Excerpt from The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte, Vol. 1: Containing Every Authentic Particular by Which His Extraordinary Character Has Been Formed; With a Concise History of the Events, That Have Occasioned His Unparalleled Elevation
The Belles Lettres were not any fource ofliis en tertainment, his fole and undivided attention as to military acquiiements, and a proficiency in the fin dies which form the habits of a warrior. Polite, or liberal accomplifliment, he appeared to confider that a foldier fhould difdain. He had, doubtlefs, heard of the achievements of Marlborough in the field, and perhaps that he had alfo ftudied the art of pleafing, that by it he gained, whoever he had a mind to gain; and he had a mind to gain every body becaufe he knew that every body was, more, or lefs worth gaining. But it was not by gracefulnefs of demeanour that Buonaparte defigned to win what he could not gain by mere force, he never fought to at tain by a difplay of any endeavour. To pleafe what he could not poffefs by his power, he never reliu quiflied the purfuit of, but acquired it by ftratagem, in which there was no feeiiig of his influence: He fcorned the arts of a courtier, nor them where it might have been, hippufed that no other attempt would fucceed. Alli'ollltir inieaiis.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.