University of Virginia Library

Menzel (Geschichte des Deutschens), while justly inveighing against the literary heroes of Weimar, who were incapable of a patriotic sentiment, alleges that Wieland was kept standing an hour in Napoleon's presence, and when, unable from his old age to continue on his feet, he asked permission to retire, Napoleon is said to have considered it an unwarrantable liberty. This is manifestly unjust to Buonaparte, who reserved all his brutality for queens and political opponents. Wieland himself, in his letters, gives an excellent account of the interview: it is more interesting and less familiar than the interview with Goethe,

“I had not been many minutes there before Napoleon came across the room towards us: the duchess then formally presented me to him; and he addressed me affably with some words of compliment, looking me steadily in the face. Few persons have appeared to me to see through a man so rapidly. He instantly perceived that, notwithstanding my celebrity, I was a plain unassuming old person, and, as he seemed desirous of making a good impression on me, he at once assumed the manner best adapted to attain his end. I never saw a man in appearance calmer, plainer, milder, or more unpretending. No trace was visible about him of the consciousness that he was a great monarch. He talked to me like an old acquaintance with his equal, and, which was very rare with him, chatted with me exclusively an entire hour and a half, to the great surprise of all who were present. At length, about midnight, I began to feel inconvenience from standing so long, and took the liberty of requesting his majesty's permission to withdraw. ‘Allez donc,’ said he, in a very friendly tone; ‘bon soir!’ The more remarkable traits of our interview were as follows:—The previous play having made Cæsar the subject of our conversation, Napoleon observed that he was one of the greatest characters in all history; and that indeed he would have have been without exception the greatest but for one blunder. I was about to inquire to what blunder he alluded, when he seemed to read the question in my eye, and continued, ‘Cæsar knew the men who wanted to get rid of him, and he ought to have been rid of them first.’ If Napoleon could have read all that passed in my mind, he would have perceived me saying, ‘Such a blunder will never be laid to your charge.’ From Cæsar our conversation turned to the Roman people; and he praised warmly their military and their political system; while the Greeks, on the contrary, seemed to stand low in his opinion. The eternal contest between their little republics was not formed, he said, to produce anything great; but the Romans were always intent on grand purposes, and thus created the mighty colossus which bestrode the world. I pleaded for the arts and literature of the Greeks; but he treated both with contempt, and said that they only served to make objects of dispute.

“He preferred Ossian to Homer. In poetry he professed to value only the sublime, the energetic, and the pathetic writers, especially the tragic poets. Of Ariosto he spoke in some such terms as those which had been used by Cardinal Hippolito, of Este; not aware, however, I think, that in doing this he was giving me a box on the ear. For anything humorous he seemed to have no liking; and, notwithstanding the flattering friendliness of his apparent manner, he repeatedly gave me the idea of his being cast from bronze.

“At length, however, he had put me so much at my ease, that I asked him how it happened that the public worship, which he had in some degree reformed in France, had not been rendered more philosophic, and more on a par with the spirit of the times. ‘My dear Wieland,’ he replied, ‘worship is not made for philosophers; they believe neither in me nor in my priesthood. As for those who do believe, you cannot give them or leave them wonders enough. If I had to make a religion for philosophers, it should be just the reverse.’ In this tone the conversation went on for some time; and Buonaparte professed so much scepticism, as to question whether Jesus Christ had ever existed. This is very common every-day scepticism; so that in his free thinking I saw nothing to admire, but the openness with which he exposed it.”

So the Abbé de Pradt, in his savage character of Napoleon, against whom he felt all the bitterness of a slighted tool:— “L'homme qui, unissant dan ses bizarreries tout ce qu'il y a de plus élevé et de plus vil parmi les mortels, de plus majestueux dans l'éclat de la souveraineté, de plus peremptoire dans le commandment, avec ce qu'il y a d'ignoble et de plus lâche jusque dans ses plus grands attentats, joignant les guet-apens aux détrônements, présente une espèce de Jupiter-Scapin qui n'avait pas encore paru sur la scène du monde.”

Everybody has followed the miserable campaign of 1806. “Les Prussiens sont encore plus stupides que les Autrichiens,” cried Buonaparte, amazed at the wretched pottering of the Duke of Brunswick, adding afterwards, on hearing that the enemy expected him from Erfurt when he was already at Nuremberg, “Ils se tromperont furieusement, ces perruques!”

There can be no doubt that Napoleon's sharp dispute with, and subsequent savage treatment of, the aged Pope made the French supremacy trebly odious to the Catholic population. Pius VII. showed a spirit worthy of a grander cause. Of course, he was contending against the avalanche; but even such opposition hastened its rush into the gulf that awaited it.