18: A summary of the changes which have occurred around the globe in my lifetimeĬontext: New storms will arise one can believe in calamities to come which will surpass the afflictions we have been overwhelmed by in the past already, men are thinking of bandaging their old wounds to return to the battlefield. That man who struck few blows because he kept things in proportion has merged his existence with that of his country: his glory is the heritage of civilisation his fame has risen like one of those public sanctuaries where a fecund and inexhaustible spring flows.īook XLII: Ch.
Washington acted as the representative of the needs, the ideas, the enlightened men, the opinions of his age he supported, not thwarted, the stirrings of intellect he desired only what he had to desire, the very thing to which he had been called: from which derives the coherence and longevity of his work. Washington and Bonaparte emerged from the womb of democracy: both of them born to liberty, the former remained faithful to her, the latter betrayed her. Washington’s Republic lives on Bonaparte’s empire is destroyed. He dies: the news proclaimed on the door of the palace in front of which the conqueror had announced so many funerals, neither detains nor astonishes the passer-by: what have the citizens to mourn? Leaning over the world, with one hand he deposed kings, with the other he pulled down the giant, Revolution but, in eliminating anarchy, he stifled liberty, and ended by losing his own on his last field of battle.Įach was rewarded according to his efforts: Washington brings a nation to independence a justice at peace, he falls asleep beneath his own roof in the midst of his compatriots’ grief and the veneration of nations.īonaparte robs a nation of its independence: deposed as emperor, he is sent into exile, where the world’s anxiety still does not think him safely enough imprisoned, guarded by the Ocean. He appeared on every shore he wrote his name hurriedly in the annals of every people he threw royal crowns to his family and his generals he hurried through his monuments, his laws, his victories. Following the example of Homer’s gods, in four paces he reached the ends of the world.
Les memoires d outre tombe torrent#
He seemed to know that his project would be short, that the torrent which falls from such heights flows swiftly he hastened to enjoy and abuse his glory, like fleeting youth. It was not his own destiny that inspired this new species of hero: it was that of his country he did not allow himself to enjoy what did not belong to him but from that profound humility what glory emerged! Search the woods where Washington’s sword gleamed: what do you find? Tombs? No a world! Washington has left the United States behind for a monument on the field of battle.īonaparte shared no trait with that serious American: he fought amidst thunder in an old world he thought about nothing but creating his own fame he was inspired only by his own fate.
8: Comparison of Washington and Bonaparte.Ĭontext: A degree of silence envelops Washington’s actions he moved slowly one might say that he felt charged with future liberty, and that he feared to compromise it.
0 kommentar(er)
