s stay in St.
Helena was short. The other, a Corsican named Vignali, having neither
learning, culture, nor dialectical skill, was tolerated as a
respectable adjunct to the household, but had little or no influence
over the master. This is to be regretted on many grounds, and partly
because his testimony throws no light on Napoleon's religious views.

Here we approach a problem that perhaps can never be cleared up.
Unfathomable on many sides of his nature, Napoleon is nowhere more so
than when he confronts the eternal verities. That he was a convinced
and orthodox Catholic few will venture to assert. At Elba he said to
Lord Ebrington: "_Nous ne savons d'ou nous venons, ce que nous
deviendrons_": the masses ought to have some "fixed point of faith
whereon to rest their thoughts."--"_Je suis Catholique parce que mon
pere l'etoit, et parce que c'etoit la religion de la France_." He also
once or twice expressed to Campbell scorn of the popular creed: and
during his last voyage, as we have seen, he showed not the slightest
interest in the offer of a priest at Funchal to accompany him. At St.
Helena the party seems to have limited the observances of religion to
occasional reading of the Bible. When Mme. Montholon presented her
babe to the Emperor, he teasingly remarked that Las Cases was the most
suitable person to christen the infant; to which the mother at once
replied that Las Cases was not a good enough Christian for that.

Judging from the entries in Gourgaud's "Journal," this young General
pondered more than the rest on religious questions; and to him
Napoleon unbosomed his thoughts.--Matter, he says, is everywhere and
pervades everything; life, thought, and the soul itself are but
properties of matter, and death ends all. When Gourgaud points to the
majestic order of the universe as bearing witness to a Creator,
Napoleon admits that he believes in "superior intelligences": he avers
that he would believe in Christianity if it had been the original and
universal creed: but then the Mohammedans "follow a religion simpler
and more adapted to their morality than ours." In ten years their
founder conquered half the world, which Christianity took three
hundred years to accomplish. Or again, he refers to the fact that
Laplace, Monge, Berthollet, and Lagrange were all atheists, though
they did not proclaim the fact; as for himself, he finds the idea of
God to be natural; it has existed at all times and among all peoples.
But o