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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Historic Doubts Relative To Napoleon
+Buonaparte, by Richard  Whately
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Historic Doubts Relative To Napoleon Buonaparte
+
+Author: Richard  Whately
+
+Release Date: March 30, 2006 [EBook #18087]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORIC DOUBTS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeannie Howse, Thierry Alberto and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team of Distributed Proofreaders
+Europe at http://dp.rastko.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORIC
+
+DOUBTS
+
+RELATIVE TO
+
+NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE.
+
+
+  Is not the same reason available in theology and in politics?...
+  Will you follow truth but to a certain point?—BURKE'S
+  _Vindication of Natural Society._
+
+  The first author who stated fairly the connexion between the
+  evidence of testimony and the evidence of experience, was Hume, in
+  his ESSAY ON MIRACLES; a work _abounding in maxims of great use_ in
+  the conduct of life.—_Edinburgh Review_, Sept. 1814, p. 328.
+
+_NEW EDITION._
+
+LONDON:
+LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
+MDCCCLXV.
+
+
+
+
+LONDON:
+SAVILL AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS, CHANDOS STREET,
+COVENT GARDEN.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+Several of the readers of this little work (first published in 1819)
+have derived much amusement from the mistakes of others respecting its
+nature and object. It has been by some represented as a serious
+attempt to inculcate universal scepticism; while others have
+considered it as a jeu d'esprit, &c.[1] The author does not, however,
+design to entertain his readers with accounts of the mistakes which,
+have arisen respecting it; because many of them, he is convinced,
+would be received with incredulity; and he could not, without an
+indelicate exposure of individuals, verify his anecdotes.
+
+But some sensible readers have complained of the difficulty of
+determining _what_ they are to believe. Of the existence of
+Buonaparte, indeed, they remained fully convinced; nor, if it were
+left doubtful, would any important results ensue; but if they can give
+no _satisfactory reason_ for their conviction, how can they know, it
+is asked, that they may not be mistaken as to other points of greater
+consequence, on which they are no less fully convinced, but on which
+all men are _not_ agreed? The author has accordingly been solicited to
+endeavour to frame some canons which may furnish a standard for
+determining what evidence is to be received.
+
+This he conceives to be impracticable, except to that extent to which
+it is accomplished by a sound system of Logic; including under that
+title, a portion—that which relates to the "Laws of Evidence"—of
+what is sometimes treated under the head of "Rhetoric." But the full
+and complete accomplishment of such an object would confer on Man the
+unattainable attribute of infallibility.
+
+But the difficulty complained of, he conceives to arise, in many
+instances, from men's _mis-stating the grounds of their own
+conviction_. They are convinced, indeed, and perhaps with very
+sufficient reason; but they imagine this reason to be a different one
+from what it is. The evidence to which they have assented is applied
+to their minds in a different manner from that in which they believe
+that it is—and suppose that it ought to be—applied. And when
+challenged to defend and justify their own belief, they feel at a
+loss, because they are attempting to maintain a position which is
+not, in fact, that in which their force lies.
+
+For a development of the nature, the consequences, and the remedies of
+this mistake, the reader is referred to "Hinds on Inspiration," pp.
+30-46. If such a development is to be found in any earlier works, the
+Author of the following pages at least has never chanced to meet with
+any attempt of the kind.[2]
+
+It has been objected, again, by some persons of no great logical
+accuracy of thought, that as there would not be any _moral blame_
+imputable to one who should seriously disbelieve, or doubt, the
+existence of Buonaparte, so neither is a rejection of the
+Scripture-histories to be considered as implying anything morally
+culpable.
+
+The same objection, such as it is, would apply equally to many of the
+Parables of the New Testament. It might be said, for instance, that as
+a woman who should decline taking the trouble of searching for her
+lost "piece of silver," or a merchant who should neglect making an
+advantageous purchase of a "goodly pearl," would be guilty of no moral
+wrong, it must follow that there is nothing morally wrong in
+neglecting to reclaim a lost sinner, or in rejecting the Gospel, &c.
+
+But any man of common sense readily perceives that the force of these
+parables consists in the circumstance that men do _not_ usually show
+this carelessness about temporal goods; and, therefore, are guilty of
+gross and culpable _inconsistency_, if they are comparatively
+careless about what is far more important.
+
+So, also, in the present case. If any man's mind were so constituted
+as to reject the same evidence in _all_ matters alike—if, for
+instance, he really doubted or disbelieved the existence of
+Buonaparte, and considered the Egyptian pyramids as fabulous, because,
+forsooth, he had no "experience" of the erection of such huge
+structures, and _had_ experience of travellers telling huge lies—he
+would be regarded, perhaps, as very silly, or as insane, but not as
+morally culpable. But if (as is intimated in the concluding sentence
+of this work) a man is influenced in one case by objections which, in
+another case, he would deride, then he stands convicted of being
+unfairly biassed by his prejudices.
+
+It is only necessary to add, that as this work first appeared in the
+year 1819, many things are spoken of in the present tense, to which
+the past would now be applicable.
+
+Postscripts have been added to successive editions in reference to
+subsequent occurrences.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] It was observed by some reviewer, that Hume himself, had he been
+alive, would doubtless have highly enjoyed the joke! But even those
+who have the greatest delight in ridicule, do not relish jokes at
+_their own expense_. Hume may have inwardly laughed, while mystifying
+his readers with arguments which he himself perceived to be futile.
+But he did not mean the readers to perceive this. And it is not likely
+that he would have been amused at seeing his own fallacies exposed and
+held up to derision.
+
+[2] See _Elements of Rhetoric_, p. i. ch. 2, § 4.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+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,
+will be called courage, or courage, rashness; heroic firmness, and
+obstinate pride, will correspond in the two opposite descriptions; and
+in some leading features both will agree. Neither the friends nor the
+enemies of Philip of Macedon, or of Julius Cæsar, ever questioned
+their COURAGE, or their MILITARY SKILL.
+
+With Buonaparte, however, it has been otherwise. This obscure Corsican
+adventurer, a man, according to some, of extraordinary talents and
+courage, according to others, of very moderate abilities, and a rank
+coward, advanced rapidly in the French army, obtained a high command,
+gained a series of important victories, and, elated by success,
+embarked in an expedition against Egypt; which was planned and
+conducted, according to some, with the most consummate skill,
+according to others, with the utmost wildness and folly: he was
+unsuccessful, however; and leaving the army in Egypt in a very
+distressed situation, he returned to France, and found the nation, or
+at least the army, so favourably disposed towards him, that he was
+enabled, with the utmost ease, to overthrow the existing government,
+and obtain for himself the supreme power; at first, under the modest
+appellation of Consul, but afterwards with the more sounding title of
+Emperor. While in possession of this power, he overthrew the most
+powerful coalitions of the other European States against him; and
+though driven from the sea by the British fleets, overran nearly the
+whole continent, triumphant; finishing a war, not unfrequently, in a
+single campaign, he entered the capitals of most of the hostile
+potentates, deposed and created Kings at his pleasure, and appeared
+the virtual sovereign of the chief part of the continent, from the
+frontiers of Spain to those of Russia. Even those countries we find
+him invading with prodigious armies, defeating their forces,
+penetrating to their capitals, and threatening their total
+subjugation. But at Moscow his progress is stopped: a winter of
+unusual severity, co-operating with the efforts of the Russians,
+totally destroys his enormous host: and the German sovereigns throw
+off the yoke, and combine to oppose him. He raises another vast army,
+which is also ruined at Leipsic; and again another, with which, like a
+second Antæus, he for some time maintains himself in France; but is
+finally defeated, deposed, and banished to the island of Elba, of
+which the sovereignty is conferred on him. Thence he returns, in about
+nine months, at the head of 600 men, to attempt the deposition of King
+Louis, who had been peaceably recalled; the French nation declare in
+his favour, and he is reinstated without a struggle. He raises another
+great army to oppose the allied powers, which is totally defeated at
+Waterloo; he is a second time deposed, surrenders to the British, and
+is placed in confinement at the island of St. Helena. Such is the
+outline of the eventful history presented to us; in the detail of
+which, however, there is almost every conceivable variety of
+statement; while the motives and conduct of the chief actor are
+involved in still greater doubt, and the subject of still more eager
+controversy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the midst of these controversies, the preliminary question,
+concerning the _existence_ of this extraordinary personage, seems
+never to have occurred to any one as a matter of doubt; and to show
+even the smallest hesitation in admitting it, would probably be
+regarded as an excess of scepticism; on the ground that this point
+has always been taken for granted by the disputants on all sides,
+being indeed implied by the very nature of their disputes.
+
+But is it in fact found that _undisputed_ points are always such as
+have been the most carefully examined as to the evidence on which they
+rest? that facts or principles which are taken for granted, without
+controversy, as the common basis of opposite opinions, are always
+themselves established on sufficient grounds? On the contrary, is not
+any such fundamental point, from the very circumstance of its being
+taken for granted at once, and the attention drawn off to some other
+question, likely to be admitted on insufficient evidence, and the
+flaws in that evidence overlooked?
+
+Experience will teach us that such instances often occur: witness the
+well-known anecdote of the Royal Society; to whom King Charles II.
+proposed as a question, whence it is that a vessel of water receives
+no addition of weight from a live fish being put into it, though it
+does, if the fish be dead. Various solutions, of great ingenuity, were
+proposed, discussed, objected to, and defended; nor was it till they
+had been long bewildered in the inquiry, that it occurred to them _to
+try the experiment_; by which they at once ascertained that the
+phenomenon which they were striving to account for,—which was the
+acknowledged basis and substratum, as it were, of their debates,—had
+no existence but in the invention of the witty monarch.[3]
+
+Another instance of the same kind is so very remarkable that I cannot
+forbear mentioning it. It was objected to the system of Copernicus
+when first brought forward, that if the earth turned on its axis, as
+he represented, a stone dropped from the summit of a tower would not
+fall at the foot of it, but at a great distance to the west; _in the
+same manner as a stone dropped from the mast-head of a ship in full
+sail, does not fall at the foot of the mast, but towards the stern_.
+To this it was answered, that a stone being a _part_ of the earth
+obeys the same laws, and moves with it; whereas, it is no part of the
+ship; of which, consequently, its motion is independent. This solution
+was admitted by some, but opposed by others; and the controversy went
+on with spirit; nor was it till _one hundred years_ after the death of
+Copernicus, that the experiment being tried, it was ascertained that
+the stone thus dropped from the head of the mast _does_ fall at the
+foot of it![4]
+
+Let it be observed that I am not now impugning any one particular
+narrative; but merely showing generally, that what is _unquestioned_
+is not necessarily unquestionable; since men will often, at the very
+moment when they are accurately sifting the evidence of some disputed
+point, admit hastily, and on the most insufficient grounds, what they
+have been accustomed to see taken for granted.
+
+The celebrated Hume[5] has pointed out, also, the readiness with which
+men believe, on very slight evidence, any story that pleases their
+imagination by its admirable and marvellous character. Such hasty
+credulity, however, as he well remarks, is utterly unworthy of a
+philosophical mind; which should rather suspend its judgment the more,
+in proportion to the strangeness of the account, and yield to none but
+the most decisive and unimpeachable proofs.
+
+Let it, then, be allowed us, as is surely reasonable, just to inquire,
+with respect to the extraordinary story I have been speaking of, on
+what evidence we believe it. We shall be told that it is _notorious_;
+i.e., in plain English, it is very _much talked about_. But as the
+generality of those who talk about Buonaparte do not even pretend to
+speak from _their own authority_, but merely to repeat what they have
+casually heard, we cannot reckon them as, in any degree, witnesses;
+but must allow ninety-nine hundredths of what we are told to be mere
+hearsay, which would not be at all the more worthy of credit even if
+it were repeated by ten times as many more. As for those who profess
+to have _personally known_ Napoleon Buonaparte, and to have
+_themselves witnessed_ his transactions, I write not for them. _If any
+such there be_, who are inwardly conscious of the truth of all they
+relate, I have nothing to say to them, but to beg that they will be
+tolerant and charitable towards their neighbours, who have not the
+same means of ascertaining the truth, and who may well be excused for
+remaining doubtful about such extraordinary events, till most
+unanswerable proofs shall be adduced. "I would not have believed such
+a thing, if I had not seen it," is a common preface or appendix to a
+narrative of marvels; and usually calls forth from an intelligent
+hearer the appropriate answer, "_no more will I_."
+
+Let us, however, endeavour to trace up some of this hearsay evidence
+as far towards its source as we are able. Most persons would refer to
+the _newspapers_ as the authority from which their knowledge on the
+subject was derived; so that, generally speaking, we may say it is on
+the testimony of the newspapers that men believe in the existence and
+exploits of Napoleon Buonaparte.
+
+It is rather a remarkable circumstance, that it is common to hear
+Englishmen speak of the impudent fabrications of foreign newspapers,
+and express wonder that any one can be found to credit them; while
+they conceive that, in this favoured land, the liberty of the press is
+a sufficient security for veracity. It is true they often speak
+contemptuously of such "newspaper-stories" as last but a short time;
+indeed they continually see them contradicted within a day or two in
+the same paper, or their falsity detected by some journal of an
+opposite party; but still whatever is _long adhered to_ and often
+_repeated_, especially if it also appear in _several different_
+papers (and this, though they notoriously copy from one another), is
+almost sure to be generally believed. Whence this high respect which
+is practically paid to newspaper authority? Do men think, that because
+a witness has been perpetually detected in falsehood, he may therefore
+be the more safely believed whenever he is _not_ detected? or does
+adherence to a story, and frequent repetition of it, render it the
+more credible? On the contrary, is it not a common remark in other
+cases, that a liar will generally stand to and reiterate what he has
+once said, merely because he _has_ said it?
+
+Let us, if possible, divest ourselves of this superstitious veneration
+for everything that appears "in print," and examine a little more
+systematically the evidence which is adduced.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I suppose it will not be denied that the three following are among the
+most important points to be ascertained, in deciding on the
+credibility of witnesses; first, whether they have the means of
+gaining correct _information_; secondly, whether they have any
+_interest_ in concealing truth, or propagating falsehood; and,
+thirdly, whether they _agree_ in their testimony. Let us examine the
+present witnesses upon all these points.
+
+First, what means have the editors of newspapers for giving correct
+information? We know not, except from their own statements. Besides
+what is copied from other journals, foreign or British, (which is
+usually more than three-fourths of the news published,)[6] they
+profess to refer to the authority of certain "private correspondents"
+abroad; _who_ these correspondents are, what means they have of
+obtaining information, or whether they exist at all, we have no way of
+ascertaining. We find ourselves in the condition of the Hindoos, who
+are told by their priests that the earth stands on an elephant, and
+the elephant on a tortoise; but are left to find out for themselves
+what the tortoise stands on, or whether it stands on anything at all.
+
+So much for our clear knowledge of the means of _information_
+possessed by these witnesses; next, for the grounds on which we are to
+calculate on their _veracity_.
+
+Have they not a manifest interest in circulating the wonderful
+accounts of Napoleon Buonaparte and his achievements, whether true or
+false? Few would read newspapers if they did not sometimes find
+wonderful or important news in them; and we may safely say that no
+subject was ever found so inexhaustibly interesting as the present.
+
+It may be urged, however, that there are several adverse political
+parties, of which the various public prints are respectively the
+organs, and who would not fail to expose each other's fabrications.[7]
+Doubtless they would, if they could do so without at the same time
+exposing _their own_; but identity of interests may induce a
+community of operations up to a certain point. And let it be observed
+that the object of contention between these rival parties is, _who_
+shall have the administration of public affairs, the control of public
+expenditure, and the disposal of places: the question, I say, is, not
+whether the people shall be governed or not, but, _by which party_
+they shall be governed;—not whether the taxes shall be paid or not,
+but _who_ shall _receive_ them. Now, it must be admitted that
+Buonaparte is a political bugbear, most convenient to _any_
+administration: "if you do not adopt our measures and reject those of
+our opponents, Buonaparte will be sure to prevail over you; if you do
+not submit to the Government, at least under _our_ administration,
+this formidable enemy will take advantage of your insubordination, to
+conquer and enslave you: pay your taxes cheerfully, or the tremendous
+Buonaparte will take all from you." Buonaparte, in short, was the
+burden of every song; his redoubted name was the charm which always
+succeeded in unloosing the purse-strings of the nation. And let us not
+be too sure,[8] safe as we now think ourselves, that some occasion may
+not occur for again producing on the stage so useful a personage: it
+is not merely to naughty children in the nursery that the threat of
+being "given to Buonaparte" has proved effectual.
+
+It is surely probable, therefore, that, with an object substantially
+the same, all parties may have availed themselves of one common
+instrument. It is not necessary to suppose that for this purpose they
+secretly entered into a formal agreement; though, by the way, there
+are reports afloat, that the editors of the _Courier_ and _Morning
+Chronicle_ hold amicable consultations as to the conduct of their
+public warfare: I will not take upon me to say that this is
+incredible; but at any rate it is not necessary for the establishment
+of the probability I contend for. Neither again would I imply that
+_all_ newspaper editors are utterers of forged stories, "knowing them
+to be forged;" most likely the great majority of them publish what
+they find in other papers with the same simplicity that their readers
+peruse it; and therefore, it must be observed, are not at all more
+proper than their readers to be cited as authorities.
+
+Still it will be said, that unless we suppose a regularly preconcerted
+plan, we must at least expect to find great discrepancies in the
+accounts published. Though they might adopt the general outline of
+facts from one another, they would have to fill up the detail for
+themselves; and in this, therefore, we should meet with infinite and
+irreconcilable variety.
+
+Now this is precisely the point I am tending to; for the fact exactly
+accords with the above supposition; the discordance and mutual
+contradictions of these witnesses being such as would alone throw a
+considerable shade of doubt over their testimony. It is not in minute
+circumstances alone that the discrepancy appears, such as might be
+expected to appear in a narrative substantially true; but in very
+great and leading transactions, and such as are very intimately
+connected with the supposed hero. For instance, it is by no means
+agreed whether Buonaparte led in person the celebrated charge over the
+bridge of Lodi, (for _celebrated_ it certainly is, as well as the
+siege of Troy, whether either event ever really took place or no,) or
+was safe in the rear, while Augereau performed the exploit. The same
+doubt hangs over the charge of the French cavalry at Waterloo. The
+peasant Lacoste, who professed to have been Buonaparte's guide on the
+day of battle, and who earned a fortune by detailing over and over
+again to visitors all the particulars of what the great man said and
+did up to the moment of flight,—this same Lacoste has been suspected
+by others, besides me, of having never even been near the great man,
+and having fabricated the whole story for the sake of making a gain of
+the credulity of travellers. In the accounts that are the extant of
+the battle itself, published by persons professing to have been
+present, the reader will find that there is a discrepancy of _three
+or four hours_ as to the time when the battle began!—a battle, be it
+remembered, not fought with javelins and arrows, like those of the
+ancients, in which one part of a large army might be engaged, whilst a
+distant portion of the same army knew nothing of it; but a battle
+commencing (if indeed it were ever fought at all) with the _firing of
+cannon_, which, would have announced pretty loudly what was going on.
+
+It is no less uncertain whether or no this strange personage poisoned
+in Egypt an hospital—full of his own soldiers, and butchered in cold
+blood a garrison that had surrendered. But not to multiply instances;
+the battle of Borodino, which is represented as one of the greatest
+ever fought, was unequivocally claimed as a victory by both parties;
+nor is the question decided at this day. We have official accounts on
+both sides, circumstantially detailed, in the names of supposed
+respectable persons, professing to have been present on the spot; yet
+totally irreconcilable. _Both_ these accounts _may_ be false; but
+since _one_ of them _must_ be false, that one (it is no matter _which_
+we suppose) proves incontrovertibly this important maxim: that _it is
+possible for a narrative—however circumstantial—however steadily
+maintained—however public, and however important, the events it
+relates—however grave the authority on which it is published—to be
+nevertheless an entire fabrication!_
+
+Many of the events which have been recorded were probably believed
+much the more readily and firmly, from the apparent caution and
+hesitation with which they were at first published—the vehement
+contradiction in our papers of many pretended French accounts—and the
+abuse lavished upon them for falsehood, exaggeration, and gasconade.
+But is it not possible—is it not, indeed, perfectly natural—that the
+publishers even of known falsehood should assume this cautious
+demeanour, and this abhorrence of exaggeration, in order the more
+easily to gain credit? Is it not also very possible, that those who
+actually believed what they published, may have suspected mere
+_exaggeration_ in stories which were entire _fictions_? Many men have
+that sort of simplicity, that they think themselves quite secure
+against being deceived, provided they believe only _part_ of the story
+they hear; when perhaps the whole is equally false. So that perhaps
+these simple-hearted editors, who were so vehement against lying
+bulletins, and so wary in announcing their great news, were in the
+condition of a clown, who thinks he has bought a great bargain of a
+Jew because he has beat down the price perhaps from a guinea to a
+crown, for some article that is not really worth a groat.
+
+With respect to the _character_ of Buonaparte, the dissonance is, if
+possible, still greater. According to some, he was a wise, humane,
+magnanimous hero; others paint him as a monster of cruelty, meanness,
+and perfidy: some, even of those who are most inveterate against him,
+speak very highly of his political and military ability: others place
+him on the very verge of insanity. But allowing that all this may be
+the colouring of party-prejudice, (which surely is allowing a great
+deal,) there is one point to which such a solution will hardly apply:
+if there be anything that can be clearly ascertained in history, one
+would think it must be the _personal courage of a military man_; yet
+here we are as much at a loss as ever; at the very same times, and on
+the same occasions, he is described by different writers as a man of
+undaunted intrepidity, and as an absolute poltroon.
+
+What, then, are we to believe? If we are disposed to credit all that
+is told us, we must believe in the existence not only of one, but of
+two or three Buonapartes; if we admit nothing but what is well
+authenticated, we shall be compelled to doubt of the existence of
+any.[9]
+
+It appears, then, that those on whose testimony the existence and
+actions of Buonaparte are generally believed, fail in ALL the most
+essential points on which the credibility of witnesses depends: first,
+we have no assurance that they have access to correct information;
+secondly, they have an apparent interest in propagating falsehood;
+and, thirdly, they palpably contradict each other in the most
+important points.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another circumstance which throws additional suspicion on these tales
+is, that the whig-party, as they are called—the warm advocates for
+liberty, and opposers of the encroachments of monarchical power—have
+for some time past strenuously espoused the cause and vindicated the
+character of Buonaparte, who is represented by all as having been, if
+not a tyrant, at least an absolute despot. One of the most forward in
+this cause is a gentleman, who once stood foremost in holding up this
+very man to public execration—who first published, and long
+maintained against popular incredulity, the accounts of his atrocities
+in Egypt. Now that such a course should be adopted for party-purposes;
+by those who are aware that the whole story is a fiction, and the hero
+of it imaginary, seems not very incredible; but if they believed in
+the real existence of this despot, I cannot conceive how they could so
+forsake their principles as to advocate his cause, and eulogize his
+character.
+
+Besides the many strange and improbable circumstances in the history
+of Buonaparte that have been already noticed, there are many others,
+two of which it may be worth while to advert to.
+
+One of the most incredible is the received account of the persons
+known as the "Détenus." It is well known that a great number of
+English gentlemen passed many years, in the early part of the present
+century, abroad;—by their own account, in France. Their statement
+was, that while travelling in that country for their amusement, as
+peaceable tourists, they were, on the sudden breaking out of a war,
+seized by this terrible Buonaparte, and kept prisoners for about
+twelve years, contrary to all the usages of civilized nations—to all
+principles of justice, of humanity, of enlightened policy; many of
+them thus wasting in captivity the most important portion of their
+lives, and having all their prospects blighted.
+
+Now whether these persons were in reality exiles by choice, for the
+sake of keeping out of the way of creditors, or of enjoying the
+society of those they preferred to their own domestic circle, I do not
+venture to conjecture. But let the reader consider whether _any_
+conjecture can be _more_ improbable than the statement actually made.
+
+It is, indeed, credible that ambition may prompt an unscrupulous man
+to make the most enormous sacrifices of human life, and to perpetrate
+the most atrocious crimes, for the advancement of his views of
+conquest. But that this _great_ man—as he is usually reckoned even by
+adversaries—this hero according to some—this illustrious warrior,
+and mighty sovereign—should have stooped to be guilty of an act of
+mean and petty malice worthy of a spiteful old woman,—a piece of
+paltry cruelty which could not at all conduce to his success in the
+war, or produce any effect except to degrade his country, and
+exasperate ours;—this, surely, is quite incredible. "Pizarro," says
+Elvira in Kotzebue's play, "if not always justly, at least act always
+greatly."
+
+But a still more wonderful circumstance connected with this
+transaction remains behind. A large portion of the English nation, and
+among these the whole of the Whig party, are said to have expressed
+the most vehement indignation, mingled with compassion, at the
+banishment from Europe, and confinement in St. Helena, of this great
+man. No considerations of regard for the peace and security of our own
+country, no dread of the power of so able and indefatigable a warrior,
+and so inveterate an enemy, should have induced us, they thought, to
+subject this formidable personage to a confinement, which was far
+less severe than that to which he was said to have subjected such
+numbers of our countrymen, the harmless _non-belligerent_ travellers,
+whom (according to the story) he kidnapped in France, with no object
+but to gratify the basest and most unmanly spite.
+
+But that there is no truth in that story, and that it was not believed
+by those who manifested so much sympathy and indignation on this great
+man's account, is sufficiently proved by that very sympathy and
+indignation.
+
+There are again other striking improbabilities connected with the
+Polish nation in the history before us. Buonaparte is represented as
+having always expressed the strongest sympathy with that ill-used
+people; and they, as being devotedly attached to him, and fighting
+with the utmost fidelity and bravery in his armies, in which some of
+them attained high commands. Now he had it manifestly in his power at
+one period (according to the received accounts), with a stroke of his
+pen, to re-establish Poland as an independent state. For, in his last
+Russian war, he had complete occupation of the country (of which the
+population was perfectly friendly); the Russian portion of it was his
+by right of conquest; and Austria and Prussia, then his allies, and
+almost his subjects, would gladly have resigned their portions in
+exchange for some of the provinces they had ceded to France, and
+which were, to him, of little value, but, to them, important. And,
+indeed, Prussia was (as we are told) so thoroughly humbled and
+weakened that he might easily have enforced the cession of
+Prussian-Poland, even without any compensation. And the
+re-establishment of the Polish kingdom would have been as evidently
+politic as it was reasonable. The independence of a faithful and
+devoted ally, at enmity with the surrounding nations—the very nations
+that were the most likely to combine (as they often had done) against
+him,—this would have given him, at no cost, a kind of strong garrison
+to maintain his power, and keep his enemies in check.
+
+Yet this most obvious step, the history tells us, he did not take; but
+made flattering speeches to the Poles, used their services, and did
+nothing for them!
+
+This is, alone, sufficiently improbable. But we are required moreover
+to believe that the Poles,—instead of _execrating_ this man, who had
+done them the unpardonable wrong of wantonly disappointing the
+expectations he had, for his own purposes, excited, thus adding
+treachery to ingratitude—instead of this, continued to the last as
+much devoted to him as ever, and even now idolize his memory! We are
+to believe, in short, that this Buonaparte, not only in his own
+conduct and adventures violated all the established rules of
+probability, but also caused all other persons, as many as came in
+contact with him, to act as no mortals ever did act before: may we not
+add, as no mortals ever did act at all?
+
+Many other improbabilities might be added to the list, and will be
+found in the complete edition of that history, from which some
+extracts will be presently given, and which has been published (under
+the title of "Historic Certainties") by Aristarchus Newlight, with a
+learned commentary (not, indeed, adopting the views contained in these
+pages, but) quite equal in ingenuity to a late work on the "Hebrew
+Monarchy."
+
+After all, it may be expected that many who perceive the force of
+these objections, will yet be loth to think it possible that they and
+the public at large can have been so long and so greatly imposed upon.
+And thus it is that the magnitude and boldness of a fraud becomes its
+best support. The millions who for so many ages have believed in
+Mahomet or Brahma, lean as it were on each other for support; and not
+having vigour of mind enough boldly to throw off vulgar prejudices,
+and dare be wiser than the multitude, persuade themselves that what so
+many have acknowledged must be true. But I call on those who boast
+their philosophical freedom of thought, and would fain tread in the
+steps of Hume and other inquirers of the like exalted and speculative
+genius, to follow up fairly and fully their own principles, and,
+throwing off the shackles of authority, to examine carefully the
+evidence of whatever is proposed to them, before they admit its truth.
+
+That even in this enlightened age, as it is called, a whole nation may
+be egregiously imposed upon, even in matters which intimately concern
+them, may be proved (if it has not been already proved) by the
+following instance: it was stated in the newspapers, that, a month
+after the battle of Trafalgar, an English officer, who had been a
+prisoner of war, and was exchanged, returned to this country from
+France, and beginning to condole with his countrymen on the terrible
+_defeat_ they had sustained, was infinitely astonished to learn that
+the battle of Trafalgar was a splendid victory. He had been assured,
+he said, that in that battle the English had been totally defeated;
+and the French were fully and universally persuaded that such was the
+fact. Now if this report of the belief of the French nation was _not_
+true, the British Public were completely imposed upon; if it _were_
+true, then both nations were, at the same time, rejoicing in the event
+of the same battle, as a signal victory to themselves; and
+consequently one or other, at least, of these nations must have been
+the dupes of their government: for if the battle was never fought at
+all, or was not decisive on either side, in that case _both_ parties
+were deceived. This instance, I conceive, is absolutely demonstrative
+of the point in question.
+
+"But what shall we say to the testimony of those many respectable
+persons who went to Plymouth on purpose, and saw Buonaparte with their
+own eyes? must they not trust their senses?" I would not disparage
+either the eyesight or the veracity of these gentlemen. I am ready to
+allow that they went to Plymouth for the purpose of seeing Buonaparte;
+nay, more, that they actually rowed out into the harbour in a boat,
+and came alongside of a man-of-war, on whose deck they saw a man in a
+cocked hat, who, _they were told_, was Buonaparte. This is the utmost
+point to which their testimony goes; how they ascertained that this
+man in the cocked hat had gone through all the marvellous and romantic
+adventures with which we have so long been amused, we are not told.
+Did they perceive in his physiognomy, his true name, and authentic
+history? Truly this evidence is such as country people give one for a
+story of apparitions; if you discover any signs of incredulity, they
+triumphantly show the very house which the ghost haunted, the
+identical dark corner where it used to vanish, and perhaps even the
+tombstone of the person whose death it foretold. Jack Cade's nobility
+was supported by the same irresistible kind of evidence: having
+asserted that the eldest son of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, was
+stolen by a beggar-woman, "became a bricklayer when he came to age,"
+and was the father of the supposed Jack Cade; one of his companions
+confirms the story, by saying, "Sir, he made a chimney in my father's
+house, and the bricks are alive at this day to testify it; therefore,
+deny it not."
+
+Much of the same kind is the testimony of our brave countrymen, who
+are ready to produce the scars they received in fighting against this
+terrible Buonaparte. That they fought and were wounded, they may
+safely testify; and probably they no less firmly _believe_ what they
+were _told_ respecting the cause in which they fought: it would have
+been a high breach of discipline to doubt it; and they, I conceive,
+are men better skilled in handling a musket, than in sifting evidence,
+and detecting imposture. But I defy any one of them to come forward
+and declare, _on his own knowledge_, what was the cause in which he
+fought,—under whose commands the opposed generals acted,—and whether
+the person who issued those commands did really perform the mighty
+achievements we are told of.
+
+Let those, then, who pretend to philosophical freedom of inquiry,—who
+scorn to rest their opinions on popular belief, and to shelter
+themselves under the example of the unthinking multitude, consider
+carefully, each one for himself, what is the evidence proposed to
+himself in particular, for the existence of such a person as Napoleon
+Buonaparte:—I do not mean, whether there ever was a person bearing
+that _name_, for that is a question of no consequence; but whether any
+such person ever performed all the wonderful things attributed to
+him;—let him then weigh well the objections to that evidence, (of
+which I have given but a hasty and imperfect sketch,) and if he then
+finds it amount to anything _more_ than a probability, I have only to
+congratulate him on his easy faith.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But the same testimony which would have great weight in establishing a
+thing intrinsically probable, will lose part of this weight in
+proportion as the matter attested is improbable; and if adduced in
+support of anything that is at variance with uniform experience,[10]
+will be rejected at once by all sound reasoners. Let us then consider
+what sort of a story it is that is proposed to our acceptance. How
+grossly contradictory are the reports of the different authorities, I
+have already remarked: but consider, by itself, the story told by any
+one of them; it carries an air of fiction and romance on the very face
+of it. All the events are great, and splendid, and marvellous;[11] great
+armies,—great victories,—great frosts,—great reverses,—"hair-breadth
+'scapes,"—empires subverted in a few days; everything happened in
+defiance of political calculations, and in opposition to the
+_experience_ of past times; everything upon that grand scale, so common
+in Epic Poetry, so rare in real life; and thus calculated to strike the
+imagination of the vulgar, and to remind the sober-thinking few of the
+Arabian Nights. Every event, too, has that _roundness_ and completeness
+which is so characteristic of fiction; nothing is done by halves; we
+have _complete_ victories,—_total_ overthrows, _entire_ subversion of
+empires,—_perfect_ re-establishments of them,—crowded upon us in rapid
+succession. To enumerate the improbabilities of each of the several
+parts of this history, would fill volumes; but they are so fresh in
+every one's memory, that there is no need of such a detail: let any
+judicious man, not ignorant of history and of human nature, revolve them
+in his mind, and consider how far they are conformable to
+Experience,[12] our best and only sure guide. In vain will he seek in
+history for something similar to this wonderful Buonaparte; "nought but
+himself can be his parallel."
+
+Will the conquests of Alexander be compared with his? _They_ were
+effected over a rabble of effeminate, undisciplined barbarians; else
+his progress would hardly have been so rapid: witness his father
+Philip, who was much longer occupied in subduing the comparatively
+insignificant territory of the warlike and civilized Greeks,
+notwithstanding their being divided into numerous petty States, whose
+mutual jealousy enabled him to contend with them separately. But the
+Greeks had never made such progress in arts and arms as the great and
+powerful States of Europe, which Buonaparte is represented as so
+speedily overpowering. His empire has been compared to the Roman: mark
+the contrast; he gains in a few years, that dominion, or at least
+control, over Germany, wealthy, civilized, and powerful, which the
+Romans in the plenitude of their power, could not obtain, during a
+struggle of as many centuries, against the ignorant half-savages who
+then possessed it; of whom Tacitus remarks, that, up to his own time
+they had been "triumphed over rather than conquered."
+
+Another peculiar circumstance in the history of this extraordinary
+personage is, that when it Is found convenient to represent him as
+defeated, though he is by no means defeated by halves, but involved in
+much more sudden and total ruin than the personages of real history
+usually meet with; yet, if it is thought fit he should be restored, it
+is done as quickly and completely as if Merlin's rod had been
+employed. He enters Russia with a prodigious army, which is totally
+ruined by an unprecedented hard winter; (everything relating to this
+man is _prodigious_ and _unprecedented_;) yet in a few months we find
+him intrusted with another great army in Germany, which is also
+totally ruined at Leipsic; making, inclusive of the Egyptian, the
+third great army thus totally lost: yet the French are so good-natured
+as to furnish him with another sufficient to make a formidable stand
+in France; he is, however, _conquered, and presented with the
+sovereignty of Elba_; (surely, by the bye, some more _probable_ way
+might have been found of disposing of him, till again wanted, than to
+place him thus on the very verge of his ancient dominions;) thence he
+returns to France, where he is received with open arms, and enabled to
+lose a fifth great army at Waterloo; yet so eager were these people to
+be a sixth time led to destruction, that it was found necessary to
+confine _him_ in an island some thousand miles off, and to quarter
+foreign troops upon _them_, lest they should make an insurrection in
+his favour?[13] Does any one believe all this, and yet refuse to
+believe a miracle? Or rather, what is this but a miracle? Is it not a
+violation of the laws of nature? for surely there are moral laws of
+nature as well as physical; which though more liable to exceptions in
+this or that particular case, are no less _true as general rules_ than
+the laws of matter, and therefore cannot be violated and contradicted
+_beyond a certain point_, without a miracle.[14]
+
+Nay, there is this additional circumstance which renders the
+contradiction of Experience more glaring in this case than in that of
+the miraculous histories which ingenious sceptics have held up to
+contempt: all the advocates of miracles admit that they are rare
+exceptions to the general course of nature; but contend that they must
+needs be so, on account of the rarity of those extraordinary
+_occasions_ which are the _reason_ of their being performed: a
+Miracle, they say, does not happen every day, because a Revelation is
+not given every day. It would be foreign to the present purpose to
+seek for arguments against this answer; I leave it to those who are
+engaged in the controversy, to find a reply to it; but my present
+object is, to point out that this solution does not at all apply in
+the present case. Where is the peculiarity of the _occasion_? What
+sufficient _reason_ is there for a series of events occurring in the
+eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which never took place before?
+Was Europe at that period peculiarly weak, and in a state of
+barbarism, that one man could achieve such conquests, and acquire such
+a vast empire? On the contrary, she was flourishing in the height of
+strength and civilization. Can the persevering attachment and blind
+devotedness of the French to this man, be accounted for by his being
+the descendant of a long line of kings, whose race was hallowed by
+hereditary veneration? No; we are told he was a low-born usurper, and
+not even a Frenchman! Is it that he was a good and kind sovereign? He
+is represented not only as an imperious and merciless despot, but as
+most wantonly careless of the lives of his soldiers. Could the French
+army and people have failed to hear from the wretched survivors of his
+supposed Russian expedition, how they had left the corpses of above
+100,000 of their comrades bleaching on the snow-drifts of that dismal
+country, whither his mad ambition had conducted him, and where his
+selfish cowardice had deserted them? Wherever we turn to seek for
+circumstances that may help to account for the events of this
+incredible story, we only meet with such as aggravate its
+improbability.[15] Had it been told of some distant country, at a
+remote period, we could not have told what peculiar circumstances
+there might have been to render probable what seems to us most
+strange; and yet in _that_ case every philosophical sceptic, every
+free-thinking speculator, would instantly have rejected such a
+history, as utterly unworthy of credit. What, for instance, would the
+great Hume, or any of the philosophers of his school, have said, if
+they had found in the antique records of any nation, such a passage
+as this? "There was a certain man of Corsica, whose name was Napoleon,
+and he was one of the chief captains of the host of the French; and he
+gathered together an army, and went and fought against Egypt: but when
+the king of Britain heard thereof, he sent ships of war and valiant
+men to fight against the French in Egypt. So they warred against them,
+and prevailed, and strengthened the hands of the rulers of the land
+against the French, and drave away Napoleon from before the city of
+Acre. Then Napoleon left the captains and the army that were in Egypt,
+and fled, and returned back to France. So the French people, took
+Napoleon, and made him ruler over them, and he became exceeding great,
+insomuch that there was none like him of all that had ruled over
+France before."
+
+What, I say, would Hume have thought of this, especially if he had
+been told that it was at this day generally credited? Would he not
+have confessed that he had been mistaken in supposing there was a
+peculiarly blind credulity and prejudice in favour of everything that
+is accounted _sacred_;[16] for that, since even professed sceptics
+swallow implicitly such a story as this, it appears there must be a
+still blinder prejudice in favour of everything that is _not_
+accounted sacred?
+
+Suppose, again, we found in this history such passages as the
+following: "And it came to pass after these things that Napoleon
+strengthened himself, and gathered together another host instead of
+that which he had lost, and went and warred against the Prussians, and
+the Russians, and the Austrians, and all the rulers of the north
+country, which were confederate against him. And the ruler of Sweden,
+also, which was a Frenchman, warred against Napoleon. So they went
+forth, and fought against the French in the plain of Leipsic. And the
+French were discomfited before their enemies, and fled, and came to
+the rivers which are behind Leipsic, and essayed to pass over, that
+they might escape out of the hand of their enemies; but they could
+not, for Napoleon had broken down the bridges: so the people of the
+north countries came upon them, and smote them with a very grievous
+slaughter." ...
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Then the ruler of Austria and all the rulers of the north countries
+sent messengers unto Napoleon to speak peaceably unto him, saying, Why
+should there be war between us any more? Now Napoleon had put away
+his wife, and taken the daughter of the ruler of Austria to wife. So
+all the counsellors of Napoleon came and stood before him, and said,
+Behold now these kings are merciful kings; do even as they say unto
+thee; knowest thou not yet that France is destroyed? But he spake
+roughly unto his counsellors, and drave them, out from his presence,
+neither would he hearken unto their voice. And when all the kings saw
+that, they warred against France, and smote it with the edge of the
+sword, and came near to Paris, which is the royal city, to take it: so
+the men of Paris went out, and delivered up the city to them. Then
+those kings spake kindly unto the men of Paris, saying, Be of good
+cheer, there shall no harm happen unto you. Then were the men of Paris
+glad, and said, Napoleon is a tyrant; he shall no more rule over us.
+Also all the princes, the judges, the counsellors, and the captains
+whom Napoleon had raised up even from the lowest of the people, sent
+unto Lewis the brother of King Lewis, whom they had slain, and made
+him king over France." ...
+
+... ... ... ... ... ... ...
+
+"And when Napoleon saw that the kingdom was departed from him, he said
+unto the rulers which came against him, Let me, I pray you, give the
+kingdom unto my son: but they would not hearken unto him. Then he
+spake yet again, saying, Let me, I pray you, go and live in the island
+of Elba, which is over against Italy, nigh unto the coast of France;
+and ye shall give me an allowance for me and my household, and the
+land of Elba also for a possession. So they made him ruler of
+Elba."...
+
+... ... ... ... ... ... ...
