NAPOLEON.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXII, Issue 52, 26 April 1895, Page 15

NAPOLEON.

(New York Freeman's Journal.) Cardinal Newman refers to Napoleon the Great as « a miracle of nature." General Wolaeley, the head of the English army, gives it as bis opinion that Napoleon was " the greatest of all the human works of God." The extraordinary revival in everything Napoleonic at tbe pre* sent time goes far to support the utterances of these two eminent men. Literature, painting, sculpture, the drama and all the arts are enlisted in his glorification. The magazines, not only in France, but in England and America as well, are full of Napoleon. If Washington and all the heroes of the Revolution, with all the great Americans from then till now were rolled into one personality, probably no greater interest could be aroused by snch a personality, even here in the United Statep, than this Napoleonic revival conjures up, This Napoleonic revival certainly cannot be said to have its source in French politics. There never was a time when the Eepublio in France was so firmly established, and those who seem determined not to reconcile themselves to the republican form are the Bourbons on the one hand and the Socialists on the other. Besides, as we say, the enthusiasm is not confined to France or to Frenchmen. Thero ia no way of explaining it at all, unless the magic of the name of this wonderful personality itself will account for it. Napoleon, from the pictures with which the popular eye is familiar, impresses the popular imagina'ion aa a mighty military captain distinctly. Such he was, indeed. Ho was, it may be said, tbe incarnation of the military genius, He burnod all the books and was a law unto himself. But Napoleon was far more than a great soldier. He was the greatest statesman of his time in all the world ; and his Cade Napoleon, in which he reformed and simplified tbe laws of France, lifts him to an exalted place among tbe world's jurists. By faculties tbat may be said to be peculiar to himself, this prodigy intuitively seemed to comprehend everything that was brought before his penetrating mind. Only a universal genius could have conceived his amazing projects ; only a will superhuman in its grasp and force could have so impressed the children of men. All the world stood in awe of him. With a stroke of his hand he changed tbe maps of nations; and, with or without a sceptre, he appeared to all ey*s crowned with a glory and robed in the mbjjsty of an innate power that made him, undisputed, king of kings. Great men are conscious of their greatness without conceit, Napoleon, who understood his own possibilities, could form accurate estimates of the great men who had preceded him in history, and he used to make comparisons between them and himself. But there was One — One only, in all the world present or past— wifi Wbom he never dared to measure himself. That was He to Whom was given a Name above every name — Jesus Christ our Lord. Napoleon's ttmo waß largely tainted with unbelief ; bat ia that unbelief Napoleon himself never chared. Napoleon could do impious things— just as a theologian can commit a sin ; but whatever may be said of some of his acts, his mind could never yield to infidelity. "I know m»n," he said, "and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial minds may see some rcsemb'ance between Christ and the founders of empires, tbe conquerors, and the geds of other religions. Tbe resemblance doea m t exist. I see in Lycurgus, Numa, Confucius and Mahomet merely legislators. I make oat resemblances, weaknesses, and error?, which as imiliate them to myself and humanity. But it is different wiih Christ. Between Him and anything of this world there is no possible term of comparison, Yes, our txistence (the existence of great men) has shone with all the splendour of tbe crown and sovereignty. But reverses have come, the gold is tffaced little by little. Jhe rain of misfortunes and outrages with which we are deluged every day carries away the last particle. We are only lead, gentlemen, and soon we shall bo but dust. Such is the destiny of great men ; such is the dear destiny of the great Napoleon. What an abyss between my profound misery and the eternal reign of Christ, proclaimed, worshipped, beloved, adored, living throughout the whole nniversel "