Ten Years Exile | Page 7

two opposite systems. In all
his nominations, Bonaparte followed nearly the same rule, of taking, as
it may be said, now from the right, and now from the left, that is to say,
choosing alternately his officers among the aristocrats, and among the
jacobins: the middle party, that of the friends of liberty, pleased him

less than all the others, composed as it was of the small numbers of
persons, who in France, had an opinion of their own. He liked much
better to have to do with persons who were attached to royalist interests,
or who had become stigmatized by popular excesses. He even went so
far as to wish to name as a counsellor of state a conventionalist sullied
with the vilest crimes of the days of terror; but he was diverted from it
by the shuddering of those who would have had to sit along with him.
Bonaparte would have been delighted to have given that shining proof
that he could regenerate, as well as confound, every thing.
What particularly characterizes the government of Bonaparte, is his
profound contempt for the intellectual riches of human nature; virtue,
mental dignity, religion, enthusiasm, these, these are in his eyes, the
eternal enemies of the continent, to make use of his favorite expression;
he would reduce man to force and cunning, and designate every thing
else as folly or stupidity. The English particularly irritate him, as they
have found the means of being honest, as well as successful, a thing
which Bonaparte would have us regard as impossible. This shining
point of the world has dazzled his eyes from the very first days of his
reign.
I do not believe, that when Bonaparte put himself at the head of affairs,
he had formed the plan of universal monarchy: but I believe that his
system was, what he himself described it a few days after the 18th
Brumaire to one of my friends: "Something new must be done every
three months, to captivate the imagination of the French Nation; with
them, whoever stands still is ruined." He flattered himself with being
able to make daily encroachments on the liberty of France, and the
independence of Europe: but, without losing sight of the end, he knew
how to accommodate himself to circumstances; when the obstacle was
too great, he passed by it, and stopped short when the contrary wind
blew too strongly. This man, at bottom so impatient, has the faculty of
remaining immoveable when necessary; he derives that from the
Italians, who know how to restrain themselves in order to attain the
object of their passion, as if they were perfectly cool in the choice of
that object. It is by the alternate employment of cunning and force, that
he has subjugated Europe; but, to be sure, Europe is but a word of great

sound. In what did it then consist? In a few ministers, not one of whom
had as much understanding as many men taken at hap-hazard from the
nation which they governed.
Towards the spring of 1800, I published my work on Literature, and the
success it met with restored me completely to favor with society; my
drawing room became again filled, and I had once more the pleasure of
conversing, and conversing in Paris, which, I confess has always been
to me the most fascinating of all pleasures. There was not a word about
Bonaparte in my book, and the most liberal sentiments were, I believe,
forcibly expressed in it. But the press was then far from being enslaved
as it is at present; the government exercised a censorship upon
newspapers, but not upon books; a distinction which might be
supported, if the censorship had been used with moderation: for
newspapers exert a popular influence, while books, for the greater part,
are only read by well informed people, and may enlighten, but not
inflame opinion. At a later period, there were established in the senate,
I believe in derision, a committee for the liberty of the press, and
another for personal liberty, the members of which are still renewed
every three months. Certainly the bishopricks in partibus, and the
sinecures in England afford more employment than these committees.
Since my work on Literature, I have published Delphine, Corinne, and
finally my work on Germany, which was suppressed at the moment it
was about to make its appearance. But although this last work has
occasioned me the most bitter persecution, literature does not appear to
me to be less a source of enjoyment and respect, even for a female.
What I have suffered in life, I attribute to the circumstances which
associated me, almost at my entry into the world, with the interests of
liberty, which were supported by my father and his friends; but the kind
of talent which