rs;[1293] when it is over he divulges the
fact and gives the name; furthermore, he informs Josephine in detail
and will not listen to any reproach: "I have a right to answer all your
objections with an eternal I!"

This term, indeed, answers to everything, and he explains it by adding:
"I stand apart from other men. I accept nobody's conditions," nor any
species of obligation, no code whatever, not even the common code
of outward civility, which, diminishing or dissimulating primitive
brutality, allows men to associate together without clashing. He does
not comprehend it, and he repudiates it. "I have little liking,"[1294]
he says, "for that vague, leveling word propriety (convenances), which
you people fling out every chance you get. It is an invention of fools
who want to pass for clever men; a kind of social muzzle which annoys
the strong and is useful only to the mediocre... Ah, good taste! Another
classic expression which I do not accept." "It is your personal enemy";
says Talleyrand to him, one day, "if you could have shot it away with
bullets, it would have disappeared long ago!"--It is because good taste
is the highest attainment of civilization, the innermost vestment
which drapes human nudity, which best fits the person, the last garment
retained after the others have been cast off, and which delicate tissue
continues to hamper Napoleon; he throws it off instinctively, because
it interferes with his natural behavior, with the uncurbed, dominating,
savage ways of the vanquisher who knocks down his adversary and treats
him as he pleases.

V. His Policy.

His tone and bearing towards Sovereigns.--His Policy.--His
means and ends.--After Sovereigns he sets populations
against him.--Final opinion of Europe.

Such behavior render social intercourse impossible, especially among the
independent and armed personages known as nations or States. This is why
they are outlawed in politics and in diplomacy and every head of a State
or representative of a country, carefully and on principle, abstains
from them, at least with those on his own level. He is bound to treat
these as his equals, humor them, and, accordingly, not to give way
to the irritation of the moment or to personal feeling; in short, to
exercise self-control and measure his words. To this is due the tone of
manifestos, protocols, dispatches, and other public documents the formal
language of legations, so cold, dry, and elaborated, thos