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The fundamental and essential significance of the European
events of the beginning of the nineteenth century lies in the
movement of the mass of the European peoples from west to east
and afterwards from east to west. The commencement of that movement
was the movement from west to east. For the peoples of the west
to be able to make their warlike movement to Moscow it was necessary:
(1) that they should form themselves into a military group of
a size able to endure a collision with the warlike military group
of the east, (2) that they should abandon all established traditions
and customs, and (3) that during their military movement they
should have at their head a man who could justify to himself and
to them the deceptions, robberies, and murders which would have
to be committed during that movement.
And beginning with the French Revolution the old inadequately
large group was destroyed, as well as the old habits and traditions,
and step by step a group was formed of larger dimensions with
new customs and traditions, and a man was produced who would stand
at the head of the coming movement and bear the responsibility
for all that had to be done.
A man without convictions, without habits, without traditions,
without a name, and not even a Frenchman, emerges- by what seem
the strangest chances- from among all the seething French parties,
and without joining any one of them is borne forward to a prominent
position.
The ignorance of his colleagues, the weakness and insignificance
of his opponents, the frankness of his falsehoods, and the dazzling
and self-confident limitations of this man raise him to the head
of the army. The brilliant qualities of the soldiers of the army
sent to Italy, his opponents' reluctance to fight, and his own
childish audacity and self-confidence secure him military fame.
Innumerable so called chances accompany him everywhere. The disfavor
into which he falls with the rulers of France turns to his advantage.
His attempts to avoid his predestined path are unsuccessful: he
is not received into the Russian service, and the appointment
he seeks in Turkey comes to nothing. During the war in Italy he
is several times on the verge of destruction and each time is
saved in an unexpected manner. Owing to various diplomatic considerations
the Russian armies- just those which might have destroyed his
prestige- do not appear upon the scene till he is no longer there.
On his return from Italy he finds the government in Paris
in a process of dissolution in which all those who are in it are
inevitably wiped out and destroyed. And by chance an escape from
this dangerous position presents itself in the form of an aimless
and senseless expedition to Africa. Again so-called chance accompanies
him. Impregnable Malta surrenders without a shot; his most reckless
schemes are crowned with success. The enemy's fleet, which subsequently
did not let a single boat pass, allows his entire army to elude
it. In Africa a whole series of outrages are committed against
the almost unarmed inhabitants. And the men who commit these crimes,
especially their leader, assure themselves that this is admirable,
this is glory- it resembles Caesar and Alexander the Great and
is therefore good.
This ideal of glory and grandeur- which consists not merely
in considering nothing wrong that one does but in priding oneself
on every crime one commits, ascribing to it an incomprehensible
supernatural significance- that ideal, destined to guide this
man and his associates, had scope for its development in Africa.
Whatever he does succeeds. The plague does not touch him. The
cruelty of murdering prisoners is not imputed to him as a fault.
His childishly rash, uncalled-for, and ignoble departure from
Africa, leaving his comrades in distress, is set down to his credit,
and again the enemy's fleet twice lets him slip past. When, intoxicated
by the crimes he has committed so successfully, he reaches Paris,
the dissolution of the republican government, which a year earlier
might have ruined him, has reached its extreme limit, and his
presence there now as a newcomer free from party entanglements
can only serve to exalt him- and though he himself has no plan,
he is quite ready for his new role.
He had no plan, he was afraid of everything, but the parties
snatched at him and demanded his participation.
He alone- with his ideal of glory and grandeur developed in
Italy and Egypt, his insane self-adulation, his boldness in crime
and frankness in lying- he alone could justify what had to be
done.
He is needed for the place that awaits him, and so almost
apart from his will and despite his indecision, his lack of a
plan, and all his mistakes, he is drawn into a conspiracy that
aims at seizing power and the conspiracy is crowned with success.
He is pushed into a meeting of the legislature. In alarm he
wishes to flee, considering himself lost. He pretends to fall
into a swoon and says senseless things that should have ruined
him. But the once proud and shrewd rulers of France, feeling that
their part is played out, are even more bewildered than he, and
do not say the words they should have said to destroy him and
retain their power.