+
+"In those days the Pope returned unto his own land. Now the French,
+and divers other nations of Europe, are servants of the Pope, and hold
+him in reverence; but he is an abomination unto the Britons, and to
+the Prussians, and to the Russians, and to the Swedes. Howbeit the
+French had taken away all his lands, and robbed him of all that he
+had, and carried him away captive into France. But when the Britons,
+and the Prussians, and the Russians, and the Swedes, and the rest of
+the nations that were confederate against France, came thither, they
+caused the French to set the Pope at liberty, and to restore all his
+goods that they had taken; likewise they gave him back all his
+possessions; and he went home in peace, and ruled over his own city as
+in times past."...
+
+... ... ... ... ... ... ...
+
+"And it came to pass when Napoleon had not yet been a full year at
+Elba, that he said unto his men of war that clave unto him, Go to, let
+us go back to France, and fight against King Lewis, and thrust him out
+from being king. So he departed, he and six hundred men with him that
+drew the sword, and warred against King Lewis. Then all the men of
+Belial gathered themselves together, and said, God save Napoleon. And
+when Lewis saw that, he fled, and gat him into the land of Batavia:
+and Napoleon ruled over France," &c. &c. &c.[17]
+
+Now if a free-thinking philosopher—one of those who advocate the
+cause of unbiassed reason, and despise pretended revelations—were to
+meet with such a tissue of absurdities as this in an old Jewish
+record, would he not reject it at once as too palpable an
+imposture[18] to deserve even any inquiry into its evidence? Is that
+credible then of the civilized Europeans now, which could not, if
+reported of the semi-barbarous Jews 3000 years ago, be established by
+any testimony? Will it be answered, that "there is nothing
+_supernatural_ in all this?" Why is it, then, that you object to what
+is _supernatural_—that you reject every account of _miracles_—if not
+because they are _improbable_? Surely then a story equally or still
+more improbable, is not to be implicitly received, merely on the
+ground that it is _not_ miraculous: though in fact, as I have already
+(in note, p. 39,) shown from Hume's authority, it _is_ really
+miraculous. The opposition to Experience has been proved to be as
+complete in this case, as in what are commonly called miracles; and
+the reasons assigned for that contrariety by the defenders of _them_,
+cannot be pleaded in the present instance. If then philosophers, who
+reject every wonderful story that is maintained by priests, are yet
+found ready to believe _everything else_, however improbable, they
+will surely lay themselves open to the accusation brought against them
+of being unduly prejudiced against whatever relates to religion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There is one more circumstance which I cannot forbear mentioning,
+because it so much adds to the air of fiction which pervades every
+part of this marvellous tale; and that is, the _nationality_ of
+it.[19]
+
+Buonaparte prevailed over all the hostile States in turn, _except
+England_; in the zenith of his power, his fleets were swept from the
+sea, _by England_; his troops always defeat an equal, and frequently
+even a superior number of those of any other nation, _except the
+English_; and with them it is just the reverse; twice, and twice only,
+he is personally engaged against an _English commander_, and both
+times he is totally defeated; at Acre, and at Waterloo; and to crown
+all, _England_ finally crushes this tremendous power, which had so
+long kept the continent in subjection or in alarm; and to the
+_English_ he surrenders himself prisoner! Thoroughly national, to be
+sure! It _may_ be all very true; but I would only ask, _if_ a story
+_had_ been fabricated for the express purpose of amusing the English
+nation, could it have been contrived more ingeniously? It would do
+admirably for an epic poem; and indeed bears a considerable
+resemblance to the Iliad and the Æneid; in which Achilles and the
+Greeks, Æneas and the Trojans, (the ancestors of the Romans) are so
+studiously held up to admiration. Buonaparte's exploits seem magnified
+in order to enhance the glory of his conquerors; just as Hector is
+allowed to triumph during the absence of Achilles, merely to give
+additional splendour to his overthrow by the arm of that invincible
+hero. Would not this circumstance alone render a history rather
+_suspicious_ in the eyes of an acute critic, even if it were not
+filled with such gross improbabilities; and induce him to suspend his
+judgment, till very satisfactory evidence (far stronger than can be
+found in this case) should be produced?
+
+Is it then too much to demand of the wary academic[20] a suspension of
+judgment as to the "life and adventures of Napoleon Buonaparte?" I do
+not pretend to _decide_ positively that there is not, nor ever was,
+any such person; but merely to propose it as a _doubtful_ point, and
+one the more deserving of careful investigation, from the very
+circumstance of its having hitherto been admitted without inquiry. Far
+less would I undertake to decide what is or has been the real state of
+affairs. He who points out the improbability of the current story, is
+not bound to suggest an hypothesis of his own;[21] though it may
+safely be affirmed, that it would be hard to invent any one more
+improbable than the received one. One may surely be allowed to
+hesitate in admitting the stories which the ancient poets tell, of
+earthquakes and volcanic eruptions being caused by imprisoned giants,
+without being called upon satisfactorily to account for those
+phenomena.
+
+Amidst the defect of valid evidence under which, as I have already
+shown, we labour in the present instance, it is hardly possible to
+offer more than here and there a probable conjecture; or to pronounce
+how much may be true, and how much fictitious, in the accounts
+presented to us. For, it is to be observed that this case is much
+_more_ open to sceptical doubts even than some miraculous histories;
+since some of _them_ are of such a nature that you cannot consistently
+admit a part and reject the rest; but are bound, if you are satisfied
+as to the reality of any one miracle, to embrace the whole system; so
+that it is necessary for the sceptic to impeach the evidence of _all_
+of them, separately, and collectively: whereas, _here_, each single
+point requires to be _established_ separately, since no one of them
+authenticates the rest. Supposing there be a state-prisoner at St.
+Helena, (which, by the way, it is acknowledged many of the French
+disbelieve,) how do we know who he is, or why he is confined there?
+There have been state-prisoners before now, who were never guilty of
+subjugating half Europe, and whose offences have been very imperfectly
+ascertained. Admitting that there have been bloody wars going on for
+several years past, which is highly probable, it does not follow that
+the events of those wars were such as we have been told;—that
+Buonaparte was the author and conductor of them;—or that such a
+person ever existed. What disturbances may have taken place in the
+government of the French people, we, and even nineteen-twentieths of
+_them_, have no means of learning but from imperfect hearsay evidence;
+and how much credit they themselves attach to that evidence is very
+doubtful. This at least is certain: that a M. Berryer, a French
+advocate, has published memoirs, professing to record many of the
+events of the recent history of France, in which, among other things,
+he states his conviction that Buonaparte's escape from Elba was
+DESIGNED AND CONTRIVED BY THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT.[22] And we are
+assured by many travellers that this was, and is, commonly reported in
+France.
+
+Now that the French should believe the whole story about Buonaparte
+according to this version of it, does seem utterly incredible. Let any
+one suppose them seriously believing that we maintained for many years
+a desperate struggle against this formidable emperor of theirs, in the
+course of which we expended such an enormous amount of blood and
+treasure as is reported;—that we finally, after encountering enormous
+risks, succeeded in subduing him, and secured him in a place of safe
+exile;—and that, in less than a year after, we turned him out again,
+like a bag-fox,—or rather, a bag-lion,—for the sake of amusing
+ourselves by again staking all that was dear to us on the event of a
+doubtful and bloody battle, in which defeat must be ruinous, and
+victory, if obtained at all, must cost us many thousands of our best
+soldiers. Let any one force himself for a moment to conceive the
+French seriously believing such a mass of absurdity; and the inference
+must be that such a people must be prepared to believe anything. They
+might fancy their own country to abound not only with Napoleons, but
+with dragons and centaurs, and "men whose heads do grow beneath their
+shoulders," or anything else that any lunatic ever dreamt of. If we
+could suppose the French capable of such monstrous credulity as the
+above supposition would imply, it is plain their testimony must be
+altogether worthless.
+
+But, on the other hand, suppose them to be aware that the British
+Government have been all along imposing on us, and it is quite natural
+that they should deride our credulity, and try whether there is
+anything too extravagant for us to swallow. And indeed, if Buonaparte
+was in fact altogether a phantom conjured up by the British Ministers,
+then it is _true_ that his escape from Elba really _was_, as well as
+_the rest of his exploits_, a contrivance of theirs.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But whatever may be believed by the French relative to the recent
+occurrences, in their own country, and whatever may be the real
+character of these occurrences, of this at least we are well assured,
+that there have been numerous bloody wars with France under the
+dominion of the _Bourbons_: and we are now told that France is
+governed by a Bourbon king, of the name of Lewis, who professes to be
+in the twenty-third year of his reign. Let every one conjecture for
+himself. I am far from pretending to decide who may have been the
+governor or governors of the French nation, and the leaders of their
+armies, for several years past. Certain it is, that when men are
+indulging their inclination for the marvellous, they always show a
+strong propensity to accumulate upon _one_ individual (real or
+imaginary) the exploits of many; besides multiplying and exaggerating
+these exploits a thousandfold. Thus, the expounders of the ancient
+mythology tell us there were several persons of the name of Hercules,
+(either originally bearing that appellation, or having it applied to
+them as an honour,) whose collective feats, after being dressed up in
+a sufficiently marvellous garb, were attributed to a single hero. Is
+it not just possible, that during the rage for words of Greek
+derivation, the title of "Napoleon," (Ναπολέων,) which signifies "Lion
+of the forest," may have been conferred by the popular voice on more
+than one favorite general, distinguished for irresistible valour? Is
+it not also possible that "BUONA PARTE" may have been originally a
+sort of cant term applied to the "good (i.e., the bravest or most
+patriotic) part" of the French army, collectively; and have been
+afterwards mistaken for the proper name of an individual?[23] I do not
+profess to support this conjecture; but it is certain that such
+mistakes may and do occur. Some critics have supposed that the
+Athenians imagined ANASTASIS ("Resurrection") to be a new goddess, in
+whose cause Paul was preaching. Would it have been thought anything
+incredible if we had been told that the ancient Persians, who had no
+idea of any but a monarchical government, had supposed Aristocratia to
+be a queen of Sparta? But we need not confine ourselves to
+hypothetical cases; it is positively stated that the Hindoos at this
+day believe "the honourable East India Company" to be a venerable old
+lady of high dignity, residing in this country. The Germans, again, of
+the present day derive their name from a similar mistake: the first
+tribe of them who invaded Gaul[24] assumed the honourable title of
+"_Ger-man_" which signifies "warriors," (the words "war" and "guerre,"
+as well as "man," which remains in our language unaltered, are
+evidently derived from the Teutonic,) and the Gauls applied this as a
+_name_ to the whole _race_.
+
+However, I merely throw out these conjectures without by any means
+contending that more plausible ones might not be suggested. But
+whatever supposition we adopt, or whether we adopt any, the objections
+to the commonly received accounts will remain in their full force, and
+imperiously demand the attention of the candid sceptic.
+
+I call upon those, therefore, who profess themselves advocates of free
+inquiry—who disdain to be carried along with the stream of popular
+opinion, and who will listen to no testimony that runs counter to
+experience,—to follow up their own principles fairly and
+consistently. Let the same mode of argument be adopted in all cases
+alike; and then it can no longer be attributed to hostile prejudice,
+but to enlarged and philosophical views. If they have already rejected
+some histories, on the ground of their being strange and
+marvellous,—of their relating facts, unprecedented, and at variance
+with the established course of nature,—let them not give credit to
+another history which lies open to the very same objections,—the
+extraordinary and romantic tale we have been just considering. If they
+have discredited the testimony of witnesses, who are _said_ at least
+to have been disinterested, and to have braved persecutions and death
+in support of their assertions,—can these philosophers consistently
+listen to and believe the testimony of those who avowedly _get money_
+by the tales they publish, and who do not even pretend that they incur
+any serious risk in case of being detected in a falsehood? If, in
+other cases, they have refused to listen to an account which has
+passed through many intermediate hands before it reaches them, and
+which is defended by those who have an interest in maintaining it; let
+them consider through how many, and what very suspicious hands, _this_
+story has arrived to them, without the possibility, as I have shown,
+of tracing it back to any decidedly authentic source, after all;—to
+any better authority, according to their own showing, than that of an
+_unnamed_ and unknown foreign correspondent;—and likewise how strong
+an interest, in every way, those who have hitherto imposed on them,
+have in keeping up the imposture. Let them, in short, show themselves
+as ready to detect the cheats, and despise the fables of politicians
+as of priests.
+
+But if they are still wedded to the popular belief in this point, let
+them be consistent enough to admit the same evidence in _other_ cases
+which they yield to in _this_. If, after all that has been said, they
+cannot bring themselves to doubt of the existence of Napoleon
+Buonaparte, they must at least acknowledge that they do not apply to
+that question the same plan of reasoning which they have made use of
+in others; and they are consequently bound in reason and in honesty to
+renounce it altogether.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] "A report is spread, (says Voltaire in one of his works,) that
+there is, in some country or other, a giant as big as a mountain; and
+men presently fall to hot disputing concerning the precise length of
+his nose, the breadth of his thumb, and other particulars, and
+anathematize each other for heterodoxy of belief concerning them. In
+the midst of all, if some bold sceptic ventures to hint a doubt as to
+the existence of this giant, all are ready to join against him, and
+tear him to pieces." This looks almost like a prophetic allegory
+relating to the gigantic Napoleon.
+
+[4] Οὕτως ἀταλαίπωρος τοῖς πολλοῖς ἡ ζήτησις τῆς ἀληθείας, καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ
+ἕτοιμα μᾶλλον τρέπονται. Thucyd. b.i.c. 20.
+
+[5] "With what greediness are the miraculous accounts of travellers
+received, their descriptions of sea and land monsters, their relations
+of wonderful adventures, strange men, and uncouth manners!"—_Hume's
+Essay on Miracles_, p. 179, 12mo; p. 185, 8vo, 1767; p. 117, 8vo,
+1817.
+
+N.B.—In order to give every possible facility of reference, three
+editions of Hume's Essays have been generally employed: a 12mo,
+London, 1756, and two 8vo editions.
+
+[6] "Suppose a fact to be transmitted through twenty persons; the
+first communicating it to the second, the second to the third, &c.,
+and let the probability of each testimony be expressed by nine-tenths,
+(that is, suppose that of ten reports made by each witness, nine only
+are true,) then, at every time the story passes from one witness to
+another, the evidence is reduced to nine-tenths of what it was before.
+Thus, after it has passed through the whole twenty, the evidence will
+be found to be less than one-eighth."—LA PLACE, _Essai Philosophique
+sur les Probabilités_.
+
+That is, the chances for the fact thus attested being true, will be,
+according to this distinguished calculator, less than one in eight.
+Very few of the common newspaper-stories, however, relating to foreign
+countries, could be traced, if the matter were carefully investigated,
+up to an actual eye-witness, even through twenty intermediate
+witnesses; and many of the steps of our ladder, would, I fear, prove
+but rotten; few of the reporters would deserve to have _one in ten_
+fixed as the proportion of their false accounts.
+
+[7] "I did not mention the difficulty of detecting a falsehood in any
+private or even public history, at the time and place where it is said
+to happen; much more where the scene is removed to ever so small a
+distance.... But the matter never comes to any issue, if trusted to the
+common method of altercation and debate and flying rumours."—_Hume's
+Essay on Miracles_, p. 195, 12mo; pp. 200, 201, 8vo, 1767; p. 127, 8vo,
+1817.
+
+[8] See the third Postscript appended to this edition.
+
+[9] "We entertain a suspicion concerning any matter of fact, when the
+witnesses _contradict_ each other; when they are of a _suspicious_
+character; when they have an _interest_ in what they affirm."—_Hume's
+Essay on Miracles_, p. 172, 12mo; p. 176, 8vo, 1767; p. 113, 8vo.
+1817.
+
+[10] "That testimony itself derives all its force from experience,
+seems very certain.... The first author, we believe, who stated fairly
+the connexion between the evidence of testimony and the evidence of
+experience, was HUME, in his Essay on Miracles, a work ... abounding
+in maxims of great use in the conduct of life."—_Edin. Review_, Sept.
+1814, p. 328.
+
+[11] "Suppose, for instance, that the fact which the testimony
+endeavours to establish partakes of the extraordinary and the
+marvellous; in that case, the evidence resulting from the testimony
+receives a diminution, greater or less in proportion as the fact is
+more or less unusual."—_Hume's Essay on Miracles_, p. 173, 12mo; p.
+176, 8vo, 1767; p. 113, 8vo, 1817.
+
+[12] "The ultimate standard by which we determine all disputes that
+may arise is always derived from experience and observation."—_Hume's
+Essay on Miracles_, p. 172, 12mo; p. 175, 8vo, 1767; p. 112, 8vo,
+1817.
+
+[13]
+    Ἠ θαύματα πολλά.
+    Καὶ τού τι καὶ βροτῶν φρένας
+    ὙΠΕΡ ΤΟΝ ΑΛΗΘΗ ΛΟΓΟΝ
+    Δεδειδαλμένοι ψεύδεσι ποικίλοις
+    Ἐξαπατῶντι μῦθοι. PIND. Olymp. 1
+
+[14] This doctrine, though hardly needing confirmation from authority,
+is supported by that of Hume; his eighth essay is, throughout, an
+argument for the doctrine of "Philosophical necessity," drawn entirely
+from the general uniformity, observable in the course of nature with
+respect to the principles of _human conduct_, as well as those of the
+material universe; from which uniformity, he observes, it is that we
+are enabled _in both cases_, to form our judgment by means of
+_Experience:_ "and if," says he, "we would explode any forgery in
+history, we cannot make use of a more convincing argument, than to
+prove that the actions ascribed to any person, are directly contrary
+to the course of nature....
+
+"... The Veracity of Quintus Curtius is as suspicious when he
+describes the supernatural courage of Alexander, by which he was
+hurried on singly to attack multitudes, as when he describes his
+supernatural force and activity, by which he was able to resist them.
+So readily and universally do we acknowledge a _uniformity in human
+motives and actions, as well as in the operations of body_."—_Eighth
+Essay_, p. 131, 12mo; p. 85, 8vo, 1817.
+
+Accordingly, in the tenth essay, his use of the term "miracle," after
+having called it "a transgression of a law of nature," plainly shows
+that he meant to include _human_ nature: "no testimony," says he, "is
+sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a
+nature that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which
+it endeavours to establish." The term "prodigy" also (which he all
+along employs as synonymous with "miracle") is applied to testimony, in
+the same manner, immediately after; "In the foregoing reasoning we have
+supposed ... that the falsehood of that testimony would be a kind of
+_prodigy_." Now had he meant to confine the meaning of "miracle," and
+"prodigy," to a violation of the laws of _matter_, the epithet
+"_miraculous_," applied even thus hypothetically, to _false testimony_,
+would be as unmeaning as the epithets "green" or "square;" the only
+possible sense in which we can apply to it, even in imagination, the
+term "miraculous," is that of "highly improbable,"—"contrary to those
+laws of nature which respect human conduct:" and in this sense he
+accordingly uses the word in the very next sentence: "When any one
+tells me that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately
+consider with myself whether it be more _probable_ that this person
+should either deceive or be deceived, or that the fact which he relates
+should really have happened. I weigh the one _miracle_ against the
+other."—_Hume's Essay on Miracles_, pp. 176, 177, 12mo; p. 182, 8vo,
+1767; p. 115, 8vo, 1817.
+
+See also a passage above quoted from the same essay, where he speaks
+of "the _miraculous_ accounts of travellers;" evidently using the word
+in this sense.
+
+Perhaps it was superfluous to cite authority for applying the term
+"miracle" to whatever is "highly improbable;" but it is important to
+the students of Hume, to be fully aware that he uses those two
+expressions as synonymous; since otherwise they would mistake the
+meaning of that passage which he justly calls "a general maxim worthy
+of your attention."
+
+[15] "Events may be so extraordinary that they can hardly be
+established by testimony. We would not give credit to a man who would
+affirm that he saw a hundred dice thrown in the air, and that they all
+fell on the same faces."—_Edin. Review_, Sept. 1814, p. 327.
+
+Let it be observed, that the instance here given is _miraculous_ in no
+other sense but that of being highly _improbable_.
+
+[16] "If the spirit of religion join itself to the love of wonder,
+there is an end of common sense; and human testimony in these
+circumstances loses all pretensions to authority."—_Hume's Essay on
+Miracles_, p. 179, 12mo; p. 185, 8vo, 1767; p. 117, 8vo, 1817.
+
+[17] The supposed history from which the above extracts are given, is
+published entire in the work called _Historic Certainties._
+
+[18] "I desire any one to lay his hand upon his heart, and after
+serious consideration declare whether he thinks that the falsehood of
+such a book, supported by such testimony, would be more extraordinary
+and miraculous than all the miracles it relates."—_Hume's Essay on
+Miracles_, p. 200, 12mo; p. 206, 8vo, 1767; p. 131, 8vo, 1817.
+
+Let it be borne in mind that Hume (as I have above remarked)
+continually employs the term "miracle" and "prodigy" to signify
+anything that is highly _improbable_ and _extraordinary._
+
+[19] "The wise lend a very academic faith to every report which
+favours the passion of the reporter, whether it magnifies his
+_country_, his family, or himself."—_Hume's Essay on Miracles_, p.
+144, 12mo; p. 200, 8vo, 1767; p. 126, 8vo, 1817.
+
+[20] "Nothing can be more contrary than such a philosophy (the
+academic or sceptical) to the supine indolence of the mind, its rash
+arrogance, its lofty pretensions, and its superstitious
+credulity."—_Fifth Essay_, p. 68, 12mo; p. 41, 8vo, 1817.
+
+[21] See _Hume's Essay on Miracles_, pp. 189, 191, 195, 12mo; pp. 193,
+197, 201, 202, 8vo, 1767; pp. 124, 125, 126, 8vo, 1817.
+
+[22] See _Edinburgh Review_ for October, 1842, p. 162.
+
+[23] It is well know with how much learning and ingenuity the
+Rationalists of the German school have laboured to throw discredit on
+the literal interpretation of the narratives, both of the Old and the
+New Testaments; representing them as MYTHS, i.e., fables allegorically
+describing some physical or moral phænomena—philosophical
+principles—systems, &c.—under the figure of actions performed by
+certain ideal personages; these allegories having been, afterwards,
+through the mistake of the vulgar, believed as history. Thus, the real
+historical existence of such a person as the supposed founder of the
+Christian religion, and the acts attributed to him, are denied in the
+literal sense, and the whole of the evangelical history is explained
+on the "mythical" theory.
+
+Now it is a remarkable circumstance in reference to the point at
+present before us, that an eminent authoress of this century has
+distinctly declared that Napoleon Buonaparte was NOT A MAN, but a
+SYSTEM.
+
+[24] Germaniæ vocabulum recens et nuper additum; quoniam qui primi
+Rhenum transgressi Gallos expulerint, ac nunc Tungri, tunc Germani
+vocati sint: ita nationis nomen in nomen gentis evaluisse paullatim,
+ut omnes, primum a victore ob metum, mox a seipsis invento nomine,
+Germani vocarentur.—_Tacitus, de Mor. Germ._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT TO THE THIRD EDITION.
+
+
+It may seem arrogant for an obscure and nameless individual to claim
+the glory of having put to death the most formidable of all recorded
+heroes. But a shadowy champion may be overthrown by a shadowy
+antagonist. Many a terrific spectre has been laid by the beams of a
+halfpenny candle. And if I have succeeded in making out, in the
+foregoing pages, a probable case of suspicion, it must, I think, be
+admitted, that there is some ground for my present boast, of having
+_killed_ Napoleon Buonaparte.
+
+Let but the circumstances of the case be considered. This mighty
+Emperor, who had been so long the bugbear of the civilized world,
+after having obtained successes and undergone reverses, such as never
+befel any (other at least) _real_ potentate, was at length sentenced
+to confinement in the remote island of St. Helena: a measure which
+many persons wondered at, and many objected to, on various grounds;
+not unreasonably, supposing the illustrious exile to be a real person;
+but on the supposition of his being only a man of straw, the
+situation was exceedingly favourable for keeping him out of the way of
+impertinent curiosity, when not wanted, and for making him the
+foundation of any new plots that there might be occasion to conjure
+up.
+
+About this juncture it was that the public attention was first
+invited, by these pages, to the question as to the real existence of
+Napoleon Buonaparte. They excited, it may be fairly supposed, along
+with much surprise and much censure, some degree of doubt, and
+probably of consequent inquiry. No fresh evidence, as far as I can
+learn, of the truth of the disputed points, was brought forward to
+dispel these doubts. We heard, however, of the most jealous
+precautions being used to prevent any intercourse between the
+formidable prisoner, and any stranger who, from motives of curiosity,
+might wish to visit him. The "man in the iron mask" could hardly have
+been more rigorously secluded: and we also heard various contradictory
+reports of conversations between him and the few who were allowed
+access to him; the falsehood and inconsistency of most of these
+reports being proved in contemporary publications.
+
+At length, just about the time when the public scepticism respecting
+this extraordinary personage might be supposed to have risen to an
+alarming height, it was announced to us that he was dead! A stop was
+thus put, most opportunely, to all troublesome inquiries. I do not
+undertake to deny that such a person did live and die. That he was,
+and that he did, _everything_ that is reported, we cannot believe,
+unless we consent to admit contradictory statements; but many of the
+events reported, however marvellous, are certainly not, when taken
+separately, physically impossible. But I would only entreat the candid
+reader to reflect what might naturally be expected, on the supposition
+of the surmises contained in the present work being well founded.
+Supposing the whole of the tale I have been considering to have been a
+fabrication, what would be the natural result of such attempt to
+excite inquiry into its truth? Evidently the shortest and most
+effectual mode of avoiding detection, would be to _kill_ the phantom,
+and so get rid of him at once. A ready and decisive answer would thus
+be provided to any one in whom the foregoing arguments might have
+excited suspicions: "Sir, there can be no doubt that such a person
+existed, and performed what is related of him; and if you will just
+take a voyage to St. Helena, you may see with your own eyes,—not him,
+indeed, for he is no longer living,—but his _tomb_: and what evidence
+would you have that is more decisive?"
+
+So much for his _Death_: as for his _Life_,—it is just published by
+an eminent writer: besides which, the shops will supply us with
+abundance of busts and prints of this great man; all striking
+likenesses—of one another. The most incredulous must be satisfied
+with this! "Stat magni NOMINIS umbra!"
+
+KONX OMPAX.
+
+
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT TO THE SEVENTH EDITION.
+
+
+Since the publication of the Sixth Edition of this work, the French
+nation, and the world at large, have obtained an additional evidence,
+to which I hope they will attach as much weight as it deserves, of the
+reality of the wonderful history I have been treating of. The Great
+Nation, among the many indications lately given of an heroic zeal like
+what Homer attributes to his Argive warriors, τίσασθαι ἙΛΈΝΗΣ ὁρμήματά
+τε στοναχάς τε, have formed and executed the design of bringing home
+for honourable interment the remains of their illustrious Chief.
+
+How many persons have actually inspected these relics, I have not
+ascertained; but that a real coffin, containing real bones, was
+brought from St. Helena to France, I see no reason to disbelieve.
+
+Whether future visitors to St. Helena will be shown merely the
+identical _place_ in which Buonaparte was (_said_ to have been)
+interred, or whether another set of real bones will be exhibited in
+that island, we have yet to learn.
+
+This latter supposition is not very improbable. It was something of a
+credit to the island, an attraction to strangers, and a source of
+profit to some of the inhabitants, to possess so remarkable a relic;
+and this glory and advantage they must naturally wish to retain. If
+so, there seems no reason why they should not have a Buonaparte of
+their own; for there is, I believe, no doubt that there are, or were,
+several Museums in England, which, among other curiosities, boasted,
+each, of a genuine skull of Oliver Cromwell.
+
+Perhaps, therefore, we shall hear of several well authenticated skulls
+of Buonaparte also, in the collections of different virtuosos, all of
+whom (especially those in whose own crania the "organ of wonder" is
+the most largely developed) will doubtless derive equal satisfaction
+from the relics they respectively possess.
+
+
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT TO THE NINTH EDITION.
+
+
+The Public has been of late much interested and not a little
+bewildered, by the accounts of many strange events, said to have
+recently taken place in France and other parts of the Continent. Are
+these accounts of such a character as to allay, or to strengthen and
+increase, such doubts as have been suggested in the foregoing pages?
+
+We are told that there is now a Napoleon Buonaparte at the head of the
+government of France. It is not, indeed, asserted that he is the very
+original Napoleon Buonaparte himself. The death of that personage, and
+the transportation of his genuine bones to France, had been too widely
+proclaimed to allow of his reappearance in his own proper person. But
+"uno avulso, non deficit alter." Like the Thibetian worshippers of the
+Dalai Lama, (who never dies; only his soul transmigrates into a fresh
+body), the French are so resolved, we are told, to be under a
+Buonaparte—whether that be (see note to p. 56) a man or "a
+system"—that they have found, it seems, a kind of new incarnation of
+this their Grand Lama, in a person said to be the nephew of the
+original one.
+
+And when, on hearing that this personage now fills the high office of
+President of the French Republic, we inquire (very naturally) _how he
+came there_, we are informed that, several years ago, he invaded
+France in an English vessel, (the _English_—as was observed in p.
+52—having always been suspected of keeping Buonaparte ready, like the
+winds in a Lapland witch's bag, to be let out on occasion,) at the
+head of a force, not, of six hundred men, like his supposed uncle in
+his expedition from Elba, but of fifty-five,(!) with which he landed
+at Boulogne, proclaimed himself emperor, and was joined by no less
+than _one_ man! He was accordingly, we are told, arrested, brought to
+trial, and sentenced to imprisonment; but having, some years after,
+escaped from prison, and taken refuge in England, (_England_ again!)
+he thence returned to France: AND SO the French nation placed
+him at the head of the government!
+
+All this will doubtless be received as a very probable tale by those
+who have given full credit to all the stories I have alluded to in the
+foregoing pages.
+
+
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT TO THE ELEVENTH EDITION.
+
+
+When any dramatic piece _takes_—as the phrase is—with the Public, it
+will usually be represented again and again with still-continued
+applause; and sometimes imitations of it will be produced; so that the
+same drama in substance will, with occasional slight variations in the
+plot, and changes of names, long keep possession of the stage.
+
+Something like this has taken place with respect to that curious
+tragi-comedy—the scene of it laid in France—which has engaged the
+attention of the British public for about sixty years; during which it
+has been "exhibited to crowded houses"—viz., coffee-houses,
+reading-rooms, &c., with unabated interest.
+
+The outline of this drama, or series of dramas, may be thus sketched:
+
+_Dramatis Personæ._
+
+A. A King or other Sovereign.
+
+B. His Queen.
+
+C. The Heir apparent.
+
+D. E. F. His Ministers.
+
+G. H. I. J. K. Demagogues.
+
+L. A popular leader of superior ingenuity, who becomes ultimately
+supreme ruler under the title of Dictator, Consul, Emperor, King,
+President, or some other.
+
+Soldiers, Senators, Executioners, and other functionaries, Citizens,
+Fishwomen, &c.
+
+_Scene_, Paris.
+
+(1.) The first Act of one of these dramas represents a monarchy,
+somewhat troubled by murmurs of disaffection, suspicions of
+conspiracy, &c.
+
+(2.) Second Act, a rebellion; in which ultimately the government is
+overthrown.
+
+(3.) Act the third, a provisional government established, on
+principles of liberty, equality, fraternity, &c.
+
+(4.) Act the fourth, struggles of various parties for power, carried
+on with sundry intrigues, and sanguinary conflicts.
+
+(5.) Act the fifth, the re-establishment of some form of absolute
+monarchy.
+
+And from this point we start afresh, and begin the same business over
+again, with sundry fresh interludes.
+
+All this is highly amusing to the English Public to _hear_ and _read_
+of; but I doubt whether our countrymen would like to be actual
+_performers_ in such a drama.
+
+Whether the French really are so, or whether they are mystifying us in
+the accounts they send over, I will not presume to decide. But if the
+former supposition be the true one,—if they have been so long really
+acting over and over again in their own persons such a drama, it must
+be allowed that they deserve to be characterized as they have been in
+the description given of certain European nations: "An Englishman," it
+has been said, "is never happy but when he is miserable; a Scotchman
+is never at home but when he is abroad; an Irishman is never at peace
+but when he is fighting; a Spaniard is never at liberty but when he is
+enslaved; and a Frenchman is never settled but when he is engaged in a
+revolution."
+
+
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT TO THE TWELFTH EDITION.
+
+
+"Time" says the proverb, "rings Truth to light." But the process is
+gradual and slow. The debt is paid, as it were, by instalments. It is
+only bit by bit, and at considerable intervals, that Truth comes forth
+as the morning twilight to dispel the mists of fiction.
+
+It is above forty years that men have been debating the question:—Who
+were the parties that burned the city of Moscow?—without ever
+thinking of the preliminary question, whether it ever was burnt at
+all. And now at length we learn that it never was.
+
+The following extract from a New Orleans paper contains the
+information obtained by an American traveller—one of that great
+nation whose accuracy as to facts is so well known—who visited the
+spot.
+
+
+  INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL—CITY OF MOSCOW.
+
+  Senator Douglas is said to have made the discovery, while
+  travelling in Russia, that the city of Moscow was never burned!
+  The following statement of the matter is from the Muscatine
+  (Iowa) Inquirer:
+
+  "Coming on the boat, a few days ago, we happened to fall in
+  company with Senator Douglas, who came on board at Quincy, on his
+  way to Warsaw. In the course of a very interesting account of his
+  travels in Russia, much of which has been published by
+  letter-writers, he stated a fact which has never yet been
+  published, but which startlingly contradicts the historical
+  relation of one of the most extraordinary events that ever fell
+  to the lot of history to record. For this reason the Judge said
+  he felt a delicacy in making the assertion, that the city of
+  Moscow was never burned!
+
+  "He said, that previous to his arrival at Moscow, he had several
+  disputes with his guide as to the burning of the city, the guide
+  declaring that it never occurred, and seeming to be nettled at
+  Mr. Douglas's persistency in his opinion; but, on examining the
+  fire-marks around the city, and the city itself, he became
+  satisfied that the guide was correct.
+
+  "The statement goes on to set forth that the antiquity of the
+  architectural city—particularly of its 'six hundred first-class
+  churches,' stretching through ante-Napoleonic ages to Pagan
+  times, and showing the handiwork of different nations of
+  History—demonstrates that the city never was burned down (or
+  up)."
+
+  The Inquirer adds:
+
+  "The Kremlin is a space of several hundred acres, in the heart of
+  the city, in the shape of a flat iron, and is enclosed, by a wall
+  of sixty feet high. Within this enclosure is the most magnificent
+  palace in Europe, recently built, but constructed over an ancient
+  palace, which remains, thus enclosed, whole and perfect, with all
+  its windows, &c.
+
+  "Near the Kremlin, surrounded by a wall, is a Chinese town,
+  appearing to be several hundred years old, still occupied by
+  descendants of the original settlers.
+
+  "The circumstances which gave rise to the errors concerning the
+  burning of Moscow, were these:—It is a city of four hundred and
+  fifty thousand inhabitants, in circular form, occupying a large
+  space, five miles across. There the winters are six months long,
+  and the custom was, and still is, to lay up supplies of
+  provisions and wood to last six months of severe cold weather. To
+  prevent these gigantic supplies from encumbering the heart of the
+  city, and yet render them as convenient as practicable to every
+  locality, a row of wood houses was constructed to circle
+  completely round the city, and outside of these was a row of
+  granaries, and in these were deposited the whole of the supplies.
+  Napoleon had entered the city with his army, and was himself
+  occupying the palace of the Kremlin, when, one night, by order of
+  the Russian governor, every wood house and every granary
+  simultaneously burst into a blaze. All efforts to extinguish them
+  were vain, and Napoleon found himself compelled to march his army
+  through the fire. Retiring to an eminence he saw the whole city
+  enveloped in vast sheets of flame, and clouds of smoke, and
+  apparently all on fire. And far as he was concerned it might as
+  well have been, for though houses enough were left to supply
+  every soldier with a room, yet without provisions or fuel, and a
+  Russian army to cut off supplies, he and his army could not
+  subsist there. During the fire some houses were probably burnt,
+  but the city was not. In the Kremlin a magazine blew up, cracking
+  the church of Ivan more than a hundred feet up, but setting
+  nothing on fire.
+
+  "Mr. Douglas saw the fire-marks around the city, where wood
+  houses and granaries for winter supplies now stand as of old; but
+  there appears no marks of conflagration within the city."
+
+Any wary sceptic, indeed, might have found much ground for doubt in
+the very accounts themselves that were given of the conflagration.
+For, the Russians have always denied that _they_ burned it; and the
+French equally disclaimed the act. Each of the two parties between
+whom the accusation lay, strenuously denied it. And it must be
+acknowledged that each had very strong presumptions of innocence to
+urge. It was certainly most _unlikely_ that the Russians should
+themselves destroy their ancient and venerable capital; and that, too,
+when they were boasting of having just gained a great victory at
+Borodino over an army which, therefore, they might hope to defeat
+again, and to drive out of their city. And it was no less unlikely
+that the French should burn down a city of which they had possession,
+and which afforded shelter and refreshment to their troops. This would
+have been one of the most improbable circumstances of that most
+improbable (supposed) campaign. To add to the marvel, we are told that
+the French army nevertheless waited for five weeks, without any
+object, amid the ashes of this destroyed city, just at the approach,
+of winter, and as if on purpose to be overtaken and destroyed by snows
+and frost!
+
+However, all the difficulties of the question whether any of these
+things took place at all, were by most persons overlooked, because
+the question itself never occurred to them, in their eagerness to
+decide _who_ it was that burned the city. And at length it comes out
+that the answer is, NOBODY!
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT.
+
+
+With respect to the foregoing arguments, it has been asserted (though
+without even any attempt at proof) that they go to prove that the
+Bible-narratives contain nothing more miraculous than the received
+accounts of Napoleon Buonapartè. And this is indeed true, if we use
+the word "_miraculous_" in the very unusual sense in which Hume (as is
+pointed out in the foregoing pages) has employed it; to signify simply
+"_improbable_;" an abuse of language on which his argument mainly
+depends.
+
+It is indeed shown, that there are at least as many and as great
+_improbabilities_ in the history of Buonapartè as in any of the
+Scripture-narratives; and that as plausible objections,—if not more
+so,—may be brought against the one history as the other.
+
+But taking words in their ordinary, established sense, the assertion
+is manifestly the opposite of the truth. For, any one who does,—in
+spite of all the improbabilities,—_believe_ the truth of _both_
+histories, is, evidently, a believer in miracles; since he believes
+two narratives, one of which is _not_ miraculous, while the other is.
+The history of Buonapartè contains—though much that is very
+improbable—nothing that is to be called, according to the established
+use of language, miraculous. And the Scriptures contain, as an
+_essential_ part of their narrative, _Miracles_, properly so called.
+
+To talk of believing the Bible, all _except the Miracles_, would be
+like professing to believe the accounts of Buonapartè, _except_ only
+his commanding armies, and having been at Elba and at Saint Helena.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One cannot doubt that in the course of the _forty years_ that this
+little Work has been before the Public, some real, valid refutation of
+the argument would have been adduced, if any such could have been
+devised.
+
+1860.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Historic Doubts Relative To Napoleon
+Buonaparte, by Richard  Whately
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Historic Doubts Relative To Napoleon
+Buonaparte, by Richard  Whately
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Historic Doubts Relative To Napoleon Buonaparte
+
+Author: Richard  Whately
+
+Release Date: March 30, 2006 [EBook #18087]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORIC DOUBTS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeannie Howse, Thierry Alberto and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team of Distributed Proofreaders
+Europe at http://dp.rastko.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORIC
+
+DOUBTS
+
+RELATIVE TO
+
+NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE.
+
+
+  Is not the same reason available in theology and in politics?...
+  Will you follow truth but to a certain point?--BURKE'S
+  _Vindication of Natural Society._
+
+  The first author who stated fairly the connexion between the
+  evidence of testimony and the evidence of experience, was Hume, in
+  his ESSAY ON MIRACLES; a work _abounding in maxims of great use_ in
+  the conduct of life.--_Edinburgh Review_, Sept. 1814, p. 328.
+
+_NEW EDITION._
+
+LONDON:
+LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
+MDCCCLXV.
+
+
+
+
+LONDON:
+SAVILL AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS, CHANDOS STREET,
+COVENT GARDEN.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+Several of the readers of this little work (first published in 1819)
+have derived much amusement from the mistakes of others respecting its
+nature and object. It has been by some represented as a serious
+attempt to inculcate universal scepticism; while others have
+considered it as a jeu d'esprit, &c.[1] The author does not, however,
+design to entertain his readers with accounts of the mistakes which,
+have arisen respecting it; because many of them, he is convinced,
+would be received with incredulity; and he could not, without an
+indelicate exposure of individuals, verify his anecdotes.
+
+But some sensible readers have complained of the difficulty of
+determining _what_ they are to believe. Of the existence of
+Buonaparte, indeed, they remained fully convinced; nor, if it were
+left doubtful, would any important results ensue; but if they can give
+no _satisfactory reason_ for their conviction, how can they know, it
+is asked, that they may not be mistaken as to other points of greater
+consequence, on which they are no less fully convinced, but on which
+all men are _not_ agreed? The author has accordingly been solicited to
+endeavour to frame some canons which may furnish a standard for
+determining what evidence is to be received.
+
+This he conceives to be impracticable, except to that extent to which
+it is accomplished by a sound system of Logic; including under that
+title, a portion--that which relates to the "Laws of Evidence"--of
+what is sometimes treated under the head of "Rhetoric." But the full
+and complete accomplishment of such an object would confer on Man the
+unattainable attribute of infallibility.
