Chapter XXXIV.

Military renown, the Senator tells us, is one of the greatest elements of national strength, and the proudest source of gratification to every man who loves his coun- try, and desires to see her occupy a distinguished position among the nations of the earth. The first assertion is conti-adicted by history, and the latter by the declarations of thousands and tens of thousands of men, whose virtue and benevolence are unquestioned. If military renown ever belonged to any people, the precious boon was en- joyed by the French under Buonaparte. Yet France was, at that very time, bleeding and agonizing at every pore, her commerc-e destroyed, hev manufactures languishing, her liberties crushed, her young men dragged by the con- scription from the paternal hearth, and offered a bloody sacrifice on the altar of personal ambition ; and finally this same great element of national strength consigned the nation to the custody of a foreign army, and its mighty emperor, U: a lonely rock. It was on that rock, and while brooding over his fallen greatness, that this scourge of Europe uttered the memorable words, " The love of glory is like the bridge which Satan threw over chaos, to pass from Hell to Paradise^ Like that fabled struc- ture, it has indeed furnished to " woes unnumbered," a ready entrance into our unhappy world. In losing her hero, and her glory, France parted with her sorest plagues ; and humbled in her pride, and despoiled of her conquests, she enjoyed for a series of years, a degree of peace, comfort, and prosperity to which she had been a stranger from the foundation of her monarchy.