the old Napoleon, a
magnificent tomb, fit for a dead deity almost, and gazed into the great
circle at the bottom of it. In the sarcophagus, of black Egyptian
marble, at last rest the ashes of that restless man. I looked over the
balustrade, and I thought about the career of Napoleon. I could see
him walking upon the banks of the Seine contemplating suicide. I saw
him at Toulon. I saw him putting down the mob in the streets of Paris.
I saw him at the head of the army of Italy. I saw him crossing the
bridge at Lodi. I saw him in Egypt, fighting the battle of the
pyramids. I saw him cross the Alps, and mingle the eagles of France
with the eagles of the crags. I saw him at Austerlitz. I saw him with
his army scattered and dispersed before the blast. I saw him at
Leipsic when his army was defeated and he was taken captive. I saw him
escape. I saw him land again upon French soil, and retake an empire by
the force of his own genius. I saw him captured once more, and again
at St. Helena, with his arms behind him, gazing out upon the sad and
solemn sea; and I thought of the orphans and Widows he had made.

I thought of the tears that had been shed for his glory. I thought of
the only woman who ever loved him, who had been pushed from his heart
by the cold hand of ambition; and as I looked at the sarcophagus, I
said, "I would rather have been a French peasant and worn wooden shoes;
I would rather have lived in a hut, with a vine growing over the door,
and the grapes growing and ripening in the autumn sun; I would rather
have been that peasant, with my wife by my side and my children upon my
knees, twining their arms of affection about me; I would rather have
been that poor French peasant, and gone down at last to the eternal
promiscuity of the dust, followed by those who loved me; I would a
thousand times rather have been that French peasant than that imperial
personative of force and murder." And so I would, ten thousand times.

It is not necessary to be great to be happy; it is not necessary to be
rich to be just and generous, and to have a heart filled with divine
affection. No matter whether you are rich or poor, use your wife as
though she were a splendid creation, and she will fill your life with
perfume and joy. And do you know, it is a splendid thing for me to
think that the woman you really love will never grow old to you?
Through the wrinkles of time, through the music of years, if you really
love her