+
+But the difficulty complained of, he conceives to arise, in many
+instances, from men's _mis-stating the grounds of their own
+conviction_. They are convinced, indeed, and perhaps with very
+sufficient reason; but they imagine this reason to be a different one
+from what it is. The evidence to which they have assented is applied
+to their minds in a different manner from that in which they believe
+that it is--and suppose that it ought to be--applied. And when
+challenged to defend and justify their own belief, they feel at a
+loss, because they are attempting to maintain a position which is
+not, in fact, that in which their force lies.
+
+For a development of the nature, the consequences, and the remedies of
+this mistake, the reader is referred to "Hinds on Inspiration," pp.
+30-46. If such a development is to be found in any earlier works, the
+Author of the following pages at least has never chanced to meet with
+any attempt of the kind.[2]
+
+It has been objected, again, by some persons of no great logical
+accuracy of thought, that as there would not be any _moral blame_
+imputable to one who should seriously disbelieve, or doubt, the
+existence of Buonaparte, so neither is a rejection of the
+Scripture-histories to be considered as implying anything morally
+culpable.
+
+The same objection, such as it is, would apply equally to many of the
+Parables of the New Testament. It might be said, for instance, that as
+a woman who should decline taking the trouble of searching for her
+lost "piece of silver," or a merchant who should neglect making an
+advantageous purchase of a "goodly pearl," would be guilty of no moral
+wrong, it must follow that there is nothing morally wrong in
+neglecting to reclaim a lost sinner, or in rejecting the Gospel, &c.
+
+But any man of common sense readily perceives that the force of these
+parables consists in the circumstance that men do _not_ usually show
+this carelessness about temporal goods; and, therefore, are guilty of
+gross and culpable _inconsistency_, if they are comparatively
+careless about what is far more important.
+
+So, also, in the present case. If any man's mind were so constituted
+as to reject the same evidence in _all_ matters alike--if, for
+instance, he really doubted or disbelieved the existence of
+Buonaparte, and considered the Egyptian pyramids as fabulous, because,
+forsooth, he had no "experience" of the erection of such huge
+structures, and _had_ experience of travellers telling huge lies--he
+would be regarded, perhaps, as very silly, or as insane, but not as
+morally culpable. But if (as is intimated in the concluding sentence
+of this work) a man is influenced in one case by objections which, in
+another case, he would deride, then he stands convicted of being
+unfairly biassed by his prejudices.
+
+It is only necessary to add, that as this work first appeared in the
+year 1819, many things are spoken of in the present tense, to which
+the past would now be applicable.
+
+Postscripts have been added to successive editions in reference to
+subsequent occurrences.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] It was observed by some reviewer, that Hume himself, had he been
+alive, would doubtless have highly enjoyed the joke! But even those
+who have the greatest delight in ridicule, do not relish jokes at
+_their own expense_. Hume may have inwardly laughed, while mystifying
+his readers with arguments which he himself perceived to be futile.
+But he did not mean the readers to perceive this. And it is not likely
+that he would have been amused at seeing his own fallacies exposed and
+held up to derision.
+
+[2] See _Elements of Rhetoric_, p. i. ch. 2, � 4.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+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,
+will be called courage, or courage, rashness; heroic firmness, and
+obstinate pride, will correspond in the two opposite descriptions; and
+in some leading features both will agree. Neither the friends nor the
+enemies of Philip of Macedon, or of Julius C�sar, ever questioned
+their COURAGE, or their MILITARY SKILL.
+
+With Buonaparte, however, it has been otherwise. This obscure Corsican
+adventurer, a man, according to some, of extraordinary talents and
+courage, according to others, of very moderate abilities, and a rank
+coward, advanced rapidly in the French army, obtained a high command,
+gained a series of important victories, and, elated by success,
+embarked in an expedition against Egypt; which was planned and
+conducted, according to some, with the most consummate skill,
+according to others, with the utmost wildness and folly: he was
+unsuccessful, however; and leaving the army in Egypt in a very
+distressed situation, he returned to France, and found the nation, or
+at least the army, so favourably disposed towards him, that he was
+enabled, with the utmost ease, to overthrow the existing government,
+and obtain for himself the supreme power; at first, under the modest
+appellation of Consul, but afterwards with the more sounding title of
+Emperor. While in possession of this power, he overthrew the most
+powerful coalitions of the other European States against him; and
+though driven from the sea by the British fleets, overran nearly the
+whole continent, triumphant; finishing a war, not unfrequently, in a
+single campaign, he entered the capitals of most of the hostile
+potentates, deposed and created Kings at his pleasure, and appeared
+the virtual sovereign of the chief part of the continent, from the
+frontiers of Spain to those of Russia. Even those countries we find
+him invading with prodigious armies, defeating their forces,
+penetrating to their capitals, and threatening their total
+subjugation. But at Moscow his progress is stopped: a winter of
+unusual severity, co-operating with the efforts of the Russians,
+totally destroys his enormous host: and the German sovereigns throw
+off the yoke, and combine to oppose him. He raises another vast army,
+which is also ruined at Leipsic; and again another, with which, like a
+second Ant�us, he for some time maintains himself in France; but is
+finally defeated, deposed, and banished to the island of Elba, of
+which the sovereignty is conferred on him. Thence he returns, in about
+nine months, at the head of 600 men, to attempt the deposition of King
+Louis, who had been peaceably recalled; the French nation declare in
+his favour, and he is reinstated without a struggle. He raises another
+great army to oppose the allied powers, which is totally defeated at
+Waterloo; he is a second time deposed, surrenders to the British, and
+is placed in confinement at the island of St. Helena. Such is the
+outline of the eventful history presented to us; in the detail of
+which, however, there is almost every conceivable variety of
+statement; while the motives and conduct of the chief actor are
+involved in still greater doubt, and the subject of still more eager
+controversy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the midst of these controversies, the preliminary question,
+concerning the _existence_ of this extraordinary personage, seems
+never to have occurred to any one as a matter of doubt; and to show
+even the smallest hesitation in admitting it, would probably be
+regarded as an excess of scepticism; on the ground that this point
+has always been taken for granted by the disputants on all sides,
+being indeed implied by the very nature of their disputes.
+
+But is it in fact found that _undisputed_ points are always such as
+have been the most carefully examined as to the evidence on which they
+rest? that facts or principles which are taken for granted, without
+controversy, as the common basis of opposite opinions, are always
+themselves established on sufficient grounds? On the contrary, is not
+any such fundamental point, from the very circumstance of its being
+taken for granted at once, and the attention drawn off to some other
+question, likely to be admitted on insufficient evidence, and the
+flaws in that evidence overlooked?
+
+Experience will teach us that such instances often occur: witness the
+well-known anecdote of the Royal Society; to whom King Charles II.
+proposed as a question, whence it is that a vessel of water receives
+no addition of weight from a live fish being put into it, though it
+does, if the fish be dead. Various solutions, of great ingenuity, were
+proposed, discussed, objected to, and defended; nor was it till they
+had been long bewildered in the inquiry, that it occurred to them _to
+try the experiment_; by which they at once ascertained that the
+phenomenon which they were striving to account for,--which was the
+acknowledged basis and substratum, as it were, of their debates,--had
+no existence but in the invention of the witty monarch.[3]
+
+Another instance of the same kind is so very remarkable that I cannot
+forbear mentioning it. It was objected to the system of Copernicus
+when first brought forward, that if the earth turned on its axis, as
+he represented, a stone dropped from the summit of a tower would not
+fall at the foot of it, but at a great distance to the west; _in the
+same manner as a stone dropped from the mast-head of a ship in full
+sail, does not fall at the foot of the mast, but towards the stern_.
+To this it was answered, that a stone being a _part_ of the earth
+obeys the same laws, and moves with it; whereas, it is no part of the
+ship; of which, consequently, its motion is independent. This solution
+was admitted by some, but opposed by others; and the controversy went
+on with spirit; nor was it till _one hundred years_ after the death of
+Copernicus, that the experiment being tried, it was ascertained that
+the stone thus dropped from the head of the mast _does_ fall at the
+foot of it![4]
+
+Let it be observed that I am not now impugning any one particular
+narrative; but merely showing generally, that what is _unquestioned_
+is not necessarily unquestionable; since men will often, at the very
+moment when they are accurately sifting the evidence of some disputed
+point, admit hastily, and on the most insufficient grounds, what they
+have been accustomed to see taken for granted.
+
+The celebrated Hume[5] has pointed out, also, the readiness with which
+men believe, on very slight evidence, any story that pleases their
+imagination by its admirable and marvellous character. Such hasty
+credulity, however, as he well remarks, is utterly unworthy of a
+philosophical mind; which should rather suspend its judgment the more,
+in proportion to the strangeness of the account, and yield to none but
+the most decisive and unimpeachable proofs.
+
+Let it, then, be allowed us, as is surely reasonable, just to inquire,
+with respect to the extraordinary story I have been speaking of, on
+what evidence we believe it. We shall be told that it is _notorious_;
+i.e., in plain English, it is very _much talked about_. But as the
+generality of those who talk about Buonaparte do not even pretend to
+speak from _their own authority_, but merely to repeat what they have
+casually heard, we cannot reckon them as, in any degree, witnesses;
+but must allow ninety-nine hundredths of what we are told to be mere
+hearsay, which would not be at all the more worthy of credit even if
+it were repeated by ten times as many more. As for those who profess
+to have _personally known_ Napoleon Buonaparte, and to have
+_themselves witnessed_ his transactions, I write not for them. _If any
+such there be_, who are inwardly conscious of the truth of all they
+relate, I have nothing to say to them, but to beg that they will be
+tolerant and charitable towards their neighbours, who have not the
+same means of ascertaining the truth, and who may well be excused for
+remaining doubtful about such extraordinary events, till most
+unanswerable proofs shall be adduced. "I would not have believed such
+a thing, if I had not seen it," is a common preface or appendix to a
+narrative of marvels; and usually calls forth from an intelligent
+hearer the appropriate answer, "_no more will I_."
+
+Let us, however, endeavour to trace up some of this hearsay evidence
+as far towards its source as we are able. Most persons would refer to
+the _newspapers_ as the authority from which their knowledge on the
+subject was derived; so that, generally speaking, we may say it is on
+the testimony of the newspapers that men believe in the existence and
+exploits of Napoleon Buonaparte.
+
+It is rather a remarkable circumstance, that it is common to hear
+Englishmen speak of the impudent fabrications of foreign newspapers,
+and express wonder that any one can be found to credit them; while
+they conceive that, in this favoured land, the liberty of the press is
+a sufficient security for veracity. It is true they often speak
+contemptuously of such "newspaper-stories" as last but a short time;
+indeed they continually see them contradicted within a day or two in
+the same paper, or their falsity detected by some journal of an
+opposite party; but still whatever is _long adhered to_ and often
+_repeated_, especially if it also appear in _several different_
+papers (and this, though they notoriously copy from one another), is
+almost sure to be generally believed. Whence this high respect which
+is practically paid to newspaper authority? Do men think, that because
+a witness has been perpetually detected in falsehood, he may therefore
+be the more safely believed whenever he is _not_ detected? or does
+adherence to a story, and frequent repetition of it, render it the
+more credible? On the contrary, is it not a common remark in other
+cases, that a liar will generally stand to and reiterate what he has
+once said, merely because he _has_ said it?
+
+Let us, if possible, divest ourselves of this superstitious veneration
+for everything that appears "in print," and examine a little more
+systematically the evidence which is adduced.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I suppose it will not be denied that the three following are among the
+most important points to be ascertained, in deciding on the
+credibility of witnesses; first, whether they have the means of
+gaining correct _information_; secondly, whether they have any
+_interest_ in concealing truth, or propagating falsehood; and,
+thirdly, whether they _agree_ in their testimony. Let us examine the
+present witnesses upon all these points.
+
+First, what means have the editors of newspapers for giving correct
+information? We know not, except from their own statements. Besides
+what is copied from other journals, foreign or British, (which is
+usually more than three-fourths of the news published,)[6] they
+profess to refer to the authority of certain "private correspondents"
+abroad; _who_ these correspondents are, what means they have of
+obtaining information, or whether they exist at all, we have no way of
+ascertaining. We find ourselves in the condition of the Hindoos, who
+are told by their priests that the earth stands on an elephant, and
+the elephant on a tortoise; but are left to find out for themselves
+what the tortoise stands on, or whether it stands on anything at all.
+
+So much for our clear knowledge of the means of _information_
+possessed by these witnesses; next, for the grounds on which we are to
+calculate on their _veracity_.
+
+Have they not a manifest interest in circulating the wonderful
+accounts of Napoleon Buonaparte and his achievements, whether true or
+false? Few would read newspapers if they did not sometimes find
+wonderful or important news in them; and we may safely say that no
+subject was ever found so inexhaustibly interesting as the present.
+
+It may be urged, however, that there are several adverse political
+parties, of which the various public prints are respectively the
+organs, and who would not fail to expose each other's fabrications.[7]
+Doubtless they would, if they could do so without at the same time
+exposing _their own_; but identity of interests may induce a
+community of operations up to a certain point. And let it be observed
+that the object of contention between these rival parties is, _who_
+shall have the administration of public affairs, the control of public
+expenditure, and the disposal of places: the question, I say, is, not
+whether the people shall be governed or not, but, _by which party_
+they shall be governed;--not whether the taxes shall be paid or not,
+but _who_ shall _receive_ them. Now, it must be admitted that
+Buonaparte is a political bugbear, most convenient to _any_
+administration: "if you do not adopt our measures and reject those of
+our opponents, Buonaparte will be sure to prevail over you; if you do
+not submit to the Government, at least under _our_ administration,
+this formidable enemy will take advantage of your insubordination, to
+conquer and enslave you: pay your taxes cheerfully, or the tremendous
+Buonaparte will take all from you." Buonaparte, in short, was the
+burden of every song; his redoubted name was the charm which always
+succeeded in unloosing the purse-strings of the nation. And let us not
+be too sure,[8] safe as we now think ourselves, that some occasion may
+not occur for again producing on the stage so useful a personage: it
+is not merely to naughty children in the nursery that the threat of
+being "given to Buonaparte" has proved effectual.
+
+It is surely probable, therefore, that, with an object substantially
+the same, all parties may have availed themselves of one common
+instrument. It is not necessary to suppose that for this purpose they
+secretly entered into a formal agreement; though, by the way, there
+are reports afloat, that the editors of the _Courier_ and _Morning
+Chronicle_ hold amicable consultations as to the conduct of their
+public warfare: I will not take upon me to say that this is
+incredible; but at any rate it is not necessary for the establishment
+of the probability I contend for. Neither again would I imply that
+_all_ newspaper editors are utterers of forged stories, "knowing them
+to be forged;" most likely the great majority of them publish what
+they find in other papers with the same simplicity that their readers
+peruse it; and therefore, it must be observed, are not at all more
+proper than their readers to be cited as authorities.
+
+Still it will be said, that unless we suppose a regularly preconcerted
+plan, we must at least expect to find great discrepancies in the
+accounts published. Though they might adopt the general outline of
+facts from one another, they would have to fill up the detail for
+themselves; and in this, therefore, we should meet with infinite and
+irreconcilable variety.
+
+Now this is precisely the point I am tending to; for the fact exactly
+accords with the above supposition; the discordance and mutual
+contradictions of these witnesses being such as would alone throw a
+considerable shade of doubt over their testimony. It is not in minute
+circumstances alone that the discrepancy appears, such as might be
+expected to appear in a narrative substantially true; but in very
+great and leading transactions, and such as are very intimately
+connected with the supposed hero. For instance, it is by no means
+agreed whether Buonaparte led in person the celebrated charge over the
+bridge of Lodi, (for _celebrated_ it certainly is, as well as the
+siege of Troy, whether either event ever really took place or no,) or
+was safe in the rear, while Augereau performed the exploit. The same
+doubt hangs over the charge of the French cavalry at Waterloo. The
+peasant Lacoste, who professed to have been Buonaparte's guide on the
+day of battle, and who earned a fortune by detailing over and over
+again to visitors all the particulars of what the great man said and
+did up to the moment of flight,--this same Lacoste has been suspected
+by others, besides me, of having never even been near the great man,
+and having fabricated the whole story for the sake of making a gain of
+the credulity of travellers. In the accounts that are the extant of
+the battle itself, published by persons professing to have been
+present, the reader will find that there is a discrepancy of _three
+or four hours_ as to the time when the battle began!--a battle, be it
+remembered, not fought with javelins and arrows, like those of the
+ancients, in which one part of a large army might be engaged, whilst a
+distant portion of the same army knew nothing of it; but a battle
+commencing (if indeed it were ever fought at all) with the _firing of
+cannon_, which, would have announced pretty loudly what was going on.
+
+It is no less uncertain whether or no this strange personage poisoned
+in Egypt an hospital--full of his own soldiers, and butchered in cold
+blood a garrison that had surrendered. But not to multiply instances;
+the battle of Borodino, which is represented as one of the greatest
+ever fought, was unequivocally claimed as a victory by both parties;
+nor is the question decided at this day. We have official accounts on
+both sides, circumstantially detailed, in the names of supposed
+respectable persons, professing to have been present on the spot; yet
+totally irreconcilable. _Both_ these accounts _may_ be false; but
+since _one_ of them _must_ be false, that one (it is no matter _which_
+we suppose) proves incontrovertibly this important maxim: that _it is
+possible for a narrative--however circumstantial--however steadily
+maintained--however public, and however important, the events it
+relates--however grave the authority on which it is published--to be
+nevertheless an entire fabrication!_
+
+Many of the events which have been recorded were probably believed
+much the more readily and firmly, from the apparent caution and
+hesitation with which they were at first published--the vehement
+contradiction in our papers of many pretended French accounts--and the
+abuse lavished upon them for falsehood, exaggeration, and gasconade.
+But is it not possible--is it not, indeed, perfectly natural--that the
+publishers even of known falsehood should assume this cautious
+demeanour, and this abhorrence of exaggeration, in order the more
+easily to gain credit? Is it not also very possible, that those who
+actually believed what they published, may have suspected mere
+_exaggeration_ in stories which were entire _fictions_? Many men have
+that sort of simplicity, that they think themselves quite secure
+against being deceived, provided they believe only _part_ of the story
+they hear; when perhaps the whole is equally false. So that perhaps
+these simple-hearted editors, who were so vehement against lying
+bulletins, and so wary in announcing their great news, were in the
+condition of a clown, who thinks he has bought a great bargain of a
+Jew because he has beat down the price perhaps from a guinea to a
+crown, for some article that is not really worth a groat.
+
+With respect to the _character_ of Buonaparte, the dissonance is, if
+possible, still greater. According to some, he was a wise, humane,
+magnanimous hero; others paint him as a monster of cruelty, meanness,
+and perfidy: some, even of those who are most inveterate against him,
+speak very highly of his political and military ability: others place
+him on the very verge of insanity. But allowing that all this may be
+the colouring of party-prejudice, (which surely is allowing a great
+deal,) there is one point to which such a solution will hardly apply:
+if there be anything that can be clearly ascertained in history, one
+would think it must be the _personal courage of a military man_; yet
+here we are as much at a loss as ever; at the very same times, and on
+the same occasions, he is described by different writers as a man of
+undaunted intrepidity, and as an absolute poltroon.
+
+What, then, are we to believe? If we are disposed to credit all that
+is told us, we must believe in the existence not only of one, but of
+two or three Buonapartes; if we admit nothing but what is well
+authenticated, we shall be compelled to doubt of the existence of
+any.[9]
+
+It appears, then, that those on whose testimony the existence and
+actions of Buonaparte are generally believed, fail in ALL the most
+essential points on which the credibility of witnesses depends: first,
+we have no assurance that they have access to correct information;
+secondly, they have an apparent interest in propagating falsehood;
+and, thirdly, they palpably contradict each other in the most
+important points.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another circumstance which throws additional suspicion on these tales
+is, that the whig-party, as they are called--the warm advocates for
+liberty, and opposers of the encroachments of monarchical power--have
+for some time past strenuously espoused the cause and vindicated the
+character of Buonaparte, who is represented by all as having been, if
+not a tyrant, at least an absolute despot. One of the most forward in
+this cause is a gentleman, who once stood foremost in holding up this
+very man to public execration--who first published, and long
+maintained against popular incredulity, the accounts of his atrocities
+in Egypt. Now that such a course should be adopted for party-purposes;
+by those who are aware that the whole story is a fiction, and the hero
+of it imaginary, seems not very incredible; but if they believed in
+the real existence of this despot, I cannot conceive how they could so
+forsake their principles as to advocate his cause, and eulogize his
+character.
+
+Besides the many strange and improbable circumstances in the history
+of Buonaparte that have been already noticed, there are many others,
+two of which it may be worth while to advert to.
+
+One of the most incredible is the received account of the persons
+known as the "D�tenus." It is well known that a great number of
+English gentlemen passed many years, in the early part of the present
+century, abroad;--by their own account, in France. Their statement
+was, that while travelling in that country for their amusement, as
+peaceable tourists, they were, on the sudden breaking out of a war,
+seized by this terrible Buonaparte, and kept prisoners for about
+twelve years, contrary to all the usages of civilized nations--to all
+principles of justice, of humanity, of enlightened policy; many of
+them thus wasting in captivity the most important portion of their
+lives, and having all their prospects blighted.
+
+Now whether these persons were in reality exiles by choice, for the
+sake of keeping out of the way of creditors, or of enjoying the
+society of those they preferred to their own domestic circle, I do not
+venture to conjecture. But let the reader consider whether _any_
+conjecture can be _more_ improbable than the statement actually made.
+
+It is, indeed, credible that ambition may prompt an unscrupulous man
+to make the most enormous sacrifices of human life, and to perpetrate
+the most atrocious crimes, for the advancement of his views of
+conquest. But that this _great_ man--as he is usually reckoned even by
+adversaries--this hero according to some--this illustrious warrior,
+and mighty sovereign--should have stooped to be guilty of an act of
+mean and petty malice worthy of a spiteful old woman,--a piece of
+paltry cruelty which could not at all conduce to his success in the
+war, or produce any effect except to degrade his country, and
+exasperate ours;--this, surely, is quite incredible. "Pizarro," says
+Elvira in Kotzebue's play, "if not always justly, at least act always
+greatly."
+
+But a still more wonderful circumstance connected with this
+transaction remains behind. A large portion of the English nation, and
+among these the whole of the Whig party, are said to have expressed
+the most vehement indignation, mingled with compassion, at the
+banishment from Europe, and confinement in St. Helena, of this great
+man. No considerations of regard for the peace and security of our own
+country, no dread of the power of so able and indefatigable a warrior,
+and so inveterate an enemy, should have induced us, they thought, to
+subject this formidable personage to a confinement, which was far
+less severe than that to which he was said to have subjected such
+numbers of our countrymen, the harmless _non-belligerent_ travellers,
+whom (according to the story) he kidnapped in France, with no object
+but to gratify the basest and most unmanly spite.
+
+But that there is no truth in that story, and that it was not believed
+by those who manifested so much sympathy and indignation on this great
+man's account, is sufficiently proved by that very sympathy and
+indignation.
+
+There are again other striking improbabilities connected with the
+Polish nation in the history before us. Buonaparte is represented as
+having always expressed the strongest sympathy with that ill-used
+people; and they, as being devotedly attached to him, and fighting
+with the utmost fidelity and bravery in his armies, in which some of
+them attained high commands. Now he had it manifestly in his power at
+one period (according to the received accounts), with a stroke of his
+pen, to re-establish Poland as an independent state. For, in his last
+Russian war, he had complete occupation of the country (of which the
+population was perfectly friendly); the Russian portion of it was his
+by right of conquest; and Austria and Prussia, then his allies, and
+almost his subjects, would gladly have resigned their portions in
+exchange for some of the provinces they had ceded to France, and
+which were, to him, of little value, but, to them, important. And,
+indeed, Prussia was (as we are told) so thoroughly humbled and
+weakened that he might easily have enforced the cession of
+Prussian-Poland, even without any compensation. And the
+re-establishment of the Polish kingdom would have been as evidently
+politic as it was reasonable. The independence of a faithful and
+devoted ally, at enmity with the surrounding nations--the very nations
+that were the most likely to combine (as they often had done) against
+him,--this would have given him, at no cost, a kind of strong garrison
+to maintain his power, and keep his enemies in check.
+
+Yet this most obvious step, the history tells us, he did not take; but
+made flattering speeches to the Poles, used their services, and did
+nothing for them!
+
+This is, alone, sufficiently improbable. But we are required moreover
+to believe that the Poles,--instead of _execrating_ this man, who had
+done them the unpardonable wrong of wantonly disappointing the
+expectations he had, for his own purposes, excited, thus adding
+treachery to ingratitude--instead of this, continued to the last as
+much devoted to him as ever, and even now idolize his memory! We are
+to believe, in short, that this Buonaparte, not only in his own
+conduct and adventures violated all the established rules of
+probability, but also caused all other persons, as many as came in
+contact with him, to act as no mortals ever did act before: may we not
+add, as no mortals ever did act at all?
+
+Many other improbabilities might be added to the list, and will be
+found in the complete edition of that history, from which some
+extracts will be presently given, and which has been published (under
+the title of "Historic Certainties") by Aristarchus Newlight, with a
+learned commentary (not, indeed, adopting the views contained in these
+pages, but) quite equal in ingenuity to a late work on the "Hebrew
+Monarchy."
+
+After all, it may be expected that many who perceive the force of
+these objections, will yet be loth to think it possible that they and
+the public at large can have been so long and so greatly imposed upon.
+And thus it is that the magnitude and boldness of a fraud becomes its
+best support. The millions who for so many ages have believed in
+Mahomet or Brahma, lean as it were on each other for support; and not
+having vigour of mind enough boldly to throw off vulgar prejudices,
+and dare be wiser than the multitude, persuade themselves that what so
+many have acknowledged must be true. But I call on those who boast
+their philosophical freedom of thought, and would fain tread in the
+steps of Hume and other inquirers of the like exalted and speculative
+genius, to follow up fairly and fully their own principles, and,
+throwing off the shackles of authority, to examine carefully the
+evidence of whatever is proposed to them, before they admit its truth.
+
+That even in this enlightened age, as it is called, a whole nation may
+be egregiously imposed upon, even in matters which intimately concern
+them, may be proved (if it has not been already proved) by the
+following instance: it was stated in the newspapers, that, a month
+after the battle of Trafalgar, an English officer, who had been a
+prisoner of war, and was exchanged, returned to this country from
+France, and beginning to condole with his countrymen on the terrible
+_defeat_ they had sustained, was infinitely astonished to learn that
+the battle of Trafalgar was a splendid victory. He had been assured,
+he said, that in that battle the English had been totally defeated;
+and the French were fully and universally persuaded that such was the
+fact. Now if this report of the belief of the French nation was _not_
+true, the British Public were completely imposed upon; if it _were_
+true, then both nations were, at the same time, rejoicing in the event
+of the same battle, as a signal victory to themselves; and
+consequently one or other, at least, of these nations must have been
+the dupes of their government: for if the battle was never fought at
+all, or was not decisive on either side, in that case _both_ parties
+were deceived. This instance, I conceive, is absolutely demonstrative
+of the point in question.
+
+"But what shall we say to the testimony of those many respectable
+persons who went to Plymouth on purpose, and saw Buonaparte with their
+own eyes? must they not trust their senses?" I would not disparage
+either the eyesight or the veracity of these gentlemen. I am ready to
+allow that they went to Plymouth for the purpose of seeing Buonaparte;
+nay, more, that they actually rowed out into the harbour in a boat,
+and came alongside of a man-of-war, on whose deck they saw a man in a
+cocked hat, who, _they were told_, was Buonaparte. This is the utmost
+point to which their testimony goes; how they ascertained that this
+man in the cocked hat had gone through all the marvellous and romantic
+adventures with which we have so long been amused, we are not told.
+Did they perceive in his physiognomy, his true name, and authentic
+history? Truly this evidence is such as country people give one for a
+story of apparitions; if you discover any signs of incredulity, they
+triumphantly show the very house which the ghost haunted, the
+identical dark corner where it used to vanish, and perhaps even the
+tombstone of the person whose death it foretold. Jack Cade's nobility
+was supported by the same irresistible kind of evidence: having
+asserted that the eldest son of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, was
+stolen by a beggar-woman, "became a bricklayer when he came to age,"
+and was the father of the supposed Jack Cade; one of his companions
+confirms the story, by saying, "Sir, he made a chimney in my father's
+house, and the bricks are alive at this day to testify it; therefore,
+deny it not."
+
+Much of the same kind is the testimony of our brave countrymen, who
+are ready to produce the scars they received in fighting against this
+terrible Buonaparte. That they fought and were wounded, they may
+safely testify; and probably they no less firmly _believe_ what they
+were _told_ respecting the cause in which they fought: it would have
+been a high breach of discipline to doubt it; and they, I conceive,
+are men better skilled in handling a musket, than in sifting evidence,
+and detecting imposture. But I defy any one of them to come forward
+and declare, _on his own knowledge_, what was the cause in which he
+fought,--under whose commands the opposed generals acted,--and whether
+the person who issued those commands did really perform the mighty
+achievements we are told of.
+
+Let those, then, who pretend to philosophical freedom of inquiry,--who
+scorn to rest their opinions on popular belief, and to shelter
+themselves under the example of the unthinking multitude, consider
+carefully, each one for himself, what is the evidence proposed to
+himself in particular, for the existence of such a person as Napoleon
+Buonaparte:--I do not mean, whether there ever was a person bearing
+that _name_, for that is a question of no consequence; but whether any
+such person ever performed all the wonderful things attributed to
+him;--let him then weigh well the objections to that evidence, (of
+which I have given but a hasty and imperfect sketch,) and if he then
+finds it amount to anything _more_ than a probability, I have only to
+congratulate him on his easy faith.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But the same testimony which would have great weight in establishing a
+thing intrinsically probable, will lose part of this weight in
+proportion as the matter attested is improbable; and if adduced in
+support of anything that is at variance with uniform experience,[10]
+will be rejected at once by all sound reasoners. Let us then consider
+what sort of a story it is that is proposed to our acceptance. How
+grossly contradictory are the reports of the different authorities, I
+have already remarked: but consider, by itself, the story told by any
+one of them; it carries an air of fiction and romance on the very face
+of it. All the events are great, and splendid, and marvellous;[11] great
+armies,--great victories,--great frosts,--great reverses,--"hair-breadth
+'scapes,"--empires subverted in a few days; everything happened in
+defiance of political calculations, and in opposition to the
+_experience_ of past times; everything upon that grand scale, so common
+in Epic Poetry, so rare in real life; and thus calculated to strike the
+imagination of the vulgar, and to remind the sober-thinking few of the
+Arabian Nights. Every event, too, has that _roundness_ and completeness
+which is so characteristic of fiction; nothing is done by halves; we
+have _complete_ victories,--_total_ overthrows, _entire_ subversion of
+empires,--_perfect_ re-establishments of them,--crowded upon us in rapid
+succession. To enumerate the improbabilities of each of the several
+parts of this history, would fill volumes; but they are so fresh in
+every one's memory, that there is no need of such a detail: let any
+judicious man, not ignorant of history and of human nature, revolve them
+in his mind, and consider how far they are conformable to
+Experience,[12] our best and only sure guide. In vain will he seek in
+history for something similar to this wonderful Buonaparte; "nought but
+himself can be his parallel."
+
+Will the conquests of Alexander be compared with his? _They_ were
+effected over a rabble of effeminate, undisciplined barbarians; else
+his progress would hardly have been so rapid: witness his father
+Philip, who was much longer occupied in subduing the comparatively
+insignificant territory of the warlike and civilized Greeks,
+notwithstanding their being divided into numerous petty States, whose
+mutual jealousy enabled him to contend with them separately. But the
+Greeks had never made such progress in arts and arms as the great and
+powerful States of Europe, which Buonaparte is represented as so
+speedily overpowering. His empire has been compared to the Roman: mark
+the contrast; he gains in a few years, that dominion, or at least
+control, over Germany, wealthy, civilized, and powerful, which the
+Romans in the plenitude of their power, could not obtain, during a
+struggle of as many centuries, against the ignorant half-savages who
+then possessed it; of whom Tacitus remarks, that, up to his own time
+they had been "triumphed over rather than conquered."
+
+Another peculiar circumstance in the history of this extraordinary
+personage is, that when it Is found convenient to represent him as
+defeated, though he is by no means defeated by halves, but involved in
+much more sudden and total ruin than the personages of real history
+usually meet with; yet, if it is thought fit he should be restored, it
+is done as quickly and completely as if Merlin's rod had been
+employed. He enters Russia with a prodigious army, which is totally
+ruined by an unprecedented hard winter; (everything relating to this
+man is _prodigious_ and _unprecedented_;) yet in a few months we find
+him intrusted with another great army in Germany, which is also
+totally ruined at Leipsic; making, inclusive of the Egyptian, the
+third great army thus totally lost: yet the French are so good-natured
+as to furnish him with another sufficient to make a formidable stand
+in France; he is, however, _conquered, and presented with the
+sovereignty of Elba_; (surely, by the bye, some more _probable_ way
+might have been found of disposing of him, till again wanted, than to
+place him thus on the very verge of his ancient dominions;) thence he
+returns to France, where he is received with open arms, and enabled to
+lose a fifth great army at Waterloo; yet so eager were these people to
+be a sixth time led to destruction, that it was found necessary to
+confine _him_ in an island some thousand miles off, and to quarter
+foreign troops upon _them_, lest they should make an insurrection in
+his favour?[13] Does any one believe all this, and yet refuse to
+believe a miracle? Or rather, what is this but a miracle? Is it not a
+violation of the laws of nature? for surely there are moral laws of
+nature as well as physical; which though more liable to exceptions in
+this or that particular case, are no less _true as general rules_ than
+the laws of matter, and therefore cannot be violated and contradicted
+_beyond a certain point_, without a miracle.[14]
+
+Nay, there is this additional circumstance which renders the
+contradiction of Experience more glaring in this case than in that of
+the miraculous histories which ingenious sceptics have held up to
+contempt: all the advocates of miracles admit that they are rare
+exceptions to the general course of nature; but contend that they must
+needs be so, on account of the rarity of those extraordinary
+_occasions_ which are the _reason_ of their being performed: a
+Miracle, they say, does not happen every day, because a Revelation is
+not given every day. It would be foreign to the present purpose to
+seek for arguments against this answer; I leave it to those who are
+engaged in the controversy, to find a reply to it; but my present
+object is, to point out that this solution does not at all apply in
+the present case. Where is the peculiarity of the _occasion_? What
+sufficient _reason_ is there for a series of events occurring in the
+eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which never took place before?
+Was Europe at that period peculiarly weak, and in a state of
+barbarism, that one man could achieve such conquests, and acquire such
+a vast empire? On the contrary, she was flourishing in the height of
+strength and civilization. Can the persevering attachment and blind
+devotedness of the French to this man, be accounted for by his being
+the descendant of a long line of kings, whose race was hallowed by
+hereditary veneration? No; we are told he was a low-born usurper, and
+not even a Frenchman! Is it that he was a good and kind sovereign? He
+is represented not only as an imperious and merciless despot, but as
+most wantonly careless of the lives of his soldiers. Could the French
+army and people have failed to hear from the wretched survivors of his
+supposed Russian expedition, how they had left the corpses of above
+100,000 of their comrades bleaching on the snow-drifts of that dismal
+country, whither his mad ambition had conducted him, and where his
+selfish cowardice had deserted them? Wherever we turn to seek for
+circumstances that may help to account for the events of this
+incredible story, we only meet with such as aggravate its
+improbability.[15] Had it been told of some distant country, at a
+remote period, we could not have told what peculiar circumstances
+there might have been to render probable what seems to us most
+strange; and yet in _that_ case every philosophical sceptic, every
+free-thinking speculator, would instantly have rejected such a
+history, as utterly unworthy of credit. What, for instance, would the
+great Hume, or any of the philosophers of his school, have said, if
+they had found in the antique records of any nation, such a passage
+as this? "There was a certain man of Corsica, whose name was Napoleon,
+and he was one of the chief captains of the host of the French; and he
+gathered together an army, and went and fought against Egypt: but when
+the king of Britain heard thereof, he sent ships of war and valiant
+men to fight against the French in Egypt. So they warred against them,
+and prevailed, and strengthened the hands of the rulers of the land
+against the French, and drave away Napoleon from before the city of
+Acre. Then Napoleon left the captains and the army that were in Egypt,
+and fled, and returned back to France. So the French people, took
+Napoleon, and made him ruler over them, and he became exceeding great,
+insomuch that there was none like him of all that had ruled over
+France before."
+
+What, I say, would Hume have thought of this, especially if he had
+been told that it was at this day generally credited? Would he not
+have confessed that he had been mistaken in supposing there was a
+peculiarly blind credulity and prejudice in favour of everything that
+is accounted _sacred_;[16] for that, since even professed sceptics
+swallow implicitly such a story as this, it appears there must be a
+still blinder prejudice in favour of everything that is _not_
+accounted sacred?
+
+Suppose, again, we found in this history such passages as the
+following: "And it came to pass after these things that Napoleon
+strengthened himself, and gathered together another host instead of
+that which he had lost, and went and warred against the Prussians, and
+the Russians, and the Austrians, and all the rulers of the north
+country, which were confederate against him. And the ruler of Sweden,
+also, which was a Frenchman, warred against Napoleon. So they went
+forth, and fought against the French in the plain of Leipsic. And the
+French were discomfited before their enemies, and fled, and came to
+the rivers which are behind Leipsic, and essayed to pass over, that
+they might escape out of the hand of their enemies; but they could
+not, for Napoleon had broken down the bridges: so the people of the
+north countries came upon them, and smote them with a very grievous
+slaughter." ...
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Then the ruler of Austria and all the rulers of the north countries
+sent messengers unto Napoleon to speak peaceably unto him, saying, Why
+should there be war between us any more? Now Napoleon had put away
+his wife, and taken the daughter of the ruler of Austria to wife. So
+all the counsellors of Napoleon came and stood before him, and said,
+Behold now these kings are merciful kings; do even as they say unto
+thee; knowest thou not yet that France is destroyed? But he spake
+roughly unto his counsellors, and drave them, out from his presence,
+neither would he hearken unto their voice. And when all the kings saw
+that, they warred against France, and smote it with the edge of the
+sword, and came near to Paris, which is the royal city, to take it: so
+the men of Paris went out, and delivered up the city to them. Then
+those kings spake kindly unto the men of Paris, saying, Be of good
+cheer, there shall no harm happen unto you. Then were the men of Paris
+glad, and said, Napoleon is a tyrant; he shall no more rule over us.
+Also all the princes, the judges, the counsellors, and the captains
+whom Napoleon had raised up even from the lowest of the people, sent
+unto Lewis the brother of King Lewis, whom they had slain, and made
+him king over France." ...
+
+... ... ... ... ... ... ...
+
+"And when Napoleon saw that the kingdom was departed from him, he said
+unto the rulers which came against him, Let me, I pray you, give the
+kingdom unto my son: but they would not hearken unto him. Then he
+spake yet again, saying, Let me, I pray you, go and live in the island
+of Elba, which is over against Italy, nigh unto the coast of France;
+and ye shall give me an allowance for me and my household, and the
+land of Elba also for a possession. So they made him ruler of
+Elba."...
+
+... ... ... ... ... ... ...
+
+"In those days the Pope returned unto his own land. Now the French,
+and divers other nations of Europe, are servants of the Pope, and hold
+him in reverence; but he is an abomination unto the Britons, and to
+the Prussians, and to the Russians, and to the Swedes. Howbeit the
+French had taken away all his lands, and robbed him of all that he
+had, and carried him away captive into France. But when the Britons,
+and the Prussians, and the Russians, and the Swedes, and the rest of
+the nations that were confederate against France, came thither, they
+caused the French to set the Pope at liberty, and to restore all his
+goods that they had taken; likewise they gave him back all his
+possessions; and he went home in peace, and ruled over his own city as
+in times past."...
+
+... ... ... ... ... ... ...
+
+"And it came to pass when Napoleon had not yet been a full year at
+Elba, that he said unto his men of war that clave unto him, Go to, let
+us go back to France, and fight against King Lewis, and thrust him out
+from being king. So he departed, he and six hundred men with him that
+drew the sword, and warred against King Lewis. Then all the men of
+Belial gathered themselves together, and said, God save Napoleon. And
+when Lewis saw that, he fled, and gat him into the land of Batavia:
+and Napoleon ruled over France," &c. &c. &c.[17]
+
+Now if a free-thinking philosopher--one of those who advocate the
+cause of unbiassed reason, and despise pretended revelations--were to
+meet with such a tissue of absurdities as this in an old Jewish
+record, would he not reject it at once as too palpable an
+imposture[18] to deserve even any inquiry into its evidence? Is that
+credible then of the civilized Europeans now, which could not, if
+reported of the semi-barbarous Jews 3000 years ago, be established by
+any testimony? Will it be answered, that "there is nothing
+_supernatural_ in all this?" Why is it, then, that you object to what
+is _supernatural_--that you reject every account of _miracles_--if not
+because they are _improbable_? Surely then a story equally or still
+more improbable, is not to be implicitly received, merely on the
+ground that it is _not_ miraculous: though in fact, as I have already
+(in note, p. 39,) shown from Hume's authority, it _is_ really
+miraculous. The opposition to Experience has been proved to be as
+complete in this case, as in what are commonly called miracles; and
+the reasons assigned for that contrariety by the defenders of _them_,
+cannot be pleaded in the present instance. If then philosophers, who
+reject every wonderful story that is maintained by priests, are yet
+found ready to believe _everything else_, however improbable, they
+will surely lay themselves open to the accusation brought against them
+of being unduly prejudiced against whatever relates to religion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There is one more circumstance which I cannot forbear mentioning,
+because it so much adds to the air of fiction which pervades every
+part of this marvellous tale; and that is, the _nationality_ of
+it.[19]
+
+Buonaparte prevailed over all the hostile States in turn, _except
+England_; in the zenith of his power, his fleets were swept from the
+sea, _by England_; his troops always defeat an equal, and frequently
+even a superior number of those of any other nation, _except the
+English_; and with them it is just the reverse; twice, and twice only,
+he is personally engaged against an _English commander_, and both
+times he is totally defeated; at Acre, and at Waterloo; and to crown
+all, _England_ finally crushes this tremendous power, which had so
+long kept the continent in subjection or in alarm; and to the
+_English_ he surrenders himself prisoner! Thoroughly national, to be
+sure! It _may_ be all very true; but I would only ask, _if_ a story
+_had_ been fabricated for the express purpose of amusing the English
+nation, could it have been contrived more ingeniously? It would do
+admirably for an epic poem; and indeed bears a considerable
+resemblance to the Iliad and the �neid; in which Achilles and the
+Greeks, �neas and the Trojans, (the ancestors of the Romans) are so
+studiously held up to admiration. Buonaparte's exploits seem magnified
+in order to enhance the glory of his conquerors; just as Hector is
+allowed to triumph during the absence of Achilles, merely to give
+additional splendour to his overthrow by the arm of that invincible
+hero. Would not this circumstance alone render a history rather
+_suspicious_ in the eyes of an acute critic, even if it were not
+filled with such gross improbabilities; and induce him to suspend his
+judgment, till very satisfactory evidence (far stronger than can be
+found in this case) should be produced?
