Henry Blanc - "A Narrative of Captivity in Abyssinia"

Bartolome de las Casas - "A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies"

Francois Coppee - "Ten Tales"

Emile Zola - "La Conquete De Plassans"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 5

H >> Hippolyte A. Taine >> The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 5




[18] Yung, I., 107 (Letter of Napoleon to his father, Sept. 12,
1784); I., 163 (Letter of Napoleon to Abbé Raynal, July, 1786); I.,
197 (Letter of Napoleon to Paoli, June 12, 1789). The three letters
on the history of Corsica are dedicated to Abbé Raynal in a letter of
June 24, 1790, and may be found in Yung, I., 434.

[19] Read especially his essay "On the Truths and Sentiments most
important to inculcate on Men for their Welfare" (a subject proposed
by the Academy of Lyons in 1790). Some bold men driven by genius. .
. . Perfection grows out of reason as fruit out of a tree. . . .
Reason's eyes guard man from the precipice of the passions. . .
The spectacle of the strength of virtue was what the Lacedaemonians
principally felt. . . . Must men then be lucky in the means by
which they are led on to happiness? . . . . My rights (to
property) are renewed along with my transpiration, circulate in my
blood, are written on my nerves, on my heart. . . . Proclaim to
the rich -your wealth is your misfortune, withdrawn within the
latitude of your senses. . . . Let the enemies of nature at thy
voice keep silence and swallow their rabid serpents' tongues. . . .
The wretched shun the society of men, the tapestry of gayety turns to
mourning. . . . Such, gentlemen, are the Sentiments which, in
animal relations, mankind should have taught it for its welfare."

[20] Yung, I., 252 (Letter to Buttafuoco). "Dripping with the blood
of his brethren, sullied by every species of crime, he presents
himself with confidence under his vest of a general, the sole reward
of his criminalities." - I., 192 (Letter to the Corsican Intendant,
April 2, 1879). "Cultivation is what ruins us" - See various
manuscript letters, copied by Yung, for innumerable and gross mistakes
in French. - Miot de Melito, I., 84 (July, 1796). "He spoke curtly
and, at this time, very incorrectly." - Madame de Rémusat, I., 104.
"Whatever language he spoke it never seemed familiar to him; he
appeared to force himself in expressing his ideas."- Notes par le
Comte Chaptal (unpublished), councillor of state and afterwards
minister of the interior under the Consulate: "At this time, Bonaparte
did not blush at the slight knowledge of administrative details which
he possessed; he asked a good many questions and demanded definitions
and the meaning of the commonest words in use. As it very often
happened with him not to clearly comprehend words which he heard for
the first time, he always repeated these afterwards as he understood
them; for example, he constantly used section for session, armistice
for amnesty, fulminating point for culminating point, rentes voyagères
for 'rentes viagères,' etc."

[21] De Ségur, I., 174

[22] Cf. the "Mémoires" of Marshal Marmont, I., 15, for the ordinary
sentiments of the young nobility. "In 1792 I had a sentiment for the
person of the king, difficult to define, of which I recovered the
trace, and to some extent the power, twenty-two years later; a
sentiment of devotion almost religious in character, an innate respect
as if due to a being of a superior order. The word King then
possessed a magic, a force, which nothing had changed in pure and
honest breasts. . . . This religion of royalty still existed in
the mass of the nation,, and especially amongst the well-born, who,
sufficiently remote from power, were rather struck with its brilliancy
than with its imperfections. . . . This love became a sort of
worship."

[23] Bourrienne, "Mémoires,' I. 27. - Ségur, I. 445. In 1795, at
Paris, Bonaparte, being out of military employment, enters upon
several commercial speculations, amongst which is a bookstore, which
does not succeed. (Stated by Sebastiani and many others.)

[24] "Mémorial," Aug. 3, 1816.

[25] Bourrienne, I., 171. (Original text of the "Souper de
Beaucaire.")

