"I made my generals out of mud," he
said. But all was of no avail; for Napoleon's intense selfishness
was his ruin, and the ruin of France, which he left a prey to
anarchy. His life taught the lesson that power, however
energetically wielded, without beneficence, is fatal to its
possessor and its subjects; and that knowledge, or knowingness,
without goodness, is but the incarnate principle of Evil.
Our own Wellington was a far greater man. Not less resolute, firm,
and persistent, but more self-denying, conscientious, and truly
patriotic. Napoleon's aim was "Glory;" Wellington's watchword,
like Nelson's, was "Duty." The former word, it is said, does not
once occur in his despatches; the latter often, but never
accompanied by any high-sounding professions. The greatest
difficulties could neither embarrass nor intimidate Wellington; his
energy invariably rising in proportion to the obstacles to be
surmounted. The patience, the firmness, the resolution, with which
he bore through the maddening vexations and gigantic difficulties
of the Peninsular campaigns, is, perhaps, one of the sublimest
things to be found in history. In Spain, Wellington not only
exhibited the genius of the general, but the comprehensive wisdom
of the statesman.
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