THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN FRANCE. 



153 



the immediate future. This part, as we know, it has 

 played both by entirely changing the external face of 

 things, and by running out into endless applications ; and 

 we have seen the importance of that statistical spirit of 

 numbering, measuring, and registering, by which alone 

 a survey of complicated phenomena is possible. Of the 

 statistical method Napoleon himself made use on an ex- 

 tensive scale: perhaps he was the first among rulers to 

 do so. 1 That the great leader of men has to recognise 

 not only the inductive philosophy of statistics and aver- 

 ages, but likewise governing ideas of a different class, 

 Napoleon was well aware, and his ultimate failure may 

 be traced to the fact that, however great as a general 

 and as a calculator, his soul had no room for those high, 

 religious, and unselfish motives of which he himself said 

 to Fontanes, that they in the end always decide the fate 

 of nations. 2 Yet he belongs to the small company of 

 great military figures in history a company which in- 

 cludes Alexander the Great, Csesar, and Peter the Great 



sance de la force pour organiser 

 quelque chose. II n'y a que deux 

 puissances dans le monde : le sabre 

 et 1'esprit. J'entends par 1'esprit 

 les institutions civiles et religieuses. 

 A la longue, le sabre est toujours 

 battu par 1'esprit." Also vol. iv. 

 p. 423: "Les vraies conquetes, les 

 seules qui ne donnent aucun re- 

 gret, sont ceux que Ton fait sur 

 1 'ignorance. L'occupation la plus 

 honorable comme la plus utile pour 

 les nations, c'est de contribuer a 

 1'extension des idees humaines. La 

 vraie puissance de la R<;publique 

 fran9aise doit consister de'sormais 

 a ne pas permettre qu'il existe une 

 seule ide"e nouvelle, qui ne lui ap- 

 partienne." 



He himself 

 made exten- 

 sive use of 

 the statisti- 

 cal method. 



1 See Delambre, 'Rapport,' &c., 

 p. 222. "Depuis le peu de temps 

 qu'on s'en [i.e., with statistics] oc- 

 cupe en France, elle y a fait les 

 plus grands progres, au moyen de 

 1'attention particuliere etdes secours 

 que le Gouverneinent francois 

 donue a tous les travaux utiles. 

 Les presets des de'partemens out e'te' 

 invites a recueillir et a transmettre 

 au Ministre de I'interieur les 

 renseignemens les plus precis sur 

 toutes les questions qui sont du 

 ressort de la statistique. " 



3 See '(Euvres litteraires de 

 Napoleon Bonaparte,' vol. iii. p. 5 ; 

 Conversation avec Fontanes, Saint 

 Cloud, 19 Sept. 1808: "Fontanes, 

 savez vous ce que j 'admire le plus 

 dans le monde ? C'est 1'impuis- 



