for freedom, its effect is the same, whatever 

 its real or alleged purpose. 



In the Wiertz gallery in Brussels is a won- 

 derful painting, dating from the time of 

 Waterloo, called Napoleon in Hell. It rep- 

 resents the great marshal with folded arms 

 and face unmoved descending slowly to the 

 land of the shades. Before him, filling all 

 the background of the picture with every 

 expression of countenance are the men sent 

 before him by the unbridled ambition of 

 Napoleon. Three millions and seventy 

 thousand there were in all — so history tells 

 us, more than half of them Frenchmen. 

 They are not all shown in one picture. They 

 are only hinted at. And behind the millions 

 shown or hinted at are the millions on mil- 

 lions of men who might have been and are 

 not — the huge widening human wedge of 

 the possible descendants ofthe men who fell 

 in battle. These men of Napoleon's armies 

 were the youth without blemish, "the best 

 that the nation could bring," "I'elite de 

 TEurope," chosen as "food for powder," 

 "ere evening to be trampled Hke the grass," 

 in the rush of Napoleon's great battles. 



The 



Human 



Harvest 



Wiertz' s 

 painting 

 of Napo- 

 leon 



[71] 