[26] Yung, II., 430, 431. (Words of Charlotte Robespierre.) Bonaparte
as a souvenir of his acquaintance with her, granted her a pension,
under the consulate, of 3600 francs. - Ibid. (Letter of Tilly,
chargé d'affaires at Genoa, to Buchot, commissioner of foreign
affairs.) Cf. in the "Mémorial," Napoleon's favorable judgment of
Robespierre.

[27] Yung, II., 455. (Letter from Bonaparte to Tilly, Aug. 7,
1794.) Ibid., III., 120. (Memoirs of Lucien.) "Barras takes care of
Josephine's dowry, which is the command of the army in Italy." Ibid.,
II., 477. (Grading of general officers, notes by Schérer on
Bonaparte.) "He knows all about artillery, but is rather too
ambitious, and too intriguing for promotion."

[28] De Ségur, I., 162. - La Fayette, "Mémoires," II., 215.
"Mémorial" (note dictated by Napoleon). He states the reasons for and
against, and adds, speaking of himself: "These sentiments, twenty-five
years of age, confidence in his strength, his destiny, determined
him." Bourrienne, I., 51: " It is certain that he has always bemoaned
that day; he has often said to me that he would give years of his life
to efface that page of his history."

[29] "Mémorial," I., Sept 6, 1815. " It is only after Lodi that the
idea came to me that I might, after all, become a decisive actor on
our political stage. Then the first spark of lofty ambition gleamed
out." On his aim and conduct in the Italian campaign of Sybel,
"Histoire de l'Europe pendant la Révolution Française" (Dosquet
translation), vol. IV., books II. and III., especially pp.182, 199,
334, 335, 406, 420, 475, 489.

[30] Yung, III., 213. (Letter of M. de Sucy, August 4, 1797.)

[31] Ibid., III., 214. (Report of d'Entraigues to M. de Mowikinoff,
Sept., 1797.) "If there was any king in France which was not himself,
he would like to have been his creator, with his rights at the end of
his sword, this sword never to be parted with, so that he might plunge
it in the king's bosom if he ever ceased to be submissive to him." -
Miot de Melito, I., 154. (Bonaparte to Montebello, before Miot and
Melzi, June, 1797.) Ibid, I., 184. (Bonaparte to Miot, Nov. 18,
1797, at Turin.)

[32] D'Haussonville, "L'Église Romaine et la Premier Empire," I., 405.
(Words of M. Cacault, signer of the Treaty of Tolentino, and French
Secretary of Legation at Rome, at the commencement of negotiations for
the Concordat.) M. Cacaut says that he used this expression, "After
the scenes of Tolentino and of Leghorn, and the fright of Manfredini,
and Matéi threatened, and so many other vivacities."

[33] Madame de Staël, "Considérations sur la Révolution Française,"
3rd part, ch. XXVI., and 4th part, ch. XVIII.

[34] Portrait of Bonaparte in the "Cabinet des Etampes," "drawn by
Guérin, engraved by Fiesinger, deposited in the National Library,
Vendémiaire 29, year VII."

[35] Madame de Rémusat, "Mémoires," I., 104. - Miot de Melito, I.,
84.

[36] Madame de Staël, "Considerations," etc., 3rd part, ch. XXV. -
Madame de Rémusat, II., 77.

[37] Stendhal, "Mémoires sur Napoléon," narration of Admiral Decrès.
- Same narration in the "Mémorial."

[38] De Ségur, I., 193.

[39] Roederer, "Oeuvres complétes," II., 560. (Conversations with
General Lasalle in 1809, and Lasalle's judgment on the débuts of
Napoleon).

[40] Another instance of this commanding influence is found in the
case of General Vandamme, an old revolutionary soldier still more
brutal and energetic than Augereau. In 1815, Vandamme said to Marshal
d'Ornano, one day, on ascending the staircase of the Tuileries
together: "My dear fellow, that devil of a man (speaking of the
Emperor) fascinates me in a way I cannot account for. I, who don't
fear either God or the devil, when I approach him I tremble like a
child. He would make me dash through the eye of a needle into the
fire!" ("Le Général Vandamme," by du Casse, II., 385).

