Success

I never think of power and position and wealth that was attained by force, without feeling, very deeply, the sentiment expressed by a man whose name I dare not mention, as he stood at the tomb of Napoleon:

"A little while ago I stood by the grave of the old Napoleon - a magnificent tomb of gilt and gold, fit almost for a deity dead - and gazed upon the sarcophagus of rare and nameless marble, where rest at last the ashes of that restless man.

I leaned over the balustrade and thought about the career of the greatest soldier of the modem world. I saw him at Toulon.

I saw him walking upon the banks of the Seine contemplating suicide.

I saw him putting down the mob in the streets of Paris.

I saw him at the head of the army in Italy.

I saw him crossing the bridge at Lodi with the tricolor in his hand.

I saw him in Egypt, in the shadows of the pyramids;

I saw him conquer the Alps and mingle the eagles of France with the eagles of the crags.

I saw him at Marengo, at Ulm and at Austerlitz.

I saw him in Russia, when the infantry of the snow and the cavalry of the wild blast scattered his legions like winter's withered leaves.

I saw him at Leipsic in defeat and disaster - driven by a million bayonets back upon Paris - clutched like a wild beast - banished to Elba.

I saw him escape and re-take an empire by the force of his genius.

I saw him upon the frightful field of Waterloo, where chance and fate combined to wreck the fortunes of their former king.

And I saw him at St. Helena, with his hands crossed behind him, gazing out upon the sad and solemn sea. NO man has the right to strain the relationship of friendly acquaintance to the breaking point by asking or expecting of a friend that which might prove to be a burden to the friend.

I thought of the widows and orphans he had made, of the tears that had been shed for his glory, and of the only woman who ever loved him, pushed from his heart by the cold hand of ambition.

And I said I would rather have been a French peasant and worn wooden shoes;

I would rather have lived in a hut with a vine growing over the door, and the grapes growing purple in the amorous kisses of the autumn sun;