+
+Is it then too much to demand of the wary academic[20] a suspension of
+judgment as to the "life and adventures of Napoleon Buonaparte?" I do
+not pretend to _decide_ positively that there is not, nor ever was,
+any such person; but merely to propose it as a _doubtful_ point, and
+one the more deserving of careful investigation, from the very
+circumstance of its having hitherto been admitted without inquiry. Far
+less would I undertake to decide what is or has been the real state of
+affairs. He who points out the improbability of the current story, is
+not bound to suggest an hypothesis of his own;[21] though it may
+safely be affirmed, that it would be hard to invent any one more
+improbable than the received one. One may surely be allowed to
+hesitate in admitting the stories which the ancient poets tell, of
+earthquakes and volcanic eruptions being caused by imprisoned giants,
+without being called upon satisfactorily to account for those
+phenomena.
+
+Amidst the defect of valid evidence under which, as I have already
+shown, we labour in the present instance, it is hardly possible to
+offer more than here and there a probable conjecture; or to pronounce
+how much may be true, and how much fictitious, in the accounts
+presented to us. For, it is to be observed that this case is much
+_more_ open to sceptical doubts even than some miraculous histories;
+since some of _them_ are of such a nature that you cannot consistently
+admit a part and reject the rest; but are bound, if you are satisfied
+as to the reality of any one miracle, to embrace the whole system; so
+that it is necessary for the sceptic to impeach the evidence of _all_
+of them, separately, and collectively: whereas, _here_, each single
+point requires to be _established_ separately, since no one of them
+authenticates the rest. Supposing there be a state-prisoner at St.
+Helena, (which, by the way, it is acknowledged many of the French
+disbelieve,) how do we know who he is, or why he is confined there?
+There have been state-prisoners before now, who were never guilty of
+subjugating half Europe, and whose offences have been very imperfectly
+ascertained. Admitting that there have been bloody wars going on for
+several years past, which is highly probable, it does not follow that
+the events of those wars were such as we have been told;--that
+Buonaparte was the author and conductor of them;--or that such a
+person ever existed. What disturbances may have taken place in the
+government of the French people, we, and even nineteen-twentieths of
+_them_, have no means of learning but from imperfect hearsay evidence;
+and how much credit they themselves attach to that evidence is very
+doubtful. This at least is certain: that a M. Berryer, a French
+advocate, has published memoirs, professing to record many of the
+events of the recent history of France, in which, among other things,
+he states his conviction that Buonaparte's escape from Elba was
+DESIGNED AND CONTRIVED BY THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT.[22] And we are
+assured by many travellers that this was, and is, commonly reported in
+France.
+
+Now that the French should believe the whole story about Buonaparte
+according to this version of it, does seem utterly incredible. Let any
+one suppose them seriously believing that we maintained for many years
+a desperate struggle against this formidable emperor of theirs, in the
+course of which we expended such an enormous amount of blood and
+treasure as is reported;--that we finally, after encountering enormous
+risks, succeeded in subduing him, and secured him in a place of safe
+exile;--and that, in less than a year after, we turned him out again,
+like a bag-fox,--or rather, a bag-lion,--for the sake of amusing
+ourselves by again staking all that was dear to us on the event of a
+doubtful and bloody battle, in which defeat must be ruinous, and
+victory, if obtained at all, must cost us many thousands of our best
+soldiers. Let any one force himself for a moment to conceive the
+French seriously believing such a mass of absurdity; and the inference
+must be that such a people must be prepared to believe anything. They
+might fancy their own country to abound not only with Napoleons, but
+with dragons and centaurs, and "men whose heads do grow beneath their
+shoulders," or anything else that any lunatic ever dreamt of. If we
+could suppose the French capable of such monstrous credulity as the
+above supposition would imply, it is plain their testimony must be
+altogether worthless.
+
+But, on the other hand, suppose them to be aware that the British
+Government have been all along imposing on us, and it is quite natural
+that they should deride our credulity, and try whether there is
+anything too extravagant for us to swallow. And indeed, if Buonaparte
+was in fact altogether a phantom conjured up by the British Ministers,
+then it is _true_ that his escape from Elba really _was_, as well as
+_the rest of his exploits_, a contrivance of theirs.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But whatever may be believed by the French relative to the recent
+occurrences, in their own country, and whatever may be the real
+character of these occurrences, of this at least we are well assured,
+that there have been numerous bloody wars with France under the
+dominion of the _Bourbons_: and we are now told that France is
+governed by a Bourbon king, of the name of Lewis, who professes to be
+in the twenty-third year of his reign. Let every one conjecture for
+himself. I am far from pretending to decide who may have been the
+governor or governors of the French nation, and the leaders of their
+armies, for several years past. Certain it is, that when men are
+indulging their inclination for the marvellous, they always show a
+strong propensity to accumulate upon _one_ individual (real or
+imaginary) the exploits of many; besides multiplying and exaggerating
+these exploits a thousandfold. Thus, the expounders of the ancient
+mythology tell us there were several persons of the name of Hercules,
+(either originally bearing that appellation, or having it applied to
+them as an honour,) whose collective feats, after being dressed up in
+a sufficiently marvellous garb, were attributed to a single hero. Is
+it not just possible, that during the rage for words of Greek
+derivation, the title of "Napoleon," ({~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH
+OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~},) which
+signifies "Lion of the forest," may have been conferred by the popular
+voice on more than one favorite general, distinguished for irresistible
+valour? Is it not also possible that "BUONA PARTE" may have been
+originally a sort of cant term applied to the "good (i.e., the bravest
+or most patriotic) part" of the French army, collectively; and have been
+afterwards mistaken for the proper name of an individual?[23] I do not
+profess to support this conjecture; but it is certain that such mistakes
+may and do occur. Some critics have supposed that the Athenians imagined
+ANASTASIS ("Resurrection") to be a new goddess, in whose cause Paul was
+preaching. Would it have been thought anything incredible if we had been
+told that the ancient Persians, who had no idea of any but a monarchical
+government, had supposed Aristocratia to be a queen of Sparta? But we
+need not confine ourselves to hypothetical cases; it is positively
+stated that the Hindoos at this day believe "the honourable East India
+Company" to be a venerable old lady of high dignity, residing in this
+country. The Germans, again, of the present day derive their name from a
+similar mistake: the first tribe of them who invaded Gaul[24] assumed
+the honourable title of "_Ger-man_" which signifies "warriors," (the
+words "war" and "guerre," as well as "man," which remains in our
+language unaltered, are evidently derived from the Teutonic,) and the
+Gauls applied this as a _name_ to the whole _race_.
+
+However, I merely throw out these conjectures without by any means
+contending that more plausible ones might not be suggested. But
+whatever supposition we adopt, or whether we adopt any, the objections
+to the commonly received accounts will remain in their full force, and
+imperiously demand the attention of the candid sceptic.
+
+I call upon those, therefore, who profess themselves advocates of free
+inquiry--who disdain to be carried along with the stream of popular
+opinion, and who will listen to no testimony that runs counter to
+experience,--to follow up their own principles fairly and
+consistently. Let the same mode of argument be adopted in all cases
+alike; and then it can no longer be attributed to hostile prejudice,
+but to enlarged and philosophical views. If they have already rejected
+some histories, on the ground of their being strange and
+marvellous,--of their relating facts, unprecedented, and at variance
+with the established course of nature,--let them not give credit to
+another history which lies open to the very same objections,--the
+extraordinary and romantic tale we have been just considering. If they
+have discredited the testimony of witnesses, who are _said_ at least
+to have been disinterested, and to have braved persecutions and death
+in support of their assertions,--can these philosophers consistently
+listen to and believe the testimony of those who avowedly _get money_
+by the tales they publish, and who do not even pretend that they incur
+any serious risk in case of being detected in a falsehood? If, in
+other cases, they have refused to listen to an account which has
+passed through many intermediate hands before it reaches them, and
+which is defended by those who have an interest in maintaining it; let
+them consider through how many, and what very suspicious hands, _this_
+story has arrived to them, without the possibility, as I have shown,
+of tracing it back to any decidedly authentic source, after all;--to
+any better authority, according to their own showing, than that of an
+_unnamed_ and unknown foreign correspondent;--and likewise how strong
+an interest, in every way, those who have hitherto imposed on them,
+have in keeping up the imposture. Let them, in short, show themselves
+as ready to detect the cheats, and despise the fables of politicians
+as of priests.
+
+But if they are still wedded to the popular belief in this point, let
+them be consistent enough to admit the same evidence in _other_ cases
+which they yield to in _this_. If, after all that has been said, they
+cannot bring themselves to doubt of the existence of Napoleon
+Buonaparte, they must at least acknowledge that they do not apply to
+that question the same plan of reasoning which they have made use of
+in others; and they are consequently bound in reason and in honesty to
+renounce it altogether.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] "A report is spread, (says Voltaire in one of his works,) that
+there is, in some country or other, a giant as big as a mountain; and
+men presently fall to hot disputing concerning the precise length of
+his nose, the breadth of his thumb, and other particulars, and
+anathematize each other for heterodoxy of belief concerning them. In
+the midst of all, if some bold sceptic ventures to hint a doubt as to
+the existence of this giant, all are ready to join against him, and
+tear him to pieces." This looks almost like a prophetic allegory
+relating to the gigantic Napoleon.
+
+[4] {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH
+DASIA AND OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA
+WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH
+PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+IOTA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER ETA WITH DASIA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ZETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+ETA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER ETA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}, {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH
+VARIA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH VARIA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH VARIA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+EPSILON WITH DASIA AND OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER ALPHA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}
+{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}. Thucyd. b.i.c. 20.
+
+[5] "With what greediness are the miraculous accounts of travellers
+received, their descriptions of sea and land monsters, their relations
+of wonderful adventures, strange men, and uncouth manners!"--_Hume's
+Essay on Miracles_, p. 179, 12mo; p. 185, 8vo, 1767; p. 117, 8vo,
+1817.
+
+N.B.--In order to give every possible facility of reference, three
+editions of Hume's Essays have been generally employed: a 12mo,
+London, 1756, and two 8vo editions.
+
+[6] "Suppose a fact to be transmitted through twenty persons; the
+first communicating it to the second, the second to the third, &c.,
+and let the probability of each testimony be expressed by nine-tenths,
+(that is, suppose that of ten reports made by each witness, nine only
+are true,) then, at every time the story passes from one witness to
+another, the evidence is reduced to nine-tenths of what it was before.
+Thus, after it has passed through the whole twenty, the evidence will
+be found to be less than one-eighth."--LA PLACE, _Essai Philosophique
+sur les Probabilit�s_.
+
+That is, the chances for the fact thus attested being true, will be,
+according to this distinguished calculator, less than one in eight.
+Very few of the common newspaper-stories, however, relating to foreign
+countries, could be traced, if the matter were carefully investigated,
+up to an actual eye-witness, even through twenty intermediate
+witnesses; and many of the steps of our ladder, would, I fear, prove
+but rotten; few of the reporters would deserve to have _one in ten_
+fixed as the proportion of their false accounts.
+
+[7] "I did not mention the difficulty of detecting a falsehood in any
+private or even public history, at the time and place where it is said
+to happen; much more where the scene is removed to ever so small a
+distance.... But the matter never comes to any issue, if trusted to the
+common method of altercation and debate and flying rumours."--_Hume's
+Essay on Miracles_, p. 195, 12mo; pp. 200, 201, 8vo, 1767; p. 127, 8vo,
+1817.
+
+[8] See the third Postscript appended to this edition.
+
+[9] "We entertain a suspicion concerning any matter of fact, when the
+witnesses _contradict_ each other; when they are of a _suspicious_
+character; when they have an _interest_ in what they affirm."--_Hume's
+Essay on Miracles_, p. 172, 12mo; p. 176, 8vo, 1767; p. 113, 8vo.
+1817.
+
+[10] "That testimony itself derives all its force from experience,
+seems very certain.... The first author, we believe, who stated fairly
+the connexion between the evidence of testimony and the evidence of
+experience, was HUME, in his Essay on Miracles, a work ... abounding
+in maxims of great use in the conduct of life."--_Edin. Review_, Sept.
+1814, p. 328.
+
+[11] "Suppose, for instance, that the fact which the testimony
+endeavours to establish partakes of the extraordinary and the
+marvellous; in that case, the evidence resulting from the testimony
+receives a diminution, greater or less in proportion as the fact is
+more or less unusual."--_Hume's Essay on Miracles_, p. 173, 12mo; p.
+176, 8vo, 1767; p. 113, 8vo, 1817.
+
+[12] "The ultimate standard by which we determine all disputes that
+may arise is always derived from experience and observation."--_Hume's
+Essay on Miracles_, p. 172, 12mo; p. 175, 8vo, 1767; p. 112, 8vo,
+1817.
+
+[13] {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ETA WITH PSILI~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH
+OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH OXIA~}. {~GREEK
+CAPITAL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+IOTA WITH VARIA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH OXIA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH VARIA~} {~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER BETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH
+PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL
+SIGMA~} {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER UPSILON WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL
+LETTER PI~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER RHO~}
+{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK
+CAPITAL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER
+LAMDA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK
+CAPITAL LETTER ETA~} {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL
+LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER
+OMICRON~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER
+DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}
+{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PSI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER UPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}
+{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH
+OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK CAPITAL
+LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER XI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}
+{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH
+PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}. PIND. Olymp. 1
+
+[14] This doctrine, though hardly needing confirmation from authority,
+is supported by that of Hume; his eighth essay is, throughout, an
+argument for the doctrine of "Philosophical necessity," drawn entirely
+from the general uniformity, observable in the course of nature with
+respect to the principles of _human conduct_, as well as those of the
+material universe; from which uniformity, he observes, it is that we
+are enabled _in both cases_, to form our judgment by means of
+_Experience:_ "and if," says he, "we would explode any forgery in
+history, we cannot make use of a more convincing argument, than to
+prove that the actions ascribed to any person, are directly contrary
+to the course of nature....
+
+"... The Veracity of Quintus Curtius is as suspicious when he
+describes the supernatural courage of Alexander, by which he was
+hurried on singly to attack multitudes, as when he describes his
+supernatural force and activity, by which he was able to resist them.
+So readily and universally do we acknowledge a _uniformity in human
+motives and actions, as well as in the operations of body_."--_Eighth
+Essay_, p. 131, 12mo; p. 85, 8vo, 1817.
+
+Accordingly, in the tenth essay, his use of the term "miracle," after
+having called it "a transgression of a law of nature," plainly shows
+that he meant to include _human_ nature: "no testimony," says he, "is
+sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a
+nature that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which
+it endeavours to establish." The term "prodigy" also (which he all
+along employs as synonymous with "miracle") is applied to testimony, in
+the same manner, immediately after; "In the foregoing reasoning we have
+supposed ... that the falsehood of that testimony would be a kind of
+_prodigy_." Now had he meant to confine the meaning of "miracle," and
+"prodigy," to a violation of the laws of _matter_, the epithet
+"_miraculous_," applied even thus hypothetically, to _false testimony_,
+would be as unmeaning as the epithets "green" or "square;" the only
+possible sense in which we can apply to it, even in imagination, the
+term "miraculous," is that of "highly improbable,"--"contrary to those
+laws of nature which respect human conduct:" and in this sense he
+accordingly uses the word in the very next sentence: "When any one
+tells me that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately
+consider with myself whether it be more _probable_ that this person
+should either deceive or be deceived, or that the fact which he relates
+should really have happened. I weigh the one _miracle_ against the
+other."--_Hume's Essay on Miracles_, pp. 176, 177, 12mo; p. 182, 8vo,
+1767; p. 115, 8vo, 1817.
+
+See also a passage above quoted from the same essay, where he speaks
+of "the _miraculous_ accounts of travellers;" evidently using the word
+in this sense.
+
+Perhaps it was superfluous to cite authority for applying the term
+"miracle" to whatever is "highly improbable;" but it is important to
+the students of Hume, to be fully aware that he uses those two
+expressions as synonymous; since otherwise they would mistake the
+meaning of that passage which he justly calls "a general maxim worthy
+of your attention."
+
+[15] "Events may be so extraordinary that they can hardly be
+established by testimony. We would not give credit to a man who would
+affirm that he saw a hundred dice thrown in the air, and that they all
+fell on the same faces."--_Edin. Review_, Sept. 1814, p. 327.
+
+Let it be observed, that the instance here given is _miraculous_ in no
+other sense but that of being highly _improbable_.
+
+[16] "If the spirit of religion join itself to the love of wonder,
+there is an end of common sense; and human testimony in these
+circumstances loses all pretensions to authority."--_Hume's Essay on
+Miracles_, p. 179, 12mo; p. 185, 8vo, 1767; p. 117, 8vo, 1817.
+
+[17] The supposed history from which the above extracts are given, is
+published entire in the work called _Historic Certainties._
+
+[18] "I desire any one to lay his hand upon his heart, and after
+serious consideration declare whether he thinks that the falsehood of
+such a book, supported by such testimony, would be more extraordinary
+and miraculous than all the miracles it relates."--_Hume's Essay on
+Miracles_, p. 200, 12mo; p. 206, 8vo, 1767; p. 131, 8vo, 1817.
+
+Let it be borne in mind that Hume (as I have above remarked)
+continually employs the term "miracle" and "prodigy" to signify
+anything that is highly _improbable_ and _extraordinary._
+
+[19] "The wise lend a very academic faith to every report which
+favours the passion of the reporter, whether it magnifies his
+_country_, his family, or himself."--_Hume's Essay on Miracles_, p.
+144, 12mo; p. 200, 8vo, 1767; p. 126, 8vo, 1817.
+
+[20] "Nothing can be more contrary than such a philosophy (the
+academic or sceptical) to the supine indolence of the mind, its rash
+arrogance, its lofty pretensions, and its superstitious
+credulity."--_Fifth Essay_, p. 68, 12mo; p. 41, 8vo, 1817.
+
+[21] See _Hume's Essay on Miracles_, pp. 189, 191, 195, 12mo; pp. 193,
+197, 201, 202, 8vo, 1767; pp. 124, 125, 126, 8vo, 1817.
+
+[22] See _Edinburgh Review_ for October, 1842, p. 162.
+
+[23] It is well know with how much learning and ingenuity the
+Rationalists of the German school have laboured to throw discredit on
+the literal interpretation of the narratives, both of the Old and the
+New Testaments; representing them as MYTHS, i.e., fables allegorically
+describing some physical or moral ph�nomena--philosophical
+principles--systems, &c.--under the figure of actions performed by
+certain ideal personages; these allegories having been, afterwards,
+through the mistake of the vulgar, believed as history. Thus, the real
+historical existence of such a person as the supposed founder of the
+Christian religion, and the acts attributed to him, are denied in the
+literal sense, and the whole of the evangelical history is explained
+on the "mythical" theory.
+
+Now it is a remarkable circumstance in reference to the point at
+present before us, that an eminent authoress of this century has
+distinctly declared that Napoleon Buonaparte was NOT A MAN, but a
+SYSTEM.
+
+[24] Germani� vocabulum recens et nuper additum; quoniam qui primi
+Rhenum transgressi Gallos expulerint, ac nunc Tungri, tunc Germani
+vocati sint: ita nationis nomen in nomen gentis evaluisse paullatim,
+ut omnes, primum a victore ob metum, mox a seipsis invento nomine,
+Germani vocarentur.--_Tacitus, de Mor. Germ._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT TO THE THIRD EDITION.
+
+
+It may seem arrogant for an obscure and nameless individual to claim
+the glory of having put to death the most formidable of all recorded
+heroes. But a shadowy champion may be overthrown by a shadowy
+antagonist. Many a terrific spectre has been laid by the beams of a
+halfpenny candle. And if I have succeeded in making out, in the
+foregoing pages, a probable case of suspicion, it must, I think, be
+admitted, that there is some ground for my present boast, of having
+_killed_ Napoleon Buonaparte.
+
+Let but the circumstances of the case be considered. This mighty
+Emperor, who had been so long the bugbear of the civilized world,
+after having obtained successes and undergone reverses, such as never
+befel any (other at least) _real_ potentate, was at length sentenced
+to confinement in the remote island of St. Helena: a measure which
+many persons wondered at, and many objected to, on various grounds;
+not unreasonably, supposing the illustrious exile to be a real person;
+but on the supposition of his being only a man of straw, the
+situation was exceedingly favourable for keeping him out of the way of
+impertinent curiosity, when not wanted, and for making him the
+foundation of any new plots that there might be occasion to conjure
+up.
+
+About this juncture it was that the public attention was first
+invited, by these pages, to the question as to the real existence of
+Napoleon Buonaparte. They excited, it may be fairly supposed, along
+with much surprise and much censure, some degree of doubt, and
+probably of consequent inquiry. No fresh evidence, as far as I can
+learn, of the truth of the disputed points, was brought forward to
+dispel these doubts. We heard, however, of the most jealous
+precautions being used to prevent any intercourse between the
+formidable prisoner, and any stranger who, from motives of curiosity,
+might wish to visit him. The "man in the iron mask" could hardly have
+been more rigorously secluded: and we also heard various contradictory
+reports of conversations between him and the few who were allowed
+access to him; the falsehood and inconsistency of most of these
+reports being proved in contemporary publications.
+
+At length, just about the time when the public scepticism respecting
+this extraordinary personage might be supposed to have risen to an
+alarming height, it was announced to us that he was dead! A stop was
+thus put, most opportunely, to all troublesome inquiries. I do not
+undertake to deny that such a person did live and die. That he was,
+and that he did, _everything_ that is reported, we cannot believe,
+unless we consent to admit contradictory statements; but many of the
+events reported, however marvellous, are certainly not, when taken
+separately, physically impossible. But I would only entreat the candid
+reader to reflect what might naturally be expected, on the supposition
+of the surmises contained in the present work being well founded.
+Supposing the whole of the tale I have been considering to have been a
+fabrication, what would be the natural result of such attempt to
+excite inquiry into its truth? Evidently the shortest and most
+effectual mode of avoiding detection, would be to _kill_ the phantom,
+and so get rid of him at once. A ready and decisive answer would thus
+be provided to any one in whom the foregoing arguments might have
+excited suspicions: "Sir, there can be no doubt that such a person
+existed, and performed what is related of him; and if you will just
+take a voyage to St. Helena, you may see with your own eyes,--not him,
+indeed, for he is no longer living,--but his _tomb_: and what evidence
+would you have that is more decisive?"
+
+So much for his _Death_: as for his _Life_,--it is just published by
+an eminent writer: besides which, the shops will supply us with
+abundance of busts and prints of this great man; all striking
+likenesses--of one another. The most incredulous must be satisfied
+with this! "Stat magni NOMINIS umbra!"
+
+KONX OMPAX.
+
+
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT TO THE SEVENTH EDITION.
+
+
+Since the publication of the Sixth Edition of this work, the French
+nation, and the world at large, have obtained an additional evidence,
+to which I hope they will attach as much weight as it deserves, of the
+reality of the wonderful history I have been treating of. The Great
+Nation, among the many indications lately given of an heroic zeal like
+what Homer attributes to his Argive warriors, {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+IOTA~} {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER
+LAMDA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER
+NU~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER SIGMA~} {~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER ALPHA WITH OXIA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+EPSILON~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH
+OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}, have formed and executed the design
+of bringing home for honourable interment the remains of their
+illustrious Chief.
+
+How many persons have actually inspected these relics, I have not
+ascertained; but that a real coffin, containing real bones, was
+brought from St. Helena to France, I see no reason to disbelieve.
+
+Whether future visitors to St. Helena will be shown merely the
+identical _place_ in which Buonaparte was (_said_ to have been)
+interred, or whether another set of real bones will be exhibited in
+that island, we have yet to learn.
+
+This latter supposition is not very improbable. It was something of a
+credit to the island, an attraction to strangers, and a source of
+profit to some of the inhabitants, to possess so remarkable a relic;
+and this glory and advantage they must naturally wish to retain. If
+so, there seems no reason why they should not have a Buonaparte of
+their own; for there is, I believe, no doubt that there are, or were,
+several Museums in England, which, among other curiosities, boasted,
+each, of a genuine skull of Oliver Cromwell.
+
+Perhaps, therefore, we shall hear of several well authenticated skulls
+of Buonaparte also, in the collections of different virtuosos, all of
+whom (especially those in whose own crania the "organ of wonder" is
+the most largely developed) will doubtless derive equal satisfaction
+from the relics they respectively possess.
+
+
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT TO THE NINTH EDITION.
+
+
+The Public has been of late much interested and not a little
+bewildered, by the accounts of many strange events, said to have
+recently taken place in France and other parts of the Continent. Are
+these accounts of such a character as to allay, or to strengthen and
+increase, such doubts as have been suggested in the foregoing pages?
+
+We are told that there is now a Napoleon Buonaparte at the head of the
+government of France. It is not, indeed, asserted that he is the very
+original Napoleon Buonaparte himself. The death of that personage, and
+the transportation of his genuine bones to France, had been too widely
+proclaimed to allow of his reappearance in his own proper person. But
+"uno avulso, non deficit alter." Like the Thibetian worshippers of the
+Dalai Lama, (who never dies; only his soul transmigrates into a fresh
+body), the French are so resolved, we are told, to be under a
+Buonaparte--whether that be (see note to p. 56) a man or "a
+system"--that they have found, it seems, a kind of new incarnation of
+this their Grand Lama, in a person said to be the nephew of the
+original one.
+
+And when, on hearing that this personage now fills the high office of
+President of the French Republic, we inquire (very naturally) _how he
+came there_, we are informed that, several years ago, he invaded
+France in an English vessel, (the _English_--as was observed in p.
+52--having always been suspected of keeping Buonaparte ready, like the
+winds in a Lapland witch's bag, to be let out on occasion,) at the
+head of a force, not, of six hundred men, like his supposed uncle in
+his expedition from Elba, but of fifty-five,(!) with which he landed
+at Boulogne, proclaimed himself emperor, and was joined by no less
+than _one_ man! He was accordingly, we are told, arrested, brought to
+trial, and sentenced to imprisonment; but having, some years after,
+escaped from prison, and taken refuge in England, (_England_ again!)
+he thence returned to France: AND SO the French nation placed
+him at the head of the government!
+
+All this will doubtless be received as a very probable tale by those
+who have given full credit to all the stories I have alluded to in the
+foregoing pages.
+
+
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT TO THE ELEVENTH EDITION.
+
+
+When any dramatic piece _takes_--as the phrase is--with the Public, it
+will usually be represented again and again with still-continued
+applause; and sometimes imitations of it will be produced; so that the
+same drama in substance will, with occasional slight variations in the
+plot, and changes of names, long keep possession of the stage.
+
+Something like this has taken place with respect to that curious
+tragi-comedy--the scene of it laid in France--which has engaged the
+attention of the British public for about sixty years; during which it
+has been "exhibited to crowded houses"--viz., coffee-houses,
+reading-rooms, &c., with unabated interest.
+
+The outline of this drama, or series of dramas, may be thus sketched:
+
+_Dramatis Person�._
+
+A. A King or other Sovereign.
+
+B. His Queen.
+
+C. The Heir apparent.
+
+D. E. F. His Ministers.
+
+G. H. I. J. K. Demagogues.
+
+L. A popular leader of superior ingenuity, who becomes ultimately
+supreme ruler under the title of Dictator, Consul, Emperor, King,
+President, or some other.
+
+Soldiers, Senators, Executioners, and other functionaries, Citizens,
+Fishwomen, &c.
+
+_Scene_, Paris.
+
+(1.) The first Act of one of these dramas represents a monarchy,
+somewhat troubled by murmurs of disaffection, suspicions of
+conspiracy, &c.
+
+(2.) Second Act, a rebellion; in which ultimately the government is
+overthrown.
+
+(3.) Act the third, a provisional government established, on
+principles of liberty, equality, fraternity, &c.
+
+(4.) Act the fourth, struggles of various parties for power, carried
+on with sundry intrigues, and sanguinary conflicts.
+
+(5.) Act the fifth, the re-establishment of some form of absolute
+monarchy.
+
+And from this point we start afresh, and begin the same business over
+again, with sundry fresh interludes.
+
+All this is highly amusing to the English Public to _hear_ and _read_
+of; but I doubt whether our countrymen would like to be actual
+_performers_ in such a drama.
+
+Whether the French really are so, or whether they are mystifying us in
+the accounts they send over, I will not presume to decide. But if the
+former supposition be the true one,--if they have been so long really
+acting over and over again in their own persons such a drama, it must
+be allowed that they deserve to be characterized as they have been in
+the description given of certain European nations: "An Englishman," it
+has been said, "is never happy but when he is miserable; a Scotchman
+is never at home but when he is abroad; an Irishman is never at peace
+but when he is fighting; a Spaniard is never at liberty but when he is
+enslaved; and a Frenchman is never settled but when he is engaged in a
+revolution."
+
+
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT TO THE TWELFTH EDITION.
+
+
+"Time" says the proverb, "rings Truth to light." But the process is
+gradual and slow. The debt is paid, as it were, by instalments. It is
+only bit by bit, and at considerable intervals, that Truth comes forth
+as the morning twilight to dispel the mists of fiction.
+
+It is above forty years that men have been debating the question:--Who
+were the parties that burned the city of Moscow?--without ever
+thinking of the preliminary question, whether it ever was burnt at
+all. And now at length we learn that it never was.
+
+The following extract from a New Orleans paper contains the
+information obtained by an American traveller--one of that great
+nation whose accuracy as to facts is so well known--who visited the
+spot.
+
+
+  INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL--CITY OF MOSCOW.
+
+  Senator Douglas is said to have made the discovery, while
+  travelling in Russia, that the city of Moscow was never burned!
+  The following statement of the matter is from the Muscatine
+  (Iowa) Inquirer:
+
+  "Coming on the boat, a few days ago, we happened to fall in
+  company with Senator Douglas, who came on board at Quincy, on his
+  way to Warsaw. In the course of a very interesting account of his
+  travels in Russia, much of which has been published by
+  letter-writers, he stated a fact which has never yet been
+  published, but which startlingly contradicts the historical
+  relation of one of the most extraordinary events that ever fell
+  to the lot of history to record. For this reason the Judge said
+  he felt a delicacy in making the assertion, that the city of
+  Moscow was never burned!
+
+  "He said, that previous to his arrival at Moscow, he had several
+  disputes with his guide as to the burning of the city, the guide
+  declaring that it never occurred, and seeming to be nettled at
+  Mr. Douglas's persistency in his opinion; but, on examining the
+  fire-marks around the city, and the city itself, he became
+  satisfied that the guide was correct.
+
+  "The statement goes on to set forth that the antiquity of the
+  architectural city--particularly of its 'six hundred first-class
+  churches,' stretching through ante-Napoleonic ages to Pagan
+  times, and showing the handiwork of different nations of
+  History--demonstrates that the city never was burned down (or
+  up)."
+
+  The Inquirer adds:
+
+  "The Kremlin is a space of several hundred acres, in the heart of
+  the city, in the shape of a flat iron, and is enclosed, by a wall
+  of sixty feet high. Within this enclosure is the most magnificent
+  palace in Europe, recently built, but constructed over an ancient
+  palace, which remains, thus enclosed, whole and perfect, with all
+  its windows, &c.
+
+  "Near the Kremlin, surrounded by a wall, is a Chinese town,
+  appearing to be several hundred years old, still occupied by
+  descendants of the original settlers.
+
+  "The circumstances which gave rise to the errors concerning the
+  burning of Moscow, were these:--It is a city of four hundred and
+  fifty thousand inhabitants, in circular form, occupying a large
+  space, five miles across. There the winters are six months long,
+  and the custom was, and still is, to lay up supplies of
+  provisions and wood to last six months of severe cold weather. To
+  prevent these gigantic supplies from encumbering the heart of the
+  city, and yet render them as convenient as practicable to every
+  locality, a row of wood houses was constructed to circle
+  completely round the city, and outside of these was a row of
+  granaries, and in these were deposited the whole of the supplies.
+  Napoleon had entered the city with his army, and was himself
+  occupying the palace of the Kremlin, when, one night, by order of
+  the Russian governor, every wood house and every granary
+  simultaneously burst into a blaze. All efforts to extinguish them
+  were vain, and Napoleon found himself compelled to march his army
+  through the fire. Retiring to an eminence he saw the whole city
+  enveloped in vast sheets of flame, and clouds of smoke, and
+  apparently all on fire. And far as he was concerned it might as
+  well have been, for though houses enough were left to supply
+  every soldier with a room, yet without provisions or fuel, and a
+  Russian army to cut off supplies, he and his army could not
+  subsist there. During the fire some houses were probably burnt,
+  but the city was not. In the Kremlin a magazine blew up, cracking
+  the church of Ivan more than a hundred feet up, but setting
+  nothing on fire.
+
+  "Mr. Douglas saw the fire-marks around the city, where wood
+  houses and granaries for winter supplies now stand as of old; but
+  there appears no marks of conflagration within the city."
+
+Any wary sceptic, indeed, might have found much ground for doubt in
+the very accounts themselves that were given of the conflagration.
+For, the Russians have always denied that _they_ burned it; and the
+French equally disclaimed the act. Each of the two parties between
+whom the accusation lay, strenuously denied it. And it must be
+acknowledged that each had very strong presumptions of innocence to
+urge. It was certainly most _unlikely_ that the Russians should
+themselves destroy their ancient and venerable capital; and that, too,
+when they were boasting of having just gained a great victory at
+Borodino over an army which, therefore, they might hope to defeat
+again, and to drive out of their city. And it was no less unlikely
+that the French should burn down a city of which they had possession,
+and which afforded shelter and refreshment to their troops. This would
+have been one of the most improbable circumstances of that most
+improbable (supposed) campaign. To add to the marvel, we are told that
+the French army nevertheless waited for five weeks, without any
+object, amid the ashes of this destroyed city, just at the approach,
+of winter, and as if on purpose to be overtaken and destroyed by snows
+and frost!
+
+However, all the difficulties of the question whether any of these
+things took place at all, were by most persons overlooked, because
+the question itself never occurred to them, in their eagerness to
+decide _who_ it was that burned the city. And at length it comes out
+that the answer is, NOBODY!
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT.
+
+
+With respect to the foregoing arguments, it has been asserted (though
+without even any attempt at proof) that they go to prove that the
+Bible-narratives contain nothing more miraculous than the received
+accounts of Napoleon Buonapart�. And this is indeed true, if we use
+the word "_miraculous_" in the very unusual sense in which Hume (as is
+pointed out in the foregoing pages) has employed it; to signify simply
+"_improbable_;" an abuse of language on which his argument mainly
+depends.
+
+It is indeed shown, that there are at least as many and as great
+_improbabilities_ in the history of Buonapart� as in any of the
+Scripture-narratives; and that as plausible objections,--if not more
+so,--may be brought against the one history as the other.
+
+But taking words in their ordinary, established sense, the assertion
+is manifestly the opposite of the truth. For, any one who does,--in
+spite of all the improbabilities,--_believe_ the truth of _both_
+histories, is, evidently, a believer in miracles; since he believes
+two narratives, one of which is _not_ miraculous, while the other is.
+The history of Buonapart� contains--though much that is very
+improbable--nothing that is to be called, according to the established
+use of language, miraculous. And the Scriptures contain, as an
+_essential_ part of their narrative, _Miracles_, properly so called.
+
+To talk of believing the Bible, all _except the Miracles_, would be
+like professing to believe the accounts of Buonapart�, _except_ only
+his commanding armies, and having been at Elba and at Saint Helena.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One cannot doubt that in the course of the _forty years_ that this
+little Work has been before the Public, some real, valid refutation of
+the argument would have been adduced, if any such could have been
+devised.
+
+1860.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Historic Doubts Relative To Napoleon
+Buonaparte, by Richard  Whately
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Historic Doubts Relative To Napoleon
+Buonaparte, by Richard  Whately
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Historic Doubts Relative To Napoleon Buonaparte
+
+Author: Richard  Whately
+
+Release Date: March 30, 2006 [EBook #18087]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORIC DOUBTS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeannie Howse, Thierry Alberto and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team of Distributed Proofreaders
+Europe at http://dp.rastko.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a>
+
+<h1>HISTORIC<br />
+DOUBTS<br />
+RELATIVE TO<br />
+NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE.</h1>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<div class="block2">
+<p class="noin">Is not the same reason available in theology and in politics?...
+Will you follow truth but to a certain point?&mdash;<span class="sc">Burke's</span>
+<i>Vindication of Natural Society.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<div class="block2">
+<p class="noin">The first author who stated fairly the connexion between the
+evidence of testimony and the evidence of experience, was Hume, in
+his <span class="sc">Essay on Miracles</span>; a work <i>abounding in maxims of great use</i> in
+the conduct of life.&mdash;<i>Edinburgh Review</i>, Sept. 1814, p. 328.</p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<h4><i>NEW EDITION.</i></h4>
+<br />
+<h5>LONDON:<br />
+LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.<br />
+MDCCCLXV.</h5>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span><br />
+
+<h5>LONDON:<br />
+SAVILL AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS, CHANDOS STREET,<br />
+COVENT GARDEN.</h5>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>PREFACE.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>Several of the readers of this little work (first published in 1819)
+have derived much amusement from the mistakes of others respecting its
+nature and object. It has been by some represented as a serious
+attempt to inculcate universal scepticism; while others have
+considered it as a jeu d'esprit, &amp;c.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> The author does not, however,
+design to entertain his readers with accounts of the mistakes which,
+have arisen respecting it; because many of them, he is convinced,
+would be received with incredulity; and he could not, without an
+indelicate exposure of individuals, verify his anecdotes.</p>
+
+<p>But some sensible readers have complained of the difficulty of
+determining <i>what</i> they are to believe. Of the existence of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>
+Buonaparte, indeed, they remained fully convinced; nor, if it were
+left doubtful, would any important results ensue; but if they can give
+no <i>satisfactory reason</i> for their conviction, how can they know, it
+is asked, that they may not be mistaken as to other points of greater
+consequence, on which they are no less fully convinced, but on which
+all men are <i>not</i> agreed? The author has accordingly been solicited to
+endeavour to frame some canons which may furnish a standard for
+determining what evidence is to be received.</p>
+
+<p>This he conceives to be impracticable, except to that extent to which
+it is accomplished by a sound system of Logic; including under that
+title, a portion&mdash;that which relates to the "Laws of Evidence"&mdash;of
+what is sometimes treated under the head of "Rhetoric." But the full
+and complete accomplishment of such an object would confer on Man the
+unattainable attribute of infallibility.</p>
+
+<p>But the difficulty complained of, he conceives to arise, in many
+instances, from men's <i>mis-stating the grounds of their own
+conviction</i>. They are convinced, indeed, and perhaps with very
+sufficient reason; but they imagine this reason to be a different one
+from what it is. The evidence to which they have assented is applied
+to their minds in a different manner from that in which they believe
+that it is&mdash;and suppose that it ought to be&mdash;applied. And when
+challenged to defend and justify their own belief, they feel at a
+loss, because they are attempting to maintain a position which is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>
+not, in fact, that in which their force lies.</p>
+
+<p>For a development of the nature, the consequences, and the remedies of
+this mistake, the reader is referred to "Hinds on Inspiration," pp.
