-a most
interesting work it is. The comparison between the characters,
power, deeds, fortune and fate of Washington and Napoleon
continually pressed on my mind as I read their lives; and
continually I wished that some modern Plutarch with more of
religious, if not more of moral and political knowledge and
philosophy than the ancient times afforded, would draw a
parallel--no, not a _parallel_, for that could not be--but a
comparison between Napoleon and Washington. It would give in the
result a comparison between moral and intellectual power on the
highest scale, and with the fullest display in which they have ever
been seen in two national heroes. The superior, the universal
abilities of Bonaparte, his power of perseverance, of transition of
resource, of comprehensiveness, of adaptation of means to ends, and
all tending to his own aggrandizement, and his appetite for
dominion growing with what it fed upon, have altogether been most
astonishingly displayed in the Frenchman's history of Napoleon. The
integrity, disinterestedness, discretion, persevering adherence to
one great purpose, marking the character and the career of
Washington, are all faithfully portrayed by his American
biographer, and confirmed by state papers and by the testimony of
an independent world. The comparison between what Napoleon and
Washington did living, and left dying, of the fruits and
consequences of their deeds, would surely be a most striking and
useful moral and political lesson on true and false glory, and
further, would afford the strongest illustrations of the difference
in human affairs of what is called the power of fortune and the
influence of _prestige_, and the power of moral character and
virtue. See Napoleon deserted at his utmost need by those his
_prosperous_ bounty gorged. See Napoleon forced to abdicate his
twice-snatched imperial sceptre!--and compare this with your
Washington laying down his dictatorship, his absolute dominion,
_voluntarily_, the moment he had accomplished his great purpose of
making his beloved country, the New World, free and independent.
Then the deep, silent attachment shown to him when he retired from
the army, parted from military power, took leave of public life, is
most touching--quite sublime in its truth and simplicity, in