Chance, millions of chances, give him power, and all men as
if by agreement co-operate to confirm that power. Chance forms
the characters of the rulers of France, who submit to him; chance
forms the character of Paul I of Russia who recognizes his government;
chance contrives a plot against him which not only fails to harm
him but confirms his power. Chance puts the Duc d'Enghien in his
hands and unexpectedly causes him to kill him- thereby convincing
the mob more forcibly than in any other way that he had the right,
since he had the might. Chance contrives that though he directs
all his efforts to prepare an expedition against England (which
would inevitably have ruined him) he never carries out that intention,
but unexpectedly falls upon Mack and the Austrians, who surrender
without a battle. Chance and genius give him the victory at Austerlitz;
and by chance all men, not only the French but all Europe- except
England which does not take part in the events about to happen-
despite their former horror and detestation of his crimes, now
recognize his authority, the title he has given himself, and his
ideal of grandeur and glory, which seems excellent and reasonable
to them all.
As if measuring themselves and preparing for the coming movement,
the western forces push toward the east several times in 1805,
1806, 1807, and 1809, gaining strength and growing. In 1811 the
group of people that had formed in France unites into one group
with the peoples of Central Europe. The strength of the justification
of the man who stands at the head of the movement grows with the
increased size of the group. During the ten-year preparatory period
this man had formed relations with all the crowned heads of Europe.
The discredited rulers of the world can oppose no reasonable ideal
to the insensate Napoleonic ideal of glory and grandeur. One after
another they hasten to display their insignificance before him.
The King of Prussia sends his wife to seek the great man's mercy;
the Emperor of Austria considers it a favor that this man receives
a daughter the Caesars into his bed; the Pope, the guardian of
all that the nations hold sacred, utilizes religion for the aggrandizement
of the great man. It is not Napoleon who prepares himself for
the accomplishment of his role, so much as all those round him
who prepare him to take on himself the whole responsibility for
what is happening and has to happen. There is no step, no crime
or petty fraud he commits, which in the mouths of those around
him is not at once represented as a great deed. The most suitable
fete the Germans can devise for him is a celebration of Jena and
Auerstadt. Not only is he great, but so are his ancestors, his
brothers, his stepsons, and his brothers-in-law. Everything is
done to deprive him of the remains of his reason and to prepare
him for his terrible part. And when he is ready so too are the
forces.
The invasion pushes eastward and reaches its final goal- Moscow.
That city is taken; the Russian army suffers heavier losses than
the opposing armies had suffered in the former war from Austerlitz
to Wagram. But suddenly instead of those chances and that genius
which hitherto had so consistently led him by an uninterrupted
series of successes to the predestined goal, an innumerable sequence
of inverse chances occur- from the cold in his head at Borodino
to the sparks which set Moscow on fire, and the frosts- and instead
of genius, stupidity and immeasurable baseness become evident.
The invaders flee, turn back, flee again, and all the chances
are now not for Napoleon but always against him.
A countermovement is then accomplished from east to west with
a remarkable resemblance to the preceding movement from west to
east. Attempted drives from east to west- similar to the contrary
movements of 1805, 1807, and 1809- precede the great westward
movement; there is the same coalescence into a group of enormous
dimensions; the same adhesion of the people of Central Europe
to the movement; the same hesitation midway, and the same increasing
rapidity as the goal is approached.
Paris, the ultimate goal, is reached. The Napoleonic government
and army are destroyed. Napoleon himself is no longer of any account;
all his actions are evidently pitiful and mean, but again an inexplicable
chance occurs. The allies detest Napoleon whom they regard as
the cause of their sufferings. Deprived of power and authority,
his crimes and his craft exposed, he should have appeared to them
what he appeared ten years previously and one year later- an outlawed
brigand. But by some strange chance no one perceives this. His
part is not yet ended. The man who ten years before and a year
later was considered an outlawed brigand is sent to an island
two days' sail from France, which for some reason is presented
to him as his dominion, and guards are given to him and millions
of money are paid him.
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