[41] Roederer, III., 356. (Napoleon himself says, February 11, 1809):
"I, military! I am so, because I was born so; it is my habit, my very
existence. Wherever I have been I have always had command. I
commanded at twenty-three, at the siege of Toulon; I commanded at
Paris in Vendémiaire; I won over the soldiers in Italy the moment I
presented myself. I was born for that."

[42] Observe the various features of the same mental and moral
structure among different members of the family. (Speaking of his
brothers and sisters in the "Memorial" Napoleon says): "What family as
numerous presents such a splendid group?" - "Souvenirs", by PASQUIER
(Etienne-Dennis, duc), chancelier de France. in VI volumes, Librarie
Plon, Paris 1893. Vol. I. p. 400. (This author, a young magistrate
under Louis XVI., a high functionary under the Empire, an important
political personage under the restoration and the July monarchy, is
probably the best informed and most judicious of eye-witnesses during
the first half of our century.): "Their vices and virtues surpass
ordinary proportions and have a physiognomy of their own. But what
especially distinguishes them is a stubborn will, and inflexible
resolution. . . . All possessed the instinct of their greatness."
They readily accepted "the highest positions; they even got to
believing that their elevation was inevitable. . . . Nothing in
the incredible good fortune of Joseph astonished him; often in
January, 1814, I heard him say over and over again that if his brother
had not meddled with his affairs after the second entry into Madrid,
he would still be on the throne of Spain. As to determined obstinacy
we have only to refer to the resignation of Louis, the retirement of
Lucien, and the resistances of Fesch; they alone could stem the will
of Napoleon and sometimes break a lance with him. -Passion,
sensuality, the habit of considering themselves outside of rules, and
self-confidence combined with talent, super abound among the women, as
in the fifteenth century. Elisa, in Tuscany, had a vigorous brain,
was high spirited and a genuine sovereign, notwithstanding the
disorders of her private life, in which even appearances were not
sufficiently maintained." Caroline at Naples, "without being more
scrupulous than her sisters," better observed the proprieties; none of
the others so much resembled the Emperor; "with her, all tastes
succumbed to ambition"; it was she who advised and prevailed upon her
husband, Murat, to desert Napoleon in 1814. As to Pauline, the most
beautiful woman of her epoch, "no wife, since that of the Emperor
Claude, surpassed her in the use she dared make of her charms; nothing
could stop her, not even a malady attributed to the strain of this
life-style and for which we have so often seen her borne in a litter."
- Jerome, " in spite of the uncommon boldness of his debaucheries,
maintained his ascendancy over his wife to the last." - On the
"pressing efforts and attempts" of Joseph on Maria Louise in 1814,
Chancelier Pasquier, after Savary's papers and the evidence of M. de
Saint-Aignan, gives extraordinary details. - "Mes souvenirs sur
Napoléon, 346, by the count Chaptal: "Every member of this numerous
family (Jérôme, Louis, Joseph, the Bonaparte sisters) mounted thrones
as if they had recovered so much property."

[43] Burkhardt, "Die Renaissance in Italien," passim. - Stendhal,
"Histoire de la peinture en Italie"(introduction), and" Rome, Naples,
et Florence," passim. - " Notes par le Comte Chaptal": When these
notes are published, many details will be found in them in support of
the judgment expressed in this and the following chapters. The
psychology of Napoleon as here given is largely confirmed by them.

[44] Roederer, III, 380 (1802).

[45] Napoleon uses the French word just which means both fair,
justifiable, pertinent, correct, and in music true.

[46] "Mémorial."

[47] De Pradt, "Histoire de l'Ambassade dans la grande-duché de
Varsovie en 1812," preface, p. X, and 5.

[48] Roederer, III., 544 (February 24, 1809). Cf. Meneval, "Napoléon
et Marie-Louise, souvenirs historiques," I., 210-213.

[49] Pelet de la Lozère," Opinions de Napoléon au conseil d'état,"
p.8. - Roederer, III., 380.

