: Nasica, "Memoires," p. 192.]

[Footnote 7: Both letters are accepted as authentic by Jung,
"Bonaparte et son Temps," vol. i., pp. 84, 92; but Masson, "Napoleon
Inconnu," vol. i., p. 55, tracking them to their source, discredits
them, as also from internal evidence.]

[Footnote 8: Chaptal, "Mes Souvenirs sur Napoleon," p. 177.]

[Footnote 9: Joseph Buonaparte, "Mems.," vol. i., p. 29. So too Miot
de Melito, "Mems.," vol. i., ch. x.]

[Footnote 10: Chaptal, "Souvenirs sur Napoleon," p. 237. See too
Masson, "Napoleon Inconnu," vol. i., p. 158, note.]

[Footnote 11: In an after-dinner conversation on January 11th, 1803,
with Roederer, Buonaparte exalted Voltaire at the expense of Rousseau
in these significant words: "The more I read Voltaire, the more I like
him: he is always reasonable, never a charlatan, never a fanatic: he
is made for mature minds. Up to sixteen years of age I would have
fought for Rousseau against all the friends of Voltaire. Now it is the
contrary. _I have been especially disgusted with Rousseau since I
have seen the East. Savage man is a dog._" ("Oeuvres de Roederer,"
vol. iii., p. 461.)

In 1804 he even denied his indebtedness to Rousseau. During a family
discussion, wherein he also belittled Corsica, he called Rousseau "a
babbler, or, if you prefer it, an eloquent enough _idealogue_. I never
liked him, nor indeed well understood him: truly I had not the courage
to read him all, because I thought him for the most part tedious."
(Lucien Buonaparte, "Memoires," vol. ii., ch. xi.)

His later views on Rousseau are strikingly set forth by Stanislas
Girardin, who, in his "Memoirs," relates that Buonaparte, on his visit
to the tomb of Rousseau, said: "'It would have been better for the
repose of France that this man had never been born.' 'Why, First
Consul?' said I. 'He prepared the French Revolution.' 'I thought it
was not for you to complain of the Revolution.' 'Well,' he replied,
'the future will show whether it would not have been better for the
repose of the world that neither I nor Rousseau had existed.'" Meneval
confirms this remarkable statement.]

[Footnote 12: Masson, "Napoleon Inconnu," vol. ii., p. 53.]

[Footnote 13: Joseph Buonaparte, "Memoires," vol. i, p. 44.]

[Footnote 14: M. Chuquet, in his work "La Jeunesse de Napoleon"
(Paris, 1898), gives a different opinion: but I think this passage
shows a veiled hostility to Paoli. Probably we may refer to this time
an incident stated