To
bridle in that great devouring, self-devouring French Revolution; to _tame_
it, so that its intrinsic purpose can be made good, that it may become
_organic_, and be able to live among other organisms and _formed_ things,
not as a wasting destruction alone: is not this still what he partly aimed
at, as the true purport of his life; nay what he actually managed to do?
Through Wagrams, Austerlitzes; triumph after triumph,--he triumphed so far.
There was an eye to see in this man, a soul to dare and do. He rose
naturally to be the King. All men saw that he _was_ such. The common
soldiers used to say on the march: "These babbling _Avocats_, up at Paris;
all talk and no work! What wonder it runs all wrong? We shall have to go
and put our _Petit Caporal_ there!" They went, and put him there; they and
France at large. Chief-consulship, Emperorship, victory over Europe;--till
the poor Lieutenant of _La Fere_, not unnaturally, might seem to himself
the greatest of all men that had been in the world for some ages.
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