[50] Mollien, "Mémoires," I., 379; II., 230.-Roederer, III., 434. "He
is at the head of all things. He governs, administrates, negotiates,
works eighteen hours a day, with the clearest and best organized head;
he has governed more in three years than kings in a hundred years." -
Lavalette, "Mémoires," II., 75. (The words of Napoleon's secretary on
Napoleon's labor in Paris, after Leipsic) "He retires at eleven, but
gets up at three o'clock in the morning, and until the evening there
is not a moment he does not devote to work. It is time this stopped,
for he will be used up, and myself before he is."- Gaudin, Duc de
Gaëte, "Mémoires," III. (supplement), p.75. Account of an evening in
which, from eight o'clock to three in the morning, Napoleon examines
with Gaudin his general budget, during seven consecutive hours,
without stopping a minute. -Sir Neil Campbell, "Napoléon at
Fontainebleau and at Elbe," p.243. "Journal de Sir Neil Campbell a'
l'ile d'Elbe": I never saw any man, in any station in life, so
personally active and so persistent in his activity. He seems to take
pleasure in perpetual motion and in seeing those who accompany him
completely tired out, which frequently happened in my case when I
accompanied him. . . Yesterday, after having been on his legs from
eight in the morning to three in the afternoon, visiting the frigates
and transports, even to going down to the lower compartments among the
horses, he rode on horseback for three hours, and, as he afterwards
said to me, to rest himself."

[51] The starting-point of the great discoveries of Darwin is the
physical, detailed description he made in his study of animals and
plants, as living; during the whole course of life, through so many
difficulties and subject to a fierce competition. This study is
wholly lacking in the ordinary zoologist or botanist, whose mind is
busy only with anatomical preparations or collections of plants. In
every science, the difficulty lies in describing in a nutshell, using
significant examples, the real object, just as it exists before us,
and its true history. Claude Bernard one day remarked to me, "We
shall know physiology when we are able to follow step by step a
molecule of carbon or azote in the body of a dog, give its history,
and describe its passage from its entrance to its exit."

[52] Thibaudeau, "Mémoires sur le Consulat," 204. (Apropos of the
tribunate): "They consist of a dozen or fifteen metaphysicians who
ought to be flung into the water; they crawl all over me like vermin.

[53] Madame de Rémusat, I., 115: "He is really ignorant, having read
very little and always hastily." - Stendhal, "Mémoires sur Napoleon":
" His education was very defective. . . .He knew nothing of the
great principles discovered within the past one hundred years," and
just those which concern man or society. "For example, he had not
read Montesquieu as this writer ought to be read, that is to say, in a
way to accept or decidedly reject each of the thirty-one books of the
'Esprit des lois.' He had not thus read Bayle's Dictionary nor the
Essay on the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. This ignorance of the
Emperor's was not perceptible in conversation, and first, because he
led in conversation, and next because with Italian finesse no question
put by him, or careless supposition thrown out, ever betrayed that
ignorance." - Bourrienne. I., 19, 21: At Brienne, "unfortunately for
us, the monks to whom the education of youth was confided knew
nothing, and were too poor to pay good foreign teachers. . . . It
is inconceivable how any capable man ever graduated from this
educational institution." - Yung, I., 125 (Notes made by him on
Bonaparte, when he left the Military Academy): "Very fond of the
abstract sciences, indifferent to others, well grounded in mathematics
and geography."

[54] Roederer, III., 544 (March 6, 1809), 26, 563 (Jan. 23, 1811, and
Nov. 12, 1813).