+30-46. If such a development is to be found in any earlier works, the
+Author of the following pages at least has never chanced to meet with
+any attempt of the kind.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>It has been objected, again, by some persons of no great logical
+accuracy of thought, that as there would not be any <i>moral blame</i>
+imputable to one who should seriously disbelieve, or doubt, the
+existence of Buonaparte, so neither is a rejection of the
+Scripture-histories to be considered as implying anything morally
+culpable.</p>
+
+<p>The same objection, such as it is, would apply equally to many of the
+Parables of the New Testament. It might be said, for instance, that as
+a woman who should decline taking the trouble of searching for her
+lost "piece of silver," or a merchant who should neglect making an
+advantageous purchase of a "goodly pearl," would be guilty of no moral
+wrong, it must follow that there is nothing morally wrong in
+neglecting to reclaim a lost sinner, or in rejecting the Gospel, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>But any man of common sense readily perceives that the force of these
+parables consists in the circumstance that men do <i>not</i> usually show
+this carelessness about temporal goods; and, therefore, are guilty of
+gross and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>culpable <i>inconsistency</i>, if they are comparatively
+careless about what is far more important.</p>
+
+<p>So, also, in the present case. If any man's mind were so constituted
+as to reject the same evidence in <i>all</i> matters alike&mdash;if, for
+instance, he really doubted or disbelieved the existence of
+Buonaparte, and considered the Egyptian pyramids as fabulous, because,
+forsooth, he had no "experience" of the erection of such huge
+structures, and <i>had</i> experience of travellers telling huge lies&mdash;he
+would be regarded, perhaps, as very silly, or as insane, but not as
+morally culpable. But if (as is intimated in the concluding sentence
+of this work) a man is influenced in one case by objections which, in
+another case, he would deride, then he stands convicted of being
+unfairly biassed by his prejudices.</p>
+
+<p>It is only necessary to add, that as this work first appeared in the
+year 1819, many things are spoken of in the present tense, to which
+the past would now be applicable.</p>
+
+<p>Postscripts have been added to successive editions in reference to
+subsequent occurrences.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 15%;' />
+
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> It was observed by some reviewer, that Hume himself, had
+he been alive, would doubtless have highly enjoyed the joke! But even
+those who have the greatest delight in ridicule, do not relish jokes
+at <i>their own expense</i>. Hume may have inwardly laughed, while
+mystifying his readers with arguments which he himself perceived to be
+futile. But he did not mean the readers to perceive this. And it is
+not likely that he would have been amused at seeing his own fallacies
+exposed and held up to derision.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> See <i>Elements of Rhetoric</i>, p. i. ch. 2, &sect; 4.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="HISTORIC_DOUBTS" id="HISTORIC_DOUBTS"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>HISTORIC DOUBTS<br />
+RELATIVE TO<br />
+NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>compressed into so small a space of time, it
+is certain that to no one were ever assigned so many dissimilar
+characters.</p>
+
+<p>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,
+will be called courage, or courage, rashness; heroic firmness, and
+obstinate pride, will correspond in the two opposite descriptions; and
+in some leading features both will agree. Neither the friends nor the
+enemies of Philip of Macedon, or of Julius C&aelig;sar, ever questioned
+their <span class="scfake">COURAGE</span>, or their <span class="scfake">MILITARY SKILL</span>.</p>
+
+<p>With Buonaparte, however, it has been otherwise. This obscure Corsican
+adventurer, a man, according to some, of extraordinary talents and
+courage, according to others, of very moderate abilities, and a rank
+coward, advanced rapidly in the French army, obtained a high command,
+gained a series of important victories, and, elated by success,
+embarked in an expedition against Egypt; which was planned and
+conducted, according to some, with the most consummate skill,
+according to others, with the utmost wildness and folly: he was
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>unsuccessful, however; and leaving the army in Egypt in a very
+distressed situation, he returned to France, and found the nation, or
+at least the army, so favourably disposed towards him, that he was
+enabled, with the utmost ease, to overthrow the existing government,
+and obtain for himself the supreme power; at first, under the modest
+appellation of Consul, but afterwards with the more sounding title of
+Emperor. While in possession of this power, he overthrew the most
+powerful coalitions of the other European States against him; and
+though driven from the sea by the British fleets, overran nearly the
+whole continent, triumphant; finishing a war, not unfrequently, in a
+single campaign, he entered the capitals of most of the hostile
+potentates, deposed and created Kings at his pleasure, and appeared
+the virtual sovereign of the chief part of the continent, from the
+frontiers of Spain to those of Russia. Even those countries we find
+him invading with prodigious armies, defeating their forces,
+penetrating to their capitals, and threatening their total
+subjugation. But at Moscow his progress is stopped: a winter of
+unusual severity, co-operating with the efforts of the Russians,
+totally destroys his enormous host: and the German sovereigns throw
+off the yoke, and combine to oppose him. He raises another vast army,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>which is also ruined at Leipsic; and again another, with which, like a
+second Ant&aelig;us, he for some time maintains himself in France; but is
+finally defeated, deposed, and banished to the island of Elba, of
+which the sovereignty is conferred on him. Thence he returns, in about
+nine months, at the head of 600 men, to attempt the deposition of King
+Louis, who had been peaceably recalled; the French nation declare in
+his favour, and he is reinstated without a struggle. He raises another
+great army to oppose the allied powers, which is totally defeated at
+Waterloo; he is a second time deposed, surrenders to the British, and
+is placed in confinement at the island of St. Helena. Such is the
+outline of the eventful history presented to us; in the detail of
+which, however, there is almost every conceivable variety of
+statement; while the motives and conduct of the chief actor are
+involved in still greater doubt, and the subject of still more eager
+controversy.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 10%;' />
+
+<p>In the midst of these controversies, the preliminary question,
+concerning the <i>existence</i> of this extraordinary personage, seems
+never to have occurred to any one as a matter of doubt; and to show
+even the smallest hesitation in admitting it, would probably be
+regarded as an excess of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>scepticism; on the ground that this point
+has always been taken for granted by the disputants on all sides,
+being indeed implied by the very nature of their disputes.</p>
+
+<p>But is it in fact found that <i>undisputed</i> points are always such as
+have been the most carefully examined as to the evidence on which they
+rest? that facts or principles which are taken for granted, without
+controversy, as the common basis of opposite opinions, are always
+themselves established on sufficient grounds? On the contrary, is not
+any such fundamental point, from the very circumstance of its being
+taken for granted at once, and the attention drawn off to some other
+question, likely to be admitted on insufficient evidence, and the
+flaws in that evidence overlooked?</p>
+
+<p>Experience will teach us that such instances often occur: witness the
+well-known anecdote of the Royal Society; to whom King Charles II.
+proposed as a question, whence it is that a vessel of water receives
+no addition of weight from a live fish being put into it, though it
+does, if the fish be dead. Various solutions, of great ingenuity, were
+proposed, discussed, objected to, and defended; nor was it till they
+had been long bewildered in the inquiry, that it occurred to them <i>to
+try the experiment</i>; by which they at once ascertained that the
+phenomenon which they were striving to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>account for,&mdash;which was the
+acknowledged basis and substratum, as it were, of their debates,&mdash;had
+no existence but in the invention of the witty monarch.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>Another instance of the same kind is so very remarkable that I cannot
+forbear mentioning it. It was objected to the system of Copernicus
+when first brought forward, that if the earth turned on its axis, as
+he represented, a stone dropped from the summit of a tower would not
+fall at the foot of it, but at a great distance to the west; <i>in the
+same manner as a stone dropped from the mast-head of a ship in full
+sail, does not fall at the foot of the mast, but towards the stern</i>.
+To this it was answered, that a stone being a <i>part</i> of the earth
+obeys the same laws, and moves with it; whereas, it is no part of the
+ship; of which, consequently, its motion is independent. This solution
+was admitted by some, but opposed by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>others; and the controversy went
+on with spirit; nor was it till <i>one hundred years</i> after the death of
+Copernicus, that the experiment being tried, it was ascertained that
+the stone thus dropped from the head of the mast <i>does</i> fall at the
+foot of it!<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>Let it be observed that I am not now impugning any one particular
+narrative; but merely showing generally, that what is <i>unquestioned</i>
+is not necessarily unquestionable; since men will often, at the very
+moment when they are accurately sifting the evidence of some disputed
+point, admit hastily, and on the most insufficient grounds, what they
+have been accustomed to see taken for granted.</p>
+
+<p>The celebrated Hume<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> has pointed out, also, the readiness with which
+men believe, on very slight evidence, any story that pleases their
+imagination by its admirable and marvellous character. Such <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>hasty
+credulity, however, as he well remarks, is utterly unworthy of a
+philosophical mind; which should rather suspend its judgment the more,
+in proportion to the strangeness of the account, and yield to none but
+the most decisive and unimpeachable proofs.</p>
+
+<p>Let it, then, be allowed us, as is surely reasonable, just to inquire,
+with respect to the extraordinary story I have been speaking of, on
+what evidence we believe it. We shall be told that it is <i>notorious</i>;
+i.e., in plain English, it is very <i>much talked about</i>. But as the
+generality of those who talk about Buonaparte do not even pretend to
+speak from <i>their own authority</i>, but merely to repeat what they have
+casually heard, we cannot reckon them as, in any degree, witnesses;
+but must allow ninety-nine hundredths of what we are told to be mere
+hearsay, which would not be at all the more worthy of credit even if
+it were repeated by ten times as many more. As for those who profess
+to have <i>personally known</i> Napoleon Buonaparte, and to have
+<i>themselves witnessed</i> his transactions, I write not for them. <i>If any
+such there be</i>, who are inwardly conscious of the truth of all they
+relate, I have nothing to say to them, but to beg that they will be
+tolerant and charitable towards their neighbours, who have not the
+same means of ascertaining the truth, and who may well <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>be excused for
+remaining doubtful about such extraordinary events, till most
+unanswerable proofs shall be adduced. "I would not have believed such
+a thing, if I had not seen it," is a common preface or appendix to a
+narrative of marvels; and usually calls forth from an intelligent
+hearer the appropriate answer, "<i>no more will I</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Let us, however, endeavour to trace up some of this hearsay evidence
+as far towards its source as we are able. Most persons would refer to
+the <i>newspapers</i> as the authority from which their knowledge on the
+subject was derived; so that, generally speaking, we may say it is on
+the testimony of the newspapers that men believe in the existence and
+exploits of Napoleon Buonaparte.</p>
+
+<p>It is rather a remarkable circumstance, that it is common to hear
+Englishmen speak of the impudent fabrications of foreign newspapers,
+and express wonder that any one can be found to credit them; while
+they conceive that, in this favoured land, the liberty of the press is
+a sufficient security for veracity. It is true they often speak
+contemptuously of such "newspaper-stories" as last but a short time;
+indeed they continually see them contradicted within a day or two in
+the same paper, or their falsity detected by some journal of an
+opposite party; but still whatever is <i>long adhered to</i> and often
+<i>repeated</i>, especially if it also appear in <i>several</i> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span><i>different</i>
+papers (and this, though they notoriously copy from one another), is
+almost sure to be generally believed. Whence this high respect which
+is practically paid to newspaper authority? Do men think, that because
+a witness has been perpetually detected in falsehood, he may therefore
+be the more safely believed whenever he is <i>not</i> detected? or does
+adherence to a story, and frequent repetition of it, render it the
+more credible? On the contrary, is it not a common remark in other
+cases, that a liar will generally stand to and reiterate what he has
+once said, merely because he <i>has</i> said it?</p>
+
+<p>Let us, if possible, divest ourselves of this superstitious veneration
+for everything that appears "in print," and examine a little more
+systematically the evidence which is adduced.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 10%;' />
+
+<p>I suppose it will not be denied that the three following are among the
+most important points to be ascertained, in deciding on the
+credibility of witnesses; first, whether they have the means of
+gaining correct <i>information</i>; secondly, whether they have any
+<i>interest</i> in concealing truth, or propagating falsehood; and,
+thirdly, whether they <i>agree</i> in their testimony. Let us examine the
+present witnesses upon all these points.</p>
+
+<p>First, what means have the editors of newspapers <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>for giving correct
+information? We know not, except from their own statements. Besides
+what is copied from other journals, foreign or British, (which is
+usually more than three-fourths of the news published,)<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> they
+profess to refer to the authority of certain "private correspondents"
+abroad; <i>who</i> these correspondents are, what means they have of
+obtaining information, or whether they exist at all, we have no way of
+ascertaining. We find ourselves in the condition of the Hindoos, who
+are told by their priests that the earth stands <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>on an elephant, and
+the elephant on a tortoise; but are left to find out for themselves
+what the tortoise stands on, or whether it stands on anything at all.</p>
+
+<p>So much for our clear knowledge of the means of <i>information</i>
+possessed by these witnesses; next, for the grounds on which we are to
+calculate on their <i>veracity</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Have they not a manifest interest in circulating the wonderful
+accounts of Napoleon Buonaparte and his achievements, whether true or
+false? Few would read newspapers if they did not sometimes find
+wonderful or important news in them; and we may safely say that no
+subject was ever found so inexhaustibly interesting as the present.</p>
+
+<p>It may be urged, however, that there are several adverse political
+parties, of which the various public prints are respectively the
+organs, and who would not fail to expose each other's fabrications.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a>
+Doubtless they would, if they could do so without at the same time
+exposing <i>their own</i>; but identity <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>of interests may induce a
+community of operations up to a certain point. And let it be observed
+that the object of contention between these rival parties is, <i>who</i>
+shall have the administration of public affairs, the control of public
+expenditure, and the disposal of places: the question, I say, is, not
+whether the people shall be governed or not, but, <i>by which party</i>
+they shall be governed;&mdash;not whether the taxes shall be paid or not,
+but <i>who</i> shall <i>receive</i> them. Now, it must be admitted that
+Buonaparte is a political bugbear, most convenient to <i>any</i>
+administration: "if you do not adopt our measures and reject those of
+our opponents, Buonaparte will be sure to prevail over you; if you do
+not submit to the Government, at least under <i>our</i> administration,
+this formidable enemy will take advantage of your insubordination, to
+conquer and enslave you: pay your taxes cheerfully, or the tremendous
+Buonaparte will take all from you." Buonaparte, in short, was the
+burden of every song; his redoubted name was the charm which always
+succeeded in unloosing the purse-strings of the nation. And let us not
+be too sure,<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> safe as we now think ourselves, that some occasion may
+not occur for again producing on the stage so useful a personage: it
+is not merely to naughty <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>children in the nursery that the threat of
+being "given to Buonaparte" has proved effectual.</p>
+
+<p>It is surely probable, therefore, that, with an object substantially
+the same, all parties may have availed themselves of one common
+instrument. It is not necessary to suppose that for this purpose they
+secretly entered into a formal agreement; though, by the way, there
+are reports afloat, that the editors of the <i>Courier</i> and <i>Morning
+Chronicle</i> hold amicable consultations as to the conduct of their
+public warfare: I will not take upon me to say that this is
+incredible; but at any rate it is not necessary for the establishment
+of the probability I contend for. Neither again would I imply that
+<i>all</i> newspaper editors are utterers of forged stories, "knowing them
+to be forged;" most likely the great majority of them publish what
+they find in other papers with the same simplicity that their readers
+peruse it; and therefore, it must be observed, are not at all more
+proper than their readers to be cited as authorities.</p>
+
+<p>Still it will be said, that unless we suppose a regularly preconcerted
+plan, we must at least expect to find great discrepancies in the
+accounts published. Though they might adopt the general outline of
+facts from one another, they would have to fill up the detail for
+themselves; and in this, therefore, we should meet with infinite and
+irreconcilable variety.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>Now this is precisely the point I am tending to; for the fact exactly
+accords with the above supposition; the discordance and mutual
+contradictions of these witnesses being such as would alone throw a
+considerable shade of doubt over their testimony. It is not in minute
+circumstances alone that the discrepancy appears, such as might be
+expected to appear in a narrative substantially true; but in very
+great and leading transactions, and such as are very intimately
+connected with the supposed hero. For instance, it is by no means
+agreed whether Buonaparte led in person the celebrated charge over the
+bridge of Lodi, (for <i>celebrated</i> it certainly is, as well as the
+siege of Troy, whether either event ever really took place or no,) or
+was safe in the rear, while Augereau performed the exploit. The same
+doubt hangs over the charge of the French cavalry at Waterloo. The
+peasant Lacoste, who professed to have been Buonaparte's guide on the
+day of battle, and who earned a fortune by detailing over and over
+again to visitors all the particulars of what the great man said and
+did up to the moment of flight,&mdash;this same Lacoste has been suspected
+by others, besides me, of having never even been near the great man,
+and having fabricated the whole story for the sake of making a gain of
+the credulity of travellers. In the accounts that are the extant of
+the battle itself, published by persons professing to have been
+present, the reader will <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>find that there is a discrepancy of <i>three
+or four hours</i> as to the time when the battle began!&mdash;a battle, be it
+remembered, not fought with javelins and arrows, like those of the
+ancients, in which one part of a large army might be engaged, whilst a
+distant portion of the same army knew nothing of it; but a battle
+commencing (if indeed it were ever fought at all) with the <i>firing of
+cannon</i>, which, would have announced pretty loudly what was going on.</p>
+
+<p>It is no less uncertain whether or no this strange personage poisoned
+in Egypt an hospital&mdash;full of his own soldiers, and butchered in cold
+blood a garrison that had surrendered. But not to multiply instances;
+the battle of Borodino, which is represented as one of the greatest
+ever fought, was unequivocally claimed as a victory by both parties;
+nor is the question decided at this day. We have official accounts on
+both sides, circumstantially detailed, in the names of supposed
+respectable persons, professing to have been present on the spot; yet
+totally irreconcilable. <i>Both</i> these accounts <i>may</i> be false; but
+since <i>one</i> of them <i>must</i> be false, that one (it is no matter <i>which</i>
+we suppose) proves incontrovertibly this important maxim: that <i>it is
+possible for a narrative&mdash;however circumstantial&mdash;however steadily
+maintained&mdash;however public, and however important, the events it
+relates&mdash;however</i> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span><i>grave the authority on which it is published&mdash;to be
+nevertheless an entire fabrication!</i></p>
+
+<p>Many of the events which have been recorded were probably believed
+much the more readily and firmly, from the apparent caution and
+hesitation with which they were at first published&mdash;the vehement
+contradiction in our papers of many pretended French accounts&mdash;and the
+abuse lavished upon them for falsehood, exaggeration, and gasconade.
+But is it not possible&mdash;is it not, indeed, perfectly natural&mdash;that the
+publishers even of known falsehood should assume this cautious
+demeanour, and this abhorrence of exaggeration, in order the more
+easily to gain credit? Is it not also very possible, that those who
+actually believed what they published, may have suspected mere
+<i>exaggeration</i> in stories which were entire <i>fictions</i>? Many men have
+that sort of simplicity, that they think themselves quite secure
+against being deceived, provided they believe only <i>part</i> of the story
+they hear; when perhaps the whole is equally false. So that perhaps
+these simple-hearted editors, who were so vehement against lying
+bulletins, and so wary in announcing their great news, were in the
+condition of a clown, who thinks he has bought a great bargain of a
+Jew because he has beat down the price perhaps from a guinea to a
+crown, for some article that is not really worth a groat.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>With respect to the <i>character</i> of Buonaparte, the dissonance is, if
+possible, still greater. According to some, he was a wise, humane,
+magnanimous hero; others paint him as a monster of cruelty, meanness,
+and perfidy: some, even of those who are most inveterate against him,
+speak very highly of his political and military ability: others place
+him on the very verge of insanity. But allowing that all this may be
+the colouring of party-prejudice, (which surely is allowing a great
+deal,) there is one point to which such a solution will hardly apply:
+if there be anything that can be clearly ascertained in history, one
+would think it must be the <i>personal courage of a military man</i>; yet
+here we are as much at a loss as ever; at the very same times, and on
+the same occasions, he is described by different writers as a man of
+undaunted intrepidity, and as an absolute poltroon.</p>
+
+<p>What, then, are we to believe? If we are disposed to credit all that
+is told us, we must believe in the existence not only of one, but of
+two or three Buonapartes; if we admit nothing but what is well
+authenticated, we shall be compelled to doubt of the existence of
+any.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>It appears, then, that those on whose testimony the existence and
+actions of Buonaparte are generally believed, fail in <span class="scfake">ALL</span> the most
+essential points on which the credibility of witnesses depends: first,
+we have no assurance that they have access to correct information;
+secondly, they have an apparent interest in propagating falsehood;
+and, thirdly, they palpably contradict each other in the most
+important points.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 10%;' />
+
+<p>Another circumstance which throws additional suspicion on these tales
+is, that the whig-party, as they are called&mdash;the warm advocates for
+liberty, and opposers of the encroachments of monarchical power&mdash;have
+for some time past strenuously espoused the cause and vindicated the
+character of Buonaparte, who is represented by all as having been, if
+not a tyrant, at least an absolute despot. One of the most forward in
+this cause is a gentleman, who once stood foremost in holding up this
+very man to public execration&mdash;who first published, and long
+maintained against popular incredulity, the accounts of his atrocities
+in Egypt. Now that such a course should be adopted for party-purposes;
+by those who are aware that the whole story is a fiction, and the hero
+of it imaginary, seems not very incredible; but if they believed in
+the real existence of this despot, I cannot conceive how they could so
+forsake their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>principles as to advocate his cause, and eulogize his
+character.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the many strange and improbable circumstances in the history
+of Buonaparte that have been already noticed, there are many others,
+two of which it may be worth while to advert to.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most incredible is the received account of the persons
+known as the "D&eacute;tenus." It is well known that a great number of
+English gentlemen passed many years, in the early part of the present
+century, abroad;&mdash;by their own account, in France. Their statement
+was, that while travelling in that country for their amusement, as
+peaceable tourists, they were, on the sudden breaking out of a war,
+seized by this terrible Buonaparte, and kept prisoners for about
+twelve years, contrary to all the usages of civilized nations&mdash;to all
+principles of justice, of humanity, of enlightened policy; many of
+them thus wasting in captivity the most important portion of their
+lives, and having all their prospects blighted.</p>
+
+<p>Now whether these persons were in reality exiles by choice, for the
+sake of keeping out of the way of creditors, or of enjoying the
+society of those they preferred to their own domestic circle, I do not
+venture to conjecture. But let the reader consider whether <i>any</i>
+conjecture can be <i>more</i> improbable than the statement actually made.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>It is, indeed, credible that ambition may prompt an unscrupulous man
+to make the most enormous sacrifices of human life, and to perpetrate
+the most atrocious crimes, for the advancement of his views of
+conquest. But that this <i>great</i> man&mdash;as he is usually reckoned even by
+adversaries&mdash;this hero according to some&mdash;this illustrious warrior,
+and mighty sovereign&mdash;should have stooped to be guilty of an act of
+mean and petty malice worthy of a spiteful old woman,&mdash;a piece of
+paltry cruelty which could not at all conduce to his success in the
+war, or produce any effect except to degrade his country, and
+exasperate ours;&mdash;this, surely, is quite incredible. "Pizarro," says
+Elvira in Kotzebue's play, "if not always justly, at least act always
+greatly."</p>
+
+<p>But a still more wonderful circumstance connected with this
+transaction remains behind. A large portion of the English nation, and
+among these the whole of the Whig party, are said to have expressed
+the most vehement indignation, mingled with compassion, at the
+banishment from Europe, and confinement in St. Helena, of this great
+man. No considerations of regard for the peace and security of our own
+country, no dread of the power of so able and indefatigable a warrior,
+and so inveterate an enemy, should have induced us, they thought, to
+subject this formidable personage to a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>confinement, which was far
+less severe than that to which he was said to have subjected such
+numbers of our countrymen, the harmless <i>non-belligerent</i> travellers,
+whom (according to the story) he kidnapped in France, with no object
+but to gratify the basest and most unmanly spite.</p>
+
+<p>But that there is no truth in that story, and that it was not believed
+by those who manifested so much sympathy and indignation on this great
+man's account, is sufficiently proved by that very sympathy and
+indignation.</p>
+
+<p>There are again other striking improbabilities connected with the
+Polish nation in the history before us. Buonaparte is represented as
+having always expressed the strongest sympathy with that ill-used
+people; and they, as being devotedly attached to him, and fighting
+with the utmost fidelity and bravery in his armies, in which some of
+them attained high commands. Now he had it manifestly in his power at
+one period (according to the received accounts), with a stroke of his
+pen, to re-establish Poland as an independent state. For, in his last
+Russian war, he had complete occupation of the country (of which the
+population was perfectly friendly); the Russian portion of it was his
+by right of conquest; and Austria and Prussia, then his allies, and
+almost his subjects, would gladly have resigned their portions in
+exchange for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>some of the provinces they had ceded to France, and
+which were, to him, of little value, but, to them, important. And,
+indeed, Prussia was (as we are told) so thoroughly humbled and
+weakened that he might easily have enforced the cession of
+Prussian-Poland, even without any compensation. And the
+re-establishment of the Polish kingdom would have been as evidently
+politic as it was reasonable. The independence of a faithful and
+devoted ally, at enmity with the surrounding nations&mdash;the very nations
+that were the most likely to combine (as they often had done) against
+him,&mdash;this would have given him, at no cost, a kind of strong garrison
+to maintain his power, and keep his enemies in check.</p>
+
+<p>Yet this most obvious step, the history tells us, he did not take; but
+made flattering speeches to the Poles, used their services, and did
+nothing for them!</p>
+
+<p>This is, alone, sufficiently improbable. But we are required moreover
+to believe that the Poles,&mdash;instead of <i>execrating</i> this man, who had
+done them the unpardonable wrong of wantonly disappointing the
+expectations he had, for his own purposes, excited, thus adding
+treachery to ingratitude&mdash;instead of this, continued to the last as
+much devoted to him as ever, and even now idolize his memory! We are
+to believe, in short, that this Buonaparte, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>not only in his own
+conduct and adventures violated all the established rules of
+probability, but also caused all other persons, as many as came in
+contact with him, to act as no mortals ever did act before: may we not
+add, as no mortals ever did act at all?</p>
+
+<p>Many other improbabilities might be added to the list, and will be
+found in the complete edition of that history, from which some
+extracts will be presently given, and which has been published (under
+the title of "Historic Certainties") by Aristarchus Newlight, with a
+learned commentary (not, indeed, adopting the views contained in these
+pages, but) quite equal in ingenuity to a late work on the "Hebrew
+Monarchy."</p>
+
+<p>After all, it may be expected that many who perceive the force of
+these objections, will yet be loth to think it possible that they and
+the public at large can have been so long and so greatly imposed upon.
+And thus it is that the magnitude and boldness of a fraud becomes its
+best support. The millions who for so many ages have believed in
+Mahomet or Brahma, lean as it were on each other for support; and not
+having vigour of mind enough boldly to throw off vulgar prejudices,
+and dare be wiser than the multitude, persuade themselves that what so
+many have acknowledged must be true. But I call on those who boast
+their philosophical <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>freedom of thought, and would fain tread in the
+steps of Hume and other inquirers of the like exalted and speculative
+genius, to follow up fairly and fully their own principles, and,
+throwing off the shackles of authority, to examine carefully the
+evidence of whatever is proposed to them, before they admit its truth.</p>
+
+<p>That even in this enlightened age, as it is called, a whole nation may
+be egregiously imposed upon, even in matters which intimately concern
+them, may be proved (if it has not been already proved) by the
+following instance: it was stated in the newspapers, that, a month
+after the battle of Trafalgar, an English officer, who had been a
+prisoner of war, and was exchanged, returned to this country from
+France, and beginning to condole with his countrymen on the terrible
+<i>defeat</i> they had sustained, was infinitely astonished to learn that
+the battle of Trafalgar was a splendid victory. He had been assured,
+he said, that in that battle the English had been totally defeated;
+and the French were fully and universally persuaded that such was the
+fact. Now if this report of the belief of the French nation was <i>not</i>
+true, the British Public were completely imposed upon; if it <i>were</i>
+true, then both nations were, at the same time, rejoicing in the event
+of the same battle, as a signal victory to themselves; and
+consequently one or other, at least, of these nations <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>must have been
+the dupes of their government: for if the battle was never fought at
+all, or was not decisive on either side, in that case <i>both</i> parties
+were deceived. This instance, I conceive, is absolutely demonstrative
+of the point in question.</p>
+
+<p>"But what shall we say to the testimony of those many respectable
+persons who went to Plymouth on purpose, and saw Buonaparte with their
+own eyes? must they not trust their senses?" I would not disparage
+either the eyesight or the veracity of these gentlemen. I am ready to
+allow that they went to Plymouth for the purpose of seeing Buonaparte;
+nay, more, that they actually rowed out into the harbour in a boat,
+and came alongside of a man-of-war, on whose deck they saw a man in a
+cocked hat, who, <i>they were told</i>, was Buonaparte. This is the utmost
+point to which their testimony goes; how they ascertained that this
+man in the cocked hat had gone through all the marvellous and romantic
+adventures with which we have so long been amused, we are not told.
+Did they perceive in his physiognomy, his true name, and authentic
+history? Truly this evidence is such as country people give one for a
+story of apparitions; if you discover any signs of incredulity, they
+triumphantly show the very house which the ghost haunted, the
+identical dark corner <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>where it used to vanish, and perhaps even the
+tombstone of the person whose death it foretold. Jack Cade's nobility
+was supported by the same irresistible kind of evidence: having
+asserted that the eldest son of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, was
+stolen by a beggar-woman, "became a bricklayer when he came to age,"
+and was the father of the supposed Jack Cade; one of his companions
+confirms the story, by saying, "Sir, he made a chimney in my father's
+house, and the bricks are alive at this day to testify it; therefore,
+deny it not."</p>
+
+<p>Much of the same kind is the testimony of our brave countrymen, who
+are ready to produce the scars they received in fighting against this
+terrible Buonaparte. That they fought and were wounded, they may
+safely testify; and probably they no less firmly <i>believe</i> what they
+were <i>told</i> respecting the cause in which they fought: it would have
+been a high breach of discipline to doubt it; and they, I conceive,
+are men better skilled in handling a musket, than in sifting evidence,
+and detecting imposture. But I defy any one of them to come forward
+and declare, <i>on his own knowledge</i>, what was the cause in which he
+fought,&mdash;under whose commands the opposed generals acted,&mdash;and whether
+the person who issued those commands did really perform the mighty
+achievements we are told of.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>Let those, then, who pretend to philosophical freedom of inquiry,&mdash;who
+scorn to rest their opinions on popular belief, and to shelter
+themselves under the example of the unthinking multitude, consider
+carefully, each one for himself, what is the evidence proposed to
+himself in particular, for the existence of such a person as Napoleon
+Buonaparte:&mdash;I do not mean, whether there ever was a person bearing
+that <i>name</i>, for that is a question of no consequence; but whether any
+such person ever performed all the wonderful things attributed to
+him;&mdash;let him then weigh well the objections to that evidence, (of
+which I have given but a hasty and imperfect sketch,) and if he then
+finds it amount to anything <i>more</i> than a probability, I have only to
+congratulate him on his easy faith.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 10%;' />
+
+<p>But the same testimony which would have great weight in establishing a
+thing intrinsically probable, will lose part of this weight in
+proportion as the matter attested is improbable; and if adduced in
+support of anything that is at variance with uniform experience,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a>
+will be rejected at once by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>all sound reasoners. Let us then consider
+what sort of a story it is that is proposed to our acceptance. How
+grossly contradictory are the reports of the different authorities, I
+have already remarked: but consider, by itself, the story told by any
+one of them; it carries an air of fiction and romance on the very face
+of it. All the events are great, and splendid, and marvellous;<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> great
+armies,&mdash;great victories,&mdash;great frosts,&mdash;great reverses,&mdash;"hair-breadth
+'scapes,"&mdash;empires subverted in a few days; everything happened in
+defiance of political calculations, and in opposition to the
+<i>experience</i> of past times; everything upon that grand scale, so common
+in Epic Poetry, so rare in real life; and thus calculated to strike the
+imagination of the vulgar, and to remind the sober-thinking few of the
+Arabian Nights. Every event, too, has that <i>roundness</i> and completeness
+which is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>so characteristic of fiction; nothing is done by halves; we
+have <i>complete</i> victories,&mdash;<i>total</i> overthrows, <i>entire</i> subversion of
+empires,&mdash;<i>perfect</i> re-establishments of them,&mdash;crowded upon us in rapid
+succession. To enumerate the improbabilities of each of the several
+parts of this history, would fill volumes; but they are so fresh in
+every one's memory, that there is no need of such a detail: let any
+judicious man, not ignorant of history and of human nature, revolve them
+in his mind, and consider how far they are conformable to
+Experience,<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> our best and only sure guide. In vain will he seek in
+history for something similar to this wonderful Buonaparte; "nought but
+himself can be his parallel."</p>
+
+<p>Will the conquests of Alexander be compared with his? <i>They</i> were
+effected over a rabble of effeminate, undisciplined barbarians; else
+his progress would hardly have been so rapid: witness his father
+Philip, who was much longer occupied in subduing the comparatively
+insignificant territory of the warlike and civilized Greeks,
+notwithstanding their being divided into numerous petty States, whose
+mutual jealousy enabled him to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>contend with them separately. But the
+Greeks had never made such progress in arts and arms as the great and
+powerful States of Europe, which Buonaparte is represented as so
+speedily overpowering. His empire has been compared to the Roman: mark
+the contrast; he gains in a few years, that dominion, or at least
+control, over Germany, wealthy, civilized, and powerful, which the
+Romans in the plenitude of their power, could not obtain, during a
+struggle of as many centuries, against the ignorant half-savages who
+then possessed it; of whom Tacitus remarks, that, up to his own time
+they had been "triumphed over rather than conquered."</p>
+
+<p>Another peculiar circumstance in the history of this extraordinary
+personage is, that when it Is found convenient to represent him as
+defeated, though he is by no means defeated by halves, but involved in
+much more sudden and total ruin than the personages of real history
+usually meet with; yet, if it is thought fit he should be restored, it
+is done as quickly and completely as if Merlin's rod had been
+employed. He enters Russia with a prodigious army, which is totally
+ruined by an unprecedented hard winter; (everything relating to this
+man is <i>prodigious</i> and <i>unprecedented</i>;) yet in a few months we find
+him intrusted with another great army in Germany, which is also
+totally ruined <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>at Leipsic; making, inclusive of the Egyptian, the
+third great army thus totally lost: yet the French are so good-natured
+as to furnish him with another sufficient to make a formidable stand
+in France; he is, however, <i>conquered, and presented with the
+sovereignty of Elba</i>; (surely, by the bye, some more <i>probable</i> way
+might have been found of disposing of him, till again wanted, than to
+place him thus on the very verge of his ancient dominions;) thence he
+returns to France, where he is received with open arms, and enabled to
+lose a fifth great army at Waterloo; yet so eager were these people to
+be a sixth time led to destruction, that it was found necessary to
+confine <i>him</i> in an island some thousand miles off, and to quarter
+foreign troops upon <i>them</i>, lest they should make an insurrection in
+his favour?<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> Does any one believe all this, and yet refuse to
+believe a miracle? Or rather, what is this but a miracle? Is it not a
+violation of the laws of nature? for surely there are moral laws of
+nature as well as physical; which though more liable to exceptions in
+this or that particular case, are no less <i>true as general rules</i> than
+the laws of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>matter, and therefore cannot be violated and contradicted
+<i>beyond a certain point</i>, without a <span style="white-space: nowrap;">miracle.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>Nay, there is this additional circumstance which renders the
+contradiction of Experience more glaring in this case than in that of
+the miraculous histories which ingenious sceptics have held up to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>contempt: all the advocates of miracles admit that they are rare
+exceptions to the general course of nature; but contend that they must
+needs be so, on account of the rarity of those extraordinary
+<i>occasions</i> which are the <i>reason</i> of their being performed: a
+Miracle, they say, does not happen every day, because a Revelation is
+not given every day. It would be foreign to the present purpose to
+seek for arguments against this answer; I leave it to those who are
+engaged in the controversy, to find a reply to it; but my present
+object is, to point out that this solution does not at all apply in
+the present case. Where is the peculiarity of the <i>occasion</i>? What
+sufficient <i>reason</i> is there for a series of events occurring in the
+eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which never took place before?
+Was Europe at that period peculiarly weak, and in a state of
+barbarism, that one man could achieve such conquests, and acquire such
+a vast empire? On the contrary, she was flourishing in the height of
+strength and civilization. Can the persevering attachment and blind
+devotedness of the French to this man, be accounted for by his being
+the descendant of a long line of kings, whose race was hallowed by
+hereditary veneration? No; we are told he was a low-born usurper, and
+not even a Frenchman! Is it that he was a good and kind sovereign? He
+is represented not only <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>as an imperious and merciless despot, but as
+most wantonly careless of the lives of his soldiers. Could the French
+army and people have failed to hear from the wretched survivors of his
+supposed Russian expedition, how they had left the corpses of above
+100,000 of their comrades bleaching on the snow-drifts of that dismal
+country, whither his mad ambition had conducted him, and where his
+selfish cowardice had deserted them? Wherever we turn to seek for
+circumstances that may help to account for the events of this
+incredible story, we only meet with such as aggravate its
+improbability.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> Had it been told of some distant country, at a
+remote period, we could not have told what peculiar circumstances
+there might have been to render probable what seems to us most
+strange; and yet in <i>that</i> case every philosophical sceptic, every
+free-thinking speculator, would instantly have rejected such a
+history, as utterly unworthy of credit. What, for instance, would the
+great Hume, or any of the philosophers of his school, have said, if
+they had found in the antique records <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>of any nation, such a passage
+as this? "There was a certain man of Corsica, whose name was Napoleon,
+and he was one of the chief captains of the host of the French; and he
+gathered together an army, and went and fought against Egypt: but when
+the king of Britain heard thereof, he sent ships of war and valiant
+men to fight against the French in Egypt. So they warred against them,
+and prevailed, and strengthened the hands of the rulers of the land
+against the French, and drave away Napoleon from before the city of
+Acre. Then Napoleon left the captains and the army that were in Egypt,
+and fled, and returned back to France. So the French people, took
+Napoleon, and made him ruler over them, and he became exceeding great,
+insomuch that there was none like him of all that had ruled over
+France before."</p>
+
+<p>What, I say, would Hume have thought of this, especially if he had
+been told that it was at this day generally credited? Would he not
+have confessed that he had been mistaken in supposing there was a
+peculiarly blind credulity and prejudice in favour of everything that
+is accounted <i>sacred</i>;<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> for that, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>since even professed sceptics
+swallow implicitly such a story as this, it appears there must be a
+still blinder prejudice in favour of everything that is <i>not</i>
+accounted sacred?</p>
+
+<p style="margin-bottom: .1em;">Suppose, again, we found in this history such passages as the
+following: "And it came to pass after these things that Napoleon
+strengthened himself, and gathered together another host instead of
+that which he had lost, and went and warred against the Prussians, and
+the Russians, and the Austrians, and all the rulers of the north
+country, which were confederate against him. And the ruler of Sweden,
+also, which was a Frenchman, warred against Napoleon. So they went
+forth, and fought against the French in the plain of Leipsic. And the
+French were discomfited before their enemies, and fled, and came to
+the rivers which are behind Leipsic, and essayed to pass over, that
+they might escape out of the hand of their enemies; but they could
+not, for Napoleon had broken down the bridges: so the people of the
+north countries came upon them, and smote them with a very grievous
+slaughter." ...</p>
+
+<hr style="color: #404040; background-color: inherit; border: thin dotted; width: 80%; margin-top: .1em; margin-bottom: .1em;" />
+
+<p style="margin-top: .1em; margin-bottom: .1em;">"Then the ruler of Austria and all the rulers of the north countries
+sent messengers unto Napoleon to speak peaceably unto him, saying, Why
+should there be war between us any more? Now <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>Napoleon had put away
+his wife, and taken the daughter of the ruler of Austria to wife. So
+all the counsellors of Napoleon came and stood before him, and said,
+Behold now these kings are merciful kings; do even as they say unto
+thee; knowest thou not yet that France is destroyed? But he spake
+roughly unto his counsellors, and drave them, out from his presence,
+neither would he hearken unto their voice. And when all the kings saw
+that, they warred against France, and smote it with the edge of the
+sword, and came near to Paris, which is the royal city, to take it: so
+the men of Paris went out, and delivered up the city to them. Then
+those kings spake kindly unto the men of Paris, saying, Be of good
+cheer, there shall no harm happen unto you. Then were the men of Paris
+glad, and said, Napoleon is a tyrant; he shall no more rule over us.
