EXAMPLES OF MALIGNITY. 



they were laid, was kept on his feet by an iron 

 collar fixed in a post, and could neither sit, nor 

 lie, nor sleep. They made many thousands die 

 of hunger. They laid tribute upon tribute on 

 the towns and villages. When the towns 

 people had no longer any thing to give, they 

 plundered and burned the town. You might 

 have travelled a whole day without finding one 

 soul in the towns, or in the country one culti 

 vated field. The poor died of hunger, and they 

 who had formerly possessed something, now 

 begged their bread fron* door to door. Never 

 were more griefs and woes poured upon any 

 (and; nay the Pagans in their invasions cau 

 sed fewer than the men of whom I now speak. 

 They spared neither the church-yards, nor the 

 churches ; they took all that could be taken, and 

 then set fire to the church. To till the ground 

 had been as vain as to till the sand on (he sea 

 shore.* 



What scenes of wretchedness do such proud 

 and malignant demons produce even in the pre 

 sent world ! Can such spirits be supposed quali 

 fied for joining the general assembly and church 

 of the first-born, and for taking a part in the be 

 neficent operations of heaven ? If they exist at 

 all in a future world, they must exist in misery ; 

 and so long as such diabolical passions continue 

 to rage, they must produce &quot; lamentation and 

 wo&quot; among all the associates with which they 

 are surrounded. Even within the confines of 

 mortality, the man who is under the despotic 

 sway of pride, ambition, and similar malevolent 

 passions, imbitters every enjoyment he might 

 otherwise possess, produces pain in the minds 

 of others, and experiences in his own soul pangs 

 similar in kind to those which are felt in the 

 place of punishment. I shall illustrate this po 

 sition by the spirit and temper displayed by two 

 illustrious individuals who have lately departed 

 to the invisible state ; the one renowned in the 

 political, the other in the literary world. 



The first character to which I allude is that 

 of Napoleon Buonaparte. This extraordinary 

 man, who for nearly twenty years dazzled the 

 whole Eastern hemisphere, like a blazing me 

 teor, appears to have been actuated by the most 

 extravagant and restless ambition. Though 

 he exercised many cruelties in the midst of his 

 career, as at Jaffa and other places, yet delight in 

 deeds of atrocity formed no part of his ruling 

 passion, and were only occasionally resorted to, 

 in order to accomplish his ambitious projects. 

 The agitated state of mind into which he was 

 thrown by his love of conquest, and the daring 

 enterprises in which he embarked, is strikingly 

 depicted by M. Segur, in his &quot; History of Na 

 poleon s Expedition to Russia. 1 When at 

 Vitepsk, on his way to Moscow, M. Segur 

 says &quot; He at first hardly appeared bold enough 



Thierry s &quot; History of the Norman Conquest,&quot; 

 I vols. 1825. 



to confess to himself a project of such great te 

 merity [the marching against Moscow.] But 

 by degrees he assumed courage to look it in the 

 face. He then began to deliberate, and the state 

 of great irresolution which tormented his mind, 

 affected his whole frame. He was observed to 

 wander about his apartments, as if pursued by 

 some dangerous temptation : nothing could rivel 

 his attention ; he every moment began, quit fd, 

 and resumed his labour ; he walked about with 

 out any object ; inquired the hour, and looked at 

 his watch ; completely absorbed, he stopped, 

 hummed a tune with an absent air, and again 

 began walking about. In the rnidst of his per 

 plexity, he occasionally addressed the persons 

 whom he met with such half sentences as Well 

 What shall we do ! Shall we stay where we 

 are, or advance? How is it possible to stop 

 short in the midst of so glorious a career? He 

 did not wait for their reply, but still kept wan 

 dering about, as if he was looking for something, 

 or somebody, to terminate his indecision. At 

 length, quite overwhelmed with the weight of 

 such an important consideration, and oppressed 

 with so great an uncertainty, he would throw 

 himself on one of the beds which he had caused 

 to be laid on the floor of his apartments. His 

 frame, exhausted by the heat and the struggles 

 of his mind, could only bear a covering of the 

 slightest texture. It was in that state that he 

 passed a portion of his day at Vitepsk.&quot; 



The same restless agitations seemed to have 

 accompanied him at every step in this daring 

 expedition. &quot; At Borodino,&quot; says the same 

 writer, &quot; his anxiety was so great as to prevent 

 him from sleeping. He kept calling incessantly 

 to know the hour, inquiring if any noise was 

 heard, and sending persons to ascertain if the 

 enemy was still before him, Tranquillized fora 

 few moments, anxiety of an opposite description 

 again seized him. He became frightened at the 

 destitute state of the soldiers, &c. He sent for 

 Bessieres, that one of his marshals in whom he 

 had the greatest confidence : he called him 

 back several times, and repeated his pressing 

 questions, &c. Dreading that his orders had 

 not been obeyed, he got up once more, and 

 questioned the grenadiers on guard at the en 

 trance of his tent, if they had received their pro 

 visions. Satisfied with the answer, he went in, 

 and soon fell into a doze. Shortly after he called 

 once more. His aid-de-camp found him now 

 supporting his head with both his hands ; ha 

 seemed, by what was overheard, to be meditat 

 ing on the vanities of glory. What is war .&amp;lt; 

 A trade of barbarians, the whole art of which 

 consists in leing the strongest on a given point. 

 He then complained of the fickleness of fortune, 

 which he now began to experience. He again 

 tried to take some rest. But the marches he nad 

 just made with the army, the fatigues of the pre 

 ceding days and nignts, so many cares, and nis 



