II., and Macchiavelli.[1143] The first
distinguishing mark of a man of those times is the soundness of his
mental instrument. Nowadays, after three hundred years of service,
ours has lost somewhat of its moral fiber, sharpness, and versatility:
usually the compulsory specialization has caused it to become lop-sided
making it unfit for other purposes. What's more, the increase in
ready-made ideas and cliches and acquired methods incrusts it and
reduces its scope to a sort of routine. Finally, it is exhausted by
an excess of intellectual activity and diminished by the continuity of
sedentary habits. It is just the opposite with those impulsive minds
of uncorrupted blood and of a new stock.--Roederer, a competent and
independent judge, who, at the beginning of the consular government,
sees Bonaparte daily at the meetings of the Council of State, and who
notes down every evening the impressions of the day, is carried away
with admiration:[1144]

"Punctual at every sitting, prolonging the session five or six hours,
discussing before and afterwards the subjects brought forward, always
returning to two questions, 'Can that be justified?[1145]' 'Is that
useful?' examining each question in itself, in these two respects, after
having subjected it to a most exact and sharp analysis; next, consulting
the best authorities, the pasts, experience, and obtaining information
about bygone jurisprudence, the laws of Louis XIV. and of Frederick the
Great.... Never did the council adjourn without its members knowing more
than the day before; if not through knowledge derived from him, at least
through the researches he obliged them to make. Never did the members
of the Senate and the Legislative Corps, or of the tribunals, pay their
respects to him without being rewarded for their homage by valuable
instructions. He cannot be surrounded by public men without being the
statesman, all forming for him a council of state."

"What characterizes him above them all," is not alone the penetration
and universality of his comprehension, but likewise and especially "the
force, flexibility, and constancy of his attention. He can work eighteen
hours at a stretch, on one or on several subjects. I never saw him
tired. I never found his mind lacking in inspiration, even when weary
in body, nor when violently exercised, nor when angry. I never saw him
diverted from one matter by another, turning from that under discussion
to one he had just finished or was