+Also all the princes, the judges, the counsellors, and the captains
+whom Napoleon had raised up even from the lowest of the people, sent
+unto Lewis the brother of King Lewis, whom they had slain, and made
+him king over France." ...</p>
+
+<hr style="color: #404040; background-color: inherit; border: thin dotted; width: 80%; margin-top: .1em; margin-bottom: .1em;" />
+
+<p style="margin-bottom: .1em; margin-top: .1em;">"And when Napoleon saw that the kingdom was departed from him, he said
+unto the rulers which came against him, Let me, I pray you, give the
+kingdom unto my son: but they would not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>hearken unto him. Then he
+spake yet again, saying, Let me, I pray you, go and live in the island
+of Elba, which is over against Italy, nigh unto the coast of France;
+and ye shall give me an allowance for me and my household, and the
+land of Elba also for a possession. So they made him ruler of
+Elba."...</p>
+
+<hr style="color: #404040; background-color: inherit; border: thin dotted; width: 80%; margin-top: .1em; margin-bottom: .1em;" />
+
+<p style="margin-top: .1em; margin-bottom: .1em;">"In those days the Pope returned unto his own land. Now the French,
+and divers other nations of Europe, are servants of the Pope, and hold
+him in reverence; but he is an abomination unto the Britons, and to
+the Prussians, and to the Russians, and to the Swedes. Howbeit the
+French had taken away all his lands, and robbed him of all that he
+had, and carried him away captive into France. But when the Britons,
+and the Prussians, and the Russians, and the Swedes, and the rest of
+the nations that were confederate against France, came thither, they
+caused the French to set the Pope at liberty, and to restore all his
+goods that they had taken; likewise they gave him back all his
+possessions; and he went home in peace, and ruled over his own city as
+in times past."...</p>
+
+<hr style="color: #404040; background-color: inherit; border: thin dotted; width: 80%; margin-top: .1em; margin-bottom: .1em;" />
+
+<p style="margin-top: .1em;">"And it came to pass when Napoleon had not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>yet been a full year at
+Elba, that he said unto his men of war that clave unto him, Go to, let
+us go back to France, and fight against King Lewis, and thrust him out
+from being king. So he departed, he and six hundred men with him that
+drew the sword, and warred against King Lewis. Then all the men of
+Belial gathered themselves together, and said, God save Napoleon. And
+when Lewis saw that, he fled, and gat him into the land of Batavia:
+and Napoleon ruled over France," &amp;c. &amp;c. &amp;c.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p>
+
+<p>Now if a free-thinking philosopher&mdash;one of those who advocate the
+cause of unbiassed reason, and despise pretended revelations&mdash;were to
+meet with such a tissue of absurdities as this in an old Jewish
+record, would he not reject it at once as too palpable an
+imposture<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> to deserve even any inquiry <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>into its evidence? Is that
+credible then of the civilized Europeans now, which could not, if
+reported of the semi-barbarous Jews 3000 years ago, be established by
+any testimony? Will it be answered, that "there is nothing
+<i>supernatural</i> in all this?" Why is it, then, that you object to what
+is <i>supernatural</i>&mdash;that you reject every account of <i>miracles</i>&mdash;if not
+because they are <i>improbable</i>? Surely then a story equally or still
+more improbable, is not to be implicitly received, merely on the
+ground that it is <i>not</i> miraculous: though in fact, as I have already
+(in note, p. 39,) shown from Hume's authority, it <i>is</i> really
+miraculous. The opposition to Experience has been proved to be as
+complete in this case, as in what are commonly called miracles; and
+the reasons assigned for that contrariety by the defenders of <i>them</i>,
+cannot be pleaded in the present instance. If then philosophers, who
+reject every wonderful story that is maintained by priests, are yet
+found ready to believe <i>everything else</i>, however improbable, they
+will surely lay themselves open to the accusation brought against them
+of being unduly prejudiced against whatever relates to religion.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 10%;' />
+
+<p>There is one more circumstance which I cannot forbear mentioning,
+because it so much adds to the air of fiction which pervades every
+part of this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>marvellous tale; and that is, the <i>nationality</i> of
+it.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p>
+
+<p>Buonaparte prevailed over all the hostile States in turn, <i>except
+England</i>; in the zenith of his power, his fleets were swept from the
+sea, <i>by England</i>; his troops always defeat an equal, and frequently
+even a superior number of those of any other nation, <i>except the
+English</i>; and with them it is just the reverse; twice, and twice
+only, he is personally engaged against an <i>English commander</i>, and
+both times he is totally defeated; at Acre, and at Waterloo; and to
+crown all, <i>England</i> finally crushes this tremendous power, which had
+so long kept the continent in subjection or in alarm; and to the
+<i>English</i> he surrenders himself prisoner! Thoroughly national, to be
+sure! It <i>may</i> be all very true; but I would only ask, <i>if</i> a story
+<i>had</i> been fabricated for the express purpose of amusing the English
+nation, could it have been contrived more ingeniously? It would do
+admirably for an epic poem; and indeed bears a considerable
+resemblance to the Iliad and the &AElig;neid; in which Achilles and the
+Greeks, &AElig;neas and the Trojans, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>(the ancestors of the Romans) are so
+studiously held up to admiration. Buonaparte's exploits seem magnified
+in order to enhance the glory of his conquerors; just as Hector is
+allowed to triumph during the absence of Achilles, merely to give
+additional splendour to his overthrow by the arm of that invincible
+hero. Would not this circumstance alone render a history rather
+<i>suspicious</i> in the eyes of an acute critic, even if it were not
+filled with such gross improbabilities; and induce him to suspend his
+judgment, till very satisfactory evidence (far stronger than can be
+found in this case) should be produced?</p>
+
+<p>Is it then too much to demand of the wary academic<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> a suspension of
+judgment as to the "life and adventures of Napoleon Buonaparte?" I do
+not pretend to <i>decide</i> positively that there is not, nor ever was,
+any such person; but merely to propose it as a <i>doubtful</i> point, and
+one the more deserving of careful investigation, from the very
+circumstance of its having hitherto been admitted without inquiry. Far
+less would I undertake to decide what is or has been the real state of
+affairs. He who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>points out the improbability of the current story, is
+not bound to suggest an hypothesis of his own;<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> though it may
+safely be affirmed, that it would be hard to invent any one more
+improbable than the received one. One may surely be allowed to
+hesitate in admitting the stories which the ancient poets tell, of
+earthquakes and volcanic eruptions being caused by imprisoned giants,
+without being called upon satisfactorily to account for those
+phenomena.</p>
+
+<p>Amidst the defect of valid evidence under which, as I have already
+shown, we labour in the present instance, it is hardly possible to
+offer more than here and there a probable conjecture; or to pronounce
+how much may be true, and how much fictitious, in the accounts
+presented to us. For, it is to be observed that this case is much
+<i>more</i> open to sceptical doubts even than some miraculous histories;
+since some of <i>them</i> are of such a nature that you cannot consistently
+admit a part and reject the rest; but are bound, if you are satisfied
+as to the reality of any one miracle, to embrace the whole system; so
+that it is necessary for the sceptic to impeach the evidence of <i>all</i>
+of them, separately, and collectively: whereas, <i>here</i>, each single
+point <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>requires to be <i>established</i> separately, since no one of them
+authenticates the rest. Supposing there be a state-prisoner at St.
+Helena, (which, by the way, it is acknowledged many of the French
+disbelieve,) how do we know who he is, or why he is confined there?
+There have been state-prisoners before now, who were never guilty of
+subjugating half Europe, and whose offences have been very imperfectly
+ascertained. Admitting that there have been bloody wars going on for
+several years past, which is highly probable, it does not follow that
+the events of those wars were such as we have been told;&mdash;that
+Buonaparte was the author and conductor of them;&mdash;or that such a
+person ever existed. What disturbances may have taken place in the
+government of the French people, we, and even nineteen-twentieths of
+<i>them</i>, have no means of learning but from imperfect hearsay evidence;
+and how much credit they themselves attach to that evidence is very
+doubtful. This at least is certain: that a M. Berryer, a French
+advocate, has published memoirs, professing to record many of the
+events of the recent history of France, in which, among other things,
+he states his conviction that Buonaparte's escape from Elba was
+<span class="sc">designed and contrived by the English Government</span>.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> And <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>we
+are assured by many travellers that this was, and is, commonly
+reported in France.</p>
+
+<p>Now that the French should believe the whole story about Buonaparte
+according to this version of it, does seem utterly incredible. Let any
+one suppose them seriously believing that we maintained for many years
+a desperate struggle against this formidable emperor of theirs, in the
+course of which we expended such an enormous amount of blood and
+treasure as is reported;&mdash;that we finally, after encountering enormous
+risks, succeeded in subduing him, and secured him in a place of safe
+exile;&mdash;and that, in less than a year after, we turned him out again,
+like a bag-fox,&mdash;or rather, a bag-lion,&mdash;for the sake of amusing
+ourselves by again staking all that was dear to us on the event of a
+doubtful and bloody battle, in which defeat must be ruinous, and
+victory, if obtained at all, must cost us many thousands of our best
+soldiers. Let any one force himself for a moment to conceive the
+French seriously believing such a mass of absurdity; and the inference
+must be that such a people must be prepared to believe anything. They
+might fancy their own country to abound not only with Napoleons, but
+with dragons and centaurs, and "men whose heads do grow beneath their
+shoulders," or anything else that any lunatic ever dreamt of. If we
+could suppose the French capable of such monstrous <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>credulity as the
+above supposition would imply, it is plain their testimony must be
+altogether worthless.</p>
+
+<p>But, on the other hand, suppose them to be aware that the British
+Government have been all along imposing on us, and it is quite natural
+that they should deride our credulity, and try whether there is
+anything too extravagant for us to swallow. And indeed, if Buonaparte
+was in fact altogether a phantom conjured up by the British Ministers,
+then it is <i>true</i> that his escape from Elba really <i>was</i>, as well as
+<i>the rest of his exploits</i>, a contrivance of theirs.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 10%;' />
+
+<p>But whatever may be believed by the French relative to the recent
+occurrences, in their own country, and whatever may be the real
+character of these occurrences, of this at least we are well assured,
+that there have been numerous bloody wars with France under the
+dominion of the <i>Bourbons</i>: and we are now told that France is governed
+by a Bourbon king, of the name of Lewis, who professes to be in the
+twenty-third year of his reign. Let every one conjecture for himself. I
+am far from pretending to decide who may have been the governor or
+governors of the French nation, and the leaders of their armies, for
+several years past. Certain it is, that when men are indulging their
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>inclination for the marvellous, they always show a strong propensity to
+accumulate upon <i>one</i> individual (real or imaginary) the exploits of
+many; besides multiplying and exaggerating these exploits a
+thousandfold. Thus, the expounders of the ancient mythology tell us
+there were several persons of the name of Hercules, (either originally
+bearing that appellation, or having it applied to them as an honour,)
+whose collective feats, after being dressed up in a sufficiently
+marvellous garb, were attributed to a single hero. Is it not just
+possible, that during the rage for words of Greek derivation, the title
+of "Napoleon," (<span class="Greek" title="Napole�n">&#925;&#945;&#960;&#959;&#955;&#949;&#969;&#957;,</span>) which signifies "Lion of the forest," may
+have been conferred by the popular voice on more than one favorite
+general, distinguished for irresistible valour? Is it not also possible
+that "<span class="sc">Buona Parte</span>" may have been originally a sort of cant
+term applied to the "good (i.e., the bravest or most patriotic) part"
+of the French army, collectively; and have been afterwards mistaken for
+the proper name of an individual?<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> I do not profess to support this
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>conjecture; but it is certain that such mistakes may and do occur. Some
+critics have supposed that the Athenians imagined <span class="sc">Anastasis</span>
+("Resurrection") to be a new goddess, in whose cause Paul was
+preaching. Would it have been thought anything incredible if we had
+been told that the ancient Persians, who had no idea of any but a
+monarchical government, had supposed Aristocratia to be a queen of
+Sparta? But we need not confine ourselves to hypothetical cases; it is
+positively stated that the Hindoos at this day believe "the honourable
+East India Company" to be a venerable old lady of high dignity,
+residing in this country. The Germans, again, of the present day derive
+their name from a similar mistake: the first tribe of them who invaded
+Gaul<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> assumed the honourable <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>title of "<i>Ger-man</i>" which signifies
+"warriors," (the words "war" and "guerre," as well as "man," which
+remains in our language unaltered, are evidently derived from the
+Teutonic,) and the Gauls applied this as a <i>name</i> to the whole <i>race</i>.</p>
+
+<p>However, I merely throw out these conjectures without by any means
+contending that more plausible ones might not be suggested. But
+whatever supposition we adopt, or whether we adopt any, the objections
+to the commonly received accounts will remain in their full force, and
+imperiously demand the attention of the candid sceptic.</p>
+
+<p>I call upon those, therefore, who profess themselves advocates of free
+inquiry&mdash;who disdain to be carried along with the stream of popular
+opinion, and who will listen to no testimony that runs counter to
+experience,&mdash;to follow up their own principles fairly and
+consistently. Let the same mode of argument be adopted in all cases
+alike; and then it can no longer be attributed to hostile prejudice,
+but to enlarged and philosophical views. If they have already rejected
+some histories, on the ground of their being strange and
+marvellous,&mdash;of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>their relating facts, unprecedented, and at variance
+with the established course of nature,&mdash;let them not give credit to
+another history which lies open to the very same objections,&mdash;the
+extraordinary and romantic tale we have been just considering. If they
+have discredited the testimony of witnesses, who are <i>said</i> at least
+to have been disinterested, and to have braved persecutions and death
+in support of their assertions,&mdash;can these philosophers consistently
+listen to and believe the testimony of those who avowedly <i>get money</i>
+by the tales they publish, and who do not even pretend that they incur
+any serious risk in case of being detected in a falsehood? If, in
+other cases, they have refused to listen to an account which has
+passed through many intermediate hands before it reaches them, and
+which is defended by those who have an interest in maintaining it; let
+them consider through how many, and what very suspicious hands, <i>this</i>
+story has arrived to them, without the possibility, as I have shown,
+of tracing it back to any decidedly authentic source, after all;&mdash;to
+any better authority, according to their own showing, than that of an
+<i>unnamed</i> and unknown foreign correspondent;&mdash;and likewise how strong
+an interest, in every way, those who have hitherto imposed on them,
+have in keeping up the imposture. Let them, in short, show themselves
+as ready to detect <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>the cheats, and despise the fables of politicians
+as of priests.</p>
+
+<p>But if they are still wedded to the popular belief in this point, let
+them be consistent enough to admit the same evidence in <i>other</i> cases
+which they yield to in <i>this</i>. If, after all that has been said, they
+cannot bring themselves to doubt of the existence of Napoleon
+Buonaparte, they must at least acknowledge that they do not apply to
+that question the same plan of reasoning which they have made use of
+in others; and they are consequently bound in reason and in honesty to
+renounce it altogether.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 15%;' />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> "A report is spread, (says Voltaire in one of his works,)
+that there is, in some country or other, a giant as big as a mountain;
+and men presently fall to hot disputing concerning the precise length
+of his nose, the breadth of his thumb, and other particulars, and
+anathematize each other for heterodoxy of belief concerning them. In
+the midst of all, if some bold sceptic ventures to hint a doubt as to
+the existence of this giant, all are ready to join against him, and
+tear him to pieces." This looks almost like a prophetic allegory
+relating to the gigantic Napoleon.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a>
+<span class="Greek" title="Hout�s atalaip�ros tois pollois h� z�t�sis t�s al�theias, kai epi ta hetoima mallon trepontai.">&#927;&#8021;&#964;&#969;&#962; &#7936;&#964;&#945;&#955;&#945;&#8055;&#960;&#969;&#961;&#959;&#962;
+&#964;&#959;&#8150;&#962; &#960;&#959;&#955;&#955;&#959;&#8150;&#962; &#7969;
+&#950;&#8053;&#964;&#951;&#963;&#953;&#962; &#964;&#8134;&#962;
+&#7936;&#955;&#951;&#952;&#949;&#8055;&#945;&#962;, &#954;&#945;&#8054; &#7952;&#960;&#8054;
+&#964;&#8048; &#7957;&#964;&#959;&#953;&#956;&#945; &#956;&#8118;&#955;&#955;&#959;&#957;
+&#964;&#961;&#8051;&#960;&#959;&#957;&#964;&#945;&#953;.</span> Thucyd. b.i.c. 20.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> "With what greediness are the miraculous accounts of
+travellers received, their descriptions of sea and land monsters,
+their relations of wonderful adventures, strange men, and uncouth
+manners!"&mdash;<i>Hume's Essay on Miracles</i>, p. 179, 12mo; p. 185, 8vo,
+1767; p. 117, 8vo, 1817.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">N.B.&mdash;In order to give every possible facility of reference, three
+editions of Hume's Essays have been generally employed: a 12mo,
+London, 1756, and two 8vo editions.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> "Suppose a fact to be transmitted through twenty persons;
+the first communicating it to the second, the second to the third, &amp;c.,
+and let the probability of each testimony be expressed by nine-tenths,
+(that is, suppose that of ten reports made by each witness, nine only
+are true,) then, at every time the story passes from one witness to
+another, the evidence is reduced to nine-tenths of what it was before.
+Thus, after it has passed through the whole twenty, the evidence will
+be found to be less than one-eighth."&mdash;<span class="sc">La Place</span>, <i>Essai
+Philosophique sur les Probabilit&eacute;s</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">That is, the chances for the fact thus attested being true, will be,
+according to this distinguished calculator, less than one in eight.
+Very few of the common newspaper-stories, however, relating to foreign
+countries, could be traced, if the matter were carefully investigated,
+up to an actual eye-witness, even through twenty intermediate
+witnesses; and many of the steps of our ladder, would, I fear, prove
+but rotten; few of the reporters would deserve to have <i>one in ten</i>
+fixed as the proportion of their false accounts.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> "I did not mention the difficulty of detecting a
+falsehood in any private or even public history, at the time and place
+where it is said to happen; much more where the scene is removed to
+ever so small a distance.... But the matter never comes to any issue,
+if trusted to the common method of altercation and debate and flying
+rumours."&mdash;<i>Hume's Essay on Miracles</i>, p. 195, 12mo; pp. 200, 201,
+8vo, 1767; p. 127, 8vo, 1817.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> See the third Postscript appended to this edition.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> "We entertain a suspicion concerning any matter of fact,
+when the witnesses <i>contradict</i> each other; when they are of a
+<i>suspicious</i> character; when they have an <i>interest</i> in what they
+affirm."&mdash;<i>Hume's Essay on Miracles</i>, p. 172, 12mo; p. 176, 8vo, 1767;
+p. 113, 8vo. 1817.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> "That testimony itself derives all its force from
+experience, seems very certain.... The first author, we believe, who
+stated fairly the connexion between the evidence of testimony and the
+evidence of experience, was <span class="sc">Hume</span>, in his Essay on Miracles, a
+work ... abounding in maxims of great use in the conduct of
+life."&mdash;<i>Edin. Review</i>, Sept. 1814, p. 328.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> "Suppose, for instance, that the fact which the
+testimony endeavours to establish partakes of the extraordinary and
+the marvellous; in that case, the evidence resulting from the
+testimony receives a diminution, greater or less in proportion as the
+fact is more or less unusual."&mdash;<i>Hume's Essay on Miracles</i>, p. 173,
+12mo; p. 176, 8vo, 1767; p. 113, 8vo, 1817.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> "The ultimate standard by which we determine all
+disputes that may arise is always derived from experience and
+observation."&mdash;<i>Hume's Essay on Miracles</i>, p. 172, 12mo; p. 175, 8vo,
+1767; p. 112, 8vo, 1817.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a></p>
+<p class="noin" style="margin-left: 3em;"><span class="Greek" title="� thaumata polla.">&#7976; &#952;&#945;&#8059;&#956;&#945;&#964;&#945; &#960;&#959;&#955;&#955;&#8049;.</span><br />
+<span class="Greek" title="Kai tou ti kai brot�n phrenas">&#922;&#945;&#8054; &#964;&#959;&#8059; &#964;&#953; &#954;&#945;&#8054; &#946;&#961;&#959;&#964;&#8182;&#957; &#966;&#961;&#8051;&#957;&#945;&#962;</span><br />
+<span class="Greek" title="HYPER TON AL�TH� LOGON">&#8025;&#928;&#917;&#929; &#932;&#927;&#925; &#913;&#923;&#919;&#920;&#919; &#923;&#927;&#915;&#927;&#925;</span><br />
+<span class="Greek" title="Dedeidalmenoi pseudesi poikilois">&#916;&#949;&#948;&#949;&#953;&#948;&#945;&#955;&#956;&#8051;&#957;&#959;&#953; &#968;&#949;&#8059;&#948;&#949;&#963;&#953; &#960;&#959;&#953;&#954;&#8055;&#955;&#959;&#953;&#962;</span><br />
+<span class="Greek" title="Exapat�nti mythoi.">&#7960;&#958;&#945;&#960;&#945;&#964;&#8182;&#957;&#964;&#953; &#956;&#8166;&#952;&#959;&#953;.</span>&mdash;<span class="sc">Pind.</span> Olymp. 1<br />
+</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> This doctrine, though hardly needing confirmation from
+authority, is supported by that of Hume; his eighth essay is,
+throughout, an argument for the doctrine of "Philosophical necessity,"
+drawn entirely from the general uniformity, observable in the course
+of nature with respect to the principles of <i>human conduct</i>, as well
+as those of the material universe; from which uniformity, he observes,
+it is that we are enabled <i>in both cases</i>, to form our judgment by
+means of <i>Experience:</i> "and if," says he, "we would explode any
+forgery in history, we cannot make use of a more convincing argument,
+than to prove that the actions ascribed to any person, are directly
+contrary to the course of nature....</p>
+
+<p class="noin">"... The Veracity of Quintus Curtius is as suspicious when he
+describes the supernatural courage of Alexander, by which he was
+hurried on singly to attack multitudes, as when he describes his
+supernatural force and activity, by which he was able to resist them.
+So readily and universally do we acknowledge a <i>uniformity in human
+motives and actions, as well as in the operations of body</i>."&mdash;<i>Eighth
+Essay</i>, p. 131, 12mo; p. 85, 8vo, 1817.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">Accordingly, in the tenth essay, his use of the term "miracle," after
+having called it "a transgression of a law of nature," plainly shows
+that he meant to include <i>human</i> nature: "no testimony," says he, "is
+sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a
+nature that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which
+it endeavours to establish." The term "prodigy" also (which he all
+along employs as synonymous with "miracle") is applied to testimony, in
+the same manner, immediately after; "In the foregoing reasoning we have
+supposed ... that the falsehood of that testimony would be a kind of
+<i>prodigy</i>." Now had he meant to confine the meaning of "miracle," and
+"prodigy," to a violation of the laws of <i>matter</i>, the epithet
+"<i>miraculous</i>," applied even thus hypothetically, to <i>false testimony</i>,
+would be as unmeaning as the epithets "green" or "square;" the only
+possible sense in which we can apply to it, even in imagination, the
+term "miraculous," is that of "highly improbable,"&mdash;"contrary to those
+laws of nature which respect human conduct:" and in this sense he
+accordingly uses the word in the very next sentence: "When any one
+tells me that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately
+consider with myself whether it be more <i>probable</i> that this person
+should either deceive or be deceived, or that the fact which he relates
+should really have happened. I weigh the one <i>miracle</i> against the
+other."&mdash;<i>Hume's Essay on Miracles</i>, pp. 176, 177, 12mo; p. 182, 8vo,
+1767; p. 115, 8vo, 1817.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">See also a passage above quoted from the same essay, where he speaks
+of "the <i>miraculous</i> accounts of travellers;" evidently using the word
+in this sense.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">Perhaps it was superfluous to cite authority for applying the term
+"miracle" to whatever is "highly improbable;" but it is important to
+the students of Hume, to be fully aware that he uses those two
+expressions as synonymous; since otherwise they would mistake the
+meaning of that passage which he justly calls "a general maxim worthy
+of your attention."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> "Events may be so extraordinary that they can hardly be
+established by testimony. We would not give credit to a man who would
+affirm that he saw a hundred dice thrown in the air, and that they all
+fell on the same faces."&mdash;<i>Edin. Review</i>, Sept. 1814, p. 327.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">Let it be observed, that the instance here given is <i>miraculous</i> in no
+other sense but that of being highly <i>improbable</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> "If the spirit of religion join itself to the love of
+wonder, there is an end of common sense; and human testimony in these
+circumstances loses all pretensions to authority."&mdash;<i>Hume's Essay on
+Miracles</i>, p. 179, 12mo; p. 185, 8vo, 1767; p. 117, 8vo, 1817.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> The supposed history from which the above extracts are
+given, is published entire in the work called <i>Historic Certainties.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> "I desire any one to lay his hand upon his heart, and
+after serious consideration declare whether he thinks that the
+falsehood of such a book, supported by such testimony, would be more
+extraordinary and miraculous than all the miracles it
+relates."&mdash;<i>Hume's Essay on Miracles</i>, p. 200, 12mo; p. 206, 8vo, 1767;
+p. 131, 8vo, 1817.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">Let it be borne in mind that Hume (as I have above remarked)
+continually employs the term "miracle" and "prodigy" to signify
+anything that is highly <i>improbable</i> and <i>extraordinary.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> "The wise lend a very academic faith to every report
+which favours the passion of the reporter, whether it magnifies his
+<i>country</i>, his family, or himself."&mdash;<i>Hume's Essay on Miracles</i>, p.
+144, 12mo; p. 200, 8vo, 1767; p. 126, 8vo, 1817.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> "Nothing can be more contrary than such a philosophy
+(the academic or sceptical) to the supine indolence of the mind, its
+rash arrogance, its lofty pretensions, and its superstitious
+credulity."&mdash;<i>Fifth Essay</i>, p. 68, 12mo; p. 41, 8vo, 1817.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> See <i>Hume's Essay on Miracles</i>, pp. 189, 191, 195, 12mo;
+pp. 193, 197, 201, 202, 8vo, 1767; pp. 124, 125, 126, 8vo, 1817.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> See <i>Edinburgh Review</i> for October, 1842, p. 162.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> It is well know with how much learning and ingenuity the
+Rationalists of the German school have laboured to throw discredit on
+the literal interpretation of the narratives, both of the Old and the
+New Testaments; representing them as MYTHS, i.e., fables allegorically
+describing some physical or moral ph&aelig;nomena&mdash;philosophical
+principles&mdash;systems, &amp;c.&mdash;under the figure of actions performed by
+certain ideal personages; these allegories having been, afterwards,
+through the mistake of the vulgar, believed as history. Thus, the real
+historical existence of such a person as the supposed founder of the
+Christian religion, and the acts attributed to him, are denied in the
+literal sense, and the whole of the evangelical history is explained
+on the "mythical" theory.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">Now it is a remarkable circumstance in reference to the point at
+present before us, that an eminent authoress of this century has
+distinctly declared that Napoleon Buonaparte was <span class="scfake">NOT A MAN</span>,
+but a SYSTEM.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Germani&aelig; vocabulum recens et nuper additum; quoniam qui
+primi Rhenum transgressi Gallos expulerint, ac nunc Tungri, tunc
+Germani vocati sint: ita nationis nomen in nomen gentis evaluisse
+paullatim, ut omnes, primum a victore ob metum, mox a seipsis invento
+nomine, Germani vocarentur.&mdash;<i>Tacitus, de Mor. Germ.</i></p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="POSTSCRIPT_3rdEDITION" id="POSTSCRIPT_3rdEDITION"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>POSTSCRIPT TO THE THIRD EDITION.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>It may seem arrogant for an obscure and nameless individual to claim
+the glory of having put to death the most formidable of all recorded
+heroes. But a shadowy champion may be overthrown by a shadowy
+antagonist. Many a terrific spectre has been laid by the beams of a
+halfpenny candle. And if I have succeeded in making out, in the
+foregoing pages, a probable case of suspicion, it must, I think, be
+admitted, that there is some ground for my present boast, of having
+<i>killed</i> Napoleon Buonaparte.</p>
+
+<p>Let but the circumstances of the case be considered. This mighty
+Emperor, who had been so long the bugbear of the civilized world,
+after having obtained successes and undergone reverses, such as never
+befel any (other at least) <i>real</i> potentate, was at length sentenced
+to confinement in the remote island of St. Helena: a measure which
+many persons wondered at, and many objected to, on various grounds;
+not unreasonably, supposing the illustrious exile to be a real person;
+but on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>supposition of his being only a man of straw, the
+situation was exceedingly favourable for keeping him out of the way of
+impertinent curiosity, when not wanted, and for making him the
+foundation of any new plots that there might be occasion to conjure
+up.</p>
+
+<p>About this juncture it was that the public attention was first
+invited, by these pages, to the question as to the real existence of
+Napoleon Buonaparte. They excited, it may be fairly supposed, along
+with much surprise and much censure, some degree of doubt, and
+probably of consequent inquiry. No fresh evidence, as far as I can
+learn, of the truth of the disputed points, was brought forward to
+dispel these doubts. We heard, however, of the most jealous
+precautions being used to prevent any intercourse between the
+formidable prisoner, and any stranger who, from motives of curiosity,
+might wish to visit him. The "man in the iron mask" could hardly have
+been more rigorously secluded: and we also heard various contradictory
+reports of conversations between him and the few who were allowed
+access to him; the falsehood and inconsistency of most of these
+reports being proved in contemporary publications.</p>
+
+<p>At length, just about the time when the public scepticism respecting
+this extraordinary personage might be supposed to have risen to an
+alarming <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>height, it was announced to us that he was dead! A stop was
+thus put, most opportunely, to all troublesome inquiries. I do not
+undertake to deny that such a person did live and die. That he was,
+and that he did, <i>everything</i> that is reported, we cannot believe,
+unless we consent to admit contradictory statements; but many of the
+events reported, however marvellous, are certainly not, when taken
+separately, physically impossible. But I would only entreat the candid
+reader to reflect what might naturally be expected, on the supposition
+of the surmises contained in the present work being well founded.
+Supposing the whole of the tale I have been considering to have been a
+fabrication, what would be the natural result of such attempt to
+excite inquiry into its truth? Evidently the shortest and most
+effectual mode of avoiding detection, would be to <i>kill</i> the phantom,
+and so get rid of him at once. A ready and decisive answer would thus
+be provided to any one in whom the foregoing arguments might have
+excited suspicions: "Sir, there can be no doubt that such a person
+existed, and performed what is related of him; and if you will just
+take a voyage to St. Helena, you may see with your own eyes,&mdash;not him,
+indeed, for he is no longer living,&mdash;but his <i>tomb</i>: and what evidence
+would you have that is more decisive?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>So much for his <i>Death</i>: as for his <i>Life</i>,&mdash;it is just published by
+an eminent writer: besides which, the shops will supply us with
+abundance of busts and prints of this great man; all striking
+likenesses&mdash;of one another. The most incredulous must be satisfied
+with this! "Stat magni NOMINIS umbra!"</p>
+
+<p class="right">KONX OMPAX.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="POSTSCRIPT_7thEDITION" id="POSTSCRIPT_7thEDITION"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>POSTSCRIPT TO THE SEVENTH EDITION.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>Since the publication of the Sixth Edition of this work, the French
+nation, and the world at large, have obtained an additional evidence,
+to which I hope they will attach as much weight as it deserves, of the
+reality of the wonderful history I have been treating of. The Great
+Nation, among the many indications lately given of an heroic zeal like
+what Homer attributes to his Argive warriors, <span class="Greek" title="tisasthai HELEN�S horm�mata te stonachas te">&#964;&#8055;&#963;&#945;&#963;&#952;&#945;&#953; &#7961;&#923;&#8137;&#925;&#919;&#931; &#8001;&#961;&#956;&#8053;&#956;&#945;&#964;&#8049; &#964;&#949; &#963;&#964;&#959;&#957;&#945;&#967;&#8049;&#962; &#964;&#949;</span>, have formed and executed the design of bringing home
+for honourable interment the remains of their illustrious Chief.</p>
+
+<p>How many persons have actually inspected these relics, I have not
+ascertained; but that a real coffin, containing real bones, was
+brought from St. Helena to France, I see no reason to disbelieve.</p>
+
+<p>Whether future visitors to St. Helena will be shown merely the
+identical <i>place</i> in which Buonaparte was (<i>said</i> to have been)
+interred, or whether another set of real bones will be exhibited in
+that island, we have yet to learn.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>This latter supposition is not very improbable. It was something of a
+credit to the island, an attraction to strangers, and a source of
+profit to some of the inhabitants, to possess so remarkable a relic;
+and this glory and advantage they must naturally wish to retain. If
+so, there seems no reason why they should not have a Buonaparte of
+their own; for there is, I believe, no doubt that there are, or were,
+several Museums in England, which, among other curiosities, boasted,
+each, of a genuine skull of Oliver Cromwell.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps, therefore, we shall hear of several well authenticated skulls
+of Buonaparte also, in the collections of different virtuosos, all of
+whom (especially those in whose own crania the "organ of wonder" is
+the most largely developed) will doubtless derive equal satisfaction
+from the relics they respectively possess.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="POSTSCRIPT_9thEDITION" id="POSTSCRIPT_9thEDITION"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>POSTSCRIPT TO THE NINTH EDITION.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The Public has been of late much interested and not a little
+bewildered, by the accounts of many strange events, said to have
+recently taken place in France and other parts of the Continent. Are
+these accounts of such a character as to allay, or to strengthen and
+increase, such doubts as have been suggested in the foregoing pages?</p>
+
+<p>We are told that there is now a Napoleon Buonaparte at the head of the
+government of France. It is not, indeed, asserted that he is the very
+original Napoleon Buonaparte himself. The death of that personage, and
+the transportation of his genuine bones to France, had been too widely
+proclaimed to allow of his reappearance in his own proper person. But
+"uno avulso, non deficit alter." Like the Thibetian worshippers of the
+Dalai Lama, (who never dies; only his soul transmigrates into a fresh
+body), the French are so resolved, we are told, to be under a
+Buonaparte&mdash;whether that be (see note to p. 56) a man or "a
+system"&mdash;that they have found, it seems, a kind of new incarnation <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>of
+this their Grand Lama, in a person said to be the nephew of the
+original one.</p>
+
+<p>And when, on hearing that this personage now fills the high office of
+President of the French Republic, we inquire (very naturally) <i>how he
+came there</i>, we are informed that, several years ago, he invaded
+France in an English vessel, (the <i>English</i>&mdash;as was observed in p.
+52&mdash;having always been suspected of keeping Buonaparte ready, like the
+winds in a Lapland witch's bag, to be let out on occasion,) at the
+head of a force, not, of six hundred men, like his supposed uncle in
+his expedition from Elba, but of fifty-five,(!) with which he landed
+at Boulogne, proclaimed himself emperor, and was joined by no less
+than <i>one</i> man! He was accordingly, we are told, arrested, brought to
+trial, and sentenced to imprisonment; but having, some years after,
+escaped from prison, and taken refuge in England, (<i>England</i> again!)
+he thence returned to France: <span class="scfake">AND SO</span> the French nation placed
+him at the head of the government!</p>
+
+<p>All this will doubtless be received as a very probable tale by those
+who have given full credit to all the stories I have alluded to in the
+foregoing pages.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="POSTSCRIPT_11thEDITION" id="POSTSCRIPT_11thEDITION"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>POSTSCRIPT TO THE ELEVENTH EDITION.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>When any dramatic piece <i>takes</i>&mdash;as the phrase is&mdash;with the Public, it
+will usually be represented again and again with still-continued
+applause; and sometimes imitations of it will be produced; so that the
+same drama in substance will, with occasional slight variations in the
+plot, and changes of names, long keep possession of the stage.</p>
+
+<p>Something like this has taken place with respect to that curious
+tragi-comedy&mdash;the scene of it laid in France&mdash;which has engaged the
+attention of the British public for about sixty years; during which it
+has been "exhibited to crowded houses"&mdash;viz., coffee-houses,
+reading-rooms, &amp;c., with unabated interest.</p>
+
+<p>The outline of this drama, or series of dramas, may be thus sketched:</p>
+
+<div class="block">
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span><i>Dramatis Person&aelig;.</i></p>
+
+<p>A. A King or other Sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>B. His Queen.</p>
+
+<p>C. The Heir apparent.</p>
+
+<p>D. E. F. His Ministers.</p>
+
+<p>G. H. I. J. K. Demagogues.</p>
+
+<p>L. A popular leader of superior ingenuity, who becomes ultimately
+supreme ruler under the title of Dictator, Consul, Emperor, King,
+President, or some other.</p>
+
+<p>Soldiers, Senators, Executioners, and other functionaries, Citizens,
+Fishwomen, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p><i>Scene</i>, Paris.</p>
+
+<p>(1.) The first Act of one of these dramas represents a monarchy,
+somewhat troubled by murmurs of disaffection, suspicions of
+conspiracy, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>(2.) Second Act, a rebellion; in which ultimately the government is
+overthrown.</p>
+
+<p>(3.) Act the third, a provisional government established, on
+principles of liberty, equality, fraternity, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>(4.) Act the fourth, struggles of various parties for power, carried
+on with sundry intrigues, and sanguinary conflicts.</p>
+
+<p>(5.) Act the fifth, the re-establishment of some form of absolute
+monarchy.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>And from this point we start afresh, and begin <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>the same business over
+again, with sundry fresh interludes.</p>
+
+<p>All this is highly amusing to the English Public to <i>hear</i> and <i>read</i>
+of; but I doubt whether our countrymen would like to be actual
+<i>performers</i> in such a drama.</p>
+
+<p>Whether the French really are so, or whether they are mystifying us in
+the accounts they send over, I will not presume to decide. But if the
+former supposition be the true one,&mdash;if they have been so long really
+acting over and over again in their own persons such a drama, it must
+be allowed that they deserve to be characterized as they have been in
+the description given of certain European nations: "An Englishman," it
+has been said, "is never happy but when he is miserable; a Scotchman
+is never at home but when he is abroad; an Irishman is never at peace
+but when he is fighting; a Spaniard is never at liberty but when he is
+enslaved; and a Frenchman is never settled but when he is engaged in a
+revolution."</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="POSTSCRIPT_12thEDITION" id="POSTSCRIPT_12thEDITION"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>POSTSCRIPT TO THE TWELFTH EDITION.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>"Time" says the proverb, "rings Truth to light." But the process is
+gradual and slow. The debt is paid, as it were, by instalments. It is
+only bit by bit, and at considerable intervals, that Truth comes forth
+as the morning twilight to dispel the mists of fiction.</p>
+
+<p>It is above forty years that men have been debating the question:&mdash;Who
+were the parties that burned the city of Moscow?&mdash;without ever
+thinking of the preliminary question, whether it ever was burnt at
+all. And now at length we learn that it never was.</p>
+
+<p>The following extract from a New Orleans paper contains the
+information obtained by an American traveller&mdash;one of that great
+nation whose accuracy as to facts is so well known&mdash;who visited the
+spot.</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="block"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
+<h4>INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL&mdash;CITY OF MOSCOW.</h4>
+
+<p class="noin">Senator Douglas is said to have made the discovery, while
+travelling in Russia, that the city of Moscow was never burned!
+The following statement of the matter is from the Muscatine
+(Iowa) Inquirer:</p>
+
+<p>"Coming on the boat, a few days ago, we happened to fall in
+company with Senator Douglas, who came on board at Quincy, on his
+way to Warsaw. In the course of a very interesting account of his
+travels in Russia, much of which has been published by
+letter-writers, he stated a fact which has never yet been
+published, but which startlingly contradicts the historical
+relation of one of the most extraordinary events that ever fell
+to the lot of history to record. For this reason the Judge said
+he felt a delicacy in making the assertion, that the city of
+Moscow was never burned!</p>
+
+<p>"He said, that previous to his arrival at Moscow, he had several
+disputes with his guide as to the burning of the city, the guide
+declaring that it never occurred, and seeming to be nettled at
+Mr. Douglas's persistency in his opinion; but, on examining the
+fire-marks around the city, and the city itself, he became
+satisfied that the guide was correct.</p>
+
+<p>"The statement goes on to set forth that the antiquity of the
+architectural city&mdash;particularly of its 'six hundred first-class
+churches,' stretching through ante-Napoleonic ages to Pagan
+times, and showing the handiwork of different nations of
+History&mdash;demonstrates that the city never was burned down (or
+up)."</p>
+
+<p>The Inquirer adds:</p>
+
+<p>"The Kremlin is a space of several hundred acres, in the heart of
+the city, in the shape of a flat iron, and is enclosed, by a wall
+of sixty feet high. Within this enclosure is the most magnificent
+palace in Europe, recently built, but constructed over an ancient
+palace, which remains, thus enclosed, whole and perfect, with all
+its windows, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>"Near the Kremlin, surrounded by a wall, is a Chinese town,
+appearing to be several hundred years old, still occupied by
+descendants of the original settlers.</p>
+
+<p>"The circumstances which gave rise to the errors concerning the
+burning of Moscow, were these:&mdash;It is a city of four hundred and
+fifty thousand inhabitants, in circular form, occupying a large
+space, five miles across. There the winters are six months long,
+and the custom was, and still is, to lay up supplies of
+provisions and wood to last six months of severe cold weather. To
+prevent these gigantic supplies from encumbering the heart of the
+city, and yet render them as convenient as practicable to every
+locality, a row of wood houses was constructed to circle
+completely round the city, and outside of these was a row of
+granaries, and in these were deposited the whole of the supplies.
+Napoleon had entered the city with his army, and was himself
+occupying the palace of the Kremlin, when, one night, by order of
+the Russian governor, every wood house and every granary
+simultaneously burst into a blaze. All efforts to extinguish them
+were vain, and Napoleon found himself compelled to march his army
+through the fire. Retiring to an eminence he saw the whole city
+enveloped in vast sheets of flame, and clouds of smoke, and
+apparently all on fire. And far as he was concerned it might as
+well have been, for though houses enough were left to supply
+every soldier with a room, yet without provisions or fuel, and a
+Russian army to cut off supplies, he and his army could not
+subsist there. During the fire some houses were probably burnt,
+but the city was not. In the Kremlin a magazine blew up, cracking
+the church of Ivan more than a hundred feet up, but setting
+nothing on fire.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Douglas saw the fire-marks around the city, where wood
+houses and granaries for winter supplies now stand as of old; but
+there appears no marks of conflagration within the city."</p>
+</div>
+<br />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>Any wary sceptic, indeed, might have found much ground for doubt in
+the very accounts themselves that were given of the conflagration.
+For, the Russians have always denied that <i>they</i> burned it; and the
+French equally disclaimed the act. Each of the two parties between
+whom the accusation lay, strenuously denied it. And it must be
+acknowledged that each had very strong presumptions of innocence to
+urge. It was certainly most <i>unlikely</i> that the Russians should
+themselves destroy their ancient and venerable capital; and that, too,
+when they were boasting of having just gained a great victory at
+Borodino over an army which, therefore, they might hope to defeat
+again, and to drive out of their city. And it was no less unlikely
+that the French should burn down a city of which they had possession,
+and which afforded shelter and refreshment to their troops. This would
+have been one of the most improbable circumstances of that most
+improbable (supposed) campaign. To add to the marvel, we are told that
+the French army nevertheless waited for five weeks, without any
+object, amid the ashes of this destroyed city, just at the approach,
+of winter, and as if on purpose to be overtaken and destroyed by snows
+and frost!</p>
+
+<p>However, all the difficulties of the question whether any of these
+things took place at all, were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>by most persons overlooked, because
+the question itself never occurred to them, in their eagerness to
+decide <i>who</i> it was that burned the city. And at length it comes out
+that the answer is, <span class="sc">Nobody</span>!</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+<h4>THE END.</h4>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="POSTSCRIPT" id="POSTSCRIPT"></a><br />
+<hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>POSTSCRIPT.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>With respect to the foregoing arguments, it has been asserted (though
+without even any attempt at proof) that they go to prove that the
+Bible-narratives contain nothing more miraculous than the received
+accounts of Napoleon Buonapart&egrave;. And this is indeed true, if we use
+the word "<i>miraculous</i>" in the very unusual sense in which Hume (as is
+pointed out in the foregoing pages) has employed it; to signify simply
+"<i>improbable</i>;" an abuse of language on which his argument mainly
+depends.</p>
+
+<p>It is indeed shown, that there are at least as many and as great
+<i>improbabilities</i> in the history of Buonapart&egrave; as in any of the
+Scripture-narratives; and that as plausible objections,&mdash;if not more
+so,&mdash;may be brought against the one history as the other.</p>
+
+<p>But taking words in their ordinary, established sense, the assertion
+is manifestly the opposite of the truth. For, any one who does,&mdash;in
+spite of all the improbabilities,&mdash;<i>believe</i> the truth of <i>both</i>
+histories, is, evidently, a believer in miracles; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>since he believes
+two narratives, one of which is <i>not</i> miraculous, while the other is.
