ly 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 mor