war are decisive, with which every thing is connected, and
from which nothing ought to have made him swerve. But whether it was
that Napoleon reckoned too much on the ascendancy of his genius, or the
strength of his army, and the weakness of Alexander; or that,
considering what he left behind him, he felt it too dangerous to carry
on so distant a war slowly and methodically; or whether, as we shall
presently be told by himself, he had doubts of the success of his
undertaking; certain it is, that he either neglected, or could not yet
determine to proclaim the liberation of that country whose freedom he
had come to restore.

And yet he had sent an ambassador to her Diet. When this inconsistency
was remarked to him, he replied, that "that nomination was an act of
war, which only bound him during the war, while by his words he would be
bound both in war and peace." Thus it was, that he made no other reply
to the enthusiasm of the Lithuanians than evasive expressions, at the
very time he was following up his attack on Alexander to the very
capital of his empire.

He even neglected to clear the southern Polish provinces of the feeble
hostile armies which kept the patriotism of their inhabitants in check,
and to secure, by strongly organizing their insurrection, a solid basis
of operation. Accustomed to short methods, and to rapid attacks, he
wished to imitate himself, in spite of the difference of places and
circumstances; for such is the weakness of man, that he is always led
by imitation, either of others, or of himself, which in the latter case,
that of great men, is habit; for habit is nothing more than the
imitation of one's self. So true it is, that by their strongest side
these extraordinary men are undone!

The one in question committed himself to the fortune of battles. Having
prepared an army of six hundred and fifty thousand men, he fancied that
that was doing sufficient to secure victory, from which he expected
every thing. Instead of sacrificing every thing to obtain victory, it
was by that he looked to obtain every thing; he made use of it as a
_means_, when it ought to have been his _end_. In this manner he made it
too necessary; it was already rather too much so. But he confided so
much of futurity to it, he overloaded it with so much responsibility,
that it became urgent and indispensable to him. Hence his precipitation
to get within reach of it, in order to extricate himself from so
critical a position.