+The history of Buonapart&egrave; contains&mdash;though much that is very
+improbable&mdash;nothing that is to be called, according to the established
+use of language, miraculous. And the Scriptures contain, as an
+<i>essential</i> part of their narrative, <i>Miracles</i>, properly so called.</p>
+
+<p>To talk of believing the Bible, all <i>except the Miracles</i>, would be
+like professing to believe the accounts of Buonapart&egrave;, <i>except</i> only
+his commanding armies, and having been at Elba and at Saint Helena.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 10%;' />
+
+<p>One cannot doubt that in the course of the <i>forty years</i> that this
+little Work has been before the Public, some real, valid refutation of
+the argument would have been adduced, if any such could have been
+devised.</p>
+
+<p>1860.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Historic Doubts Relative To Napoleon
+Buonaparte, by Richard  Whately
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORIC DOUBTS ***
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+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/18087.txt b/18087.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Historic Doubts Relative To Napoleon
+Buonaparte, by Richard  Whately
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Historic Doubts Relative To Napoleon Buonaparte
+
+Author: Richard  Whately
+
+Release Date: March 30, 2006 [EBook #18087]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORIC DOUBTS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeannie Howse, Thierry Alberto and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team of Distributed Proofreaders
+Europe at http://dp.rastko.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORIC
+
+DOUBTS
+
+RELATIVE TO
+
+NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE.
+
+
+  Is not the same reason available in theology and in politics?...
+  Will you follow truth but to a certain point?--BURKE'S
+  _Vindication of Natural Society._
+
+  The first author who stated fairly the connexion between the
+  evidence of testimony and the evidence of experience, was Hume, in
+  his ESSAY ON MIRACLES; a work _abounding in maxims of great use_ in
+  the conduct of life.--_Edinburgh Review_, Sept. 1814, p. 328.
+
+_NEW EDITION._
+
+LONDON:
+LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
+MDCCCLXV.
+
+
+
+
+LONDON:
+SAVILL AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS, CHANDOS STREET,
+COVENT GARDEN.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+Several of the readers of this little work (first published in 1819)
+have derived much amusement from the mistakes of others respecting its
+nature and object. It has been by some represented as a serious
+attempt to inculcate universal scepticism; while others have
+considered it as a jeu d'esprit, &c.[1] The author does not, however,
+design to entertain his readers with accounts of the mistakes which,
+have arisen respecting it; because many of them, he is convinced,
+would be received with incredulity; and he could not, without an
+indelicate exposure of individuals, verify his anecdotes.
+
+But some sensible readers have complained of the difficulty of
+determining _what_ they are to believe. Of the existence of
+Buonaparte, indeed, they remained fully convinced; nor, if it were
+left doubtful, would any important results ensue; but if they can give
+no _satisfactory reason_ for their conviction, how can they know, it
+is asked, that they may not be mistaken as to other points of greater
+consequence, on which they are no less fully convinced, but on which
+all men are _not_ agreed? The author has accordingly been solicited to
+endeavour to frame some canons which may furnish a standard for
+determining what evidence is to be received.
+
+This he conceives to be impracticable, except to that extent to which
+it is accomplished by a sound system of Logic; including under that
+title, a portion--that which relates to the "Laws of Evidence"--of
+what is sometimes treated under the head of "Rhetoric." But the full
+and complete accomplishment of such an object would confer on Man the
+unattainable attribute of infallibility.
+
+But the difficulty complained of, he conceives to arise, in many
+instances, from men's _mis-stating the grounds of their own
+conviction_. They are convinced, indeed, and perhaps with very
+sufficient reason; but they imagine this reason to be a different one
+from what it is. The evidence to which they have assented is applied
+to their minds in a different manner from that in which they believe
+that it is--and suppose that it ought to be--applied. And when
+challenged to defend and justify their own belief, they feel at a
+loss, because they are attempting to maintain a position which is
+not, in fact, that in which their force lies.
+
+For a development of the nature, the consequences, and the remedies of
+this mistake, the reader is referred to "Hinds on Inspiration," pp.
+30-46. If such a development is to be found in any earlier works, the
+Author of the following pages at least has never chanced to meet with
+any attempt of the kind.[2]
+
+It has been objected, again, by some persons of no great logical
+accuracy of thought, that as there would not be any _moral blame_
+imputable to one who should seriously disbelieve, or doubt, the
+existence of Buonaparte, so neither is a rejection of the
+Scripture-histories to be considered as implying anything morally
+culpable.
+
+The same objection, such as it is, would apply equally to many of the
+Parables of the New Testament. It might be said, for instance, that as
+a woman who should decline taking the trouble of searching for her
+lost "piece of silver," or a merchant who should neglect making an
+advantageous purchase of a "goodly pearl," would be guilty of no moral
+wrong, it must follow that there is nothing morally wrong in
+neglecting to reclaim a lost sinner, or in rejecting the Gospel, &c.
+
+But any man of common sense readily perceives that the force of these
+parables consists in the circumstance that men do _not_ usually show
+this carelessness about temporal goods; and, therefore, are guilty of
+gross and culpable _inconsistency_, if they are comparatively
+careless about what is far more important.
+
+So, also, in the present case. If any man's mind were so constituted
+as to reject the same evidence in _all_ matters alike--if, for
+instance, he really doubted or disbelieved the existence of
+Buonaparte, and considered the Egyptian pyramids as fabulous, because,
+forsooth, he had no "experience" of the erection of such huge
+structures, and _had_ experience of travellers telling huge lies--he
+would be regarded, perhaps, as very silly, or as insane, but not as
+morally culpable. But if (as is intimated in the concluding sentence
+of this work) a man is influenced in one case by objections which, in
+another case, he would deride, then he stands convicted of being
+unfairly biassed by his prejudices.
+
+It is only necessary to add, that as this work first appeared in the
+year 1819, many things are spoken of in the present tense, to which
+the past would now be applicable.
+
+Postscripts have been added to successive editions in reference to
+subsequent occurrences.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] It was observed by some reviewer, that Hume himself, had he been
+alive, would doubtless have highly enjoyed the joke! But even those
+who have the greatest delight in ridicule, do not relish jokes at
+_their own expense_. Hume may have inwardly laughed, while mystifying
+his readers with arguments which he himself perceived to be futile.
+But he did not mean the readers to perceive this. And it is not likely
+that he would have been amused at seeing his own fallacies exposed and
+held up to derision.
+
+[2] See _Elements of Rhetoric_, p. i. ch. 2, Sec. 4.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+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,
+will be called courage, or courage, rashness; heroic firmness, and
+obstinate pride, will correspond in the two opposite descriptions; and
+in some leading features both will agree. Neither the friends nor the
+enemies of Philip of Macedon, or of Julius Caesar, ever questioned
+their COURAGE, or their MILITARY SKILL.
+
+With Buonaparte, however, it has been otherwise. This obscure Corsican
+adventurer, a man, according to some, of extraordinary talents and
+courage, according to others, of very moderate abilities, and a rank
+coward, advanced rapidly in the French army, obtained a high command,
+gained a series of important victories, and, elated by success,
+embarked in an expedition against Egypt; which was planned and
+conducted, according to some, with the most consummate skill,
+according to others, with the utmost wildness and folly: he was
+unsuccessful, however; and leaving the army in Egypt in a very
+distressed situation, he returned to France, and found the nation, or
+at least the army, so favourably disposed towards him, that he was
+enabled, with the utmost ease, to overthrow the existing government,
+and obtain for himself the supreme power; at first, under the modest
+appellation of Consul, but afterwards with the more sounding title of
+Emperor. While in possession of this power, he overthrew the most
+powerful coalitions of the other European States against him; and
+though driven from the sea by the British fleets, overran nearly the
+whole continent, triumphant; finishing a war, not unfrequently, in a
+single campaign, he entered the capitals of most of the hostile
+potentates, deposed and created Kings at his pleasure, and appeared
+the virtual sovereign of the chief part of the continent, from the
+frontiers of Spain to those of Russia. Even those countries we find
+him invading with prodigious armies, defeating their forces,
+penetrating to their capitals, and threatening their total
+subjugation. But at Moscow his progress is stopped: a winter of
+unusual severity, co-operating with the efforts of the Russians,
+totally destroys his enormous host: and the German sovereigns throw
+off the yoke, and combine to oppose him. He raises another vast army,
+which is also ruined at Leipsic; and again another, with which, like a
+second Antaeus, he for some time maintains himself in France; but is
+finally defeated, deposed, and banished to the island of Elba, of
+which the sovereignty is conferred on him. Thence he returns, in about
+nine months, at the head of 600 men, to attempt the deposition of King
+Louis, who had been peaceably recalled; the French nation declare in
+his favour, and he is reinstated without a struggle. He raises another
+great army to oppose the allied powers, which is totally defeated at
+Waterloo; he is a second time deposed, surrenders to the British, and
+is placed in confinement at the island of St. Helena. Such is the
+outline of the eventful history presented to us; in the detail of
+which, however, there is almost every conceivable variety of
+statement; while the motives and conduct of the chief actor are
+involved in still greater doubt, and the subject of still more eager
+controversy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the midst of these controversies, the preliminary question,
+concerning the _existence_ of this extraordinary personage, seems
+never to have occurred to any one as a matter of doubt; and to show
+even the smallest hesitation in admitting it, would probably be
+regarded as an excess of scepticism; on the ground that this point
+has always been taken for granted by the disputants on all sides,
+being indeed implied by the very nature of their disputes.
+
+But is it in fact found that _undisputed_ points are always such as
+have been the most carefully examined as to the evidence on which they
+rest? that facts or principles which are taken for granted, without
+controversy, as the common basis of opposite opinions, are always
+themselves established on sufficient grounds? On the contrary, is not
+any such fundamental point, from the very circumstance of its being
+taken for granted at once, and the attention drawn off to some other
+question, likely to be admitted on insufficient evidence, and the
+flaws in that evidence overlooked?
+
+Experience will teach us that such instances often occur: witness the
+well-known anecdote of the Royal Society; to whom King Charles II.
+proposed as a question, whence it is that a vessel of water receives
+no addition of weight from a live fish being put into it, though it
+does, if the fish be dead. Various solutions, of great ingenuity, were
+proposed, discussed, objected to, and defended; nor was it till they
+had been long bewildered in the inquiry, that it occurred to them _to
+try the experiment_; by which they at once ascertained that the
+phenomenon which they were striving to account for,--which was the
+acknowledged basis and substratum, as it were, of their debates,--had
+no existence but in the invention of the witty monarch.[3]
+
+Another instance of the same kind is so very remarkable that I cannot
+forbear mentioning it. It was objected to the system of Copernicus
+when first brought forward, that if the earth turned on its axis, as
+he represented, a stone dropped from the summit of a tower would not
+fall at the foot of it, but at a great distance to the west; _in the
+same manner as a stone dropped from the mast-head of a ship in full
+sail, does not fall at the foot of the mast, but towards the stern_.
+To this it was answered, that a stone being a _part_ of the earth
+obeys the same laws, and moves with it; whereas, it is no part of the
+ship; of which, consequently, its motion is independent. This solution
+was admitted by some, but opposed by others; and the controversy went
+on with spirit; nor was it till _one hundred years_ after the death of
+Copernicus, that the experiment being tried, it was ascertained that
+the stone thus dropped from the head of the mast _does_ fall at the
+foot of it![4]
+
+Let it be observed that I am not now impugning any one particular
+narrative; but merely showing generally, that what is _unquestioned_
+is not necessarily unquestionable; since men will often, at the very
+moment when they are accurately sifting the evidence of some disputed
+point, admit hastily, and on the most insufficient grounds, what they
+have been accustomed to see taken for granted.
+
+The celebrated Hume[5] has pointed out, also, the readiness with which
+men believe, on very slight evidence, any story that pleases their
+imagination by its admirable and marvellous character. Such hasty
+credulity, however, as he well remarks, is utterly unworthy of a
+philosophical mind; which should rather suspend its judgment the more,
+in proportion to the strangeness of the account, and yield to none but
+the most decisive and unimpeachable proofs.
+
+Let it, then, be allowed us, as is surely reasonable, just to inquire,
+with respect to the extraordinary story I have been speaking of, on
+what evidence we believe it. We shall be told that it is _notorious_;
+i.e., in plain English, it is very _much talked about_. But as the
+generality of those who talk about Buonaparte do not even pretend to
+speak from _their own authority_, but merely to repeat what they have
+casually heard, we cannot reckon them as, in any degree, witnesses;
+but must allow ninety-nine hundredths of what we are told to be mere
+hearsay, which would not be at all the more worthy of credit even if
+it were repeated by ten times as many more. As for those who profess
+to have _personally known_ Napoleon Buonaparte, and to have
+_themselves witnessed_ his transactions, I write not for them. _If any
+such there be_, who are inwardly conscious of the truth of all they
+relate, I have nothing to say to them, but to beg that they will be
+tolerant and charitable towards their neighbours, who have not the
+same means of ascertaining the truth, and who may well be excused for
+remaining doubtful about such extraordinary events, till most
+unanswerable proofs shall be adduced. "I would not have believed such
+a thing, if I had not seen it," is a common preface or appendix to a
+narrative of marvels; and usually calls forth from an intelligent
+hearer the appropriate answer, "_no more will I_."
+
+Let us, however, endeavour to trace up some of this hearsay evidence
+as far towards its source as we are able. Most persons would refer to
+the _newspapers_ as the authority from which their knowledge on the
+subject was derived; so that, generally speaking, we may say it is on
+the testimony of the newspapers that men believe in the existence and
+exploits of Napoleon Buonaparte.
+
+It is rather a remarkable circumstance, that it is common to hear
+Englishmen speak of the impudent fabrications of foreign newspapers,
+and express wonder that any one can be found to credit them; while
+they conceive that, in this favoured land, the liberty of the press is
+a sufficient security for veracity. It is true they often speak
+contemptuously of such "newspaper-stories" as last but a short time;
+indeed they continually see them contradicted within a day or two in
+the same paper, or their falsity detected by some journal of an
+opposite party; but still whatever is _long adhered to_ and often
+_repeated_, especially if it also appear in _several different_
+papers (and this, though they notoriously copy from one another), is
+almost sure to be generally believed. Whence this high respect which
+is practically paid to newspaper authority? Do men think, that because
+a witness has been perpetually detected in falsehood, he may therefore
+be the more safely believed whenever he is _not_ detected? or does
+adherence to a story, and frequent repetition of it, render it the
+more credible? On the contrary, is it not a common remark in other
+cases, that a liar will generally stand to and reiterate what he has
+once said, merely because he _has_ said it?
+
+Let us, if possible, divest ourselves of this superstitious veneration
+for everything that appears "in print," and examine a little more
+systematically the evidence which is adduced.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I suppose it will not be denied that the three following are among the
+most important points to be ascertained, in deciding on the
+credibility of witnesses; first, whether they have the means of
+gaining correct _information_; secondly, whether they have any
+_interest_ in concealing truth, or propagating falsehood; and,
+thirdly, whether they _agree_ in their testimony. Let us examine the
+present witnesses upon all these points.
+
+First, what means have the editors of newspapers for giving correct
+information? We know not, except from their own statements. Besides
+what is copied from other journals, foreign or British, (which is
+usually more than three-fourths of the news published,)[6] they
+profess to refer to the authority of certain "private correspondents"
+abroad; _who_ these correspondents are, what means they have of
+obtaining information, or whether they exist at all, we have no way of
+ascertaining. We find ourselves in the condition of the Hindoos, who
+are told by their priests that the earth stands on an elephant, and
+the elephant on a tortoise; but are left to find out for themselves
+what the tortoise stands on, or whether it stands on anything at all.
+
+So much for our clear knowledge of the means of _information_
+possessed by these witnesses; next, for the grounds on which we are to
+calculate on their _veracity_.
+
+Have they not a manifest interest in circulating the wonderful
+accounts of Napoleon Buonaparte and his achievements, whether true or
+false? Few would read newspapers if they did not sometimes find
+wonderful or important news in them; and we may safely say that no
+subject was ever found so inexhaustibly interesting as the present.
+
+It may be urged, however, that there are several adverse political
+parties, of which the various public prints are respectively the
+organs, and who would not fail to expose each other's fabrications.[7]
+Doubtless they would, if they could do so without at the same time
+exposing _their own_; but identity of interests may induce a
+community of operations up to a certain point. And let it be observed
+that the object of contention between these rival parties is, _who_
+shall have the administration of public affairs, the control of public
+expenditure, and the disposal of places: the question, I say, is, not
+whether the people shall be governed or not, but, _by which party_
+they shall be governed;--not whether the taxes shall be paid or not,
+but _who_ shall _receive_ them. Now, it must be admitted that
+Buonaparte is a political bugbear, most convenient to _any_
+administration: "if you do not adopt our measures and reject those of
+our opponents, Buonaparte will be sure to prevail over you; if you do
+not submit to the Government, at least under _our_ administration,
+this formidable enemy will take advantage of your insubordination, to
+conquer and enslave you: pay your taxes cheerfully, or the tremendous
+Buonaparte will take all from you." Buonaparte, in short, was the
+burden of every song; his redoubted name was the charm which always
+succeeded in unloosing the purse-strings of the nation. And let us not
+be too sure,[8] safe as we now think ourselves, that some occasion may
+not occur for again producing on the stage so useful a personage: it
+is not merely to naughty children in the nursery that the threat of
+being "given to Buonaparte" has proved effectual.
+
+It is surely probable, therefore, that, with an object substantially
+the same, all parties may have availed themselves of one common
+instrument. It is not necessary to suppose that for this purpose they
+secretly entered into a formal agreement; though, by the way, there
+are reports afloat, that the editors of the _Courier_ and _Morning
+Chronicle_ hold amicable consultations as to the conduct of their
+public warfare: I will not take upon me to say that this is
+incredible; but at any rate it is not necessary for the establishment
+of the probability I contend for. Neither again would I imply that
+_all_ newspaper editors are utterers of forged stories, "knowing them
+to be forged;" most likely the great majority of them publish what
+they find in other papers with the same simplicity that their readers
+peruse it; and therefore, it must be observed, are not at all more
+proper than their readers to be cited as authorities.
+
+Still it will be said, that unless we suppose a regularly preconcerted
+plan, we must at least expect to find great discrepancies in the
+accounts published. Though they might adopt the general outline of
+facts from one another, they would have to fill up the detail for
+themselves; and in this, therefore, we should meet with infinite and
+irreconcilable variety.
+
+Now this is precisely the point I am tending to; for the fact exactly
+accords with the above supposition; the discordance and mutual
+contradictions of these witnesses being such as would alone throw a
+considerable shade of doubt over their testimony. It is not in minute
+circumstances alone that the discrepancy appears, such as might be
+expected to appear in a narrative substantially true; but in very
+great and leading transactions, and such as are very intimately
+connected with the supposed hero. For instance, it is by no means
+agreed whether Buonaparte led in person the celebrated charge over the
+bridge of Lodi, (for _celebrated_ it certainly is, as well as the
+siege of Troy, whether either event ever really took place or no,) or
+was safe in the rear, while Augereau performed the exploit. The same
+doubt hangs over the charge of the French cavalry at Waterloo. The
+peasant Lacoste, who professed to have been Buonaparte's guide on the
+day of battle, and who earned a fortune by detailing over and over
+again to visitors all the particulars of what the great man said and
+did up to the moment of flight,--this same Lacoste has been suspected
+by others, besides me, of having never even been near the great man,
+and having fabricated the whole story for the sake of making a gain of
+the credulity of travellers. In the accounts that are the extant of
+the battle itself, published by persons professing to have been
+present, the reader will find that there is a discrepancy of _three
+or four hours_ as to the time when the battle began!--a battle, be it
+remembered, not fought with javelins and arrows, like those of the
+ancients, in which one part of a large army might be engaged, whilst a
+distant portion of the same army knew nothing of it; but a battle
+commencing (if indeed it were ever fought at all) with the _firing of
+cannon_, which, would have announced pretty loudly what was going on.
+
+It is no less uncertain whether or no this strange personage poisoned
+in Egypt an hospital--full of his own soldiers, and butchered in cold
+blood a garrison that had surrendered. But not to multiply instances;
+the battle of Borodino, which is represented as one of the greatest
+ever fought, was unequivocally claimed as a victory by both parties;
+nor is the question decided at this day. We have official accounts on
+both sides, circumstantially detailed, in the names of supposed
+respectable persons, professing to have been present on the spot; yet
+totally irreconcilable. _Both_ these accounts _may_ be false; but
+since _one_ of them _must_ be false, that one (it is no matter _which_
+we suppose) proves incontrovertibly this important maxim: that _it is
+possible for a narrative--however circumstantial--however steadily
+maintained--however public, and however important, the events it
+relates--however grave the authority on which it is published--to be
+nevertheless an entire fabrication!_
+
+Many of the events which have been recorded were probably believed
+much the more readily and firmly, from the apparent caution and
+hesitation with which they were at first published--the vehement
+contradiction in our papers of many pretended French accounts--and the
+abuse lavished upon them for falsehood, exaggeration, and gasconade.
+But is it not possible--is it not, indeed, perfectly natural--that the
+publishers even of known falsehood should assume this cautious
+demeanour, and this abhorrence of exaggeration, in order the more
+easily to gain credit? Is it not also very possible, that those who
+actually believed what they published, may have suspected mere
+_exaggeration_ in stories which were entire _fictions_? Many men have
+that sort of simplicity, that they think themselves quite secure
+against being deceived, provided they believe only _part_ of the story
+they hear; when perhaps the whole is equally false. So that perhaps
+these simple-hearted editors, who were so vehement against lying
+bulletins, and so wary in announcing their great news, were in the
+condition of a clown, who thinks he has bought a great bargain of a
+Jew because he has beat down the price perhaps from a guinea to a
+crown, for some article that is not really worth a groat.
+
+With respect to the _character_ of Buonaparte, the dissonance is, if
+possible, still greater. According to some, he was a wise, humane,
+magnanimous hero; others paint him as a monster of cruelty, meanness,
+and perfidy: some, even of those who are most inveterate against him,
+speak very highly of his political and military ability: others place
+him on the very verge of insanity. But allowing that all this may be
+the colouring of party-prejudice, (which surely is allowing a great
+deal,) there is one point to which such a solution will hardly apply:
+if there be anything that can be clearly ascertained in history, one
+would think it must be the _personal courage of a military man_; yet
+here we are as much at a loss as ever; at the very same times, and on
+the same occasions, he is described by different writers as a man of
+undaunted intrepidity, and as an absolute poltroon.
+
+What, then, are we to believe? If we are disposed to credit all that
+is told us, we must believe in the existence not only of one, but of
+two or three Buonapartes; if we admit nothing but what is well
+authenticated, we shall be compelled to doubt of the existence of
+any.[9]
+
+It appears, then, that those on whose testimony the existence and
+actions of Buonaparte are generally believed, fail in ALL the most
+essential points on which the credibility of witnesses depends: first,
+we have no assurance that they have access to correct information;
+secondly, they have an apparent interest in propagating falsehood;
+and, thirdly, they palpably contradict each other in the most
+important points.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another circumstance which throws additional suspicion on these tales
+is, that the whig-party, as they are called--the warm advocates for
+liberty, and opposers of the encroachments of monarchical power--have
+for some time past strenuously espoused the cause and vindicated the
+character of Buonaparte, who is represented by all as having been, if
+not a tyrant, at least an absolute despot. One of the most forward in
+this cause is a gentleman, who once stood foremost in holding up this
+very man to public execration--who first published, and long
+maintained against popular incredulity, the accounts of his atrocities
+in Egypt. Now that such a course should be adopted for party-purposes;
+by those who are aware that the whole story is a fiction, and the hero
+of it imaginary, seems not very incredible; but if they believed in
+the real existence of this despot, I cannot conceive how they could so
+forsake their principles as to advocate his cause, and eulogize his
+character.
+
+Besides the many strange and improbable circumstances in the history
+of Buonaparte that have been already noticed, there are many others,
+two of which it may be worth while to advert to.
+
+One of the most incredible is the received account of the persons
+known as the "Detenus." It is well known that a great number of
+English gentlemen passed many years, in the early part of the present
+century, abroad;--by their own account, in France. Their statement
+was, that while travelling in that country for their amusement, as
+peaceable tourists, they were, on the sudden breaking out of a war,
+seized by this terrible Buonaparte, and kept prisoners for about
+twelve years, contrary to all the usages of civilized nations--to all
+principles of justice, of humanity, of enlightened policy; many of
+them thus wasting in captivity the most important portion of their
+lives, and having all their prospects blighted.
+
+Now whether these persons were in reality exiles by choice, for the
+sake of keeping out of the way of creditors, or of enjoying the
+society of those they preferred to their own domestic circle, I do not
+venture to conjecture. But let the reader consider whether _any_
+conjecture can be _more_ improbable than the statement actually made.
+
+It is, indeed, credible that ambition may prompt an unscrupulous man
+to make the most enormous sacrifices of human life, and to perpetrate
+the most atrocious crimes, for the advancement of his views of
+conquest. But that this _great_ man--as he is usually reckoned even by
+adversaries--this hero according to some--this illustrious warrior,
+and mighty sovereign--should have stooped to be guilty of an act of
+mean and petty malice worthy of a spiteful old woman,--a piece of
+paltry cruelty which could not at all conduce to his success in the
+war, or produce any effect except to degrade his country, and
+exasperate ours;--this, surely, is quite incredible. "Pizarro," says
+Elvira in Kotzebue's play, "if not always justly, at least act always
+greatly."
+
+But a still more wonderful circumstance connected with this
+transaction remains behind. A large portion of the English nation, and
+among these the whole of the Whig party, are said to have expressed
+the most vehement indignation, mingled with compassion, at the
+banishment from Europe, and confinement in St. Helena, of this great
+man. No considerations of regard for the peace and security of our own
+country, no dread of the power of so able and indefatigable a warrior,
+and so inveterate an enemy, should have induced us, they thought, to
+subject this formidable personage to a confinement, which was far
+less severe than that to which he was said to have subjected such
+numbers of our countrymen, the harmless _non-belligerent_ travellers,
+whom (according to the story) he kidnapped in France, with no object
+but to gratify the basest and most unmanly spite.
+
+But that there is no truth in that story, and that it was not believed
+by those who manifested so much sympathy and indignation on this great
+man's account, is sufficiently proved by that very sympathy and
+indignation.
+
+There are again other striking improbabilities connected with the
+Polish nation in the history before us. Buonaparte is represented as
+having always expressed the strongest sympathy with that ill-used
+people; and they, as being devotedly attached to him, and fighting
+with the utmost fidelity and bravery in his armies, in which some of
+them attained high commands. Now he had it manifestly in his power at
+one period (according to the received accounts), with a stroke of his
+pen, to re-establish Poland as an independent state. For, in his last
+Russian war, he had complete occupation of the country (of which the
+population was perfectly friendly); the Russian portion of it was his
+by right of conquest; and Austria and Prussia, then his allies, and
+almost his subjects, would gladly have resigned their portions in
+exchange for some of the provinces they had ceded to France, and
+which were, to him, of little value, but, to them, important. And,
+indeed, Prussia was (as we are told) so thoroughly humbled and
+weakened that he might easily have enforced the cession of
+Prussian-Poland, even without any compensation. And the
+re-establishment of the Polish kingdom would have been as evidently
+politic as it was reasonable. The independence of a faithful and
+devoted ally, at enmity with the surrounding nations--the very nations
+that were the most likely to combine (as they often had done) against
+him,--this would have given him, at no cost, a kind of strong garrison
+to maintain his power, and keep his enemies in check.
+
+Yet this most obvious step, the history tells us, he did not take; but
+made flattering speeches to the Poles, used their services, and did
+nothing for them!
+
+This is, alone, sufficiently improbable. But we are required moreover
+to believe that the Poles,--instead of _execrating_ this man, who had
+done them the unpardonable wrong of wantonly disappointing the
+expectations he had, for his own purposes, excited, thus adding
+treachery to ingratitude--instead of this, continued to the last as
+much devoted to him as ever, and even now idolize his memory! We are
+to believe, in short, that this Buonaparte, not only in his own
+conduct and adventures violated all the established rules of
+probability, but also caused all other persons, as many as came in
+contact with him, to act as no mortals ever did act before: may we not
+add, as no mortals ever did act at all?
+
+Many other improbabilities might be added to the list, and will be
+found in the complete edition of that history, from which some
+extracts will be presently given, and which has been published (under
+the title of "Historic Certainties") by Aristarchus Newlight, with a
+learned commentary (not, indeed, adopting the views contained in these
+pages, but) quite equal in ingenuity to a late work on the "Hebrew
+Monarchy."
+
+After all, it may be expected that many who perceive the force of
+these objections, will yet be loth to think it possible that they and
+the public at large can have been so long and so greatly imposed upon.
+And thus it is that the magnitude and boldness of a fraud becomes its
+best support. The millions who for so many ages have believed in
+Mahomet or Brahma, lean as it were on each other for support; and not
+having vigour of mind enough boldly to throw off vulgar prejudices,
+and dare be wiser than the multitude, persuade themselves that what so
+many have acknowledged must be true. But I call on those who boast
+their philosophical freedom of thought, and would fain tread in the
+steps of Hume and other inquirers of the like exalted and speculative
+genius, to follow up fairly and fully their own principles, and,
+throwing off the shackles of authority, to examine carefully the
+evidence of whatever is proposed to them, before they admit its truth.
+
+That even in this enlightened age, as it is called, a whole nation may
+be egregiously imposed upon, even in matters which intimately concern
+them, may be proved (if it has not been already proved) by the
+following instance: it was stated in the newspapers, that, a month
+after the battle of Trafalgar, an English officer, who had been a
+prisoner of war, and was exchanged, returned to this country from
+France, and beginning to condole with his countrymen on the terrible
+_defeat_ they had sustained, was infinitely astonished to learn that
+the battle of Trafalgar was a splendid victory. He had been assured,
+he said, that in that battle the English had been totally defeated;
+and the French were fully and universally persuaded that such was the
+fact. Now if this report of the belief of the French nation was _not_
+true, the British Public were completely imposed upon; if it _were_
+true, then both nations were, at the same time, rejoicing in the event
+of the same battle, as a signal victory to themselves; and
+consequently one or other, at least, of these nations must have been
+the dupes of their government: for if the battle was never fought at
+all, or was not decisive on either side, in that case _both_ parties
+were deceived. This instance, I conceive, is absolutely demonstrative
+of the point in question.
+
+"But what shall we say to the testimony of those many respectable
+persons who went to Plymouth on purpose, and saw Buonaparte with their
+own eyes? must they not trust their senses?" I would not disparage
+either the eyesight or the veracity of these gentlemen. I am ready to
+allow that they went to Plymouth for the purpose of seeing Buonaparte;
+nay, more, that they actually rowed out into the harbour in a boat,
+and came alongside of a man-of-war, on whose deck they saw a man in a
+cocked hat, who, _they were told_, was Buonaparte. This is the utmost
+point to which their testimony goes; how they ascertained that this
+man in the cocked hat had gone through all the marvellous and romantic
+adventures with which we have so long been amused, we are not told.
+Did they perceive in his physiognomy, his true name, and authentic
+history? Truly this evidence is such as country people give one for a
+story of apparitions; if you discover any signs of incredulity, they
+triumphantly show the very house which the ghost haunted, the
+identical dark corner where it used to vanish, and perhaps even the
+tombstone of the person whose death it foretold. Jack Cade's nobility
+was supported by the same irresistible kind of evidence: having
+asserted that the eldest son of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, was
+stolen by a beggar-woman, "became a bricklayer when he came to age,"
+and was the father of the supposed Jack Cade; one of his companions
+confirms the story, by saying, "Sir, he made a chimney in my father's
+house, and the bricks are alive at this day to testify it; therefore,
+deny it not."
+
+Much of the same kind is the testimony of our brave countrymen, who
+are ready to produce the scars they received in fighting against this
+terrible Buonaparte. That they fought and were wounded, they may
+safely testify; and probably they no less firmly _believe_ what they
+were _told_ respecting the cause in which they fought: it would have
+been a high breach of discipline to doubt it; and they, I conceive,
+are men better skilled in handling a musket, than in sifting evidence,
+and detecting imposture. But I defy any one of them to come forward
+and declare, _on his own knowledge_, what was the cause in which he
+fought,--under whose commands the opposed generals acted,--and whether
+the person who issued those commands did really perform the mighty
+achievements we are told of.
+
+Let those, then, who pretend to philosophical freedom of inquiry,--who
+scorn to rest their opinions on popular belief, and to shelter
+themselves under the example of the unthinking multitude, consider
+carefully, each one for himself, what is the evidence proposed to
+himself in particular, for the existence of such a person as Napoleon
+Buonaparte:--I do not mean, whether there ever was a person bearing
+that _name_, for that is a question of no consequence; but whether any
+such person ever performed all the wonderful things attributed to
+him;--let him then weigh well the objections to that evidence, (of
+which I have given but a hasty and imperfect sketch,) and if he then
+finds it amount to anything _more_ than a probability, I have only to
+congratulate him on his easy faith.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But the same testimony which would have great weight in establishing a
+thing intrinsically probable, will lose part of this weight in
+proportion as the matter attested is improbable; and if adduced in
+support of anything that is at variance with uniform experience,[10]
+will be rejected at once by all sound reasoners. Let us then consider
+what sort of a story it is that is proposed to our acceptance. How
+grossly contradictory are the reports of the different authorities, I
+have already remarked: but consider, by itself, the story told by any
+one of them; it carries an air of fiction and romance on the very face
+of it. All the events are great, and splendid, and marvellous;[11] great
+armies,--great victories,--great frosts,--great reverses,--"hair-breadth
+'scapes,"--empires subverted in a few days; everything happened in
+defiance of political calculations, and in opposition to the
+_experience_ of past times; everything upon that grand scale, so common
+in Epic Poetry, so rare in real life; and thus calculated to strike the
+imagination of the vulgar, and to remind the sober-thinking few of the
+Arabian Nights. Every event, too, has that _roundness_ and completeness
+which is so characteristic of fiction; nothing is done by halves; we
+have _complete_ victories,--_total_ overthrows, _entire_ subversion of
+empires,--_perfect_ re-establishments of them,--crowded upon us in rapid
+succession. To enumerate the improbabilities of each of the several
+parts of this history, would fill volumes; but they are so fresh in
+every one's memory, that there is no need of such a detail: let any
+judicious man, not ignorant of history and of human nature, revolve them
+in his mind, and consider how far they are conformable to
+Experience,[12] our best and only sure guide. In vain will he seek in
+history for something similar to this wonderful Buonaparte; "nought but
+himself can be his parallel."
+
+Will the conquests of Alexander be compared with his? _They_ were
+effected over a rabble of effeminate, undisciplined barbarians; else
+his progress would hardly have been so rapid: witness his father
+Philip, who was much longer occupied in subduing the comparatively
+insignificant territory of the warlike and civilized Greeks,
+notwithstanding their being divided into numerous petty States, whose
+mutual jealousy enabled him to contend with them separately. But the
+Greeks had never made such progress in arts and arms as the great and
+powerful States of Europe, which Buonaparte is represented as so
+speedily overpowering. His empire has been compared to the Roman: mark
+the contrast; he gains in a few years, that dominion, or at least
+control, over Germany, wealthy, civilized, and powerful, which the
+Romans in the plenitude of their power, could not obtain, during a
+struggle of as many centuries, against the ignorant half-savages who
+then possessed it; of whom Tacitus remarks, that, up to his own time
+they had been "triumphed over rather than conquered."
+
+Another peculiar circumstance in the history of this extraordinary
+personage is, that when it Is found convenient to represent him as
+defeated, though he is by no means defeated by halves, but involved in
+much more sudden and total ruin than the personages of real history
+usually meet with; yet, if it is thought fit he should be restored, it
+is done as quickly and completely as if Merlin's rod had been
+employed. He enters Russia with a prodigious army, which is totally
+ruined by an unprecedented hard winter; (everything relating to this
+man is _prodigious_ and _unprecedented_;) yet in a few months we find
+him intrusted with another great army in Germany, which is also
+totally ruined at Leipsic; making, inclusive of the Egyptian, the
+third great army thus totally lost: yet the French are so good-natured
+as to furnish him with another sufficient to make a formidable stand
+in France; he is, however, _conquered, and presented with the
+sovereignty of Elba_; (surely, by the bye, some more _probable_ way
+might have been found of disposing of him, till again wanted, than to
+place him thus on the very verge of his ancient dominions;) thence he
+returns to France, where he is received with open arms, and enabled to
+lose a fifth great army at Waterloo; yet so eager were these people to
+be a sixth time led to destruction, that it was found necessary to
+confine _him_ in an island some thousand miles off, and to quarter
+foreign troops upon _them_, lest they should make an insurrection in
+his favour?[13] Does any one believe all this, and yet refuse to
+believe a miracle? Or rather, what is this but a miracle? Is it not a
+violation of the laws of nature? for surely there are moral laws of
+nature as well as physical; which though more liable to exceptions in
+this or that particular case, are no less _true as general rules_ than
+the laws of matter, and therefore cannot be violated and contradicted
+_beyond a certain point_, without a miracle.[14]
+
+Nay, there is this additional circumstance which renders the
+contradiction of Experience more glaring in this case than in that of
+the miraculous histories which ingenious sceptics have held up to
+contempt: all the advocates of miracles admit that they are rare
+exceptions to the general course of nature; but contend that they must
+needs be so, on account of the rarity of those extraordinary
+_occasions_ which are the _reason_ of their being performed: a
+Miracle, they say, does not happen every day, because a Revelation is
+not given every day. It would be foreign to the present purpose to
+seek for arguments against this answer; I leave it to those who are
+engaged in the controversy, to find a reply to it; but my present
+object is, to point out that this solution does not at all apply in
+the present case. Where is the peculiarity of the _occasion_? What
+sufficient _reason_ is there for a series of events occurring in the
+eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which never took place before?
+Was Europe at that period peculiarly weak, and in a state of
+barbarism, that one man could achieve such conquests, and acquire such
+a vast empire? On the contrary, she was flourishing in the height of
+strength and civilization. Can the persevering attachment and blind
+devotedness of the French to this man, be accounted for by his being
+the descendant of a long line of kings, whose race was hallowed by
+hereditary veneration? No; we are told he was a low-born usurper, and
+not even a Frenchman! Is it that he was a good and kind sovereign? He
+is represented not only as an imperious and merciless despot, but as
+most wantonly careless of the lives of his soldiers. Could the French
+army and people have failed to hear from the wretched survivors of his
+supposed Russian expedition, how they had left the corpses of above
+100,000 of their comrades bleaching on the snow-drifts of that dismal
+country, whither his mad ambition had conducted him, and where his
+selfish cowardice had deserted them? Wherever we turn to seek for
+circumstances that may help to account for the events of this
+incredible story, we only meet with such as aggravate its
+improbability.[15] Had it been told of some distant country, at a
+remote period, we could not have told what peculiar circumstances
+there might have been to render probable what seems to us most
+strange; and yet in _that_ case every philosophical sceptic, every
+free-thinking speculator, would instantly have rejected such a
+history, as utterly unworthy of credit. What, for instance, would the
+great Hume, or any of the philosophers of his school, have said, if
+they had found in the antique records of any nation, such a passage
+as this? "There was a certain man of Corsica, whose name was Napoleon,
+and he was one of the chief captains of the host of the French; and he
+gathered together an army, and went and fought against Egypt: but when
+the king of Britain heard thereof, he sent ships of war and valiant
+men to fight against the French in Egypt. So they warred against them,
+and prevailed, and strengthened the hands of the rulers of the land
+against the French, and drave away Napoleon from before the city of
+Acre. Then Napoleon left the captains and the army that were in Egypt,
+and fled, and returned back to France. So the French people, took
+Napoleon, and made him ruler over them, and he became exceeding great,
+insomuch that there was none like him of all that had ruled over
+France before."
+
+What, I say, would Hume have thought of this, especially if he had
+been told that it was at this day generally credited? Would he not
+have confessed that he had been mistaken in supposing there was a
+peculiarly blind credulity and prejudice in favour of everything that
+is accounted _sacred_;[16] for that, since even professed sceptics
+swallow implicitly such a story as this, it appears there must be a
+still blinder prejudice in favour of everything that is _not_
+accounted sacred?
