and in birth, but in feeling he
- ↑ "The Modern Régime." Vol. I. By H. A. Taine. Translated by John Durand. (London: Sampson Low, Marston, & Co.)