[55] Mollien, I., 348 (a short time before the rupture of the peace of
Amiens), III., 16: "It was at the end of January, 1809, that he wanted
a full report of the financial situation on the 31st of December, 1808
. . . . This report was to be ready in two days." - III., 34: "A
complete balance sheet of the public treasury for the first six months
of 1812 was under Napoleon's eyes at Witebsk, the 11th of August,
eleven days after the close of these first six months. What is truly
wonderful is, that amidst so many different occupations and
preoccupations . . . . he could preserve such an accurate run of
the proceedings and methods of the administrative branches about which
he wanted to know at any moment. Nobody had any excuse for not
answering him, for each was questioned in his own terms; it is that
singular aptitude of the head of the State, and the technical
precision of his questions, which alone explains how he could maintain
such a remarkable ensemble in an administrative system of which the
smallest threads centered in himself."

[56] 200 years after the death of Napoleon Sir Alfred Ayer thus
writes in "LANGUAGE, TRUTH AND LOGIC": 'Actually, we shall see that
the only test to which a form of scientific procedure which satisfies
the necessary condition of self-consistency is subject, is the test of
its success in practice. We are entitled to have faith in our
procedure just so long as it does the work it is designed to do - that
is, enables us to predict future experience, and so to control our
environment."
And on the Purpose of Inquiry:
'The traditional disputes of philosophers are, for the most part, as
unwarranted as they are unfruitful. The surest way to end them is to
establish beyond question what should be the purpose and the method of
philosophical inquiry.' (SR.)

[57] An expression of Mollien.

[58] Meneval, I., 210, 213. - Roederer, III., 537, 545 (February and
March, 1889): Words of Napoleon: "At this moment it was nearly
midnight." - Ibid., IV., 55 (November, 1809). Read the admirable
examination of Roederer by Napoleon on the Kingdom of Naples. His
queries form a vast systematic and concise network, embracing the
entire subject, leaving no physical or moral data, no useful
circumstance not seized upon. - Ségur, II., 231: M. De Ségur, ordered
to inspect every part of the coast-line, had sent in his report: "'I
have seen your reports,' said the First Consul to me, 'and they are
exact. Nevertheless, you forgot at Osten two cannon out of the four.'
- And he pointed out the place, 'a roadway behind the town.' I went
out overwhelmed with astonishment that among thousands of cannon
distributed among the mounted batteries or light artillery on the
coast, two pieces should not have escaped his recollection." -
"Correspondance," letter to King Joseph, August 6, 1806: "The
admirable condition of my armies is due to this, that I give attention
to them every day for an hour or two, and, when the monthly reports
come in, to the state of my troops and fleets, all forming about
twenty large volumes. I leave every other occupation to read them
over in detail, to see what difference there is between one month and
another. I take more pleasure in reading those than any young girl
does in a novel." - Cadet de Gassicourt, "Voyage en Autriche"(1809).
On his reviews at Schoenbrunn and his verification of the contents of
a pontoon-wagon, taken as an example.

[59] One ancient French league equals app. 4 km. (SR.)

[60] Bourrienne, II., 116; IV., 238: "He had not a good memory for
proper names, words, and dates, but it was prodigious for facts and
localities. I remember that, on the way from Paris to Toulon, he
called my attention to ten places suitable for giving battle. . .
. It was a souvenir of his youthful travels, and he described to me
the lay of the ground, designating the positions he would have taken
even before we were on the spot." March 17, 1800, puncturing a card
with a pin, he shows Bourrienne the place where he intends to beat
Mélas, at San Juliano. "Four months after this I found myself at San
Juliano with his portfolio and dispatches, and, that very evening, at
Torre-di-Gafolo, a league off, I wrote the bulletin of the battle
under his dictation" (of Marengo). -De Ségur, II., 30 (Narrative of
M. Daru to M. De Ségur Aug. 13, 1805, at the headquarters of La
Manche, Napoleon dictates to M. Daru the complete plan of the campaign
against Austria): "Order of marches, their duration, places of
convergence or meeting of the columns, attacks in full force, the
various movements and mistakes of the enemy, all, in this rapid
dictation, was foreseen two months beforehand and at a distance of two
hundred leagues. . . . The battle-field, the victories, and even
the very days on which we were to enter Munich and Vienna were then
announced and written down as it all turned out. . . . Daru saw
these oracles fulfilled on the designated days up to our entry into
Munich; if there were any differences of time and not of results
between Munich and Vienna, they were all in our favor." -M. de La
Vallette, "Mémoires," II., p. 35. (He was postmaster-general): "It
often happened to me that I was not as certain as he was of distances
and of many details in my administration on which he was able to set
me straight." - On returning from the camp at Bologna, Napoleon
encounters a squad of soldiers who had got lost, asks what regiment
they belong to, calculates the day they left, the road they took, what
distance they should have marched. and then tells them, "You will
find your battalion at such a halting place." - At this time, "the
army numbered 200,000 men."