+
+Suppose, again, we found in this history such passages as the
+following: "And it came to pass after these things that Napoleon
+strengthened himself, and gathered together another host instead of
+that which he had lost, and went and warred against the Prussians, and
+the Russians, and the Austrians, and all the rulers of the north
+country, which were confederate against him. And the ruler of Sweden,
+also, which was a Frenchman, warred against Napoleon. So they went
+forth, and fought against the French in the plain of Leipsic. And the
+French were discomfited before their enemies, and fled, and came to
+the rivers which are behind Leipsic, and essayed to pass over, that
+they might escape out of the hand of their enemies; but they could
+not, for Napoleon had broken down the bridges: so the people of the
+north countries came upon them, and smote them with a very grievous
+slaughter." ...
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Then the ruler of Austria and all the rulers of the north countries
+sent messengers unto Napoleon to speak peaceably unto him, saying, Why
+should there be war between us any more? Now Napoleon had put away
+his wife, and taken the daughter of the ruler of Austria to wife. So
+all the counsellors of Napoleon came and stood before him, and said,
+Behold now these kings are merciful kings; do even as they say unto
+thee; knowest thou not yet that France is destroyed? But he spake
+roughly unto his counsellors, and drave them, out from his presence,
+neither would he hearken unto their voice. And when all the kings saw
+that, they warred against France, and smote it with the edge of the
+sword, and came near to Paris, which is the royal city, to take it: so
+the men of Paris went out, and delivered up the city to them. Then
+those kings spake kindly unto the men of Paris, saying, Be of good
+cheer, there shall no harm happen unto you. Then were the men of Paris
+glad, and said, Napoleon is a tyrant; he shall no more rule over us.
+Also all the princes, the judges, the counsellors, and the captains
+whom Napoleon had raised up even from the lowest of the people, sent
+unto Lewis the brother of King Lewis, whom they had slain, and made
+him king over France." ...
+
+... ... ... ... ... ... ...
+
+"And when Napoleon saw that the kingdom was departed from him, he said
+unto the rulers which came against him, Let me, I pray you, give the
+kingdom unto my son: but they would not hearken unto him. Then he
+spake yet again, saying, Let me, I pray you, go and live in the island
+of Elba, which is over against Italy, nigh unto the coast of France;
+and ye shall give me an allowance for me and my household, and the
+land of Elba also for a possession. So they made him ruler of
+Elba."...
+
+... ... ... ... ... ... ...
+
+"In those days the Pope returned unto his own land. Now the French,
+and divers other nations of Europe, are servants of the Pope, and hold
+him in reverence; but he is an abomination unto the Britons, and to
+the Prussians, and to the Russians, and to the Swedes. Howbeit the
+French had taken away all his lands, and robbed him of all that he
+had, and carried him away captive into France. But when the Britons,
+and the Prussians, and the Russians, and the Swedes, and the rest of
+the nations that were confederate against France, came thither, they
+caused the French to set the Pope at liberty, and to restore all his
+goods that they had taken; likewise they gave him back all his
+possessions; and he went home in peace, and ruled over his own city as
+in times past."...
+
+... ... ... ... ... ... ...
+
+"And it came to pass when Napoleon had not yet been a full year at
+Elba, that he said unto his men of war that clave unto him, Go to, let
+us go back to France, and fight against King Lewis, and thrust him out
+from being king. So he departed, he and six hundred men with him that
+drew the sword, and warred against King Lewis. Then all the men of
+Belial gathered themselves together, and said, God save Napoleon. And
+when Lewis saw that, he fled, and gat him into the land of Batavia:
+and Napoleon ruled over France," &c. &c. &c.[17]
+
+Now if a free-thinking philosopher--one of those who advocate the
+cause of unbiassed reason, and despise pretended revelations--were to
+meet with such a tissue of absurdities as this in an old Jewish
+record, would he not reject it at once as too palpable an
+imposture[18] to deserve even any inquiry into its evidence? Is that
+credible then of the civilized Europeans now, which could not, if
+reported of the semi-barbarous Jews 3000 years ago, be established by
+any testimony? Will it be answered, that "there is nothing
+_supernatural_ in all this?" Why is it, then, that you object to what
+is _supernatural_--that you reject every account of _miracles_--if not
+because they are _improbable_? Surely then a story equally or still
+more improbable, is not to be implicitly received, merely on the
+ground that it is _not_ miraculous: though in fact, as I have already
+(in note, p. 39,) shown from Hume's authority, it _is_ really
+miraculous. The opposition to Experience has been proved to be as
+complete in this case, as in what are commonly called miracles; and
+the reasons assigned for that contrariety by the defenders of _them_,
+cannot be pleaded in the present instance. If then philosophers, who
+reject every wonderful story that is maintained by priests, are yet
+found ready to believe _everything else_, however improbable, they
+will surely lay themselves open to the accusation brought against them
+of being unduly prejudiced against whatever relates to religion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There is one more circumstance which I cannot forbear mentioning,
+because it so much adds to the air of fiction which pervades every
+part of this marvellous tale; and that is, the _nationality_ of
+it.[19]
+
+Buonaparte prevailed over all the hostile States in turn, _except
+England_; in the zenith of his power, his fleets were swept from the
+sea, _by England_; his troops always defeat an equal, and frequently
+even a superior number of those of any other nation, _except the
+English_; and with them it is just the reverse; twice, and twice only,
+he is personally engaged against an _English commander_, and both
+times he is totally defeated; at Acre, and at Waterloo; and to crown
+all, _England_ finally crushes this tremendous power, which had so
+long kept the continent in subjection or in alarm; and to the
+_English_ he surrenders himself prisoner! Thoroughly national, to be
+sure! It _may_ be all very true; but I would only ask, _if_ a story
+_had_ been fabricated for the express purpose of amusing the English
+nation, could it have been contrived more ingeniously? It would do
+admirably for an epic poem; and indeed bears a considerable
+resemblance to the Iliad and the AEneid; in which Achilles and the
+Greeks, AEneas and the Trojans, (the ancestors of the Romans) are so
+studiously held up to admiration. Buonaparte's exploits seem magnified
+in order to enhance the glory of his conquerors; just as Hector is
+allowed to triumph during the absence of Achilles, merely to give
+additional splendour to his overthrow by the arm of that invincible
+hero. Would not this circumstance alone render a history rather
+_suspicious_ in the eyes of an acute critic, even if it were not
+filled with such gross improbabilities; and induce him to suspend his
+judgment, till very satisfactory evidence (far stronger than can be
+found in this case) should be produced?
+
+Is it then too much to demand of the wary academic[20] a suspension of
+judgment as to the "life and adventures of Napoleon Buonaparte?" I do
+not pretend to _decide_ positively that there is not, nor ever was,
+any such person; but merely to propose it as a _doubtful_ point, and
+one the more deserving of careful investigation, from the very
+circumstance of its having hitherto been admitted without inquiry. Far
+less would I undertake to decide what is or has been the real state of
+affairs. He who points out the improbability of the current story, is
+not bound to suggest an hypothesis of his own;[21] though it may
+safely be affirmed, that it would be hard to invent any one more
+improbable than the received one. One may surely be allowed to
+hesitate in admitting the stories which the ancient poets tell, of
+earthquakes and volcanic eruptions being caused by imprisoned giants,
+without being called upon satisfactorily to account for those
+phenomena.
+
+Amidst the defect of valid evidence under which, as I have already
+shown, we labour in the present instance, it is hardly possible to
+offer more than here and there a probable conjecture; or to pronounce
+how much may be true, and how much fictitious, in the accounts
+presented to us. For, it is to be observed that this case is much
+_more_ open to sceptical doubts even than some miraculous histories;
+since some of _them_ are of such a nature that you cannot consistently
+admit a part and reject the rest; but are bound, if you are satisfied
+as to the reality of any one miracle, to embrace the whole system; so
+that it is necessary for the sceptic to impeach the evidence of _all_
+of them, separately, and collectively: whereas, _here_, each single
+point requires to be _established_ separately, since no one of them
+authenticates the rest. Supposing there be a state-prisoner at St.
+Helena, (which, by the way, it is acknowledged many of the French
+disbelieve,) how do we know who he is, or why he is confined there?
+There have been state-prisoners before now, who were never guilty of
+subjugating half Europe, and whose offences have been very imperfectly
+ascertained. Admitting that there have been bloody wars going on for
+several years past, which is highly probable, it does not follow that
+the events of those wars were such as we have been told;--that
+Buonaparte was the author and conductor of them;--or that such a
+person ever existed. What disturbances may have taken place in the
+government of the French people, we, and even nineteen-twentieths of
+_them_, have no means of learning but from imperfect hearsay evidence;
+and how much credit they themselves attach to that evidence is very
+doubtful. This at least is certain: that a M. Berryer, a French
+advocate, has published memoirs, professing to record many of the
+events of the recent history of France, in which, among other things,
+he states his conviction that Buonaparte's escape from Elba was
+DESIGNED AND CONTRIVED BY THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT.[22] And we are
+assured by many travellers that this was, and is, commonly reported in
+France.
+
+Now that the French should believe the whole story about Buonaparte
+according to this version of it, does seem utterly incredible. Let any
+one suppose them seriously believing that we maintained for many years
+a desperate struggle against this formidable emperor of theirs, in the
+course of which we expended such an enormous amount of blood and
+treasure as is reported;--that we finally, after encountering enormous
+risks, succeeded in subduing him, and secured him in a place of safe
+exile;--and that, in less than a year after, we turned him out again,
+like a bag-fox,--or rather, a bag-lion,--for the sake of amusing
+ourselves by again staking all that was dear to us on the event of a
+doubtful and bloody battle, in which defeat must be ruinous, and
+victory, if obtained at all, must cost us many thousands of our best
+soldiers. Let any one force himself for a moment to conceive the
+French seriously believing such a mass of absurdity; and the inference
+must be that such a people must be prepared to believe anything. They
+might fancy their own country to abound not only with Napoleons, but
+with dragons and centaurs, and "men whose heads do grow beneath their
+shoulders," or anything else that any lunatic ever dreamt of. If we
+could suppose the French capable of such monstrous credulity as the
+above supposition would imply, it is plain their testimony must be
+altogether worthless.
+
+But, on the other hand, suppose them to be aware that the British
+Government have been all along imposing on us, and it is quite natural
+that they should deride our credulity, and try whether there is
+anything too extravagant for us to swallow. And indeed, if Buonaparte
+was in fact altogether a phantom conjured up by the British Ministers,
+then it is _true_ that his escape from Elba really _was_, as well as
+_the rest of his exploits_, a contrivance of theirs.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But whatever may be believed by the French relative to the recent
+occurrences, in their own country, and whatever may be the real
+character of these occurrences, of this at least we are well assured,
+that there have been numerous bloody wars with France under the
+dominion of the _Bourbons_: and we are now told that France is
+governed by a Bourbon king, of the name of Lewis, who professes to be
+in the twenty-third year of his reign. Let every one conjecture for
+himself. I am far from pretending to decide who may have been the
+governor or governors of the French nation, and the leaders of their
+armies, for several years past. Certain it is, that when men are
+indulging their inclination for the marvellous, they always show a
+strong propensity to accumulate upon _one_ individual (real or
+imaginary) the exploits of many; besides multiplying and exaggerating
+these exploits a thousandfold. Thus, the expounders of the ancient
+mythology tell us there were several persons of the name of Hercules,
+(either originally bearing that appellation, or having it applied to
+them as an honour,) whose collective feats, after being dressed up in
+a sufficiently marvellous garb, were attributed to a single hero. Is
+it not just possible, that during the rage for words of Greek
+derivation, the title of "Napoleon," ({~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH
+OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~},) which
+signifies "Lion of the forest," may have been conferred by the popular
+voice on more than one favorite general, distinguished for irresistible
+valour? Is it not also possible that "BUONA PARTE" may have been
+originally a sort of cant term applied to the "good (i.e., the bravest
+or most patriotic) part" of the French army, collectively; and have been
+afterwards mistaken for the proper name of an individual?[23] I do not
+profess to support this conjecture; but it is certain that such mistakes
+may and do occur. Some critics have supposed that the Athenians imagined
+ANASTASIS ("Resurrection") to be a new goddess, in whose cause Paul was
+preaching. Would it have been thought anything incredible if we had been
+told that the ancient Persians, who had no idea of any but a monarchical
+government, had supposed Aristocratia to be a queen of Sparta? But we
+need not confine ourselves to hypothetical cases; it is positively
+stated that the Hindoos at this day believe "the honourable East India
+Company" to be a venerable old lady of high dignity, residing in this
+country. The Germans, again, of the present day derive their name from a
+similar mistake: the first tribe of them who invaded Gaul[24] assumed
+the honourable title of "_Ger-man_" which signifies "warriors," (the
+words "war" and "guerre," as well as "man," which remains in our
+language unaltered, are evidently derived from the Teutonic,) and the
+Gauls applied this as a _name_ to the whole _race_.
+
+However, I merely throw out these conjectures without by any means
+contending that more plausible ones might not be suggested. But
+whatever supposition we adopt, or whether we adopt any, the objections
+to the commonly received accounts will remain in their full force, and
+imperiously demand the attention of the candid sceptic.
+
+I call upon those, therefore, who profess themselves advocates of free
+inquiry--who disdain to be carried along with the stream of popular
+opinion, and who will listen to no testimony that runs counter to
+experience,--to follow up their own principles fairly and
+consistently. Let the same mode of argument be adopted in all cases
+alike; and then it can no longer be attributed to hostile prejudice,
+but to enlarged and philosophical views. If they have already rejected
+some histories, on the ground of their being strange and
+marvellous,--of their relating facts, unprecedented, and at variance
+with the established course of nature,--let them not give credit to
+another history which lies open to the very same objections,--the
+extraordinary and romantic tale we have been just considering. If they
+have discredited the testimony of witnesses, who are _said_ at least
+to have been disinterested, and to have braved persecutions and death
+in support of their assertions,--can these philosophers consistently
+listen to and believe the testimony of those who avowedly _get money_
+by the tales they publish, and who do not even pretend that they incur
+any serious risk in case of being detected in a falsehood? If, in
+other cases, they have refused to listen to an account which has
+passed through many intermediate hands before it reaches them, and
+which is defended by those who have an interest in maintaining it; let
+them consider through how many, and what very suspicious hands, _this_
+story has arrived to them, without the possibility, as I have shown,
+of tracing it back to any decidedly authentic source, after all;--to
+any better authority, according to their own showing, than that of an
+_unnamed_ and unknown foreign correspondent;--and likewise how strong
+an interest, in every way, those who have hitherto imposed on them,
+have in keeping up the imposture. Let them, in short, show themselves
+as ready to detect the cheats, and despise the fables of politicians
+as of priests.
+
+But if they are still wedded to the popular belief in this point, let
+them be consistent enough to admit the same evidence in _other_ cases
+which they yield to in _this_. If, after all that has been said, they
+cannot bring themselves to doubt of the existence of Napoleon
+Buonaparte, they must at least acknowledge that they do not apply to
+that question the same plan of reasoning which they have made use of
+in others; and they are consequently bound in reason and in honesty to
+renounce it altogether.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] "A report is spread, (says Voltaire in one of his works,) that
+there is, in some country or other, a giant as big as a mountain; and
+men presently fall to hot disputing concerning the precise length of
+his nose, the breadth of his thumb, and other particulars, and
+anathematize each other for heterodoxy of belief concerning them. In
+the midst of all, if some bold sceptic ventures to hint a doubt as to
+the existence of this giant, all are ready to join against him, and
+tear him to pieces." This looks almost like a prophetic allegory
+relating to the gigantic Napoleon.
+
+[4] {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH
+DASIA AND OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA
+WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH
+PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+IOTA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER ETA WITH DASIA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ZETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+ETA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER ETA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}, {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH
+VARIA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH VARIA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH VARIA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+EPSILON WITH DASIA AND OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER ALPHA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}
+{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}. Thucyd. b.i.c. 20.
+
+[5] "With what greediness are the miraculous accounts of travellers
+received, their descriptions of sea and land monsters, their relations
+of wonderful adventures, strange men, and uncouth manners!"--_Hume's
+Essay on Miracles_, p. 179, 12mo; p. 185, 8vo, 1767; p. 117, 8vo,
+1817.
+
+N.B.--In order to give every possible facility of reference, three
+editions of Hume's Essays have been generally employed: a 12mo,
+London, 1756, and two 8vo editions.
+
+[6] "Suppose a fact to be transmitted through twenty persons; the
+first communicating it to the second, the second to the third, &c.,
+and let the probability of each testimony be expressed by nine-tenths,
+(that is, suppose that of ten reports made by each witness, nine only
+are true,) then, at every time the story passes from one witness to
+another, the evidence is reduced to nine-tenths of what it was before.
+Thus, after it has passed through the whole twenty, the evidence will
+be found to be less than one-eighth."--LA PLACE, _Essai Philosophique
+sur les Probabilites_.
+
+That is, the chances for the fact thus attested being true, will be,
+according to this distinguished calculator, less than one in eight.
+Very few of the common newspaper-stories, however, relating to foreign
+countries, could be traced, if the matter were carefully investigated,
+up to an actual eye-witness, even through twenty intermediate
+witnesses; and many of the steps of our ladder, would, I fear, prove
+but rotten; few of the reporters would deserve to have _one in ten_
+fixed as the proportion of their false accounts.
+
+[7] "I did not mention the difficulty of detecting a falsehood in any
+private or even public history, at the time and place where it is said
+to happen; much more where the scene is removed to ever so small a
+distance.... But the matter never comes to any issue, if trusted to the
+common method of altercation and debate and flying rumours."--_Hume's
+Essay on Miracles_, p. 195, 12mo; pp. 200, 201, 8vo, 1767; p. 127, 8vo,
+1817.
+
+[8] See the third Postscript appended to this edition.
+
+[9] "We entertain a suspicion concerning any matter of fact, when the
+witnesses _contradict_ each other; when they are of a _suspicious_
+character; when they have an _interest_ in what they affirm."--_Hume's
+Essay on Miracles_, p. 172, 12mo; p. 176, 8vo, 1767; p. 113, 8vo.
+1817.
+
+[10] "That testimony itself derives all its force from experience,
+seems very certain.... The first author, we believe, who stated fairly
+the connexion between the evidence of testimony and the evidence of
+experience, was HUME, in his Essay on Miracles, a work ... abounding
+in maxims of great use in the conduct of life."--_Edin. Review_, Sept.
+1814, p. 328.
+
+[11] "Suppose, for instance, that the fact which the testimony
+endeavours to establish partakes of the extraordinary and the
+marvellous; in that case, the evidence resulting from the testimony
+receives a diminution, greater or less in proportion as the fact is
+more or less unusual."--_Hume's Essay on Miracles_, p. 173, 12mo; p.
+176, 8vo, 1767; p. 113, 8vo, 1817.
+
+[12] "The ultimate standard by which we determine all disputes that
+may arise is always derived from experience and observation."--_Hume's
+Essay on Miracles_, p. 172, 12mo; p. 175, 8vo, 1767; p. 112, 8vo,
+1817.
+
+[13] {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ETA WITH PSILI~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH
+OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH OXIA~}. {~GREEK
+CAPITAL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+IOTA WITH VARIA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH OXIA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH VARIA~} {~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER BETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH
+PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL
+SIGMA~} {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER UPSILON WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL
+LETTER PI~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER RHO~}
+{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK
+CAPITAL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER
+LAMDA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK
+CAPITAL LETTER ETA~} {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL
+LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER
+OMICRON~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER
+DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}
+{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PSI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER UPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}
+{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH
+OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK CAPITAL
+LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER XI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}
+{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH
+PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}. PIND. Olymp. 1
+
+[14] This doctrine, though hardly needing confirmation from authority,
+is supported by that of Hume; his eighth essay is, throughout, an
+argument for the doctrine of "Philosophical necessity," drawn entirely
+from the general uniformity, observable in the course of nature with
+respect to the principles of _human conduct_, as well as those of the
+material universe; from which uniformity, he observes, it is that we
+are enabled _in both cases_, to form our judgment by means of
+_Experience:_ "and if," says he, "we would explode any forgery in
+history, we cannot make use of a more convincing argument, than to
+prove that the actions ascribed to any person, are directly contrary
+to the course of nature....
+
+"... The Veracity of Quintus Curtius is as suspicious when he
+describes the supernatural courage of Alexander, by which he was
+hurried on singly to attack multitudes, as when he describes his
+supernatural force and activity, by which he was able to resist them.
+So readily and universally do we acknowledge a _uniformity in human
+motives and actions, as well as in the operations of body_."--_Eighth
+Essay_, p. 131, 12mo; p. 85, 8vo, 1817.
+
+Accordingly, in the tenth essay, his use of the term "miracle," after
+having called it "a transgression of a law of nature," plainly shows
+that he meant to include _human_ nature: "no testimony," says he, "is
+sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a
+nature that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which
+it endeavours to establish." The term "prodigy" also (which he all
+along employs as synonymous with "miracle") is applied to testimony, in
+the same manner, immediately after; "In the foregoing reasoning we have
+supposed ... that the falsehood of that testimony would be a kind of
+_prodigy_." Now had he meant to confine the meaning of "miracle," and
+"prodigy," to a violation of the laws of _matter_, the epithet
+"_miraculous_," applied even thus hypothetically, to _false testimony_,
+would be as unmeaning as the epithets "green" or "square;" the only
+possible sense in which we can apply to it, even in imagination, the
+term "miraculous," is that of "highly improbable,"--"contrary to those
+laws of nature which respect human conduct:" and in this sense he
+accordingly uses the word in the very next sentence: "When any one
+tells me that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately
+consider with myself whether it be more _probable_ that this person
+should either deceive or be deceived, or that the fact which he relates
+should really have happened. I weigh the one _miracle_ against the
+other."--_Hume's Essay on Miracles_, pp. 176, 177, 12mo; p. 182, 8vo,
+1767; p. 115, 8vo, 1817.
+
+See also a passage above quoted from the same essay, where he speaks
+of "the _miraculous_ accounts of travellers;" evidently using the word
+in this sense.
+
+Perhaps it was superfluous to cite authority for applying the term
+"miracle" to whatever is "highly improbable;" but it is important to
+the students of Hume, to be fully aware that he uses those two
+expressions as synonymous; since otherwise they would mistake the
+meaning of that passage which he justly calls "a general maxim worthy
+of your attention."
+
+[15] "Events may be so extraordinary that they can hardly be
+established by testimony. We would not give credit to a man who would
+affirm that he saw a hundred dice thrown in the air, and that they all
+fell on the same faces."--_Edin. Review_, Sept. 1814, p. 327.
+
+Let it be observed, that the instance here given is _miraculous_ in no
+other sense but that of being highly _improbable_.
+
+[16] "If the spirit of religion join itself to the love of wonder,
+there is an end of common sense; and human testimony in these
+circumstances loses all pretensions to authority."--_Hume's Essay on
+Miracles_, p. 179, 12mo; p. 185, 8vo, 1767; p. 117, 8vo, 1817.
+
+[17] The supposed history from which the above extracts are given, is
+published entire in the work called _Historic Certainties._
+
+[18] "I desire any one to lay his hand upon his heart, and after
+serious consideration declare whether he thinks that the falsehood of
+such a book, supported by such testimony, would be more extraordinary
+and miraculous than all the miracles it relates."--_Hume's Essay on
+Miracles_, p. 200, 12mo; p. 206, 8vo, 1767; p. 131, 8vo, 1817.
+
+Let it be borne in mind that Hume (as I have above remarked)
+continually employs the term "miracle" and "prodigy" to signify
+anything that is highly _improbable_ and _extraordinary._
+
+[19] "The wise lend a very academic faith to every report which
+favours the passion of the reporter, whether it magnifies his
+_country_, his family, or himself."--_Hume's Essay on Miracles_, p.
+144, 12mo; p. 200, 8vo, 1767; p. 126, 8vo, 1817.
+
+[20] "Nothing can be more contrary than such a philosophy (the
+academic or sceptical) to the supine indolence of the mind, its rash
+arrogance, its lofty pretensions, and its superstitious
+credulity."--_Fifth Essay_, p. 68, 12mo; p. 41, 8vo, 1817.
+
+[21] See _Hume's Essay on Miracles_, pp. 189, 191, 195, 12mo; pp. 193,
+197, 201, 202, 8vo, 1767; pp. 124, 125, 126, 8vo, 1817.
+
+[22] See _Edinburgh Review_ for October, 1842, p. 162.
+
+[23] It is well know with how much learning and ingenuity the
+Rationalists of the German school have laboured to throw discredit on
+the literal interpretation of the narratives, both of the Old and the
+New Testaments; representing them as MYTHS, i.e., fables allegorically
+describing some physical or moral phaenomena--philosophical
+principles--systems, &c.--under the figure of actions performed by
+certain ideal personages; these allegories having been, afterwards,
+through the mistake of the vulgar, believed as history. Thus, the real
+historical existence of such a person as the supposed founder of the
+Christian religion, and the acts attributed to him, are denied in the
+literal sense, and the whole of the evangelical history is explained
+on the "mythical" theory.
+
+Now it is a remarkable circumstance in reference to the point at
+present before us, that an eminent authoress of this century has
+distinctly declared that Napoleon Buonaparte was NOT A MAN, but a
+SYSTEM.
+
+[24] Germaniae vocabulum recens et nuper additum; quoniam qui primi
+Rhenum transgressi Gallos expulerint, ac nunc Tungri, tunc Germani
+vocati sint: ita nationis nomen in nomen gentis evaluisse paullatim,
+ut omnes, primum a victore ob metum, mox a seipsis invento nomine,
+Germani vocarentur.--_Tacitus, de Mor. Germ._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT TO THE THIRD EDITION.
+
+
+It may seem arrogant for an obscure and nameless individual to claim
+the glory of having put to death the most formidable of all recorded
+heroes. But a shadowy champion may be overthrown by a shadowy
+antagonist. Many a terrific spectre has been laid by the beams of a
+halfpenny candle. And if I have succeeded in making out, in the
+foregoing pages, a probable case of suspicion, it must, I think, be
+admitted, that there is some ground for my present boast, of having
+_killed_ Napoleon Buonaparte.
+
+Let but the circumstances of the case be considered. This mighty
+Emperor, who had been so long the bugbear of the civilized world,
+after having obtained successes and undergone reverses, such as never
+befel any (other at least) _real_ potentate, was at length sentenced
+to confinement in the remote island of St. Helena: a measure which
+many persons wondered at, and many objected to, on various grounds;
+not unreasonably, supposing the illustrious exile to be a real person;
+but on the supposition of his being only a man of straw, the
+situation was exceedingly favourable for keeping him out of the way of
+impertinent curiosity, when not wanted, and for making him the
+foundation of any new plots that there might be occasion to conjure
+up.
+
+About this juncture it was that the public attention was first
+invited, by these pages, to the question as to the real existence of
+Napoleon Buonaparte. They excited, it may be fairly supposed, along
+with much surprise and much censure, some degree of doubt, and
+probably of consequent inquiry. No fresh evidence, as far as I can
+learn, of the truth of the disputed points, was brought forward to
+dispel these doubts. We heard, however, of the most jealous
+precautions being used to prevent any intercourse between the
+formidable prisoner, and any stranger who, from motives of curiosity,
+might wish to visit him. The "man in the iron mask" could hardly have
+been more rigorously secluded: and we also heard various contradictory
+reports of conversations between him and the few who were allowed
+access to him; the falsehood and inconsistency of most of these
+reports being proved in contemporary publications.
+
+At length, just about the time when the public scepticism respecting
+this extraordinary personage might be supposed to have risen to an
+alarming height, it was announced to us that he was dead! A stop was
+thus put, most opportunely, to all troublesome inquiries. I do not
+undertake to deny that such a person did live and die. That he was,
+and that he did, _everything_ that is reported, we cannot believe,
+unless we consent to admit contradictory statements; but many of the
+events reported, however marvellous, are certainly not, when taken
+separately, physically impossible. But I would only entreat the candid
+reader to reflect what might naturally be expected, on the supposition
+of the surmises contained in the present work being well founded.
+Supposing the whole of the tale I have been considering to have been a
+fabrication, what would be the natural result of such attempt to
+excite inquiry into its truth? Evidently the shortest and most
+effectual mode of avoiding detection, would be to _kill_ the phantom,
+and so get rid of him at once. A ready and decisive answer would thus
+be provided to any one in whom the foregoing arguments might have
+excited suspicions: "Sir, there can be no doubt that such a person
+existed, and performed what is related of him; and if you will just
+take a voyage to St. Helena, you may see with your own eyes,--not him,
+indeed, for he is no longer living,--but his _tomb_: and what evidence
+would you have that is more decisive?"
+
+So much for his _Death_: as for his _Life_,--it is just published by
+an eminent writer: besides which, the shops will supply us with
+abundance of busts and prints of this great man; all striking
+likenesses--of one another. The most incredulous must be satisfied
+with this! "Stat magni NOMINIS umbra!"
+
+KONX OMPAX.
+
+
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT TO THE SEVENTH EDITION.
+
+
+Since the publication of the Sixth Edition of this work, the French
+nation, and the world at large, have obtained an additional evidence, to
+which I hope they will attach as much weight as it deserves, of the
+reality of the wonderful history I have been treating of. The Great
+Nation, among the many indications lately given of an heroic zeal like
+what Homer attributes to his Argive warriors, {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+IOTA~} {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER
+LAMDA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER
+NU~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER SIGMA~} {~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER ALPHA WITH OXIA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+EPSILON~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH
+OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}, have formed and executed the design
+of bringing home for honourable interment the remains of their
+illustrious Chief.
+
+How many persons have actually inspected these relics, I have not
+ascertained; but that a real coffin, containing real bones, was
+brought from St. Helena to France, I see no reason to disbelieve.
+
+Whether future visitors to St. Helena will be shown merely the
+identical _place_ in which Buonaparte was (_said_ to have been)
+interred, or whether another set of real bones will be exhibited in
+that island, we have yet to learn.
+
+This latter supposition is not very improbable. It was something of a
+credit to the island, an attraction to strangers, and a source of
+profit to some of the inhabitants, to possess so remarkable a relic;
+and this glory and advantage they must naturally wish to retain. If
+so, there seems no reason why they should not have a Buonaparte of
+their own; for there is, I believe, no doubt that there are, or were,
+several Museums in England, which, among other curiosities, boasted,
+each, of a genuine skull of Oliver Cromwell.
+
+Perhaps, therefore, we shall hear of several well authenticated skulls
+of Buonaparte also, in the collections of different virtuosos, all of
+whom (especially those in whose own crania the "organ of wonder" is
+the most largely developed) will doubtless derive equal satisfaction
+from the relics they respectively possess.
+
+
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT TO THE NINTH EDITION.
+
+
+The Public has been of late much interested and not a little
+bewildered, by the accounts of many strange events, said to have
+recently taken place in France and other parts of the Continent. Are
+these accounts of such a character as to allay, or to strengthen and
+increase, such doubts as have been suggested in the foregoing pages?
+
+We are told that there is now a Napoleon Buonaparte at the head of the
+government of France. It is not, indeed, asserted that he is the very
+original Napoleon Buonaparte himself. The death of that personage, and
+the transportation of his genuine bones to France, had been too widely
+proclaimed to allow of his reappearance in his own proper person. But
+"uno avulso, non deficit alter." Like the Thibetian worshippers of the
+Dalai Lama, (who never dies; only his soul transmigrates into a fresh
+body), the French are so resolved, we are told, to be under a
+Buonaparte--whether that be (see note to p. 56) a man or "a
+system"--that they have found, it seems, a kind of new incarnation of
+this their Grand Lama, in a person said to be the nephew of the
+original one.
+
+And when, on hearing that this personage now fills the high office of
+President of the French Republic, we inquire (very naturally) _how he
+came there_, we are informed that, several years ago, he invaded
+France in an English vessel, (the _English_--as was observed in p.
+52--having always been suspected of keeping Buonaparte ready, like the
+winds in a Lapland witch's bag, to be let out on occasion,) at the
+head of a force, not, of six hundred men, like his supposed uncle in
+his expedition from Elba, but of fifty-five,(!) with which he landed
+at Boulogne, proclaimed himself emperor, and was joined by no less
+than _one_ man! He was accordingly, we are told, arrested, brought to
+trial, and sentenced to imprisonment; but having, some years after,
+escaped from prison, and taken refuge in England, (_England_ again!)
+he thence returned to France: AND SO the French nation placed
+him at the head of the government!
+
+All this will doubtless be received as a very probable tale by those
+who have given full credit to all the stories I have alluded to in the
+foregoing pages.
+
+
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT TO THE ELEVENTH EDITION.
+
+
+When any dramatic piece _takes_--as the phrase is--with the Public, it
+will usually be represented again and again with still-continued
+applause; and sometimes imitations of it will be produced; so that the
+same drama in substance will, with occasional slight variations in the
+plot, and changes of names, long keep possession of the stage.
+
+Something like this has taken place with respect to that curious
+tragi-comedy--the scene of it laid in France--which has engaged the
+attention of the British public for about sixty years; during which it
+has been "exhibited to crowded houses"--viz., coffee-houses,
+reading-rooms, &c., with unabated interest.
+
+The outline of this drama, or series of dramas, may be thus sketched:
+
+_Dramatis Personae._
+
+A. A King or other Sovereign.
+
+B. His Queen.
+
+C. The Heir apparent.
+
+D. E. F. His Ministers.
+
+G. H. I. J. K. Demagogues.
+
+L. A popular leader of superior ingenuity, who becomes ultimately
+supreme ruler under the title of Dictator, Consul, Emperor, King,
+President, or some other.
+
+Soldiers, Senators, Executioners, and other functionaries, Citizens,
+Fishwomen, &c.
+
+_Scene_, Paris.
+
+(1.) The first Act of one of these dramas represents a monarchy,
+somewhat troubled by murmurs of disaffection, suspicions of
+conspiracy, &c.
+
+(2.) Second Act, a rebellion; in which ultimately the government is
+overthrown.
+
+(3.) Act the third, a provisional government established, on
+principles of liberty, equality, fraternity, &c.
+
+(4.) Act the fourth, struggles of various parties for power, carried
+on with sundry intrigues, and sanguinary conflicts.
+
+(5.) Act the fifth, the re-establishment of some form of absolute
+monarchy.
+
+And from this point we start afresh, and begin the same business over
+again, with sundry fresh interludes.
+
+All this is highly amusing to the English Public to _hear_ and _read_
+of; but I doubt whether our countrymen would like to be actual
+_performers_ in such a drama.
+
+Whether the French really are so, or whether they are mystifying us in
+the accounts they send over, I will not presume to decide. But if the
+former supposition be the true one,--if they have been so long really
+acting over and over again in their own persons such a drama, it must
+be allowed that they deserve to be characterized as they have been in
+the description given of certain European nations: "An Englishman," it
+has been said, "is never happy but when he is miserable; a Scotchman
+is never at home but when he is abroad; an Irishman is never at peace
+but when he is fighting; a Spaniard is never at liberty but when he is
+enslaved; and a Frenchman is never settled but when he is engaged in a
+revolution."
+
+
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT TO THE TWELFTH EDITION.
+
+
+"Time" says the proverb, "rings Truth to light." But the process is
+gradual and slow. The debt is paid, as it were, by instalments. It is
+only bit by bit, and at considerable intervals, that Truth comes forth
+as the morning twilight to dispel the mists of fiction.
+
+It is above forty years that men have been debating the question:--Who
+were the parties that burned the city of Moscow?--without ever
+thinking of the preliminary question, whether it ever was burnt at
+all. And now at length we learn that it never was.
+
+The following extract from a New Orleans paper contains the
+information obtained by an American traveller--one of that great
+nation whose accuracy as to facts is so well known--who visited the
+spot.
+
+
+  INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL--CITY OF MOSCOW.
+
+  Senator Douglas is said to have made the discovery, while
+  travelling in Russia, that the city of Moscow was never burned!
+  The following statement of the matter is from the Muscatine
+  (Iowa) Inquirer:
+
+  "Coming on the boat, a few days ago, we happened to fall in
+  company with Senator Douglas, who came on board at Quincy, on his
+  way to Warsaw. In the course of a very interesting account of his
+  travels in Russia, much of which has been published by
+  letter-writers, he stated a fact which has never yet been
+  published, but which startlingly contradicts the historical
+  relation of one of the most extraordinary events that ever fell
+  to the lot of history to record. For this reason the Judge said
+  he felt a delicacy in making the assertion, that the city of
+  Moscow was never burned!
+
+  "He said, that previous to his arrival at Moscow, he had several
+  disputes with his guide as to the burning of the city, the guide
+  declaring that it never occurred, and seeming to be nettled at
+  Mr. Douglas's persistency in his opinion; but, on examining the
+  fire-marks around the city, and the city itself, he became
+  satisfied that the guide was correct.
+
+  "The statement goes on to set forth that the antiquity of the
+  architectural city--particularly of its 'six hundred first-class
+  churches,' stretching through ante-Napoleonic ages to Pagan
+  times, and showing the handiwork of different nations of
+  History--demonstrates that the city never was burned down (or
+  up)."
+
+  The Inquirer adds:
+
+  "The Kremlin is a space of several hundred acres, in the heart of
+  the city, in the shape of a flat iron, and is enclosed, by a wall
+  of sixty feet high. Within this enclosure is the most magnificent
+  palace in Europe, recently built, but constructed over an ancient
+  palace, which remains, thus enclosed, whole and perfect, with all
+  its windows, &c.
+
+  "Near the Kremlin, surrounded by a wall, is a Chinese town,
+  appearing to be several hundred years old, still occupied by
+  descendants of the original settlers.
+
+  "The circumstances which gave rise to the errors concerning the
+  burning of Moscow, were these:--It is a city of four hundred and
+  fifty thousand inhabitants, in circular form, occupying a large
+  space, five miles across. There the winters are six months long,
+  and the custom was, and still is, to lay up supplies of
+  provisions and wood to last six months of severe cold weather. To
+  prevent these gigantic supplies from encumbering the heart of the
+  city, and yet render them as convenient as practicable to every
+  locality, a row of wood houses was constructed to circle
+  completely round the city, and outside of these was a row of
+  granaries, and in these were deposited the whole of the supplies.
+  Napoleon had entered the city with his army, and was himself
+  occupying the palace of the Kremlin, when, one night, by order of
+  the Russian governor, every wood house and every granary
+  simultaneously burst into a blaze. All efforts to extinguish them
+  were vain, and Napoleon found himself compelled to march his army
+  through the fire. Retiring to an eminence he saw the whole city
+  enveloped in vast sheets of flame, and clouds of smoke, and
+  apparently all on fire. And far as he was concerned it might as
+  well have been, for though houses enough were left to supply
+  every soldier with a room, yet without provisions or fuel, and a
+  Russian army to cut off supplies, he and his army could not
+  subsist there. During the fire some houses were probably burnt,
+  but the city was not. In the Kremlin a magazine blew up, cracking
+  the church of Ivan more than a hundred feet up, but setting
+  nothing on fire.
+
+  "Mr. Douglas saw the fire-marks around the city, where wood
+  houses and granaries for winter supplies now stand as of old; but
+  there appears no marks of conflagration within the city."
+
+Any wary sceptic, indeed, might have found much ground for doubt in
+the very accounts themselves that were given of the conflagration.
+For, the Russians have always denied that _they_ burned it; and the
+French equally disclaimed the act. Each of the two parties between
+whom the accusation lay, strenuously denied it. And it must be
+acknowledged that each had very strong presumptions of innocence to
+urge. It was certainly most _unlikely_ that the Russians should
+themselves destroy their ancient and venerable capital; and that, too,
+when they were boasting of having just gained a great victory at
+Borodino over an army which, therefore, they might hope to defeat
+again, and to drive out of their city. And it was no less unlikely
+that the French should burn down a city of which they had possession,
+and which afforded shelter and refreshment to their troops. This would
+have been one of the most improbable circumstances of that most
+improbable (supposed) campaign. To add to the marvel, we are told that
+the French army nevertheless waited for five weeks, without any
+object, amid the ashes of this destroyed city, just at the approach,
+of winter, and as if on purpose to be overtaken and destroyed by snows
+and frost!
+
+However, all the difficulties of the question whether any of these
+things took place at all, were by most persons overlooked, because
+the question itself never occurred to them, in their eagerness to
+decide _who_ it was that burned the city. And at length it comes out
+that the answer is, NOBODY!
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT.
+
+
+With respect to the foregoing arguments, it has been asserted (though
+without even any attempt at proof) that they go to prove that the
+Bible-narratives contain nothing more miraculous than the received
+accounts of Napoleon Buonaparte. And this is indeed true, if we use
+the word "_miraculous_" in the very unusual sense in which Hume (as is
+pointed out in the foregoing pages) has employed it; to signify simply
+"_improbable_;" an abuse of language on which his argument mainly
+depends.
+
+It is indeed shown, that there are at least as many and as great
+_improbabilities_ in the history of Buonaparte as in any of the
+Scripture-narratives; and that as plausible objections,--if not more
+so,--may be brought against the one history as the other.
+
+But taking words in their ordinary, established sense, the assertion
+is manifestly the opposite of the truth. For, any one who does,--in
+spite of all the improbabilities,--_believe_ the truth of _both_
+histories, is, evidently, a believer in miracles; since he believes
+two narratives, one of which is _not_ miraculous, while the other is.
+The history of Buonaparte contains--though much that is very
+improbable--nothing that is to be called, according to the established
+use of language, miraculous. And the Scriptures contain, as an
+_essential_ part of their narrative, _Miracles_, properly so called.
+
+To talk of believing the Bible, all _except the Miracles_, would be
+like professing to believe the accounts of Buonaparte, _except_ only
+his commanding armies, and having been at Elba and at Saint Helena.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One cannot doubt that in the course of the _forty years_ that this
+little Work has been before the Public, some real, valid refutation of
+the argument would have been adduced, if any such could have been
+devised.
+
+1860.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Historic Doubts Relative To Napoleon
+Buonaparte, by Richard  Whately
+
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