[61] Madame de Rémusat, I., 103, 268.

[62] Thibaudeau, p.25, I (on the Jacobin survivors): "They are nothing
but common artisans, painters, etc., with lively imaginations, a
little better instructed than the people, living amongst the people
and exercising influence over them." - Madame de Rémusat, I., 271 (on
the royalist party): "It is very easy to deceive that party because
its starting-point is not what it is, but what it would like to have."
- I., 337: "The Bourbons will never see anything except through the
Oeil de Boeuf." - Thibaudeau, p.46: "Insurrections and emigrations are
skin diseases; terrorism is an internal malady." Ibid., 75: "What now
keeps the spirit of the army up is the idea soldiers have that they
occupy the places of former nobles."

[63] Thibaudeau, pp.419 to 452. (Both texts are given in separate
columns.) And passim, for instance, p.84, the following portrayal of
the decadal system of worship under the Republic: "It was imagined
that citizens could be got together in churches, to freeze with cold
and hear, read, and study laws, in which there was already but little
fun for those who executed them." Another example of the way in which
his ideas expressed themselves through imagery (Pelet de la Lozère, p.
242): "I am not satisfied with the customs regulations on the Alps.
They show no life. We don't hear the rattle of crown pieces pouring
into the public treasury." To appreciate the vividness of Napoleon's
expressions and thought the reader must consult, especially, the five
or six long conversations, noted on the very evening of the day they
occurred by Roederer; the two or three conversations likewise noted by
Miot de Melito; the scenes narrated by Beugnot; the notes of Pelet de
la Lozère and by Stanislas de Girardin, and nearly the entire volume
by Thibaudeau.

[64] Pelet de la Lozère, 63, 64. (On the physiological differences
between the English and the French.) - Madame de Rémusat, I., 273,
392: "You, Frenchmen, are not in earnest about anything, except,
perhaps, equality, and even here you would gladly give this up if you
were sure of being the foremost. . . . The hope of advancement in
the world should be cherished by everybody. . . . Keep your vanity
always alive The severity of the republican government would have
worried you to death. What started the Revolution? Vanity. What
will end it? Vanity, again. Liberty is merely a pretext." - III., 153
"Liberty is the craving of a small and privileged class by nature,
with faculties superior to the common run of men; this class,
therefore, may be put under restraint with impunity; equality, on the
contrary, catches the multitude." - Thibaudeau, 99: "What do I care
for the opinions and cackle of the drawing-room? I never heed it. I
pay attention only to what rude peasants say." His estimates of
certain situations are masterpieces of picturesque concision. "Why
did I stop and sign the preliminaries of Leoben? Because I played
vingt-et-un and was satisfied with twenty." His insight into
(dramatic) character is that of the most sagacious critic. "The
'Mahomet' of Voltaire is neither a prophet nor an Arab, only an
impostor graduated out of the École Polytechnique." - " Madame de
Genlis tries to define virtue as if she were the discoverer of it." -
(On Madame de Staël): "This woman teaches people to think who never
took to it, or have forgotten how." - (On Chateaubriand, one of whose
relations had just been shot) : "He will write a few pathetic pages
and read them aloud in the faubourg Saint-Germain; pretty women will
shed tears, and that will console him." - (On Abbé Delille) : "He is
wit in its dotage." - (On Pasquier and Molé): "I make the most of one,
and made the other." - Madame de Rémusat, II., 389, 391, 394, 399,
402; III., 67.

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